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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Use Of Soft Law In The Creation Of Legal Norms In International Commercial Law: How Successful Has It Been?, Henry Deeb Gabriel
The Use Of Soft Law In The Creation Of Legal Norms In International Commercial Law: How Successful Has It Been?, Henry Deeb Gabriel
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this Article, I examine several interrelated points. After defining soft law in Part II, I briefly set out some of the assumed advantages soft law instruments may have over legislation and regulations in Part III. In Part IV, I examine why some soft law instruments in international commercial law have been successful in creating international legal norms. In this Part, I specifically examine the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts to show how one might gauge success by looking beyond the express purpose of the instrument. I also compare the UNIDROIT Principles of Commercial Contracts with the American Law …
How Cosmopolitan Are International Law Professors?, Ryan Scoville, Milan Markovic
How Cosmopolitan Are International Law Professors?, Ryan Scoville, Milan Markovic
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article offers an empirical answer to a question of interest among scholars of comparative international law: why do American views about international law appear at times to differ from those of other countries? We contend that part of the answer lies in legal education. Conducting a survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of nearly 150 legal academics, we reveal evidence that professors of international law in the United States often lack significant foreign legal experience, particularly outside of the West. Sociological research suggests that this tendency leads professors to teach international law from predominantly nationalistic and Western perspectives, …
The Great Power Origins Of Human Rights, Seth Mohney
The Great Power Origins Of Human Rights, Seth Mohney
Michigan Journal of International Law
For years, historians depicted the history of human rights as the inexorable triumph of universal norms. This account underestimates both the historical and contemporary uncertainty surrounding many international human rights. As even casual observers must note, the tale of human rights progress is not littered with beneficent heads of state persuaded to pursue progress by the moral charge of universal norms. Instead, this history’s primary scenes feature struggles among great powers, peoples, and movements advancing diverse interests. Recognizing the complexity of human rights history, a new generation of historians has emphasized that human rights progress is not preordained, but rather …
Universal Jurisdiction As An International "False Conflict" Of Laws, Anthony J. Colangelo
Universal Jurisdiction As An International "False Conflict" Of Laws, Anthony J. Colangelo
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Essay proposes a framework for analyzing the concept of universal jurisdiction and evaluating its exercise by States in the international legal system. In brief, the author argues that universal jurisdiction is unique among the bases of prescriptive jurisdiction in international law, and that its unique character gives rise to unique-and underappreciated- limiting principles. The main analytical device the author uses to make this argument is the notion of a "false conflict," which is borrowed from the private law field of conflict of laws, also known outside the United States as private international law. The author does not suggest that …
The Use Of Force Against States That Might Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Matthew C. Waxman
The Use Of Force Against States That Might Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Matthew C. Waxman
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article argues that the most difficult future crises for which this legal debate is most consequential will not resemble those described by Prime Minister Thatcher or Director ElBaradei. Rather, in confronting potentially hostile and aggressive states believed to pose a WMD threat, decisionmakers contemplating the use of force will face an intelligence picture that is open to reasonable debate (contra Thatcher) and irresolvable to high levels of certainty (contra ElBaradei). This paper examines how competing legal approaches deal with this epistemic problem.
Saving Customary International Law, Andrew T. Guzman
Saving Customary International Law, Andrew T. Guzman
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article offers a theory of CIL-one that provides a firm and modem theoretical foundation for the analysis of custom. Though this is not the first article to propose a view of CIL through a rational choice lens, it is the first to map out a general theory of CIL based on such a model.
Toleration, Autonomy And Respect, Colin J. Harvey
Toleration, Autonomy And Respect, Colin J. Harvey
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of On Toleration by Michael Walzer
The Concept Of Customary International Law, Daniel M. Bodansky
The Concept Of Customary International Law, Daniel M. Bodansky
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of Custom in Present International Law by Karol Wolfke
Self-Determination In The Post-Cold War Era: A New Internal Focus?, Gregory H. Fox
Self-Determination In The Post-Cold War Era: A New Internal Focus?, Gregory H. Fox
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of International Monitoring of Plebiscites, Referenda and National Elections: Self-Determination and Transition to Democracy by Yves Beigbeder
The Emptiness Of The Concept Of Jus Cogens, As Illustrated By The War In Bosnia-Herzegovina, A. Mark Weisburd
The Emptiness Of The Concept Of Jus Cogens, As Illustrated By The War In Bosnia-Herzegovina, A. Mark Weisburd
Michigan Journal of International Law
The aim of this article is neither to condemn departures from jus cogens nor to engage in verbal gymnastics designed to obfuscate the fact that the international community is treating or will treat "peremptory norms" as moralisms irrelevant in practical terms. Rather, this article seeks to show that the problem lies in the concept of jus cogens itself. More specifically, the article intends to make the case that the concept is intellectually indefensible - at best useless and at worst harmful in the practical conduct of international relations.
Custom, Power, And The Power Of Rules, Michael Byers
Custom, Power, And The Power Of Rules, Michael Byers
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article begins by explaining briefly the differing perspectives which these two general categories of scholars - those who study international law and those who study international relations - have of international society generally, and of law and power more specifically. This article exposes the fact that power is an important but largely unnoticed subject of much international legal discourse and also canvasses attempts by international relations scholars to incorporate law into their understandings of power.
Libya And The Aerial Incident At Lockerbie: What Lessons For International Extradition Law?, Christopher C. Joyner, Wayne P. Rothbaum
Libya And The Aerial Incident At Lockerbie: What Lessons For International Extradition Law?, Christopher C. Joyner, Wayne P. Rothbaum
Michigan Journal of International Law
Does concerted action taken by the U.N. Security Council against Libya bolster the international extradition process? Or do these resolutions represent little more than a new coat of legal paint on the same old political problems? This article seeks to answer these questions through an analysis of the nature of terrorism, the customary bases for jurisdiction and extradition, and the validity of Libya's refusal to surrender the Lockerbie suspects.
Normative Surrender, Jerome B. Elkind
Normative Surrender, Jerome B. Elkind
Michigan Journal of International Law
It is submitted, at the risk of being accused of idealism, that those who most conspicuously don the mantle of realism are also guilty of normative sloppiness, a form of sloppiness which deserves the name "normative surrender" because it concedes large areas of the law to the will and whim of States. This article will examine the phenomenon of normative surrender and provide some examples of it.