Law Commons^™

Revisiting Baby Boy V. United States: Why The Iachr Resolution Did Not Effectively Undermine The Inter-American System On Human Rights’ Protection Of The Right To Life From Conception, Ligia M. De Jesus

Ligia M. De Jesus

Not many are aware Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were challenged before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 1981. In Baby Boy v. United States, the quasi-judicial regional human rights body concluded that the abortion of Baby Boy, a viable male fetus, was permissible under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and, incidentally, the American Convention on Human Rights, notwithstanding the fact that the latter protects the right to life "from the moment of conception" and the former contains an implied right to life for every "human being". In addition, the Commission …

Targeted Killing Court: Why The United States Needs To Adopt International Legal Standards For Targeted Killings And How To Do So In A Domestic Court, Michael Epstein

Michael Epstein

In light of the fact that the Obama Administration appears committed to continuing and expanding the use of drones and targeted killing as a primary counter-terrorism method, addressing both domestic and international concerns about the legality of our drone use is no simple task. Much has been written on the topic, and various definitions and interpretations of international law have been proposed; in order to address all of these concerns simultaneously while balancing the obvious reality that drone strikes will not stop anytime soon, I propose that a domestic judicial mechanism is required. Part I of this paper demonstrates the …

The 1937 International Sugar Agreement: Neo-Colonial Cuba And Economic Aspects Of The League Of Nations, Michael Fakhri

Michael Fakhri

To many in the West, the League of Nations was to establish political peace between nations. To the Cuban sugar-producing elite of the 1920s and 1930s, however, the League was an important socioeconomic institution used to augment many of Cuba’s first modern state institutions. This article explores how and why Cuban delegates were the principals behind the 1937 International Sugar Agreement – one of the League’s few operational economic treaties. This treaty sheds light onto how actors from the so-called industrial core and agricultural periphery used international law, institutions, and practice to negotiate and renegotiate their relationship with each other.

Images Of The Arab World And Middles East— Debates About Development And Regional Integration, Michael Fakhri

Michael Fakhri

Recently, the United Nations Development Programme Regional Bureau of Arab States (UNDP RBAS) and the World Bank produced thoroughly researched and clearly written reports addressing development and regional integration in the Arab/Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Both reports were written for a broad, non-specialist audience and have garnered significant public attention. Both the UNDP RBAS and World Bank reports call for increased regional integration amongst Arab or MENA states but for different reasons – the UNDP RBAS report for purposes of norm building based on Arab identity and the World Bank report to gain economic growth from trade liberalization. …

Reconstruing Wto Legitimacy Debates, Michael Fakhri

Michael Fakhri

There is an emerging consensus that the WTO is in grave need of institutional redesign. For the last fifteen years, questions of WTO institutional reform have been framed as a matter of improving the WTO’s legitimacy. This Article suggests that thinking about WTO redesign as a matter of improving its legitimacy limits our ability to fundamentally appreciate what the WTO’s function and purpose is and conceptualize what it should be. It would be more useful to know what is exactly at stake and what have been the social, political, and economic implications of the legitimacy debate thus far. The legitimacy …

A Propósito Del Giro Historiográfico En Derecho Internacional, Ignacio De La Rasilla Del Moral

Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral, Ph.D.

Illiteracy rate in Spain at the turn of the 20th century was of 63.8% and 16.000 students - out of a total Spanish population of 18.6 million - attended the 10 existing Spanish universities. 2.000 university titles were accorded, half of which in Law in 1900, and 200 students obtained their doctorates by the Central University of Madrid which held the academic monopoly of doctoral studies at the time. In 1902, the Bulletin of the Institution of Free Teaching published a chronicle signed by Aniceto Sela y Sampil on the didactic methods he employed to teach Public and Private International …

World Law Vs Global Law: Legal Models For The World Economy. A Non-Western Approach To Law And Adr As A Resource For South-South, South-East Business Relations, Ignazio Castellucci

Bocconi Legal Papers

The following paper aims to foster the development and use of alternative legal models which can be employed in the modern world economy. The positive aspects, which indeed may prove very useful in transnational economic activities, of such alternative models will be revealed through the comparison of the globally widespread common law models with other legal models sprouting outside the western legal tradition.

The main focus of this paper is on those models which have developed from China?s relations with other developing countries, especially with African ones; however, many discourses made and issues mentioned might well be adaptable to other …

Towards A Stakeholder-Shareholder Theory Of Corporate Governance: A Comparative Analysis, Katharine Jackson

Katharine Jackson

The governance regime of the public corporation in America, while tending to promote the concentration of economic and social power in company leadership, often encourages that leadership to advance the interests of their company’s short-term shareholders. The result is a board of directors beholden, if to anything at all, to short-term stock prices. This prioritization often comes at the expense of the corporation’s long-term sustainability and to its other constituents: its work force, creditors, and community. In contrast, governance in Continental European countries like Germany persuades corporate leadership to embrace social obligations and long-term outlooks through, e.g., enforced stakeholder representation …

Trademarks And The Right To Practice, Juan Lapenne

Juan Lapenne

No abstract provided.

Acquired Rights In Administrative Courts Of Connoted International Organizations. Jurisprudential Study,, Juan Lapenne

Juan Lapenne

No abstract provided.

Movsesian V. Victoria Versicherung And The Scope Of The President's Foreign Affairs Power To Preempt Words, Cindy G. Buys, Grant Gorman

Cindy G. Buys

The federal courts continue to struggle with the scope of the federal government’s foreign affairs power to preempt state law. Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did an about face in Movsesian v.Victoria Versicherung, which involved a claim that a California statute using the phrase “Armenian Genocide” is preempted by a few informal nonbinding statements of executive policy made to Congress objecting to the use of those words in Congressional resolutions. In Movsesian I, the Ninth Circuit found the California statute preempted in a decision that would have expanded the federal government’s foreign affairs power to preempt state law …

The Missing Girls Of China: Population, Policy, Culture, Gender, Abortion, Abandonment, And Adoption In East-Asian Perspective, David M. Smolin

David M. Smolin

This article analyzes the causes and possible solutions to the sex ratio imbalance of China, as well as the causes of the diminishing numbers of intercountry adoptions from China. Part I provides statistical, historical, and cultural analysis of China's "missing girls" (sex-ratio imbalance), concluding that sex selective abortion has become the primary cause of China missing approximately ten percent of females at birth. The article focuses on both cultural factors and China's population control policies as causative factors. Part II discusses population control, declining fertility, and the devaluation of girls and women, analyzing a context where declining fertility has been …

Disputes Related To Healthcare Across National Boundaries: The Potential For Arbitration, Deth Sao

Deth Sao

Trade in international health services has the potential to play a leading role in the global economy, but its rapid growth is impeded by legal barriers. Advances in technology and cross-border movement of people and health services create legal ambiguities and uncertainties for businesses and consumers involved in transnational medical malpractice disputes. Existing legal protections and remedies afforded by traditional judicial frameworks are unable to resolve the following challenges: (1) assertion of personal jurisdiction; (2) choice of forum and law considerations; (3) appropriate theories of liability for injuries and damages arising from innovations in medical care and delivery of health …

Can We Find And Stop The "Jihad Janes"?, Diane Webber

Diane Webber

Two female American citizens, Colleen LaRose, a.k.a. “Jihad Jane” and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, whose appearance and passports allow them to blend into Western society, currently represent “one of the worst fears” of intelligence and FBI analysts who work to identify terrorist threats. On both sides of the Atlantic, similar problems exist of homegrown terrorism and radicalization, and the internet has a huge impact on these issues. This paper examines the tools available to the U.S. and the U.K. to find and stop potential homegrown terrorists from perpetrating catastrophic acts of terror. After assessing the differences between U.S. and U.K. law, I …

Legal Pluralism In Post-Colonial Africa: Linking Statutory And Customary Adjudication In Mozambique, David Pimentel

David Pimentel

Legal pluralism is a contemporary reality and a challenge in most post-colonial African states, as they grapple with how to preserve the cultural heritage reflected in their customary law and institutions, while attempting to function as modern constitutional regimes. Few of them have found structural solutions for linkages between and mutual co-existence of multiple legal regimes within the same state. The policy that will drive the establishment of proper linkages must be approached with an eye to what the purpose of preserving a legally pluralistic regime, distinguishing the motivations of many—colonists in the past, and political opportunists today—who have exploited …

Judicial Independence At The Crossroads: Grappling With Ideology And History In The New Nepali Constitution, David Pimentel

David Pimentel

Nepal is struggling to produce a new constitution, the blueprint for a new post-monarchic state, and major conflicts over the structure of the new judiciary have arisen. The rhetoric of the debate is deceiving, however. All sides argue for the same things, including judicial independence and accountability, but profound ideological differences vest those words with very different meanings for each party. Resolving these issues will require a mutual appreciation of the ideological differences and of the historical roots of the judiciary’s problems. The path forward begins with recognition that the answer does not necessarily lie in “international best practices” or …

The International Court Of Justice On Kosovo: Missed Opportunity Or Dispute 'Settlement'?, Daphne Richemond-Barak

Daphne Richemond-Barak

This article analyzes the reasons why the International Court of Justice chose to significantly narrow the scope of its advisory jurisdiction in its Kosovo opinion and, arguably, missed an opportunity to opine on important questions of international law (in particular, matters of recognition, secession, and self-determination). I argue that the Court's approach was driven by a desire to avoid exacerbating tensions between the two most interested parties, namely Kosovo and Serbia. Although the opinion was overwhelmingly perceived as pro-Kosovo in its immediate aftermath, a more thorough analysis suggests that the Court sought a delicate compromise between the positions of the …

No Sirve Continued: Mexico Modifies Its Hague Service Convention Declarations, Charles B. Campbell

Charles B. Campbell

The brief article reports on Mexico's modifications to its Hague Service Convention declarations in 2011. It is a follow-up to No Sirve: The Invalidity of Service of Process Abroad by Mail or Private Process Server on Parties in Mexico Under the Hague Service Convention, 19 Minn. J. Int'l L. 107 (2010).

The First Amendment Lost In Translation: Preventing Foreign Influence In U.S. Elections After Citizens United V. Fec, Matt A. Vega

Matt A Vega

This Article invites readers to consider an unusual approach to curtailing the threat of foreign corruption: limiting political speech. The Article argues that permitting foreign-owned and foreign-controlled corporations to pour money into U.S. elections has undermined self-governance and threatens our democracy. By exploring both constitutional and extra-constitutional theory, this Article adds several novel arguments to the ongoing debate on the First Amendment’s relationship to campaign finance laws governing foreign corporations. The Article benefits from the author’s own anti-corruption experience as senior counsel for FedEx and legal advisor to the World Customs Organization Private Sector Consulting Group.

The basic question addressed …

Ending Corruption In Africa Through United Nations Inspections, Stuart S. Yeh

Stuart S Yeh

Evidence suggests that a lack of effective checks and balances against corruption undermines the rule of law, the protection of human rights, and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This article suggests the need for an international treaty to establish an African Commission Against Corruption, involving United Nations inspectors to investigate and prosecute corruption. A range of evidence is reviewed suggesting that pressure from constituents as well as international organizations may be effective in compelling African leaders to sign this type of protocol.