Law Commons^™

An Ounce Of Prevention: Improving The Preventative Measures Of The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Takiyah R. Mcclain

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that affects the lives of millions of people, especially young girls and women. In an effort to combat this issue, the United States enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. The Act has had some positive effects on the trafficking industry, but its preventative measures overlook or fail to deal sufficiently with some key factors: human rights issues, gender and economic inequalities, and sensationalism of the sex industry.

This Note discusses these three issues and their importance in establishing more effective preventative measures. Additionally, this Note looks to two approaches to trafficking, the …

The Limits Of International Human Rights Law And The Role Of Food Sovereignty In Protecting People From Further Trade Liberalization Under The Doha Round Negotiations, Wenonah Hauter

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

International free trade agreements under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) seriously undermine the international human right to adequate food. Conceivably, those deprived should be able to seek redress under Article 11 of the International. Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which spells out the right to adequate food. Unfortunately, while the concept of the right to adequate food has developed substantially since its inception, its implementation has been slow. It is not a well-developed tool for individuals or the groups representing them to redress harms that will likely result from the current Doha Round negotiations …

Liberalizing Trade In Agriculture And Food Security--Mission Impossible?, Christine Kaufmann, Simone Heri

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) foresees that trade should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living. It is undisputed that raising living standards contributes to the implementation of the right to food. Indeed, state parties to the WTO have obligations regarding the right to food not only under the international trade system, but also under the human rights regime. All WTO state parties are bound by customary human rights law, and most have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, of which Article 11 contains the most important codification of the …

Finding The Winning Combination: How Blending Organ Procurement Systems Used Internationally Can Reduce The Organ Shortage, Sarah E. Statz

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The shortage in transplantable organs worldwide not only leads to unnecessary death, but also to grave human rights abuses through illegal methods of procuring organs. The shortage leads some desperate to find an organ through any possible means, including purchasing an organ on the black market. The system for procuring organs in the United States is based on altruism, where potential donors have to opt in to the system in order for their organs to be donated. This creates issues at the time of death for medical professionals or the next of kin to decide whether their patient or loved …

Human Rights And Bioethics: Formulating A Universal Right To Health, Health Care, Or Health Protection?, George P. Smith, Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Codifying, and then implementing, an international right to health, health care, or protection is beset with serious roadblocks--foremost among them being contentious issues of indeterminacy, justiciability, and progressive realization.

Although advanced--and to some degree recognized under the rubric of a social or cultural entitlement within the law of human rights and, more particularly, the U.S. Declaration on Human Rights, together with International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and presently UNESCO's Draft Declaration on Universal Norms on Bioethics--attainment of such a universal right to …

Return To Europe? The Czech Republic And The Eu's Influence On Its Treatment Of Roma, Matthew D. Marden

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Czech Republic has faced much criticism in the past fifteen years for the treatment of its Romani minority community. The European Union has successfully applied informal, non-legal means of pressuring the Czech Republic into making some changes necessary to improve living conditions for Roma. With the Czech Republic's recent accession to the European Union, legal human rights institutions will likely play a larger role in ensuring that the Czech Republic continues to improve conditions for Czech Roma. The Author uses a case brought by a group of Roma at the European Court of Human Rights to demonstrate the potential …

Jonathan I. Charney--Mourning And Celebration, Louis Henkin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Here, today, I wish to speak with you about Jon Charney, his good life, and his remarkable achievements. On this occasion I am pleased to add that I knew Jon Charney "professionally" before he began on the road to eminence. I was "present at the creation," as Jon Charney took his first steps toward becoming a world authority on the international Law of the Sea, and an eminent, prominent, lawyer and scholar in international law generally.

Jonny was still a law student when he spent a summer as my research assistant, when both of us learned that there was an …

Novartis And The U.N. Global Compact Initiative, Lee A. Tavis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The U.N. Global Compact initiative evolved from a challenge posed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the business community at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 1999. "I call on you--individually through your firms, and collectively through your business associations--to embrace, support, and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards and environmental practices." His vision is "to give a human face to the global market." Over a year of intense interaction among business chief executive officers and associations, non-governmental organizations, labor unions, and four U.N. agencies led to the formulation of nine …

American Judges And International Law, A. M. Weisburd

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This article addresses an issue with which federal courts have been forced to deal with increasing frequency: How ought a judge go about determining the content of customary international law? The article seeks to demonstrate, using the example of the treatment of the concept of "jus cogens" by the courts of appeals, that federal courts have come to rely on doubtful sources in addressing questions of international law. More specifically, it sets out to show that courts frequently do not rely on the actual practice of governments to determine the content of customary international law, which would seem to be …

How We Should Think About The Constitutional Status Of The Suspected Terrorist Detainees At Guantanamo Bay, Akash R. Desai

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the United States has held suspected terrorist detainees captured during the military campaign in Afghanistan indefinitely at the United States military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among those currently detained are members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group and the Taliban. Currently the detainees are in the peculiar situation of generally being outside the scope of protections offered by both the international humanitarian law and the Unites States criminal law regimes.

This Note examines the extraterritorial scope of the United States Constitution as it applies to the suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay. …

Human Rights Responsibilities Of Private Corporations, Jordan J. Paust

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article discusses the human rights responsibilities of private corporations. Part I addresses how decisions and activities of multinational corporations impact human rights. Part II examines corporate liability under human rights laws by examining trends in judicial decisions in the United States and foreign states and human rights instruments. Part III explores the types of human rights deprivations that multinational corporations might cause. The Article concludes by predicting that there will be increasing scrutiny of corporate deprivations of human rights at the domestic, regional, and international levels.

The Multinational And The "New Stakeholder": Examining The Business Case For Human Rights, Scott Greathead

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Business managers who ignore these realities--the concerns of these new corporate stakeholders--do so at the risk of their company's brand and their own careers. These are just a few examples of the new stakeholders of multinational corporations--workers, consumers, investors, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the media...

The concerns of these new stakeholders embrace human rights. It is a much broader concept of human rights, however, than the civil and political rights that used to dominate the agenda. Former concerns centered on freedom from arbitrary arrest, detentions, and other due process rights, freedom of speech and association, and governmental abuses …

Who Asked You?: The Appropriateness Of U.S. Leadership In Promoting Religious Freedom Worldwide, Nichol J. Starr

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Government endorsed and government imposed religious persecution is a growing phenomenon worldwide. From Central America to the Far East, people are arrested, tortured, and even killed for having and expressing their faith, despite the existence of universal covenants expressing acceptance of religious differences as among the most basic of human rights. Seeing the apparent futility of U.N. and other international efforts to curb such persecution, the U.S. Congress in 1998 passed the International Religious Freedom Act. Faith-based religious persecution--and the United States' role in combating it--first took center stage in American politics during the IRFA's passage, and most recently has …

Basic Rights And Anti-Terrorism Legislation, Kevin D. Kent

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note addresses whether Britain's Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act (CJTCA), which permits police officer opinion testimony as to whether a terrorist suspect is a member of an illegal terrorist organization and allows adverse inferences to be drawn from that suspect's silence, can be reconciled with the fair trial provisions of the Human Rights Act (HRA). Part II of this Note describes the background of the CJTCA, concentrating on the reasons for its rushed passage and on the evidentiary changes it makes to trials of defendants charged with terrorist offenses. Part II describes the background and mechanics of the …

Anticipatory Humanitarian Intervention In Kosovo, Jonathan I. Charney

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Kosovo during the spring of 1999 aroused controversy at the time and still provokes questions about the legality of the action, its precedential effect, and procedures for developing new international law. The participants faced a legal and moral dilemma between international law prohibitions on the use of force and the goal of preventing or stopping widespread grave violations of international human rights. This commentary seeks to chart a course for the future in light of the current legal and moral environment.

Many individuals on all sides of the Kosovo crisis …

The Inevitability Of Nimble Fingers? Law, Development, And Child Labor, Katherine Cox

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article examines development issues that are raised in a legal analysis of international human rights law relating to child labor. In so doing it highlights some of the weaknesses of the present legal approach to the problem. In order to demonstrate better the weaknesses of the system, India is used as an example of a developing country where some of the development issues raised in the legal analysis arise. The second Part of this Article defines the concept of child labor. It undertakes a comprehensive analysis of international legal instruments that deal with the topic of child labor and …

Liberty Of Expression In Ireland And The Need For A Constitutional Law Of Defamation, Sarah Frazier

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Judicial and constitutional conservatism have allowed Irish defamation law to remain remarkably close to its English common law origins. But the common law of defamation was not designed for a modem democracy with a free press, and Ireland's libel laws have a profound effect upon freedom of expression. If Ireland is to be a modern democracy, as its constitution asserts that it is, and the European Convention on Human Rights demands, it must protect a core area of free expression in order to allow the press (without the fear of repercussion) to keep the public informed about matters of concern. …

Illuminating The Possible In The Developing World: Guaranteeing The Human Right To Health In India, Sheetal B. Shah

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note argues that the recognition of the social right to health offers a step forward in empowering individuals to gain control over their social environments in the developing world. Part II discusses the potential of social human rights to alleviate suffering in the developing world. Social human rights recognize that the state must provide individuals with the basic social conditions necessary to live with human dignity. Part III explores the legal obligations of social rights and their current status in human rights jurisprudence. It also discusses the most pressing challenges facing implementation of social rights at the national level. …

A Comparison Of New Zealand Taxpayers' Rights With Selected Civil Law And Common Law Countries, Adrian J. Sawyer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This article seeks to ascertain the breadth of rights that taxpayers enjoy in New Zealand in comparison with their counterparts in a number of common law and civil law jurisdictions. Such a comparison enables the wealth of experience that codification of rights in civil law countries can provide in comparison to the traditionally lower reliance on statutory protection in common law jurisdictions. From this comparative analysis common themes are distilled, as well as differences between New Zealand and various civil law and common law nations with respect to the legal position and state of taxpayers' rights. The author mounts a …

Secrets And Lies? Swiss Banks And International Human Rights, Anita Ramasastry

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores the relationship of Swiss banks and their tradition of bank secrecy to the activities of a particular group of depositors: war criminals and other human rights violators. The Article focuses on litigation brought in U.S. courts by plaintiffs seeking access to Swiss bank deposits made by the Nazis and Ferdinand Marcos. The Article examines the possibility of holding banks accountable under international law for assisting a customer who has committed a serious breach of international law. Part I introduces the role of bank secrecy in the current litigation. Part II describes the Swiss tradition of bank secrecy. …

Ireland's Divorce Bill: Traditional Irish And International Norms Of Equality And Bodily Integrity At Issue In A Domestic Abuse Context, Anthony T. Barnes

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On November 24, 1995, the Irish population voted to ease Ireland's constitutional ban on divorce by means of a constitutional amendment. The new amendment and the bill that effectuates it give Irish citizens a limited legal right to end their marriages for the first time in Ireland's history. The limits surrounding Irish divorce consist of a significant waiting period, a living-apart requirement, and a slant toward mediation.

This Note explores the predicaments of abused spouses and the unique risks that Ireland's divorce limitations pose to spousal abuse victims seeking to end their marriages. This Note argues that the limitations of …

The Human Rights To Food, Medicine And Medical Supplies, And Freedom From Arbitrary And Inhumane Detention And Controls In Sri Lanka, Jordan J. Paust

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Essay identifies the denial of adequate and available food and the denials of adequate medicine and medical supplies in Sri Lanka as serious human rights violations. Additionally, the Author cites customary international law and international agreements to support his conclusion that the government's denial of these necessities in Sri Lanka constitute war crimes. The Author discusses the human rights violations with respect to: (1) the right to adequate food; (2) the right to adequate medicine and medical supplies; and (3) the right to freedom from arbitrary and inhumane detention and controls. The Author concludes by urging that the U.S. …

Hong Kong's Reintegration Into The People's Republic Of China, Anne M. Seibel --Executive Articles Editor, Stacy A. Feld --Editor In Chief

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Every other year, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law presents a symposium on a current topic in international law and practice. This year's symposium, "Hong Kong's Reintegration into the People's Republic of China: Constitutional Issues, Policy Approaches & Human Rights Concerns and Economic & Legal Implications, was held at Vanderbilt University School of Law on March 28-29, 1997. Our goal was to provide a forum in which leading authorities on Hong Kong and China could come together and discuss constitutional, human rights, legal, and economic concerns surrounding the reintegration of Hong Kong into China.

The results of this Symposium have …

Will Hong Kong Be Successfully Integrated Into China? A Human Rights Perspective, Yu Ping

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores the human rights forecast following Hong Kong's reintegration into China. The Article first reviews the British human rights record in Hong Kong, and explains why China was angered by last-ditch British political reform. It then explores the legal framework of Hong Kong, including the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, and concludes that neither offers significant protection for human rights in Hong Kong. In particular, Chinese state security and state secrets laws are likely to be used to suppress political dissidents, journalists, international organizations, and other "foreign elements" in Hong Kong. The Article …

Selected Bibliography: The Reintegration Of Hong Kong Into China, Audrey E. Haroz, Jonathan R. Smith

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The reintegration of Hong Kong into the People's Republic of China (hereinafter P.R.C.) on July 1, 1997, brought together two countries, one capitalist and one communist, under one rule. As evidenced by the variety of perspectives offered at the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law's Symposium on Hong Kong's Reintegration into the P.R.C., there is much scholarly debate concerning this merger and the effect it will have on the people and politics of both countries as well as on the international community.

An earlier version of this bibliography is included in the May 1997 issue of the Journal. This bibliography has …

South Africa's 1996 Choice On Termination Of Pregnancy Act, Audrey E. Haroz

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

South Africa's Bill of Rights is one of the most liberal and elaborate in the world. Consequently, South Africa is at the forefront of defining human rights for individuals, especially women. Concurrently, international law is slowly undergoing a reconceptualization of human rights documents and guarantees to define a more definitive, protective, and pro-active body of rights for women.

By upholding the constitutionality of the 1996 Abortion Act, South Africa can define its own Bill of Rights in liberal terms and ensure that the South African Constitution continues to receive a broad interpretation. A welcome result would be the improvement of …

... And Justice For All: Normative Descriptive Frameworks For The Implementation Of Tribunals To Try Human Rights Violators, Gautam Rana

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

With the formation of the Bosnian and Rwandan War Crimes Tribunals, the international community has created a mechanism for the enforcement of human rights law for the first time since the Nuremburg and Tokyo War Trials. The efficacy of these tribunals, however, is in doubt. This Note proposes that only a few human rights are truly universal in nature and can be guaranteed by the international community. Furthermore, the political realities of the international system precludes the use of international tribunals against the more powerful nations of the international community. The Note concludes that by focusing on the human rights …

Preface, Laurelyn E. Douglas

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The symposium, HONG KONG'S REINTEGRATION INTO THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES, POLICY APPROACHES & HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS, AND ECONOMIC & LEGAL IMPLICATIONS, was held at the Vanderbilt University School of Law on March 28-29. 1997. Featuring presentations by diverse speakers from a variety of places and perspectives, the symposium addressed a broad range of issues. Topics ranged from comparative constitutional law to human rights and practical business concerns. While differences emerged, it was clear that fully understanding any one area requires knowledge of the others: the viability of markets may well depend upon the validity of documents proclaiming …

The Marlboro Man In Asia: U.S. Tobacco And Human Rights, Jonathan Wike

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In recent years, U.S. tobacco manufacturers have responded to declining domestic consumption by aggressively promoting their products in Asia and other foreign markets. Their efforts have resulted in increased tobacco use and increased health risks in Asia. This Note discusses the legal implications of U.S. tobacco marketing in Asia, particularly the disadvantages faced by Asians who might wish to challenge U.S. tobacco manufacturers in court. The author first describes tobacco promotion In Asia and the limited potential for recovery against U.S. tobacco companies by Asian plaintiffs in their domestic courts. The Note then contrasts the limitations Asian plaintiffs face in …

Patrimonicide: The International Economic Crime Of Indigenous Spoliation, Ndiva Kofele-Kale

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the past two decades, the organized and systematic theft of a state's wealth and resources by its leaders has reached unprecedented levels in developing and less-developed states. Unlike previous acts of embezzlement by political leaders, this new wave of corruption-referred to as indigenous spoliation--involves billions of dollars and causes widespread social and economic devastation. This Article defines indigenous spoliation and presents some examples of this practice. The author describes the inadequacy of domestic law in dealing with the problem and suggests that international law should provide a remedy. Next, the author proposes a framework for holding persons involved in …