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Breaking The Silence: Why International Organizations Should Acknowledge Customary International Law Obligations To Provide Effective Remedies, Kristina Daugirdas, Sachi Shuricht Jan 2020

Breaking The Silence: Why International Organizations Should Acknowledge Customary International Law Obligations To Provide Effective Remedies, Kristina Daugirdas, Sachi Shuricht

Book Chapters

To date, international organizations have remained largely silent about their obligations under customary international law. This chapter urges international organizations to change course, and to expressly acknowledge customary international law obligations to provide effective remedies. Notably, international organizations’ obligations to afford effective remedies need not precisely mirror States’ obligations to do so. Instead, international organizations may be governed by particular customary international law rules. By publicly acknowledging obligations to afford effective remedies, international organizations can influence the development of such particular rules. In addition, by acknowledging obligations to afford effective remedies—and by actually providing effective remedies—international organizations can rebut arguments …


Why Is It Wrong To Punish Thought?, Gabriel S. Mendlow Jun 2018

Why Is It Wrong To Punish Thought?, Gabriel S. Mendlow

Articles

It’s a venerable maxim of criminal jurisprudence that the state must never punish people for their mere thoughts—for their beliefs, desires, fantasies, and unexecuted intentions. This maxim is all but unquestioned, yet its true justification is something of a mystery. In this Essay, I argue that each of the prevailing justifications is deficient, and I conclude by proposing a novel one. The proposed justification captures the widely shared intuition that punishing a person for her mere thoughts isn’t simply disfavored by the balance of reasons but is morally wrongful in itself, an intrinsic (i.e., consequence-independent) injustice to the person punished. …


Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson Apr 2017

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

In this section: • United States Abstains on Security Council Resolution Criticizing Israeli Settlements • United States Sanctions Russian Individuals and Entities After Accusing Russian Government of Using Hacking to Interfere with U.S. Election Process; Congressional Committees and Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies Continue to Investigate President Trump’s Connections to Russian Officials • Second Circuit Overturns $655 Million Jury Verdict Against Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority • New Legislation Seeks to Confirm Immunity of Artwork and Facilitate Cultural Exchange • United States Confronts China over Seizure of Unmanned Drone in the South China Sea • International Criminal Court Prosecutor …


State-Action Immunity And Section 5 Of The Ftc Act, Daniel A. Crane, Adam Hester Dec 2016

State-Action Immunity And Section 5 Of The Ftc Act, Daniel A. Crane, Adam Hester

Michigan Law Review

The state-action immunity doctrine of Parker v. Brown immunizes anticompetitive state regulations from preemption by federal antitrust law so long as the state takes conspicuous ownership of its anticompetitive policy. In its 1943 Parker decision, the Supreme Court justified this doctrine, observing that no evidence of a congressional will to preempt state law appears in the Sherman Act’s legislative history or context. In addition, commentators generally assume that the New Deal court was anxious to avoid re-entangling the federal judiciary in Lochner-style substantive due process analysis. The Supreme Court has observed, without deciding, that the Federal Trade Commission might …


Patent Privateers And Antitrust Fears, Matthew Sipe Jul 2016

Patent Privateers And Antitrust Fears, Matthew Sipe

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Patent trolls are categorically demonized as threatening American innovation and industry. But whether they are a threat that antitrust law is equipped to deal with is a complex question that depends on the particular type of patent troll and activities they engage in. This Article looks specifically at privateer patent trolls: entities that acquire their patents from operating entities and assert them against other industry members. In the particular context of privateering, antitrust law is almost certainly not the proper legal solution. Privateering does raise significant issues: circumventing litigation constraints, evading licensing obligations, and raising the cost and frequency of …


The Demise Of Habeas Corpus And The Rise Of Qualified Immunity: The Court's Ever Increasing Limitations On The Development And Enforcement Of Constitutional Rights And Some Particularly Unfortunate Consequences, Stephen R. Reinhardt May 2015

The Demise Of Habeas Corpus And The Rise Of Qualified Immunity: The Court's Ever Increasing Limitations On The Development And Enforcement Of Constitutional Rights And Some Particularly Unfortunate Consequences, Stephen R. Reinhardt

Michigan Law Review

The collapse of habeas corpus as a remedy for even the most glaring of constitutional violations ranks among the greater wrongs of our legal era. Once hailed as the Great Writ, and still feted with all the standard rhetorical flourishes, habeas corpus has been transformed over the past two decades from a vital guarantor of liberty into an instrument for ratifying the power of state courts to disregard the protections of the Constitution. Along with so many other judicial tools meant to safeguard the powerless, enforce constitutional rights, and hold the government accountable, habeas has been slowly eroded by a …


The Law Of Diplomatic Asylum–A Contextual Approach, Paul Behrens Mar 2014

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.


Market Power In Power Markets: The Filed-Rate Doctrine And Competition In Electricity, Sandeep Vaheesan Apr 2013

Market Power In Power Markets: The Filed-Rate Doctrine And Competition In Electricity, Sandeep Vaheesan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

State and federal initiatives have opened the American electric power industry to competition over the past four decades. Although the process has not occurred uniformly across the country, wholesale electricity markets exist everywhere today. Independent power producers can construct generation facilities and sell their output to utilities and industrial customers through bilateral contracts. In many regions, centralized power markets now facilitate the sale of billions of dollars in electricity annually through auctions. Although market forces have replaced direct price regulation in electricity, antitrust enforcement has not expanded its role commensurately. A lack of competition has been a serious problem in …


Shutting The Black Door: Using American Needle To Cure The Problem Of Improper Product Definition, Daniel A. Schwartz Nov 2011

Shutting The Black Door: Using American Needle To Cure The Problem Of Improper Product Definition, Daniel A. Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

Section 1 of the Sherman Act is designed to protect competition by making illegal any agreement that has the effect of limiting consumer choice. To make this determination, courts first define the product at issue and then consider the challenged restraint's impact on the market in which that product competes. When considering § 1 allegations against sports leagues, courts have tended to define products according to the structure of the leagues. The result of this tendency is that harm to competition between the leagues' teams is not properly accounted for in the courts' analyses. This, in turn, grants leagues a …


The Case For Rebalancing Antitrust And Regulation, Howard A. Shelanski Jan 2011

The Case For Rebalancing Antitrust And Regulation, Howard A. Shelanski

Michigan Law Review

The continued growth of forensic DNA databases has brought about greater interest in a search method known as "familial" or "kinship" matching. Whereas a typical database search seeks the source of a crime-scene stain by making an exact match between a known person and the DNA sample, familial searching instead looks for partial matches in order to find potential relatives of the source. The use of a familial DNA search to identify the alleged "Grim Sleeper" killer in California brought national attention to the method, which has many proponents. In contrast, this Article argues against the practice of familial searching …


Interactive Computer Service Liability For User-Generated Content After Roommates.Com, Bradley M. Smyer May 2010

Interactive Computer Service Liability For User-Generated Content After Roommates.Com, Bradley M. Smyer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note explores the future of interactive computer service provider (ICSP) liability for user-generated content under the Communications Decency Act (CDA) after Roommates.com II. Roommates.com II held that a housing website was not entitled to immunity under § 230 of the CDA from federal Fair Housing Act claims, in part because providing preselected answers to a mandatory questionnaire rendered the site an "information content provider" at least partially responsible for creation or development of answers. After examining the historical and legislative origins of ICSP immunity for user-generated content under 47 U.S. C. § 230, this Note argues that courts …


The Multiple Common Law Roots Of Charitable Immunity: An Essay In Honor Of Richard Epstein's Contributions To Tort Law, Jill R. Horwitz Jan 2010

The Multiple Common Law Roots Of Charitable Immunity: An Essay In Honor Of Richard Epstein's Contributions To Tort Law, Jill R. Horwitz

Articles

Professor Epstein has long promoted replacing tort-based malpractice law with a new regime based on contracts. In Mortal Peril, he grounded his normative arguments in favor of such a shift in the positive, doctrinal history of charitable immunity law. In this essay, in three parts, I critique Professor Epstein’s suggestion that a faulty set of interpretations in charitable immunity law led to our current reliance on tort for malpractice claims. First, I offer an alternative interpretation to Professor Epstein’s claim that one group of 19th and early 20th century cases demonstrates a misguided effort to protect donor wishes. Rather, I …


Universal Jurisdiction As An International "False Conflict" Of Laws, Anthony J. Colangelo Jan 2009

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 Jan 2009

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 …


The Statute Of The International Criminal Court And Third States, Gennady M. Danilenko Jan 2000

The Statute Of The International Criminal Court And Third States, Gennady M. Danilenko

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper examines the principal legal and political effects of the Rome Statute on non-parties. In particular, it explores the significance of the creation of a new powerful international institution for all members of the international community. It discusses the jurisdictional reach of the ICC which will inevitably affect all States. This paper also analyzes possible application of some provisions of the Rome Statute to non-States Parties in so far as these may reflect or generate customary international law. It suggests that despite the traditional principle of treaty law, according to which treaties do not bind Third States, the Rome …


Pinochet And International Human Rights Litigation, Curtis A. Bradley, Jack L. Goldsmith Jun 1999

Pinochet And International Human Rights Litigation, Curtis A. Bradley, Jack L. Goldsmith

Michigan Law Review

The British House of Lords recently considered whether Augusto Pinochet was subject to arrest and possible extradition to Spain for alleged acts of torture and other egregious conduct carried out during his reign as Chile's head of state. The Law Lords held that a large majority of the charges against Pinochet were not proper grounds for extradition under British law. They also held, however, that Pinochet could potentially be extradited for alleged acts of torture committed after Britain's 1988 ratifica· tion of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In reaching this latter conclusion, …


The New "Pick-Your-Own" Statutes: Delineating Limited Immunity From Tort Liability, Terence J. Centner Jun 1997

The New "Pick-Your-Own" Statutes: Delineating Limited Immunity From Tort Liability, Terence J. Centner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Over the past several years, state legislatures have been asked to provide immunity from liability for members of certain interest groups including providers of horses, risky sport activities, and "pick-your-own" produce. This Article reports on statutory provisions providing tort immunity for producers who allow the public to come onto their property to harvest crops. Provisions allowing profit-making businesses to qualify for tort immunity are not new, but the expansion to cover pick-your-own operators signifies a significant policy change regarding personal liability. The pick-your-own provisions may indicate a policy shift imposing greater responsibility for persons engaging in activities to use care …


The Case Against Section 1983 Immunity For Witnesses Who Conspire With A State Official To Present Perjured Testimony, Jennifer S. Zbytowski Jun 1995

The Case Against Section 1983 Immunity For Witnesses Who Conspire With A State Official To Present Perjured Testimony, Jennifer S. Zbytowski

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that witnesses who conspire with a state official to present perjured testimony at a judicial proceeding should not have absolute immunity from a section 1983 suit for damages. Part I provides background information on section 1983 and explains why a witness-state conspiracy satisfies the requirements of a section 1983 cause of action. Part I also summarizes the Supreme Court's doctrinal approach to section 1983 immunity. Finally, Part I examines two Supreme Court cases which are relevant to the issue of immunity for witness conspirators: Briscoe v. LaHue, and Malley v. Briggs. Part II applies the …


The Czechoslovak Approach To The Draft Convention On Jurisdictional Immunitites Of States And Their Property, Vladimir Balaš, Monika Pauknerová Jan 1991

The Czechoslovak Approach To The Draft Convention On Jurisdictional Immunitites Of States And Their Property, Vladimir Balaš, Monika Pauknerová

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article deals with four issues: (1) The effort of the International Law Commission of the United Nations to codify jurisdictional immunity. (2) The theoretical and practical Czechoslovak approach toward the institution of jurisdictional immunity of States and the Draft Convention, and a prediction of possible change of the Czechoslovak view. (3) The changing views of East European scholars. (4) An analysis of particular provisions of the Draft Convention with respect to their acceptability by States with different socioeconomic systems and especially by Czechoslovakia.


Compensation For Constitutional Torts: Reflections On The Significance Of Fault, John C. Jeffries Jr. Oct 1989

Compensation For Constitutional Torts: Reflections On The Significance Of Fault, John C. Jeffries Jr.

Michigan Law Review

This essay is about a neglected aspect of the problem of redressing constitutional violations. Most discussions focus on incentive effects. Unconstitutional conduct can be discouraged by the "hands-on" mechanism of reform by injunction or, more commonly, through the indirection of deterrence. Deterrence issues include selection of the penalties needed to deter official misconduct; the risk that they may also inhibit legitimate government activity; the recruitment of private attorneys general to augment enforcement; and various costs of administration. These and other aspects of deterrence pervade discussions in the Supreme Court. They are also debated in a rich and sophisticated secondary literature. …


Public Official's Qualified Immunity In Section 1983 Actions Under Harlow V. Fitzgerald And Its Progeny: A Critical Analysis, Stephen J. Shapiro Jan 1989

Public Official's Qualified Immunity In Section 1983 Actions Under Harlow V. Fitzgerald And Its Progeny: A Critical Analysis, Stephen J. Shapiro

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article discusses the development of immunities in section 1983 actions. Part II examines the application of Harlow and its progeny to a variety of situations. This discussion shows that broadened qualified immunity produces anomalous results under some circumstances by granting immunity to officials who have acted in a clearly culpable manner. Part III discusses the appropriateness of the Harlow standard and determines that it is neither supported by the legislative history of section 1983 nor by legitimate policy concerns. Finally, Part IV proposes several solutions that would protect deserving public officials from personal damage liability without …


A Board Does Not A Bench Make: Denying Quasi-Judicial Immunity To Parole Board Members In Section 1983 Damages Actions, Julio A. Thompson Oct 1988

A Board Does Not A Bench Make: Denying Quasi-Judicial Immunity To Parole Board Members In Section 1983 Damages Actions, Julio A. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that neither the majority nor the minority approach is realistic. A thorough examination of the parole process and section 1983 litigation will show that a third approach is more appropriate - that parole board members are entitled only to qualified immunity for all actions taken within the scope of their official duties. Part I argues that parole board members should not enjoy absolute, quasi-judicial immunity because the parole board decisionmaking process is not "functionally comparable" to judicial decisionmaking. The differences in procedure, political accountability, training, and background lead to two very different systems. Part II shows that …


Intramilitary Immunity And Constitutional Torts, Michigan Law Review Dec 1981

Intramilitary Immunity And Constitutional Torts, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the reasoning underlying these conflicting approaches and concludes that a general rule of qualified immunity, which more fully protects the constitutional rights of members of the armed forces, is also consistent with the legitimate needs of the military establishment. Part I demonstrates that courts considering the scope of immunity in constitutional tort cases cannot rely blindly upon the rules and policies applicable in nonconstitutional cases, but must also accommodate the constitutional interests. Part II applies this principle to cases involving military officers. It argues in Section A that Feres v. United States does not support an absolute …


Reforming The Laws And Practice Of Diplomatic Immunity, Paul F. Roye Oct 1978

Reforming The Laws And Practice Of Diplomatic Immunity, Paul F. Roye

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

As a result of public criticism and increasingly strained relations between diplomatic communities and local communities, Congress recently enacted legislation that dramatically changes United States diplomatic immunity law. This legislation eliminates the complete immunity from criminal and civil law proceedings that was afforded most foreign diplomats and their staffs, and establishes the rules of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as the measure of diplomatic immunity in the United States. This article will examine the theoretical justification for diplomatic immunity and its application in the United States. The manner in which the recently enacted legislation alters United States diplomatic immunity …


Self-Incrimination: Privilege, Immunity, And Comment In Bar Disciplinary Proceedings, Michigan Law Review Nov 1973

Self-Incrimination: Privilege, Immunity, And Comment In Bar Disciplinary Proceedings, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The questions of the extent of an attorney's right to claim the privilege against self-incrimination during bar disciplinary proceedings and of the consequences of the exercise of the privilege has created a sharp division of opinion. The privilege against self-incrimination necessarily involves a conflict between the public's interest in disclosure and the individual's interest in privacy and nondisclosure. However, the conflict is exacerbated when the individual claiming the privilege is entrusted with important public responsibilities.


Immunity Under The Speech Or Debate Clause For Republican And From Questioning About Sources, Michigan Law Review May 1973

Immunity Under The Speech Or Debate Clause For Republican And From Questioning About Sources, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Gravel v. United States, which arose out of Senator Mike Gravel's attempt to publicize the Pentagon Papers, concerned the scope of the immunity conferred upon a legislator and his aide under article I, section 6, of the United States Constitution. This provision, commonly called the "speech or debate clause," provides that "for any Speech or Debate in either House, [United States Senators or Representatives] shall not be questioned in any other Place." Gravel is one of the few Supreme Court interpretations of this clause.


Title Ii - General Immunity, Jeffrey J. Greenbaum Jan 1971

Title Ii - General Immunity, Jeffrey J. Greenbaum

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This title repeals or conforms the over fifty existing federal immunity statutes and establishes a uniform federal immunity statute to apply to proceedings before or ancillary to a court, grand jury, or agency of the United States, either house of Congress, or its joint committees, committees or subcommittees. The scope of immunity granted protects a witness from the use of his testimony or its fruits in a future criminal prosecution, but does not protect him from prosecution itself. This reflects a positive decision by Congress that the fifth amendment self-incrimination clause only requires a grant of what has been referred …


Right1, Right2, Right3, Right4 And How About Right?, Layman E. Allen Jan 1971

Right1, Right2, Right3, Right4 And How About Right?, Layman E. Allen

Book Chapters

Careful communication is frequently of central importance in law. The language used to communicate even with oneself in private thought profoundly influences the quality of that effort; but when one attempts to transmit an idea to another, language assumes even greater significance because of the possibilities for enormously distorting the idea. Word-skill is to be prized. Few have expressed this more aptly or succinctly than Wesley N. Hohfeld: ...[I]n any closely reasoned problem, whether legal or nonlegal, chameleon-hued words are a peril both to clear thought and to lucid expression.


Attorneys--Self-Incrimination--The Attorney's Privilege Against Self-Incrimination In A Disbarment Proceeding, Michigan Law Review Dec 1966

Attorneys--Self-Incrimination--The Attorney's Privilege Against Self-Incrimination In A Disbarment Proceeding, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A state court has jurisdiction to deal with the alleged misconduct of attorneys practicing before it either explicitly by statute or by ' virtue of its power to control the conduct of its own affairs. Indeed, it can suspend or disbar an attorney who fails to maintain the standard of conduct established for members of the legal profession. One aspect of such a standard is that an attorney is bound not to obstruct the administration of justice, a duty which imposes upon him an affirmative obligation to cooperate with the courts. The question frequently arises whether, in order to satisfy …


Municipal Corporations- Tort Immunity - Liability For Personal Injuries Caused By Nuisance Maintained By City, James Hourihan Feb 1960

Municipal Corporations- Tort Immunity - Liability For Personal Injuries Caused By Nuisance Maintained By City, James Hourihan

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, while in the bathhouse of a municipally owned and operated swimming pool, was injured by a shock received from an electric hair dryer. In sustaining plaintiff's claim against the city for damages, the trial court recognized liability for personal injuries caused by a nuisance created and maintained by a city as an exception to the common law doctrine of municipal immunity from tort liability. On appeal, held, reversed. The nuisance exception from a municipality's common law immunity extends only to injuries to real property occasioned by a municipally created and maintained nuisance. City of Decatur v. Parham, …