Law Commons^™

Theorizing Responsibility In The Investor State Dispute Resolution System, Kristen Boon

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Investor-State Dispute System (“ISDS”) permits investors to sue states when their investments are injured. The system was designed to protect investors and impose responsibilities on states; it is uncontroversial to say that the ISDS system is one-sided. But a chorus of voices is now asking: should investors have responsibilities too? The narrative is one of injustice, driven by the perception that states have signed on to a system that has left them with large financial exposure to investors. This viewpoint has been reinforced, in the eyes of some, by the influence of big business, and by state losses …

Still On Patrol: An Argument For Greater Protections For Sunken American State Vessels In International And Foreign Coastal Waters, Sarah Elizabeth Catterson

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Quint, the surly captain from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, is perhaps most famous for his soliloquy recounting the Indianapolis tragedy. The Indy, as she was called, sunk just under fifteen minutes after being hit by Japanese torpedoes in 1945 following her delivery of the components for the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. It took the Navy five days to realize she was missing, by which point 600 of the 800 survivors had died from exposure or shark attacks. The Indy remained missing until she was found seventy-two years later by the Petrel, a …

An Immigration Innovation: A Comparative Analysis Of The American Diversity Visa Lottery Program And The Canadian Points-Based System, Jennifer Hopkins

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

United States immigration policy has historically been a strategy for national growth. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990 to stimulate further growth by increasing immigration opportunities. This substantial immigration reform created the Diversity Visa (“DV”) lottery program, which administers 50,000 lawful permanent residence visas annually. These visas are drawn randomly from a pool of applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Donald J. Trump pushed for major immigration reform beginning on his first day in office, including the repeal of the DV program and the development of a points-based system modeling the current …

Nebulous Law: Using Soft Law To Give Structure To The Amorphous Rpo Industry, Kylie Mclaughlin

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Imagine looking down at your smartphone and realizing that you cannot make phone calls or access the internet. A communications satellite enabling these functions on your cellphone has just been struck by a piece of uncontrolled space debris. Now, imagine being in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and search and rescue teams do not know you and your family are missing or in distress. A satellite within the International Satellite System for Search and Rescue has just run out of fuel. Finally, imagine trains, planes, and ships remaining in their stations, gates, and ports because each has lost …

Ethical Quandaries: The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act And Claims For Works In Public Museums, Charles Cronin

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The unusual circumstances surrounding the recent return of the Geldorp portrait to a public museum gives rise to the issue this Article covers: whether the status of claimants and defendants in Holocaust-era art claims as public entities or private citizens implicates ethical issues that should bear on the disposition of these cases, and if so, to what extent.

Part I considers the origins of these claims during WWII, and the temporal legal obstacles they may encounter many years after the events that engendered them. Part II discusses the recently enacted Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 (“HEAR”), which …

Cost-Benefit Analysis And Human Rights, William J. Aceves

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article considers whether cost-benefit analysis can provide the human rights movement with the answers it seeks. It offers an instrumentalist and empirical approach to complement the normative arguments that are most often used by the human rights movement. If human rights could be fully monetized, states could consider the full range of benefits that arise from protecting rights and the costs that occur when rights are violated. This approach could provide states with a more accurate methodology for making decisions that affect human rights. In fact, protecting human rights may prove to be costeffective, particularly when second order …

Extraterritorial Human Trafficking Prosecutions: Eliminating Zones Of Impunity Within The Limits Of International Law And Due Process, Caroline A. Fish

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the Baston court was incorrect both in finding the Amendment consistent with the protective principle and in its analysis of the defendant’s nexus with the United States. This Note asserts, instead, that (1) the Amendment is not valid under any traditional bases of prescriptive jurisdiction but is consistent with the United States’ international obligations to “extradite or prosecute,” and (2) the Amendment may be applied under the international anti-trafficking conventions to foreign defendants present in the United States, regardless of nexus, without violating due process.

Part I of this Note describes the complex nature of …

Unpacking The Deterrent Effect Of The International Criminal Court: Lessons From Kenya, Yvonne M. Dutton, Tessa Alleblas

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article proceeds as follows. Part I begins by explaining deterrence theory in more detail. It follows with an overview of the debate surrounding the ability of international criminal tribunals and the ICC to produce a deterrent effect.

In Part II, we advance our argument regarding the need to reframe the debate about the ICC’s potential to deter. We explain the reasons why the ICC’s deterrent effect must be unpacked and, in doing so, we describe several factors that influence whether and under what conditions the ICC should or should not be able to deter. In Part III, we …

How To Read International Criminal Law: Strict Construction And The Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court, Caroline Davidson

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Article proceeds in four parts. Part I introduces the Rome Statute’s provision on nullum crimen sine lege, focusing in particular on its requirements that judges strictly construe crime definitions, construe ambiguous provisions in favor of defendants, and avoid crime creation by analogy. It offers working definitions for relevant concepts and describes some of the difficulties in applying them, particularly in light of the Rome Statute’s provision setting out the sources of law the court is to consider. Part II asks whether strict construction makes sense in the context of international crimes. It assesses the values that undergird the …

Prosecuting Child Soldiers: The Call For An International Minimum Age Of Criminal Responsibility, Brittany Ursini

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note discusses the current state of international law on the MACR and proposes a solution that balances the protection of child soldiers with the rights of the victims harmed by their unlawful conduct. Part I of this Note provides a brief background of child soldiers and closely examines the relevant international law addressing the criminal responsibility of child soldiers. Part II illustrates the deficiencies of current international law and describes how the deficiencies affect and contribute to the competing arguments regarding a MACR. Part III discusses the need for an international MACR. Finally, Part IV proposes an international …

Putting The "Remedy" Back In The International Child Abduction Remedies Act - Enforcing Visitation Rights For The Left Behind Parent, Nicole Clark

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the Second Circuit’s approach is more consistent with the aims of the Hague Convention and the needs of children than the Fourth Circuit’s approach and that ICARA does confer jurisdiction upon federal courts to adjudicate claims for the enforcement of visitation rights under the Hague Convention. Part I discusses the background of the Hague Convention and ICARA and how visitation rights fit into each. Part II discusses the split between the Fourth Circuit and the Second Circuit regarding whether ICARA confers jurisdiction upon federal courts over claims for the enforcement of visitation rights. It further …