Law Commons^™

Deinstitutionalization, Family Reunification, And The "Best Interests Of The Child": An Examination Of Armenia's Child Protection Obligations Under Conventional International Law, George S. Yacoubian Jr., Esq.

Pace International Law Review

For nearly a century, the global community has sought to afford children legal protections, abandoning widely held views that children were pecuniary assets. In the United States and globally, a nascent children’s rights movement culminated in broad child welfare reform. Whether adoption, armed conflict, child labor, education, human trafficking, or deinstitutionalization, the post-war 20th century witnessed an evolution of international child protections. The prevailing standard of “best interests of the child” (BIC) has been incorporated into domestic and international law doctrine and, not surprisingly, has been operationalized in a variety of ways. In recent years, the standard has been explored …

Fish Don't Litter In Your House: Is International Law The Solution To The Plastic Pollution Problem?, Taylor G. Keselica

Pace International Law Review

This article addresses the complex issue of plastic pollution—focusing on ocean plastics. Specifically, this article examines the ocean plastics problem, critiques current binding and non-binding international environmental law surrounding ocean plastics, hazardous wastes, and pollution, and proposes a more effective solution to the ocean plastics problem. Section I provides a basic history of the creation of plastics and discusses plastics as they are used today. Section II considers the concerns surrounding ocean plastics, focusing on impacts of plastic on marine ecosystems as well as human health effects. Section III, IV, and V discuss the ongoing attempts to address the ocean …

Right To Health In Gats: Can The Public Health Exception Pave The Way For Complementarity?, Swati Gola

Pace International Law Review

This paper demonstrates how a right to health approach in the interpretation of the public health exception outlined in GATS Article XIV(b) can bring about a harmonious application of international human rights and international trade law regimes. Focusing on the interpretive value of the right to health for the public health exception in GATS, it examines whether a WTO Member, who has committed itself under GATS to fully liberalize all service sectors that have implications for health (e.g., hospital and other healthcare services), still retains the regulatory space to undertake measures to fulfill their right to health obligations and can …

An Australian Conundrum: Genomic Technology, Data, And The Covidsafe App, David Morrison, Patrick T. Quirk

Pace International Law Review

This paper examines the difficulties that have arisen in Australia in the use of its contact-tracing app. We examine the privacy implications around the use of the app, the wider economic imperative, and the balancing of those concerns against the health threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. We posit that default options are superior in times of emergency and rather than begging for the adoption of lifesaving technology, we suggest that the evidence gathered by behavioral economists provides an apposite and powerful alternative worthy of consideration.

The Rise Of Transnational Commercial Courts: The Astana International Financial Centre Court, Ilias Bantekas

Pace International Law Review

The proliferation of international commercial courts aims to boost income from legal services and serve as a catalyst for newly found rules of law and thus attract investor confidence. The latter is the underlying purpose for the creation of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and its Court. The Court’s legal framework is set out in the tradition of its competitors in the Gulf and similarly employs an impressive lineup of former senior judges from the United Kingdom. It is a unique experiment because it strives to create a balance between maintaining a judicial institution of the highest caliber while …

Bringing Animal Protection Legislation Into Line With Its Purported Purposes: A Proposal For Equality Amongst Non-Human Animals, Jane Kotzmann, Gisela Nip

Pace Environmental Law Review

The United States has a strong history of enacting laws to protect animals from the pain and suffering inflicted by humans. Indeed, the passage of the Massachusetts’ Body of Liberties in 1641 made it the first country in the world to pass such laws. Nevertheless, contemporary animal protection laws in all jurisdictions of the United States are limited in their ability to adequately realize their primary purpose of protecting animals from unnecessary or unjustifiable pain and suffering. This is a result of limited statutory definitions of ‘animal’ and far-reaching exclusions commonly found in animal protection legislation. These exclusions frequently apply …

International And Foreign Legal Research Resources At The Law Library Of Congress, Mark E. Wojcik

Pace International Law Review

The material that follows summarizes the proceedings held in January 2020 at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). The panel on “International and Foreign Legal Research Resources at the Law Library of Congress” was organized by the AALS Section on International Law and co-sponsored by the AALS Section on Comparative Law. The moderator was Professor Mark E. Wojcik of the UIC John Marshall Law School, the immediate past Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress and 2020-21 Chair of the AALS Section on International Law. Also serving as moderator was …

Forgetting The Right To Be Forgotten: The Everlasting Negative Implications Of A Right To Be Dereferenced On Global Freedom In The Wake Of Google V. Cnil, Hunter Criscione

Pace International Law Review

The internet is the center of global communication, culture, and education. As of January 2019, Western Europe is second only to North America and Northern Europe in internet penetration (a statistic that measures the availability of internet in a given geographical place), with data reporting that 94 percent of Western Europeans have access to the internet. The same study reported that 50 percent of the global population now has internet access, which is a staggering 49.5 percent increase from the recorded estimate in 1990 of just half a percent. From the development of the first computer, to the role of …

Australia’S Tobacco Plain Packaging Law: An Analysis Of The Trips Article 20 Challenge At The Wto, Cheryl Kirschner

Pace International Law Review

Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (TPP) and corresponding regulations specify that tobacco products be packaged in a particular size box and be made of certain material. No trademark other than the brand’s name may be printed, and font, letter size, color, and other packaging aspects are specified with particularity. These measures recently withstood a contentious dispute settlement request submitted on multiple grounds by four World Trade Organization (WTO) Member countries. What does the WTO’s Panel Report in this case tell us about the extent to which a country can take measures to advance its public health initiatives without violating …

The Language Of International Human Rights Law As A Foundation For The Prevention, And Peaceful Resolution Of Ethnic, And Political Conflicts In Bolivia, Yuri Mantilla

Pace International Law Review

Since the Spanish conquest of the New World, the systematic dehumanization of indigenous communities has been part of a culture of economic exploitation and ethnic discrimination against indigenous peoples such as the Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani. In Bolivia, indigenous people successfully resisted the efforts to undermine their cultural identities. As a result, Bolivia is one of the most indigenous countries in the world and its indigenous cultures are one of its greatest assets. Despite this reality, indigenous people have been marginalized and discriminated against in a country that has embraced ethnic stereotypes regarding the supposed “superiority” of people of Spanish …

Biodiversity Impacts Of Investment And Free Trade Agreements, Lee C. Rarrick

Pace Environmental Law Review

The following Article identifies the myriad ways in which international investment and free trade agreements interact with biodiversity. It categorizes these interactions into three main groups and provides a literature review of the various real-world and policy impacts. The first part analyses arbitration procedures in these agreements that investors and trade partners can invoke to protect their economic expectations from otherwise proper State action, including regulation that is intended to promote biodiversity. The next part evaluates biodiversity provisions that are included directly in the free trade and investment agreements themselves, or in side agreements thereto. Some of these provisions reference …

Seeing The Forest For The Trees: Public And Private Law Tools For Halting Deforestation, Harriette I. Resnick

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Italy And The Aquarius: A Migrant Crisis, Alexandra Larkin

Pace International Law Review

Italian journalist Indro Montanelli once wrote, “[w]e Italians are tolerant and civil with all those who are different. Black, red, yellow. Especially when they are far away, at a telescopic distance from us.” In recent years, Italy had a resurgence of nationalist and far-right political leaders, who have taken an anti-immigration stance. Public interest in migration of refugees and asylum seekers is due both to media coverage of their stories and to litigation before international courts. One high-profile story that made headlines in the summer of 2018 was Italy’s treatment of the Aquarius, a rescue vessel operated by the …

Towards A New Generation In Central American Trade: Proposals For Modernizing Cafta-Dr, Julia E. Johnson

Pace International Law Review

To the surprise of many, the Trump Administration has signaled its intent to renegotiate the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). Why is the possible renegotiation of CAFTA-DR a surprise? CAFTA-DR has been largely favorable to the United States (U.S.)—the U.S. has enjoyed significant trade surpluses with CAFTA-DR countries since its ratification. CAFTA-DR has also promoted regional integration and co-production in Central America.Trade flows in and out of Central America have increased significantly. On balance, CAFTA-DR has benefitted all signatory nations from a trade standpoint, though it has left unaddressed a myriad of social, humanitarian, and governance issues. Consequently, …

The International Law Of Corporate Governance, Ram Sachs

Pace International Law Review

International economic agreements increasingly touch on fundamental principles of corporate governance. The trend contrasts with existing scholarship, which assumes corporate law evolves via domestic mechanisms. This Article introduces the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, with its dedicated chapter on corporate governance, as a case study. At the normative level, the emergence of corporate governance in international agreements represents a positive development by enabling countries to signal and put into action commitments for better governance. Given these recent developments, the field of comparative corporate governance should incorporate international agreements as an emerging source of law.

Bringing The Bosses To International Criminal Trials: The Problems With Joint Criminal Enterprise And The “Control Over The Crime” Approach As A Better Alternative, Juan-Pablo Pérez-León-Acevedo

Pace International Law Review

Similar to most international and hybrid criminal tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia used the doctrine or theory of Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) as a mode of liability when prosecuting and convicting those most responsible, namely, state and non-state political and military leaders, in cases of international crimes. Against such background, the main research questions of this article are whether JCE should be applied in cases of those most responsible for international crimes and whether JCE should be replaced by the “control over the crime” approach. Overall, this article argues and finds two main points. First, JCE …

Udhr: Our North Star For Global Social Justice Or An Imperial And Settler-Colonial Tool To Limit Our Conception Of Freedom?, Jeena Shah

Pace International Law Review

On April 5, 2019, PILR held their triennial symposium titled: Revisiting Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 70. As a reflection of the event, a few panelists composed contribution pieces reflecting on the topic.

Human Rights, Economic Justice And U.S. Exceptionalism, Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan

Pace International Law Review

On April 5, 2019, PILR held their triennial symposium titled: Revisiting Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 70. As a reflection of the event, a few panelists composed contribution pieces reflecting on the topic.

Reclaiming Refugee Rights As Human Rights, Roni Amit

Pace International Law Review

On April 5, 2019, PILR held their triennial symposium titled: Revisiting Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 70. As a reflection of the event, a few panelists composed contribution pieces reflecting on the topic.

Leahy—Sharpening The Blade, Nandor F.R. Kiss

Pace International Law Review

Over the course of the last 20 years, the Leahy Law has become one of the cornerstones of foreign and human rights policy. Yet, despite its largely unchallenged importance, field practitioners and other stakeholders have identified a number of substantive and practical deficiencies that greatly diminish the law’s ability to achieve the desired effect, and worse, may pose a risk to the United States’ interests. In reflecting on these deficiencies, and armed with decades of data and anecdotal evidence, this Article proposes adjustments focused on better aligning the law’s intent and effect. These recommendations range from semantic edits to substantive …

The Fatal Leviathan: A Hayekian Perspective Of Lex Mercatoria In Civil Law Countries, Fabio Núñez Del Prado Ch.

Pace International Law Review

Who should create default commercial rules? Should they be created in a constructivist way or should they be created rather through a spontaneous order? Should Kelsen’s positivism prevail in commercial law? Drawing on diverse libertarian literature, I will argue that, since courts do not play a dominant role in civil law countries and, more importantly, do not set precedents, default commercial rules should not be created by the legislator, but through the Lex Mercatoria.

Regulating Through Trade: The Contestation And Recalibration Of Eu ‘Deep And Comprehensive’ Ftas, Billy Melo Araujo

Pace International Law Review

Contemporary international trade politics is primarily focused on deep integration – that is, the removal of regulatory barriers to trade. The EU, in particular, has long been one of the main proponents of the use of trade agreements to promote regulatory disciplines on issues such as intellectual property regulation, procurement, services, competition and investment protection. This so-called ‘EU regulatory agenda’ has rapidly gathered pace over the past decade and culminated, more recently, in attempts to conclude mega-regional trade agreements such as the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Such agreements have, however, proved highly contentious and are being fiercely contested …

Federalism: Necessary Legal Foundation For The Central Middle Eastern States, Issa Al-Aweel

Pace International Law Review

The Central Middle East—comprising of Syria, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan—is in need of a legal foundation defined by a constitutional umbrella that governs it as a whole. This is a proposed broad structure of such legal foundation that serves regional legal and economic needs and includes recognition of human rights.

The need for such restructuring is evident from the persistence of regional conflict and instability. Conflict and instability have been constants in the region in general and certainly in the listed five states. The issues include political instability, terrorism, continuous threats of fundamentalism, and pervasive disregard to human life …

Climate Displaced Peoples: Utilizing Regional Approaches To Combat Climate-Induced Displacement In The 21st Century, Oshani Amaratunga

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Semisecret Life Of Late Mao-Era International Law Scholarship, James D. Fry, Huang Yining

Pace Law Review

This Article is delimited by a focus on international law scholarship during the late Mao era, not on the PRC’s actual approach to or pronouncements on international law, mainly in order to respond directly to the assertion of U.S.-based international law scholars on late Mao-era scholarship. Of course, considerable ambiguity surrounds what constitutes scholarly work; no legal or even consensus definition generally exists. To be clear, definitions might exist in specific contexts such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) of the United States, which prohibits foreign lobbying except for “bonafide religious, scholastic, academic or scientific pursuits or the fine …

How The United States Stopped Being A Pirate Nation And Learned To Love International Copyright, John A. Rothchild

Pace Law Review

From the time of the first federal copyright law in 1790 until enactment of the International Copyright Act in 1891, U.S. copyright law did not apply to works by authors who were not citizens or residents of the United States. U.S. publishers took advantage of this lacuna in the law, and the demand among American readers for books by popular British authors, by reprinting the books of these authors without their authorization and without paying a negotiated royalty to them.

This Article tells the story of how proponents of extending copyright protections to foreign authors—called international copyright—finally succeeded after more …

Cashless Societies And The Rise Of The Independent Cryptocurrencies: How Governments Can Use Privacy Laws To Compete With Independent Cryptocurrencies, Matla Garcia Chavolla

Pace International Law Review

Many individuals (including governments) envision living in a future world where physical currency is a thing of the past. Many countries have made great strides in their efforts to go cashless. At the same time, there is increasing awareness among citizens of the decreasing amount of privacy in their lives. The potential hazards cashless societies pose to financial privacy may incentivize citizens to hold some of their money in independent cryptocurrencies. This article argues that in order for governments in cashless societies to keep firm control over their money supply, they should enact stronger privacy law protections for its citizens …

Explaining China's Legal Flexibility: History And The Institutional Imperative, Justin W. Evans

Pace International Law Review

China’s legal system appears to harbor a major tension, or even a paradox. Certainty in law facilitates economic progress, which most observers agree the Communist Party requires to maintain its power—yet the Party has opted for a flexible legal system that often impedes predictability. Prior studies explain China’s legal system as a product of certain constraints and as an expedient that allows for policy adjustments. These factors undoubtedly are at work but do not fully explain the rationale for a legal design seemingly at odds with the Party’s economic goals. To obtain a fuller view, it is necessary to consult …

License To Kill: An Analysis Of The Legality Of Fully Autonomous Drones In The Context Of International Use Of Force Law, Andrew Figueroa

Pace International Law Review

We live in a world of constant technological change; and with this change, comes unknown effects and consequences. This is even truer with weapons and warfare. Indeed, as the means and methods of warfare rapidly modify and transform, the effects and consequences on the laws of war are unknown. This Article addresses one such development in weapon and warfare technology—Fully Autonomous Weapons or “Killer Robots”—and discusses the inevitable use of these weapons within the current international law framework. Recognizing the current, inadequate legal framework, this Article proposes a regulation policy to mitigate the risks associated with Fully Autonomous Weapons. But …

The Roots And Fruits Of Good Faith In Domestic Court Practice, Thomas Neumann

Pace International Law Review

Good faith—most lawyers have an opinion on these two words. While the notion of good faith may play specific roles at domestic and regional levels, it remains an elusive siren at the international level. The concept was subject to controversy at the birth of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and has been debated by scholars ever since. Considering that the Convention has now been in force for over thirty years, it is agreed that time is ripe for “a call to arms for further research into a uniform standard of good …