Law Commons^™

#Metoo And The Pursuit Of Women's International Human Rights, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

Publications

IN THE PAST YEAR, high profile cases and the ensuing #MeToo movement have raised much attention on issues surrounding gender discrimination, violence against women, and sexual harassment in the workplace. In the United States, allegations of sexual assault and harassment spawned the deposition or resignation of prominent figures in the entertainment, media, dining, and business industries following the onset of the #MeToo social media movement.' In the rest of the world, many people also embraced the online crusade by sharing the hashtag millions of times or creating their own versions of it. Feminists and scholars have since attempted to keep …

The Viability And Sustainability Of Landlocked States Under International Law Vis-A-Vis Municipal Law: The Case Of South East States Of Nigeria, Christian N. Okeke

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This paper has been divided broadly into two parts; the first deals with landlocked independent states under international law while the second part deals with the unique position of Southeast states and what lessons they can learn from the experiences of landlocked states in trying to create, within Nigeria, an economic powerhouse that would not only benefit the region but the country as a whole.

Judicial Developments In The Application Of International Law To Domestic Violence, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

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Traditionally, international law understood the concept of state accountability only in the context of human rights violations imputed to the government or any of its agents." Because domestic violence is comprised of acts committed by private individuals, these crimes have long been deemed to fall outside the scope of state accountability. More recently, however, the concept of state accountability has been expanded to include not only state actions, but also-and more importantly-state omissions and failures to take appropriate steps to protect women from domestic violence. Therefore, in addition to preventing through its own agents the commission of violence against women, …

Putting Aside The Rule Of Law Myth: Corruption And The Case For Juries In Emerging Democracies, Brent T. White

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No abstract provided.

The International War Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973 Of Bangladesh, Zakia Afrin

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Bangladesh earned her independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a bloody war that continued for nine months. By December 16 of 1971, the day Bangladesh declared victory, an estimated 30 million people died and 200,000 women reported sexual violence by the Pakistani Army and their Bengali accomplices. Known as one of the worst genocide in history, the systematic killing of Bengalis included a chilling attempt to exterminate the intellectuals from within Bangladeshi society. A published report claims that by 19 April, 1975 individuals were arrested for war crimes and 752 were convicted. After the assassination of the country’s first Prime …

Rape, Blue Jeans, And Judicial Developments In Italy, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

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On June 10, 2008, the Supreme Court of Italy (Corte di Cassazione) affirmed a decision made by the Court of Appeal of Venezia condemning a defendant to one year of imprisonment for having repeatedly sexually assaulted a sixteen-year-old girl. The appellant, who was in a relationship with the mother of the victim and cohabited with them at the time of the aggression, argued that the girl had slanderously misrepresented the facts. Particularly, the defendant claimed that since the plaintiff was wearing a pair of tight blue jeans at the time of the alleged episode of sexual violence, it is not …

Renaissance Redux? Chastity And Punishment In Italian Rape Law, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This essay examines an Italian sexual assault case that received significant media attention. The Corte d'appello of Cagliari concluded that the defendant was not entitled to a reduced sentence when he was convicted of sexually assaulting his fourteen-year-old stepdaughter. On review, the Third Section of Italy's Corte diCassazione held that the lower court's refusal was erroneous. Cassazione faulted the appellate court for failing to consider that the victim had already engaged in sexual activity with others. This case illustrates how changing rape laws on the books does not always bring about immediate change in attitudes. Indeed, notions of chastity and …

The Double Weakness Of Girls: Discrimination And Sexual Violence In Haiti, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

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This Note is about poverty, inequality, and sexual violence. Using empirical research, it explores cultural beliefs, practices of abuse, and criminal justice responses to the widespread and systematic rape affecting girls in the shantytowns of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Dominated by the vestiges of the French colonization and plagued by destitution and political instability, Haiti faces rampant violence and disarray leaving the majority of its population in unbearable conditions of despair. Often regarded as a pariah state by the international community and erratically supported or invaded by foreign players, Haiti remains a forgotten country despoiled by human rights violations, decadence, and turmoil.

Contribution Of The Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization To The Codification And Progressive Development Of International Law, Sompong Sucharitkul

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It is with a sense of delightful nostalgia that the present writer begins to gather his personal recollections of his past association with the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO), an original inter-regional organization, concerned with international legal developments for the AsianAfrican Regions, especially at this juncture as the Regional Organization is preparing to publish a commemorative volume containing essays in international law. The publication is indeed to be welcome. His pleasant recollections of the activities of the inter-regional organization are still so vivid in his fondest memory that a memorable record may be kept and preserved for the benefit of …

Évolution D'Une Notion Nouvelle Le Patrimoine Commun De L'Humanite, Sompong Sucharitkul

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No abstract provided.

Grasp On Water: A Natural Resource That Eludes Nafta's Notion Of Investment, Paul S. Kibel

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This Article begins by outlining the hydrologic and legal restraints to private ownership of water resources. It then details the provisions of NAFTA that pertain to private rights in water, and reports on two highprofile water entitlement cases that have arisen under NAFTA's foreign investor protection regime. The piece concludes by observing that the experience of United States of America (U.S.) federal courts with state water law may provide a jurisprudential template to bring NAFTA into alignment with existing domestic water law and international water treaties.

Rio Grande Designs: Texans' Nafta Water Claim Against Mexico, Paul S. Kibel, Jonathan R. Schultz

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Our article begins with an analysis of the historical context and key provisions in the 1944 Rivers Treaty between Mexico and the United States. Next, we explain the expropriation claims process established by NAFTA's Chapter 11 and describe the environmental controversy that has arisen over its implementation. We follow with an account of the Texans' NAFTA water claim against Mexico, including an analysis of this claim's relation to the Tulare Lake decision and parallel dispute resolution proceedings at the International and Boundary Waters Commission.

At the end of this review, our finding is that the Texans' NAFTA water claim against …

Rape And The Querela In Italy: False Protection Of Victim Agency, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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Italian law requires rape victims to make a formal request that the state prosecute the alleged rapist. This request is called a querela and without such a request prosecution does not proceed, though there are some exceptions. In addition, the request for prosecution is irrevocable; the victim cannot withdraw her request for prosecution. Italian law has included the querela requirement for over one hundred years. It was included in the Zanardelli Code of 1889,3 the first Penal Code of unified Italy, maintained in the Rocco Code of 1930, the Penal Code of Fascist Italy, and-after a great deal of controversy-the …

Living La Vida Lex Mercatoria, Helen E. Hartnell

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My two-year sojourn at the University of Cologne (2004-2006) provided an intense occasion for living la vida lex mercatoria. This essay explores key facets of that experience. At the outset, I approach the topic from a traditional scholarly perspective, first by offering a brief overview of theoretical debates about the lex mercatoria, then by arguing the need for more social scientific (and particularly empirical) research in this field. Next my focus shifts to the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Vis Moot), and considers the role of legal education in reproducing the lex mercatoria as a living phenomenon. In …

Exporting South Africa's Social Rights Jurisprudence, Eric C. Christiansen

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One of the most distinctive elements of South Africa’s jurisprudence has been its willingness to adjudicate socio-economic rights in addition to traditional civil and political rights. While the advancement of social welfare as a whole has clearly proceeded at a far slower pace than political equality, the Constitutional protection of social rights and its enforcement by the Court continues to inspire social justice advocates in their work within South Africa and abroad. Indeed, despite the as-yet inadequate advancement of substantive socio-economic equality, much can be praised about the South African Constitutional project—and much can be learned from it. Particularly, much …

Liability And Responsibility Of The State Of Registration Or The Flag State In Respect Of Sea-Going Vessels, Aircraft And Spacecraft Registered By National Registration Authorities, Sompong Sucharitkul

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The topic selected for this report forms part of a broader picture: "the Liability of Registration authorities," which embraces a wider scope of enquiry, principally covering an infinite variety of international regulations within comparable national legal orders. Civil liability may require consideration of legal questions for which practical solution may only be found beyond the confines of internal law, in the choice of applicable law as part of private international law, or ultimately in the direct or indirect application of a rule of public international law, as recognized by States and incorporated in negotiated provisions of a Treaty.

Report On The Second China-Asean Expo 18-21 October 2005, Nanning, Guangxi, China, Sompong Sucharitkul

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This is a preliminary report on the Second CHINA-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA, aliter ACFTA for ASEAN-CHINA) Exposition at Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China on 18-21 October 2005. The purpose of this report is to bring to the attention of international business circles, traders and investors alike from within and outside the CAFTA geographical confines new openings and continuing phenomenal growth in business and investment opportunities in the combined ASEAN-CHINA region of East and South-East Asia with a thriving body of 1.85 billion consumers, by far the largest potential single market on earth at any …

A Just World Under Law: A Just And Peaceful World Under The Rule Of Law, Sompong Sucharitkul

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Presentation given to the Fourteenth Regional Meeting of the American Society of International Law in combination with the Fifteenth Annual Fulbright Symposium at Golden Gate University School of Law.

International Law At The Crossroads, Sompong Sucharitkul

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Appropriately enough, the current session is entitled "International Law at the Crossroads". As States are governed by international law, without exception, every precaution should be taken before the next move is to be made for the law to go ahead or forward at this juncture after having carefully looked to the left and to the right. The law could indeed be moving straight forward, continuing on the same path at the same pace it has been taking. Alternatively, it could take a tum, and there are more than one turning, to the left or to the right. Finally, international law …

Sosa V. Alvarez-Machain - Restricting Access To Us Courts Under The Federal Tort Claims Act And The Alien Tort Statute: Reversing The Trend, Laura A. Cisneros

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To function with adequate predictability and efficiency, the international community must maintain orderly relations among its members. This necessarily requires that members develop international norms of behavior and accept a certain loss of their otherwise exclusive sovereignty. Nowhere has the enforcement of international norms been more pronounced than in the area of human rights. International human rights norms directly challenge conventional notions of exclusive state sovereignty and unilateral action. The United States has long been a motive force behind the international human rights movement, opening its federal courts to redress human rights violations committed domestically or abroad. Specifically, federal courts …

An Uneasy Peace: Multilateral Military Intervention In Civil Wars, Eleanor Lumsden

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This article will examine seven instances in which a group of states or regional organizations have intervened with military force in an ongoing civil war either because their interests were directly threatened or in order to avert grave humanitarian consequences. Parts I and II will define and explore the various permutations of multilateral and regional intervention. Part III will summarize the legal justifications advanced in favor of or against multilateral military intervention. Part IV will examine, through the use of country case studies, interventions where states either deviated from or ignored completely Article 2(4)'s prohibition against the use of force …

Les Criteres De L'Acte Jure Imperii Dans La Pratique Contemporaine, Sompong Sucharitkul

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Mémoire de DEA en droit international public Dirigé par M. le Professeur JOE VERHOEVEN.

Eustitia: Institutionalizing Justice In The European Union, Helen E. Hartnell

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The European Union is installing new infrastructure upon which to build a "genuine European area of justice. This "European judicial area" constitutes a key component of the "area of freedom, security and justice" ("AFSJ"). The Amsterdam Treaty added the AFSJ as a dimension of the Union, in order to promote the free movement of persons. "EUstitia" is a neologism that aims to capture both pragmatic and aspirational aspects of this new European governance project. The term is used here to refer solely to the civil law component of the AFSJ. This article both examines EUstitia's key features, and explores the …

U.S. Bombing Of Afghanistan Not Justified As Self-Defense Under International Law, Leslie Rose

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The United States military strikes against Afghanistan cannot be justified as self-defense under the United Nations Charter or customary international law. There is insufficient evidence of an armed attack by the state of Afghanistan and the strikes have been neither necessary nor proportional.

Jurisdiction, Terrorism And The Rule Of International Law, Sompong Sucharitkul

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In October 2001, approximately one month after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Golden Gate University Law Professor Sompong Sucharitkul spoke to the students of Golden Gate University and others on the topic of jurisdiction, terrorism and the rule of international law. This article is an excerpt from the speech given by Professor Sucharitkul.

Immunities From Jurisdiction In Contemporary International Law, Sompong Sucharitkul

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All States, large or small, rich or poor, are equal in the eyes of international law. Each State is sovereign and independent. Statehood is vested with the type of sovereignty and independence that is recognized as exclusive and absolute within its territory. It is by reason of this absolute and exclusive sovereignty and this equality of States and their mutual independence, that in certain circumstances, a State is presumed to have consented to waive the exercise of its jurisdiction which is exclusive within its territory in a proceeding in which another State is being proceeded against without its consent. In …

Investment Protection: The Role Of State/Investor Arbitration, Sompong Sucharitkul

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No abstract provided.

The Non-Discrimination Principle And Its Effect On The Education Of Roma Children In The Czech Republic, Leslie Burton

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All states ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are bound to comply with Article 2, which requires States Parties to respect the rights of all children, without discrimination of any kind. In the Czech Republic, however, there is systematic discrimination against the Roma (also referred to as Gypsies). As a result, Roma children are not getting the education they are ensured under Article 28 of the CRe. The Czech Republic has tried, and continues to try, different methods to resolve the problem and to comply with the CRe. This essay will explore the nature of the …

Mediation And Conciliation As Alternative Means Of Settleing International Disputes, Sompong Sucharitkul

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An endeavour will be made in this article to present two distinct methods of international dispute settlement, namely, mediation and conciliation. The presentation will be done from an international and comparative standpoint, inevitably retaining an Asian perspective in its global survey. Observations will be concentrated on these two procedures for the resolution of international conflicts. In this chapter, the terms 'dispute' and 'conflict' are used interchangeably. So also are the terms 'settlement' and 'resolution'.

State Responsibility And International Liability: Recent Developments In The Practice Of States And International Organizations, Sompong Sucharitkul

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This is an essay in honour of Professor Gaetano Arangio-Ruiz, forming part of a collection of studies dedicated to the distinguished international jurist. Published in Studi di diritto internazionale in onore di Geotano Arangio-Ruiz, Editoriale Scientifica, 2004.