Law Commons^™

The Rule Of Law And Commercial Litigation In Myanmar, Alec Christie

Washington International Law Journal

After nearly thirty years of self imposed isolation, Myanmar has reemerged as a significant potential destination for foreign investment. One of the key attractions of Myanmar as a destination for foreign investment is its legal system and historical commitment to the rule of law. With ASEAN membership and increasing levels of foreign investment in Myanmar, use of its legal system by foreign investors and their counsel has grown. The aim of this article is to outline, for both investors and legal professionals in other countries throughout the region, Myanmar's legal system and its practical operation in the area of commercial …

Law On Communications Interception During Criminal Investigations, Yohei Suda

Washington International Law Journal

Whereas organized crime severely damages the peace and health of society, and increasingly it is extremely difficult to clarify the truth in criminal investigations without intercepting the telephone communications or other telecommunications of criminals in serious crimes committed by conspiracy, such as organized murder and unlawful trade of drugs or firearms, the purpose of this law is to set forth the requirements, procedures, and other matters that are relevant to the invasive action of intercepting telecommunications, as provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure (Law No. 131, 1948), and are essential for dealing appropriately with such crimes, in such a …

The Japanese Law On Communications Interception During Criminal Investigatons: Translator's Introduction, Yohei Suda

Washington International Law Journal

Japan enacted the Law on Communications Interception During Criminal Investigations last year to help control organized crime. The legislation is, in part, a reaction to domestic and international pressure that grew from recent, well-publicized crimes such as the Aur Shinrikyo attack on a Tokyo subway. The Interception Law is a powerful tool for Japanese law enforcement, however the question of whether the Interception Law violates Japan's constitutional rights to privacy and secrecy of communication has not yet been resolved.

Microfinance And Poverty Alleviation: Lessons From Indonesia's Village Banking System, Yoko Miyashita

Washington International Law Journal

Indonesia needs an aggressive poverty reduction strategy to counter the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which has propelled millions of its citizens into poverty. Microfinance is a proven method of reducing poverty and has been successfully used within Indonesia in government-supported programs. In addition to continuing its state-run microfinance programs, Indonesia should support increased non-governmental organization ("NGO") participation in microfinance programs by permitting NGOs to conduct the full range of activities of a state-run microfinance program. Such a move would help to ensure that microfinance services reach people with the least access to the formal financial sector.

Korean Attitues Towards Law, Chan Jin Kim

Washington International Law Journal

Transformation is the key word to explain the Korean attitudes towards law. In the early 1950's, nation building gave impetus to economic growth and allowed Korea to quickly pass through the preliminary stages of development. Industrialization, urbanization and eventual emigration of the populace have, in many senses, displaced the traditional social value system based on Confucianism. However, a new value system has yet to take hold. The lack of such guidelines has left Koreans in a state of confusion in a world that continues to change. The Korean Constitution clearly mandates equal protection under the laws for all Koreans. However, …

One Country, Three Systems? Judicial Review In Macau After Ng Ka Lling, Judith R. Krebs

Washington International Law Journal

The Ng Ka Ling decision by the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeals and its reversal by the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, raise serious concerns regarding the adequacy of judicial review and the protection of the rule of law in the new special administrative regions under China's "One Country, Two Systems" approach. Judicial review lies at the forefront of this controversy because it largely delineates the contours of local autonomy and the extent to which those who experience legal violations will have remedies. This Comment explores the roots of the conflict in Hong Kong and examines whether …

Decolonising Restoration And Justice: Restoration In Transitional Cultures, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article is a strategy for the comparative analysis of justice in various contesting forms. To identify useful levels of the comparative project, the colonising potential of restorative justice is examined. In this context the influence of formalised justice mechanisms over the less formal is explored, with examples in transitional cultures in the South Pacific discussed. Local and global potentials (and dilemmas) are identified for analysis. The integration of justice forms, both in terms of structure and ideology, is argued for. Notions of collaborative rather than restorative justice are advanced, in order that the intersection between state-sponsored and customary justice …

From Pirates To Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property In China In The Twenty-First Century, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the United States repeatedly threatened China with a series of economic sanctions, trade wars, non-renewal of most-favored-nation status, and opposition to entry into the World Trade Organization. Such threats eventually led to compromises by the Chinese government and the signing of intellectual property agreements in 1992, 1995, and 1996. Despite these agreements, intellectual property piracy remains rampant in China.

Although China initially had serious concerns about the United States's threats of trade sanctions, the constant use of such threats by the U.S. government has led China to change its reaction and approach. By …

Globalisation & Legal Theory By William Twining, Caroline Bradley

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Puerto Rico: Cultural Nation, American Colony, Pedro A. Malavet

UF Law Faculty Publications

As a matter of law, Puerto Rico has been a colony for an uninterrupted period of over five hundred years. In modern times, colonialism—the status of a polity with a definable territory that lacks sovereignty because legal/political authority is exercised by a peoples distinguishable from the inhabitants of the colonized region—is the only legal status that the isla (island) has known. This Article posits that Puerto Rico's colonial status—particularly its intrinsic legal and social constructs of second-class citizenship for Puerto Ricans—is incompatible with contemporary law or a sensible theory of justice and morality.

Puerto Ricans, as United States citizens by …

The Public Womb: Women Under China's One-Child Policy, Rachael Savanyu

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Karo Kari: Honor Killing, Wendy M. Gonzalez

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Access To Justice Bill And Human Rights Act Of 1998: Britain's Legislative Overhaul Leaves The System Scrambling To Mend The Safety Net, Margot Penfold Schoenborn

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of 30-Year Land Use Rights For Farmers Under China's 1998 Land Management Law: An Analysis And Recommendations Based On A 17 Province Survey, Roy Prosterman, Brian Schwarzwalder, Ye Jianping

Washington International Law Journal

Recent legal and policy measures demonstrate the commitment of China's central leadership to the development and implementation of a legal framework providing long-term, secure land tenure to its nearly 800 million farmers. The results of a 17 province, 1,621 household survey conducted in August 1999 show that considerable progress has already been made toward this goal. However, a number of key issues related to both the implementation of existing legal rules and the development of additional legislation addressing rural land rights must be addressed for the process to be complete.

The Battle Against Software Piracy: Software Copyright Protection In The Philippines, Grace P. Nerona

Washington International Law Journal

The Philippines enacted the Intellectual Property Code ("IPC") on June 6, 1997 to comply with its World Trade Organization ("WTO") treaty obligations and to respond to U.S. concerns regarding intellectual property protection in the Philippines. The IPC streamlines administrative procedures, increases criminal penalties for copyright infringement, and provides copyright protection for computer software. Despite the enactment of the IPC, the United States has kept the Philippines on its Special 301 "Watch List" of intellectual property rights violators. The United States maintains that the level of intellectual property protection in the Philippines is inadequate and ineffective, particularly in the areas of …

Domestic Technological Innovation: An Approach To Solving South Korea's Labor Problems, Jeffrey F. Dickerman

Washington International Law Journal

When Korea' became a democracy in 1987, Korea's militant labor movement erupted into a series of nationwide protests and explosive labor strikes. As a consequence, Korea's new democratic government enacted progressive labor laws aimed at increasing wages and improving working conditions for laborers. However, these new progressive labor laws lowered the productivity of businesses. Consequently, many Korean goods could no longer compete in the global market and Korean businesses faced bankruptcy. Tension now exists between Korean businesses and workers as each side attempts to regulate the Korean workweek. The competing interests between business and workers can be balanced by domestic …

Choosing A Mechanism For Land Redistribution In The Philippines, Andre Sawchenko

Washington International Law Journal

The Philippines' Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program needs changes because it is not efficiently achieving social justice for the rural poor in the present, nor is it establishing a framework for equitable economic growth in the future. A land reform program in the Philippines can accomplish its objectives only to the extent that it redistributes land. Market assisted land reform, the recently developed land reform model being championed by the World Bank, provides little hope for the quick and extensive redistribution of land needed in the Philippines. The best way for the Philippine government to modify its land reform program is …

Judicial Reform In China: New Regulations For A Lay Assessor System, Di Jiang

Washington International Law Journal

After a long history of the "rule of social rituals" and the "rule under man," China is reforming its legal structures, trying to achieve the rule of law. To realize this goal, China needs a more effective judicial deliberative body. To help define a system that is compatible with China's practical needs and promotes its social modernization, this Article examines the western jury and assessor systems and compares them to China's lay assessor system.

Primus Inter Pares: Is The Singapore Judiciary First Among Equals?, Karen Blőchlinger

Washington International Law Journal

Chief Justice Yong Pung How has implemented many changes in the Singapore judicial system since his appointment to the post in 1990. The reforms have concentrated on active case management, providing mediation as an alternative mechanism to resolve disputes, and implementing information technology in the courtroom. One of the results of these reforms is that the backlog of cases has been eliminated and the judicial system has become dramatically more efficient. However, an increased efficiency in judicial administration cannot be justified if it is attained at the expense of restricting access to justice. This Comment reviews the judicial reforms in …

Uzbekistan: Islam, Communism, And Religious Liberty--An Appraisal Of Uzbekistan's 1998 Law "On Freedom Of Conscience And Religious Organizations", Grant Garrard Beckwith

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Religious Liberty In Chile, 1973-2000, Patrick J. Thurston

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Controversial Aspects Of The New Brazilian Arbitration Law, Arnoldo Wald, Patrick Schellenberg, Keith S. Rosenn

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Spotting Money Launderers: A Better Way To Fight Organized Crime?, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

Money laundering investigations have been much in the news of late. There have been stories that Radil Salinas de Gortari laundered kickbacks from drug traffickers while his brother was President of Mexico. That Ferdinand Marcos stashed nearly half a billion dollars in Swiss banks while he ruled the Philippines. That two of Mexico's largest banks have pleaded guilty to laundering charges stemming from a controversial U.S. sting operation. That the former prime minister of Ukraine pleaded guilty to Swiss charges that he laundered $9 million in stolen funds, even as he faced U.S. charges of laundering $114 million. And, of …

The United Kingdom Bill Of Rights 1998: The Modernisation Of Rights In The Old World, Clive Walker, Russell L. Weaver

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Into a steadfastly conservative constitutional landscape, the United Kingdom Parliament has now introduced a Bill of Rights, the Human Rights Act of 1998, which takes effect in October 2000. The Act provides for a full catalogue of civil and political rights which are enforceable by the courts. This development raises two questions in evaluating the future of English law. First, does this signify the dawn of a new British radicalism? And second, why has it happened now? In answering these questions in relation to England and Wales, Part I of this Article provides an introduction to the traditional treatment of …

German Mdps: Lessons To Learn, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article is the third of four major articles or book chapters that I have written about MDPs. This article focuses on German multidisciplinary partnerships (MDPs) between lawyers and accountants. The German MDP experience is important because Germany is one of the few jurisdictions that expressly permits MDPs and because conferences about World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS) have cited to Germany when suggesting that other countries' MDP bans may be unnecessarily restrictive. After introducing common MDP regulatory issues, this article focuses on Germany. The article explains Germany's current regulation of MDPs and provides a …

The Bolar Amendment Abroad: Preserving The Integrity Of American Patents Overseas After The South African Medicines Act, Matthew Kramer

Penn State International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Crisis In Hong Kong—Is It Over?, Lin Feng

Washington International Law Journal

The judgment of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ("CFA") in the right of abode case has created several constitutional issues, three of which will be addressed in this paper. They are: (1) whether the CFA has the authority to review Chinese legislation; (2) whether the National People's Congress Standing Committee ("NPCSC") should interpret or amend the Basic Law; and (3) whether an original legislative intent approach or a purposive approach should be adopted for the interpretation of the Basic Law. Prompt resolution of these issues is necessary to resolve constitutional uncertainty in Hong Kong. Successful resolution of these …

Building The Korean Film Industry's Competitiveness: Abolish The Screen Quota And Subsidize The Film Industry, Carolyn Hyun-Kyung Kim

Washington International Law Journal

Under Korean law, local theaters in Korea must show Korean films for at least 146 days each year. In 1998, this screen quota became the subject of heated debate between the United States and the Korean film industry when the United States demanded that Korea abolish it. The United States believes the quota violates free trade principles, while the Korean film industry argues that cultural products such as films cannot be equated with other commercial commodities. Cultural identities must be protected because a diversified global culture benefits all. Domestic film industries should be protected because films constitute a vehicle for …

The Wto Panel Decision On Australia's Salmon Import Guidelines: Evidence That The Sps Agreement Can Effectively Protect Human Health Interests, Matthew D. Taylor

Washington International Law Journal

On July 19, 1999, Australia lifted its ban on salmon imports and announced new salmon import guidelines. The new guidelines were promulgated in response to a World Trade Organization ("WTO") Appellate Body determination that the import ban violated the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures ("SPS Agreement"). Canada challenged Australia's new import guidelines, alleging that the new guidelines also violate the SPS Agreement. The WTO dispute settlement panel held that, with the exception of only one provision, Australia's new salmon import guidelines are based on appropriate scientific risk analyses and are now in line with comparable import …

A Silent Emergency Persists: The Limited Efficacy Of U.S. Investment Sanctions On Burma, Anna E. Johansson

Washington International Law Journal

For the past three decades, the repressive military junta that has ruled Burma has engaged in torture, extra-judicial killings, compulsory labor, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Economic growth and human development in Burma have stagnated. In response to human rights abuses and uninhibited drug production and trafficking, the United States imposed investment sanctions on Burma in 1997. However, Burma's regional alliances and illicit profits from drugs have filled any vacuum left by withdrawal of U.S. investments and have neutralized the effect of the sanctions. Therefore, the United States needs to rethink its current sanctions scheme. The United States should consider …