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Full-Text Articles in Law
Space, The Final Frontier Of Enterprise: Incentivizing Asteroid Mining Under A Revised International Framework, Jack Heise
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note argues that the Outer Space Treaty (the “OST”) should be modified to provide explicit permission for private entities to engage in asteroid mining while maintaining the principles of international peace and cooperation that the treaty espouses as the core of the framework governing outer space. Part I explores the current state of asteroid mining with reference to the current objectives of companies conducting missions in this realm. Part II examines the OST as applied to the enterprise of asteroid mining by private companies. Part III considers the benefits and drawbacks of various regulatory schemes to govern asteroid mining. …
Oil Under Troubled Waters?: Some Legal Aspects Of The Boundary Dispute Between Malawi And Tanzania Over Lake Malawi, Tiyanjana Maluwa
Oil Under Troubled Waters?: Some Legal Aspects Of The Boundary Dispute Between Malawi And Tanzania Over Lake Malawi, Tiyanjana Maluwa
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article examines the legal aspects of the respective claims by the two claimants to the northeastern stretches of the lake: to the eastern shoreline by Malawi and to the median line by Tanzania. Maluwa proceeds as follows. First, the Article sketches out the historical and political background of the dispute and examines some preliminary legal issues in Part I. Part II discusses the legal significance of boundaries, state succession to boundary treaties, and the relevance of post-colonial African state practice in this respect. A central aspect of this practice is the adoption by African states of the principle of …
The Law Of Diplomatic Asylum–A Contextual Approach, Paul Behrens
The Law Of Diplomatic Asylum–A Contextual Approach, Paul Behrens
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article will deal with the conduct of diplomatic missions and their agents; it will primarily address the question of whether they are entitled to grant asylum on diplomatic premises. That is not the same as the question whether a refugee may be entitled to asylum on mission premises— the individual asylum seeker may be subject to a different set of norms.
An Emerging Norm - Determining The Meaning And Legal Status Of The Responsibility To Protect, Jonah Eaton
An Emerging Norm - Determining The Meaning And Legal Status Of The Responsibility To Protect, Jonah Eaton
Michigan Journal of International Law
The responsibility to protect, from its recent nativity in the 2001 report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), is the latest round in an old debate pitting the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of states against allowing such intervention to prevent gross and systematic violations of human rights. Advocates for the concept see it as an important new commitment by the international community, injecting new meaning into the tragically threadbare promise to never again allow mass atrocities to occur unchallenged. ICISS offered the concept of responsibility to protect as a new way to confront …
Public International Law And Its Territorial Imperative, Dino Kritsiotis
Public International Law And Its Territorial Imperative, Dino Kritsiotis
Michigan Journal of International Law
Territory, or the concept of territory, thus asserts itself throughout the discipline of public international law, and its influences can be felt either through direct means or discrete.
Bordering Capabilities Versus Borders: Implications For National Borders, Saskia Sassen
Bordering Capabilities Versus Borders: Implications For National Borders, Saskia Sassen
Michigan Journal of International Law
A core argument of this Essay is that the capability to make borderings has itself switched organizing logics: from institutionalizing the perimeter of a territory to multiplying transversal borderings cutting across that perimeter. This switch is partly linked to the types of scalar shifts in the operational space of a growing number of systems. To the more economic systems already mentioned above, let me add such diverse instances as the policing of the illegal drug trade, the war on terror, the judicial and political struggle to protect human rights, and the environmental effort to reorganize transnational economic sectors, including the …
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 …
From Pinochet To Rumsfeld: Universal Jurisdiction In Europe 1998-2008, Wolfgang Kaleck
From Pinochet To Rumsfeld: Universal Jurisdiction In Europe 1998-2008, Wolfgang Kaleck
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Essay provides a survey of more than fifty universal jurisdiction proceedings in European courts and illustrates that universal jurisdiction is no longer a seldom-used theoretical concept, but a widespread practice. However, it is a practice that faces a number legal and practical obstacles identified here. Similar difficulties are encountered in other mechanisms used to combat impunity, including territorial and personality jurisdiction, state accountability at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and civil litigation in the United States. The Essay then begins an evaluation of the last ten years of universal …
Condominum Arrangements In International Practice: Reviving An Abandoned Concept Of Boundary Dispute Resolution, Joel H. Samuels
Condominum Arrangements In International Practice: Reviving An Abandoned Concept Of Boundary Dispute Resolution, Joel H. Samuels
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article attempts to revive the consideration of condominium as a possible solution to contemporary boundary disputes. Part I describes specific historic instances of condominia and derives relevant lessons from each instance. Part II notes that some critics of condominium have in fact confused condominium with other forms of joint dominion over territory. This Part proceeds, therefore, to distinguish condominium from these other arrangements. Next, Part III discusses how experiences with common property regimes over common resources (such as water supplies) might inform the contemporary use of condominium. Finally, informed by lessons articulated in Parts I through III, Part IV …
States, Markets, And Gatekeepers: Public-Private Regulatory Regimes In An Era Of Economic Globalization, Christopher M. Bruner
States, Markets, And Gatekeepers: Public-Private Regulatory Regimes In An Era Of Economic Globalization, Christopher M. Bruner
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article illuminates the spectrum of international economic regimes through discussion of an under-theorized regulatory structure in which traditional distinctions between State and market, public and private power, hard and soft law, and international and domestic policy realms, essentially collapse-the "public-private gatekeeper."
Indigenous Recognition In International Law: Theoretical Observations, Patrick Macklem
Indigenous Recognition In International Law: Theoretical Observations, Patrick Macklem
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Essay addresses this question in the context of the evolving status of indigenous peoples in international law. International instruments vest rights in indigenous peoples, and establish indigenous peoples as international legal actors to whom States and other international legal actors owe legal duties and obligations. These developments began between the First and Second World Wars, when the International Labour Organization (ILO) began to supervise indigenous working conditions in colonies. They continued after the Second World War with ILO Conventions No. 107 and 169, which vested rights in indigenous populations located in States that are a party to their terms. …
An Unrecognized State In Foreign And International Courts: The Case Of The Republic Of China On Taiwan, Pasha L. Hsieh
An Unrecognized State In Foreign And International Courts: The Case Of The Republic Of China On Taiwan, Pasha L. Hsieh
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article provides a comparative analysis of the status of the Republic of China on Taiwan in foreign and international settings. Most existing literature written from the traditional public international law perspective focuses on Taiwan's separate statehood from China. This Article addresses an important pragmatic issue that international courts and courts in foreign countries frequently face: whether Taiwan is a "foreign State" for particular salutatory purposes in judicial proceedings. Part I of this Article provides an overview of China-Taiwan relations and the status of Taiwan under international law. I argue that the ROC on Taiwan has been a sovereign State …
Rebus Sic Stantibus: Notification Of Consular Rights After Medellin, Aaron A. Ostrovsky, Brandon E. Reavis
Rebus Sic Stantibus: Notification Of Consular Rights After Medellin, Aaron A. Ostrovsky, Brandon E. Reavis
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Comment examines, through principles of public international law and U.S. jurisprudence, the relationship between U.S. courts and the ICJ to determine if the former are indeed bound by the latter's decisions, proprio motu, or if instead some Executive action is required to make the decisions binding on the judiciary. Part of this examination will entail a discussion of the potential for dialogue between the ICJ and U.S. courts to "pierce the veil of sovereignty" that traditionally conceals the inner workings of sovereign states from the scrutiny of international tribunals. Based on this assessment, the Comment then addresses how …
Commentary To Professor Stephen D. Krasner, Jürgen Kurtz
Commentary To Professor Stephen D. Krasner, Jürgen Kurtz
Michigan Journal of International Law
Comment on Professor Stephen D. Krasner's The Hole in the Whole: Sovereignty, Shared Sovereignty, and International Law
The Essentially Contested Nature Of The Concept Of Sovereignty: Implications For The Exercise By International Organizations Of Delegated Powers Of Government, Dan Sarooshi
Michigan Journal of International Law
The relationship between the concept of sovereignty and international organizations is often posed as being problematic. The establishment and subsequent operations of international organizations are often characterized as involving the 'loss' of a State's sovereignty and as such have been viewed with suspicion, if not antagonism, by certain domestic commentators. The response in legal journals by supporters of international organizations has been too narrow, technical, and often simply reaffirms the fears of the domestic commentators by focusing on how the organization's exercise of powers constrains the State in the exercise of its powers. The approach adopted herein is different. It …
The Hole In The Whole: Sovereignty, Shared Sovereignty, And International Law, Stephen D. Krasner
The Hole In The Whole: Sovereignty, Shared Sovereignty, And International Law, Stephen D. Krasner
Michigan Journal of International Law
Ideally, a body of law comprises a set of coherent and consistent rules. These rules contribute to the creation of an environment that is predictable, efficacious, and just. Most international lawyers hope, expect, or believe that such a body of law can exist for the international system. This is a fool's errand.
Beyond State Sovereignty: The Protection Of Cultural Heritage As A Shared Interest Of Humanity, Francesco Francioni
Beyond State Sovereignty: The Protection Of Cultural Heritage As A Shared Interest Of Humanity, Francesco Francioni
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this paper the author will try to explore the topic from a different perspective: i.e. the emergence of cultural heritage as part of the shared interest of humanity, with the consequent need for international law to safeguard it in its material and living manifestations, including the cultural communities that create, perform and maintain it. Culture in itself is not extraneous to the formation of the modern nation State. Especially in the history of nineteenth century Europe, culture as language, religion, literary and artistic traditions provided the cement and the legitimizing element to support the claim to independent statehood.
National Self-Determination And Ethnic Minorities, Olli Lagerspetz
National Self-Determination And Ethnic Minorities, Olli Lagerspetz
Michigan Journal of International Law
The paper will include three parts. In the first part, the relation between nationality and popular sovereignty is explored. In the second part, there is a somewhat analogous discussion of the concept of ethnicity. In the last part, the conclusions are applied in a discussion of ethnic nationalism.
Diversity Or Cacophony? The Continuing Debate Over New Sources Of International Law, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Joyce L. Tong
Diversity Or Cacophony? The Continuing Debate Over New Sources Of International Law, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Joyce L. Tong
Michigan Journal of International Law
We have reached a point when lawyers' commissions are summoned to discuss the consequences of legal proliferation as an ill threatening the standing of international law through incompatibility or irrelevance. Should this trend towards fragmentation be reversed? Should we devise a legal non-proliferation treaty? Or should we, conversely, welcome the current diversification in the sources of law as reflecting the realities of today's world, as a reflection of the flexibility and adaptability of law when the norm of sovereignty on which it is based is itself undergoing considerable recalibration? In short: how should we deal theoretically as well as practically …
Grotius Repudiated: The American Objections To The International Criminal Court And The Commitment To International Law, Marcell David
Grotius Repudiated: The American Objections To The International Criminal Court And The Commitment To International Law, Marcell David
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article analyzes the American objections to the Statute. Part I describes the historical precedents for a permanent international criminal court and the drafting process undertaken. Part I concludes with a summary of the sections of the Statute which are implicated by the American objections. These statutory sections include the Statute's definitions of crimes, the role of the Prosecutor, the Court's anticipated relationship with the U.N. Security Council, and the Court's anticipated jurisdiction over states not party to the Statute. Part II selects three recent or current instances where the United States has used armed force, and analyzes the claims …
Why Nations Behave, Jose E. Alvarez
Why Nations Behave, Jose E. Alvarez
Michigan Journal of International Law
The idea for this symposium on "implementation, compliance and effectiveness" grew out of the 1997 annual meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), devoted to that theme. As one of the co-chairs of that meeting, I suggested to the student editors of this journal that they solicit articles on a topic that has seized the attention of researchers within international law as well as in seemingly unrelated fields. As Professor Thomas Franck has indicated in a recent well-received book, an ever increasing number of scholars are going beyond well-worn debates about whether international law is truly "law" to …
Grotius Nunc Pro Tunch, Alfred P. Rubin
Grotius Nunc Pro Tunch, Alfred P. Rubin
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of A Normative Approach to War: Peace, War and Justice in Hugo Grotius (Yasuaki Onuma ed.)
International Ethics For A New Era: The Problem Of The Kind World Policeman, Fernando R. Tesón
International Ethics For A New Era: The Problem Of The Kind World Policeman, Fernando R. Tesón
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of American Hegemony: Political Morality in a One-Superpower World by Lea Brilmayer
Explorations At The Edge Of Time: The Prospects For World Order, Catherine Tinker
Explorations At The Edge Of Time: The Prospects For World Order, Catherine Tinker
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of the book by Richard A. Falk.
Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions Of International Relations Theory, Hilary Charlesworth
Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions Of International Relations Theory, Hilary Charlesworth
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of the book edited by V. Spike Peterson.
International Human Rights Law In United States Courts: A Comparative Perspective, Anne Bayefsky, Joan Fitzpatrick
International Human Rights Law In United States Courts: A Comparative Perspective, Anne Bayefsky, Joan Fitzpatrick
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article will catalogue the various contexts in which United States courts have agreed or refused to follow international human rights law, treating separately the larger number of cases concerning customary norms, the relatively small group of cases relating to human rights treaties, and the cases in which international norms are referenced without regard to their status as binding law. In each of these sections we will analyze areas of confusion, disagreement, or under-development in international legal doctrine that impede the productive use of human rights norms by domestic courts. We will also compare the approaches of United States courts …
The Unification Of Germany And International Law, Frans G. Von Der Dunk, Peter H. Kooijmans
The Unification Of Germany And International Law, Frans G. Von Der Dunk, Peter H. Kooijmans
Michigan Journal of International Law
What role these rights and obligations could have played is the central theme of this article. However, in view of the enormous complexity of the problems involved, this article can do no more than provide a general overview. Sections II through VII will first sketch the outlines of the rights and obligations confronting the two German States before unification. Section VIII will compare those outlines to the actual political outcome of the unification process. The former six Sections will explore a number of different contexts in which legal rights and obligations could have been found.
"Liberalism's Dangerous Supplements": Medieval Ghosts Of International Law, Anthony Carty
"Liberalism's Dangerous Supplements": Medieval Ghosts Of International Law, Anthony Carty
Michigan Journal of International Law
A book review of From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument by Martti Koskenniemi
Canada's Sovereignty Over The Northwest Passage, Donat Pharand
Canada's Sovereignty Over The Northwest Passage, Donat Pharand
Michigan Journal of International Law
In 1968, when this writer published "Innocent Passage in the Arctic," Canada had yet to assert its sovereignty over the Northwest Passage. It has since done so by establishing, in 1985, straight baselines around the whole of its Arctic Archipelago. In August of that year, the U. S. Coast Guard vessel Polar Sea made a transit of the Northwest Passage on its voyage from Thule, Greenland, to the Chukchi Sea. Having been notified of the impending transit, Canada informed the United States that it considered all the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as historic internal waters and that a …
Interpreting The Withdrawal Clause In Arms Control Treaties, Cindy A. Cohn
Interpreting The Withdrawal Clause In Arms Control Treaties, Cindy A. Cohn
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note argues that although a danger to future arms control may exist, a treaty clause must be susceptible to interpretation and boundaries of use which are in harmony with general international law principles. As Professor Schwelb has stated: "[I]t cannot have been… the intention of the parties to throw the principle of pacta sunt servanda overboard in favor of the anarchic idea of the unfettered right of a sovereign state to free itself unilaterally from a treaty obligation." Although Schwelb admits that the Clause itself is subject to "auto-interpretation" by the states parties to the treaty, he adds that …