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Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Conflict of Laws

Legal history

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Originalism And The Difficulties Of History In Foreign Affairs, Eugene Kontorovich Jan 2009

Originalism And The Difficulties Of History In Foreign Affairs, Eugene Kontorovich

Faculty Working Papers

This Article spotlights some of the idiosyncratic features of admiralty law at the time of the founding. These features pose challenges for applying the original understanding of the Constitution to contemporary questions of foreign relations. Federal admiralty courts were unusual creatures by Article III standards. They sat as international tribunals applying international and foreign law, freely hearing cases that implicated sensitive questions of foreign policy, and liberally exercising universal jurisdiction over disputes solely between foreigners. However, these powers did not arise out of the basic features of Article III, but rather from a felt need to opt into the preexisting …


War Crimes And Vietnam: The "Nuremberg Defense" And The Military Service Resister, Anthony D'Amato, Harvey . L. Gould, Larry D. Woods Jan 1969

War Crimes And Vietnam: The "Nuremberg Defense" And The Military Service Resister, Anthony D'Amato, Harvey . L. Gould, Larry D. Woods

Faculty Working Papers

We have attempted to establish first that the international laws of warfare are part of American law, and have argued that these laws, when taken as prohibitions of specific methods of waging war, are a practical and effective means of controlling unnecessary suffering and destruction. Second, we have analyzed these laws as they apply to treatment of prisoners of war, aerial bombardment of nonmilitary targets, and chemical and biological warfare, and have marshalled a portion of the available evidence that American forces commit war crimes in Vietnam. Third, we have discussed the defenses of tu quoque, reprisal, military necessity, superior …