Law Commons^™

Unacceptable Means: The Inspection Panel Actions On World Bank Forcible Resettlement, Lori Udall

Perspectives

This essay reviews the World Bank’s Inspection Panel’s work on cases involving involuntary resettlement. Since its Inception, the Panel has received 89 requests involving resettlement (over half of all cases) and has investigated 32. It traces Panel cases, lessons learned, and advisory reports on resettlement and livelihood restoration. Despite the growing evidence through the years of resettlement failures, the World Bank continues to violate its own safeguard policies and repeat the same omissions and mistakes in projects. The essay concludes with recommendations for empowering the Inspection Panel and for the Bank to move towards bottom-up community development that better addresses …

A Dam Over Troubled Waters? The Obligation To Negotiate In Good Faith In Annex "C" Of The Treaty Of Itaipu, Rene Figueredo Corrales

American University International Law Review

The year 2023 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty of Itaipú (“the Treaty”). According to paragraph VI of the Treaty, its provisions are to be reviewed after fifty years have elapsed from the date the Treaty entered into force. In October 2021, João Francisco Ferreira, the former Brazilian representative of the Itaipú binational entity, stated in a press conference what seemed to be a new interpretation of the review provision contained in Annex “C” of the Treaty of Itaipú. He noted that there is no obligation to negotiate Annex “C” if an agreement is …

Slavery Still Exists And May Have Produced Your Hairdryer, Katherine Pratty

American University International Law Review

In 2020, the International Labour Organization (“ILO”) estimated that forced labor generated $51 billion USD. Many profiteers are not individual bad actors, but rather, corporations. Recently it came to light that one corporate profiteer is the multinational technology manufacturing company, creator of the most awarded hair care device in 2021: Dyson Limited. While Dyson has received praise for its products, Malaysia charged Dyson’s main production factory, ATA IMS, with labor law violations. Shortly thereafter, in February 2022, UK law firm Leigh Day publicly announced its suit against Dyson on behalf of the workers in Dyson’s Malaysia factory.

This Comment analyzes …

The Validity Of Trade Restrictions On Artificial Intelligence Technology Under The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade's National Security Exception, Isabelle Brundieck

American University International Law Review

This Comment argues that the U.S. restrictions on the export of semiconductors and other AI technology to China do not violate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994). Instead, such measures are legitimate expressions under GATT 1994’s Article XXI national security exception, which allows a country to break other articles within the agreement if necessary to protect the country’s essential national security interests. Given the national security risks associated with the rise of AI technology and the likelihood that such technology will be supplied to a military enterprise, the current trade restrictions qualify for the exception. However, …

Ftas' Contribution Towards A More Flexible Copyright Space: Possibilities And Limits, Maria Vasquez Callo-Muller

American University International Law Review

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have often been considered instruments for heightened intellectual property rights protection, thereby in detriment of a more flexible copyright space. However, since the adoption of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, some FTAs have been incorporating a clause on the “Balance in Copyright and Related Rights Systems.” Among these, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and, more recently, the 2021 Australia-U.K. FTA contain such a clause. In addition, more discrete FTAs, such as the AustraliaPeru FTA, also incorporate similar provisions. This article considers what incorporating such clauses in FTAs means for the interpretation of …

"Use And Improve" Is My Accountability Mantra, Despite 30 Years Of Eye-Opening Disappointments, Natalie Bridgeman Fields

Perspectives

This essay finds justification for championing the continued existence, functioning and evolution of Independent Accountability Mechanisms (IAMs). An inside assessment of the thirty-year functioning of IAMs reveals that inadequate power and independence are severely hampering IAM efforts to hold actors accountable for harm. Simultaneously, IAMs can’t make progress without the underlying financial institutions reforming their incentive structures to reward harm prevention and remedy. Despite decades of systemic failure to deliver accountability, when exceptions happen, they are worth it and can be spectacular. With an influx of new climate-related funding expected at the financial institutions, exceptions need to become the rule. …

The Critical Contribution Of Independent Accountability Mechanisms (Iams) To The Global Governance Paradigm, Owen Mcintyre

Perspectives

For several decades now, the environmental and social safeguard policies adopted by international financial institutions (IFIs), along with the related accountability frameworks provided by the independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) established by each, have been at the very forefront of a global movement to extend good environmental and social governance values to the practice of international development finance. The complex of substantive and procedural standards of institutional conduct required under multilateral development bank (MDB) safeguard policies in respect of the assessment and implementation of bank-funded development projects or activities exemplifies the phenomenon of so-called “transnational” or “global” law - the rich …

Securing Patent Law, Charles Duan

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A vigorous conversation about intellectual property rights and national security has largely focused on the defense role of those rights, as tools for responding to acts of foreign infringement. But intellectual property, and patents in particular, also play an arguably more important offense role. Foreign competitor nations can obtain and assert U.S. patents against U.S. firms and creators. Use of patents as an offense strategy can be strategically coordinated to stymie domestic innovation and technological progress. This Essay considers current and possible future practices of patent exploitation in this offense setting, with a particular focus on China given the nature …

Platform Liability Under Article 17 Of The Copyright In The Digital Single Market Directive, Automated Filtering And Fundamental Rights: An Impossible Match, Christophe Geiger, Bernd Justin Jütte

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive) introduced a change of paradigm with regard to the liability of some platforms in the European Union. Under the safe harbour rules of the Directive on electronic commerce (E-Commerce Directive), intermediaries in the EU were shielded from liability for acts of their users committed through their services, provided they had no knowledge of it. Although platform operators could be required to help enforce copyright infringements online by taking down infringing content, the E-commerce Directive also drew a very clear line that intermediaries could not be obliged to monitor all …

The Olives Of Others: The United States Anti-Dumping And Countervailing Duties On Ripe Olives From Spain, Gregory Frering

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Many Faces Of Transparency, Padideh Ala'i

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Transcript from the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of American Society of International Law panel on the "Role of Transparency at the World Trade Organization."

An Overview Of The International Treatment Of Exceptions, Eric Schwartz

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This article is intended as a very brief overview and history of the international treatment of “fair use” or its equivalent — that is, a general summary of the treaty obligations and national law exceptions (in statute or by common law) to the exclusive rights of authors and owners of copyrights.

A Realist Approach To Copyright Law's Formalities, Michael W. Carroll

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Rejecting the conventional story that formalities in copyright law were abolished by the Berne Convention, this Article demonstrates that privately administered systems of formalities play a significant role in the administration of copyright law worldwide. Indeed, they must because copyright is designed to support a transaction structure which requires rightsholders who seek to attract licensing partners to go through some formal step to identify themselves and the works in which they have a legal or beneficial interest. Canvassing the landscape of mandatory and voluntary public and private systems of formalities, this article argues that: (1) national policymakers retain more policy …