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Defense Perspectives On Fairness And Efficiency At The International Criminal Court, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Over the last several years, states parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have put increasing pressure on the court to become more efficient. Proceedings are seen as unduly slow, and judges have been urged to rein in the parties and expedite the process.

The emphasis on efficiency can advance important goals of the ICC. It can help ensure defendants’ right to a speedy trial, promote victims’ interests in closure, and allow the court to process more cases with limited resources. But as the experience of earlier international criminal tribunals shows, an unrelenting pursuit of efficiency could also interfere with …

Un Environment Guide For Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy Laws, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Guide is written as a sequel to the 2007 UN Environment Programme Handbook for Legal Draftsmen on Environmentally Sound Management of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Resources.

This Guide, as the Handbook, is written in response to needs expressed, particularly by energy efficiency and renewable energy project initiators, government officials, energy managers, project developers and particularly developing country energy legal draftsmen, asking for assistance in drafting legislative provisions for promotion and implementation of sound energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

The Guide describes the key legal issues associated with efficiency and renewable energy resource development, and presents legislative options …

Why International Catch Shares Won't Save Ocean Biodiversity, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

Skepticism about the efficacy and efficiency of regulatory approaches has produced a wave of enthusiasm for market-based strategies for dealing with environmental conflicts. In the fisheries context, the most prominent of these strategies is the use of “catch shares,” which assign specific proportions of the total allowable catch to individuals who are then free to trade them with others. Catch shares are now in wide use domestically within many nations, and there are increasing calls for implementation of internationally tradable catch shares. Based on a review of theory, empirical evidence, and two contexts in which catch shares have been proposed, …

Critical Tax Policy: A Pathway To Reform?, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The Global Recession of 2008 and ensuing austerity measures have renewed the urgency surrounding the call for fundamental tax reform. Before embarking on fundamental tax reform, this Article proposes adding a critical lens to existing US tax policy to ensure that any proposals for change are informed, transparent, and responsive to the needs (and abilities) of individual taxpayers. This Article makes the case for a specific method of inquiry – Critical Tax Policy – that is built on the articulation of difference rather than false assumptions of sameness. Critical Tax Policy incorporates the insights of a growing international tax equity …

Why International Catch Shares Won't Save Ocean Biodiversity, Holly Doremus

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Skepticism about the efficacy and efficiency of regulatory approaches has produced a wave of enthusiasm for market-based strategies for dealing with environmental conflicts. In the fisheries context, the most prominent of these strategies is the use of “catch shares,” which assign specific proportions of the total allowable catch to individuals who are then free to trade them with others. Catch shares are now in wide use domestically within many nations, and there are increasing calls for implementation of internationally tradable catch shares. Based on a review of theory, empirical evidence, and two contexts in which catch shares have been proposed, …

Efficiency In Bello And Ad Bellum: Making The Use Of Force Too Easy?, Kenneth Anderson

Contributions to Books

This article criticizes a widely asserted claim that drones make the resort to force and violence — war — “too easy.” Attractive on the surface to many, this article says that “too easy” is not a coherent notion as applied in war. The “too easy” argument comes in two forms, a moral argument and a maximization of social welfare argument. The maximization of social welfare version (on which the article focuses) frames “too easy” as a matter of creating an “inefficient” level of disincentive to use of force on account of insufficient risks to one’s own forces in so doing …

Efficient Breach Of International Law: Optimal Remedies, 'Legalized Noncompliance,' And Related Issues, Eric A. Posner, Alan O. Sykes

Michigan Law Review

In much of the scholarly literature on international law, there is a tendency to condemn violations of the law and to leave it at that. If all violations of international law were indeed undesirable, this tendency would be unobjectionable. We argue in this Article, however that a variety of circumstances arise under which violations of international law are desirable from an economic standpoint. The reasons why are much the same as the reasons why nonperformance of private contracts is sometimes desirable- the concept of "efficient breach," familiar to modern students of contract law, has direct applicability to international law. As …

Slides: Who Should Be At The Table, And What Should They Be Talking About?, Robert W. Adler

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Robert W. Adler, James I. Farr Chair in Law, University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law

9 slides

Materials For Presentation: The Disappearing Colorado River, Lawrence J. Macdonnell

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

7 pages.

"Western Economics Forum, Fall 2010"

Report Surveys Colorado River Basin Leaders: Collaborative Approaches To Dwindling Supplies Are Highlighted, Sarah Bates, University Of Montana Missoula. Center For Natural Resources And Environmental Policy

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

Press release "April 14, 2011"

"Executive Summary April 2011" of report, Thinking Like a River Basin: Leaders' Perspectives on Options and Opportunities in Colorado River Management

Full report available at:

http://www.carpediemwest.org/wp-content/uploads/Thinking_Like_A_River_Basin_8-20-13.pdf

Les Devoirs De L'Arbitre: Ni Un Pour Tous, Ni Tous Pour Un, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Fans of the Alexandre Dumas novel Three Musketeers will remember that the adventure includes a fourth young man, d'Artagnan, who hopes to become one of the King’s guards, along with his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, living by the motto “All for one, one for all”. Likewise, an arbitrator’s generally include four key obligation: accuracy, fairness, and efficiency, as well as vigilance in promoting an enforceable award. Prevailing litigants normally hope that the arbitral process will lead to something more than a piece of paper. To this end, they expect arbitrators to avoid giving reasons for annulment or non-recognition to …

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vice versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Energy Security, Green Job Creation, And Youth Innovation, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Global energy demand is likely to increase by 45 percent by 2030. Climate change will threaten existing employment and necessitate new green jobs. Funding has gone towards such renewable energy technologies as wind and solar; such fuel economy options as second-generation hybrids, plug-in electrics, and fuel cell vehicles; increased appliance efficiency; and such water-efficient farming methods as drip irrigation. Youth innovation can play a powerful role in achieving sustainable development. Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus has demonstrated how micro finance in the form of small loans can help poor people start or expand entrepreneurial endeavors. Government funded research …

The Sounds Of Silence: Are U.S. Arbitrators Creating Internationally Enforceable Awards When Ordering Class Arbitration In Cases Of Contractual Silence Or Ambiguity, S. I. Strong

Faculty Articles

The Article's overall aim is to determine the international enforceability of international class awards in cases in which the arbitration agreement is silent or ambiguous as to class treatment. Part I therefore describes the current consensus on class arbitration in the United States to lay the groundwork for further discussion. This Part also describes the incidence of class arbitration in other domestic contexts, showing that class arbitration is not as "uniquely American" as opponents have claimed. Part I continues with an overview of international class arbitration to date and identifies the likelihood of international class arbitration's expansion in the future. …

Water Is Security, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Reasonable and equitable water resource decision-making is at the core of good governance around the world. Sustained water collaboration is an antidote to foreign relations disintegration. Lack of water quality and quantity policies can lead to water insecurity for everyone, yet bureaucratic obstacles such as inertia and corruption must be averted in altering water governance schemes. There are multiple ways to lower transaction costs and strive for optimal water use. Several ingredients of good water governance include: (1) broad participation through the entire decision-making process; (2) transparent flow of information; (3) equitable opportunities to increase well-being; (4) accountability from governments, …

Managing Water Resources For A Sustainable Future: Law, Policy And Methodology Of China, Xi Wang, Xiaobo Zhang, Wenkai Li, Dejin Gu, Yanfang Zhou

Allocating and Managing Water for a Sustainable Future: Lessons from Around the World (Summer Conference, June 11-14)

37 pages (includes color illustrations).

Contains references (pages 36-37).

Resolving Transnational Insolvencies Through Private Ordering, Robert K. Rasmussen

Michigan Law Review

There is no international bankruptcy law. No question, there are international insolvencies. Transnational firms, just like domestic ones, often cannot generate sufficient revenue to satisfy their debt obligations. Their financial distress creates a situation where assets and claimants are scattered across more than one country. But there is no international law that provides a set of rules for resolving the financial distress of these firms. The absence of any significant free-standing international bankruptcy treaty means that a domestic court confronted with the domestic part of a transnational enterprise has to decide which nation's domestic bankruptcy law will apply to which …

Legal Foundations And Institutional Framework Of The Monetary Union In Europe And In The United States, Johan Van Den Cruijce

LLM Theses and Essays

An economic and monetary union (EMU) is an area where there is complete freedom of movement of persons, goods, services, and capital. The financial markets in an EMU are completely integrated while the national currencies are conventional and have fixed exchange rates. Ultimately the national currencies may be replaced by a common currency and there will be one monetary policy. The EMU is considered to be the highest form of economic integration. This paper examines two examples of a monetary union; the first part focuses on the blueprint for a European monetary union as laid out in the Treaty on …

The Role Of Efficiency Justifications In U.S.-American And West German Merger Control Law: A Comparison, Christian Westerhausen

LLM Theses and Essays

When merger control laws first emerged in the United States and West Germany in the early 1900s, some businessmen and economists argued that the efficiency of businesses was impeded by antimerger laws. They contended that only very large businesses could realize significant efficiencies, be internationally competitive, and attain technological progress. This paper analyzes the role that these efficiency arguments had on the laws in West Germany and the United States, respectively. German law mainly upheld the idea that preservation of competition was most important for business efficiency, but also included a provision that firms could put forward the social desirability …