Law Commons^™

Ebola: Towards An International Health Systems Fund, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The current outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa is spiraling out of control, but it never had to happen. What can the international community do now to bring the epidemic under control, and how can we prevent the next one?

The counties most affected by Ebola (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), rank among the lowest in global development, lacking essential public health infrastructure. If the affected countries had adequate public health systems, they probably would have contained Ebola within rural settings, avoiding the first outbreak in major urban areas.

More than 130 health workers have died from …

Section 2: Congress & The Obama White House, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

The Mauritius Convention On Transparency: Comments On The Rreaty And Its Role In Increasing Transparency Of Investor-State Arbitration, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In July 2014, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted the Mauritius Convention on Transparency that, if widely adopted, will do much to increase the transparency of investor-state arbitrations conducted under thousands of existing investment treaties and under any set of arbitration rules. This Policy Paper introduces the background and objectives of the Transparency Convention, provides commentary on each of its specific articles, and explains how the Transparency Convention can accomplish broad reform.

New Uncitral Arbitration Rules On Transparency: Application, Content And Next Steps, Lise Johnson, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In July 2013, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted a package of rules aiming to ensure transparency in investor-State arbitration (the “Rules on Transparency”), ratifying the work done by delegations to UNCITRAL – comprised of 55 Member States, additional observer States and observer organizations – over the course of nearly three years of negotiations.

Under previous versions of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, disputes between investors and States were often not made public, even where important public policies were involved or illegal or corrupt business practices were uncovered. In contrast, the new rules, which will officially come …

International Organizations: An Early History, Michael Davies, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

This text provides a pioneering and comprehensive analysis of over one hundred international organizations. After introducing the broad historical and contextual settings, the book covers the full range of international organisations including those that are often overlooked or get minimal inclusion elsewhere. Each organization is analysed in a stand-alone section that consider its origins, basic mandates and evolution, the governance structure and the associated key players, current activities and future challenges. The descriptions also reflect each organization’s broader relationships with other international bodies.

Joint Submission To The U.N. Committee Against Torture Concerning The United States’ Mistreatment Of Immigrant Detainees In Violation Of The Convention Against Torture And Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment In Relation To The United States 5th Periodic Report On The Convention Against Torture (2014), Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak, Steven D. Schwinn, Jennifer Chan, John Marshall Law School International Human Rights Clinic

UIC Law White Papers

This report relates to the mistreatment and abuse that adult immigrant detainees suffer in United States detention facilities. It is submitted in response to the United States’ periodic report relating to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and specifically addresses the deplorable conditions of detention, the use of solitary confinement, the problem of sexual violence in detention and the lack of investigation of such acts, the refoulement of detainees who face risk of torture, the enforcement of the non-derogable prohibition of torture, and the prevention of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This report discusses current practices of the U.S. …

The Uphill Battle To Hold Us Corporations Accountable For Abuses Abroad, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Cooperative Transboundary Mechanism, Alena Drieschova, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Management of transboundary waters in increasingly becoming more challenging, and climate change is likely to exacerbate these pressures. Not least because climate change is a global issue, adaptation will require an international response. This book aims to identify issues, both theoretical and practical, that States face in establishing cooperative transboundary mechanisms to effectively adapt water management to climate change. Furthermore, it will address complex legal hurdles that existing transboundary water institutions face when attempting to adapt existing mechanisms to function in a changing climate. It will also provide an overview of best practices in transboundary adaptive water governance thus far, …

We Want What's Ours: Learning From South Africa's Land Restitution Program (Oxford University Press), Bernadette Atuahene

All Faculty Scholarship

http://wewantwhatsours.com

Millions of people all over the world have been displaced from their homes and property. Dispossessed individuals and communities often lose more than the physical structures they live in and their material belongings, they are also denied their dignity. These are dignity takings, and land dispossessions occurring in South Africa during colonialism and apartheid are quintessential examples. There have been numerous examples of dignity takings throughout the world, but South Africa stands apart because of its unique remedial efforts. The nation has attempted to move beyond the more common step of providing reparations (compensation for physical losses) to instead …

Review Mechanisms In Natural Resource Contracts, Jacky Mandelbaum, Salli Anne Swartz, John Hauert

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Periodic review mechanisms, provisions in contracts that formally require parties to meet at particular intervals to review the terms of the contract or license and consider whether circumstances have changed since the parties’ initial agreement, are a mechanism that may smooth the process of dealing with inevitable changes in circumstances over the long term of extractive industries contracts. This briefing note looks at the use of such mechanisms, through reviewing existing extractive industry agreements, and considers how the requirements have been expressed to-date and their role as a tool to maintain the relationship between the parties. The Brief examines issues …

Multipolarity, Intellectual Property And The Internationalization Of Public Health Law, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

This Article critically examines the proliferation of international legal agreements addressing global health threats like the outbreak of infectious diseases, tobacco use and lack of access to affordable medicines. The conventional wisdom behind this trend is that a global normative shift has occurred which has caused states to regard health as “special” and less subject to the normal rules of international law making because health threats endanger all of humanity. This Article challenges that thesis, arguing that at the same time the number and scope of international health law treaties has grown, developed states have subordinated health law to intellectual …

The State, Parents, Schools, "Culture Wars", And Modern Technologies: Challenges Under The U.N. Convention On The Rights Of A Child, Nora V. Demleitner

Scholarly Articles

This paper focuses on some of the core principles of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and their application under U.S. state and federal law. While the United States has not ratified the Convention, it is a signatory. Many of the most intractable cultural issues in the United States involve children and their rights to participation, information, and decision-making. Frequently, primary and secondary education presents a fertile battle ground for “cultural clashes” between parents, schools, and state officials. In the private context, both U.S. law and the U.N. Convention have adopted the “best interests of the child” …

On The Effectiveness Of Private Security Guards On Board Merchant Ships Off The Coast Of Somalia -- Where Is The Piracy? What Are The Legal Ramifications?, Barry H. Dubner, Claudia Pastorius

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

On The Effectiveness Of Private Security Guards On Board Merchant Ships Off The Coast Of Somalia -- Where Is The Piracy? What Are The Legal Ramifications?, Barry H. Dubner, Claudia Pastorius

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

United States Negotiates Prisoner Exchange to Secure Release of U.S. Soldier Held in Afghanistan • United States Refuses to Grant Visa to Iranian UN Envoy • Multilateral Naval Code of Conduct Aims to Prevent Unintended Conflict in Contested Areas of East and South China Seas • Senate Approves Treaties to Regulate Fishing • United States Indicts Chinese Military Officials for Economic Espionage • U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Terminate Long-Running Efforts to Force Argentina to Pay Defaulted Sovereign Debt • United States Condemns Uganda’s Antigay Law as Violating Human Rights • President Barack Obama Certifies That U.S. Peacekeepers in Mali …

Legitimacy And Impartiality In A Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism, Odette Lienau

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Particularly in light of recent developments in sovereign debt litigation, there is a pressing need for discussion of more robust sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms. This paper contends that any sovereign debt workout mechanism (DWM) should embody the principles of legitimacy and impartiality, to the extent possible, in order to garner the stable and long-term adherence of international stakeholders. These two elements are important both for attracting support ex ante, i.e. in the initial development of any treaty, ad hoc, or soft law restructuring mechanism, and for ensuring ex post that a DWM is ultimately utilized by states and their creditors. …

Rogue Debtors And Unanticipated Risk, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

Commercial actors are becoming increasingly concerned about the effect that various types of political risk, including the risk of sovereign default, has on their investments. This Essay considers the problem of rogue debtors (i.e., states that intentionally ignore their legal and financial obligations) as a type of unanticipated risk and analyzes how well various responses, including domestic litigation, interstate negotiation and investment arbitration, address investors’ needs. In particular, the discussion focuses on how effective investment arbitration is in overcoming a number of difficulties traditionally associated with rogue debtors and the various means by which states are attempting to bypass the …

Options For Adaption To Climate Change, Richard L. Ottinger, Pianpian Wang, Kristin M. Motel

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In order to tackle climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) provided a portfolio of measures: mitigation, adaptation and constant research. Although Article 10 of the Kyoto Protocol underlined the importance of adaptation, adaptation to climate change had been obtained limited attention in the early negotiations of climate talks. In 2010, Cancun Session of Conference of Parties (“COP”) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) highlighted the equal importance of adaptation just as mitigation. Since then, increasing attention has been drawn to adaptation practice by the international society. Typically, adaptation can be broken down into …

Global Water Resources & Publications, Taryn L. Rucinski

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Before we as a society can begin crafting innovative legal solutions to help combat the global water crisis, researchers and experts in the field first need access to sound sources of scientific information. Despite the seeming simplicity of that goal, locating research about water, sanitation, and agricultural conditions, especially in developing countries, can be immensely challenging as it is complicated by issues of language, currency, scope, and accuracy. The purpose of this note is to provide practitioners with a list of free, high quality resources that should help make their research in this area a bit more accessible.

The International Law Commission Reinvents Itself?, Kristina Daugirdas

Articles

For most of its history, the International Law Commission has been in the business of producing draft articles. Yet, Sean Murphy’s coverage of the Commission’s sixty-fifth session reveals that the Commission has decisively turned away from this format. As Jacob Katz Cogan’s earlier post observes, the Commission is demonstrating a new-found preference for outputs that are explicitly non-binding and betray no aspiration to form the basis for multilateral treaties. The Commission’s embrace of alternative formats is a promising response to some of the risks and criticisms associated with producing draft articles. But it is also an incomplete response. To ensure …

The Margin Of Appreciation In International Investment Law, Julian Arato

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Global Rules For Global Health: Why We Need An Independent, Impartial Who, Devi Sridhar, Julio Frenk, Lawrence O. Gostin, Suerie Moon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Over the past few years the World Health Organization (WHO) has been undergoing a significant reform process. The immediate trigger was a budget crisis in 2010 that spurred massive lay-offs at the global agency. But at a more fundamental level, deeper systematic changes in global health governance have made reform imperative. While WHO reform draws relatively little attention outside diplomatic circles in Geneva, at stake are critical issues that will impact public health everywhere. This article’s key messages are:

• Recent outbreaks of MERS highlight the need for a global response to infectious disease
• The WHO has had a crucial role …

Maurer School Of Law Bloomington

Lauren Robel (2002 Acting; 2003-2011)

No abstract provided.

Migrant Workers' Access To Justice At Home: Nepal, Sarah Paoletti, Eleanor Taylor-Nicholson, Bandita Sijapati, Bassina Farbenblum

All Faculty Scholarship

Nepal’s citizens engage in foreign employment at the highest per capita rate of any other country in Asia, and their remittances account for 25 percent of the country’s GDP. The Middle East is now the most popular destination for Nepalis--nearly 700,000 were working in the Middle East in 2011 on temporary labor contracts. For some Nepalis, working abroad provides much-needed household wealth. For others, their contributions to Nepal come at great personal cost. Migrant workers in the Gulf, for example, routinely report wage theft, lack of time off and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. Some migrant workers report psychological and …

Leveraging Mining Demand For Internet And Telecommunications Infrastructure For Broad Economic Development: Models, Opportunities And Challenges, Perrine Toledano, Clara Roorda

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The initial phase of the Leveraging Mining-Related Infrastructure Investments for Development project consisted of a worldwide survey of regulatory, commercial and operating case studies of shared use of mining-related infrastructure. This Policy Paper delivers the findings for internet and telecommunications.

The Bond Court's Institutional Truce, Monica Hakimi

Articles

As many readers are aware, Bond v. United States is a quirky case. The federal government prosecuted under the implementing legislation for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) a betrayed wife who used chemical agents to try to harm her husband’s lover. The wife argued that, as applied to her, the implementing legislation violated the Tenth Amendment. She thus raised difficult questions about the scope of the treaty power and of Congress’s authority to implement treaties through the Necessary and Proper Clause. The Bond Court avoided those questions with a clear statement rule: “we can insist on a clear indication that …

Intermediary Trademark Liability: A Comparative Lens, Stacey Dogan

Shorter Faculty Works

Although we live in a global, interconnected world, legal scholarship – even scholarship about the Internet – often focuses on domestic law with little more than a nod to developments in other jurisdictions. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; after all, theoretically robust or historically thorough works can rarely achieve their goals while surveying the landscape across multiple countries with disparate traditions and laws. But as a student of U.S. law, I appreciate articles that explain how other legal systems are addressing issues that perplex or divide our scholars and courts. Given the tumult over intermediary liability in recent years, …

Common Capital: A Thought Experiment In Cross-Border Resolution, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Cross-border bank resolution efforts focus on burden-sharing between bank owners, private creditors and the public. There is little talk of burden-sharing among governments, despite the rich history of governments trying to stick one another with the cost of financial conglomerate failures. There is an unspoken fear that acknowledging the need to allocate losses among governments would undermine post-crisis pledges of No More Bailouts. This symposium essay argues for making government stakes in private financial firms more transparent, and for using the contingent public share as a key to loss allocation among governments in cross-border banking crises.

Gender And Armed Conflict, Christine Chinkin

Book Chapters

The construction of social sex and gender roles means that armed conflict is sexed and gendered. Men still make up the majority of the fighting forces, while women's generally unequal and subordinate social and economic position makes them vulnerable in particular ways during conflict. Women and men, girls and boys all suffer gender-based violence. Such violence is directed at a person because of his or her gender. For instance men sustain specific harms such as disappearances and deliberate killings in greater numbers than women, while women disproportionately experience sexual violence. The detention of Bosnian Muslims at Potocari on 12 July …

Al-Nashiri, The Cole Bombing, And The Start Of The Conflict With Al-Qaeda, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.