Law Commons^™

The Necessity Of Human Rights Legal Protections In Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Reform, Christine Galvagna

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) reform is a transnational legal movement aimed at facilitating more rapid law enforcement access to cross-border data, while also preventing violations of state sovereignty through the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction over data. Efforts primarily focus on the United States (U.S.) mutual legal assistance (MLA) process, as it is exceedingly slow and convoluted, but also unavoidable, given that most major tech companies have their bases in the U.S. Recently proposed or enacted legal instruments include the U.S. CLOUD Act, the European Union’s (EU) e-Evidence proposal, Council of Europe’s forthcoming Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, …

A Catholic Response To Global Climate Change Migration, Michael S. Talbot

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This Article examines Catholic Social Teaching’s approach to the challenges of human migration and environmental refugees. By juxtaposing the inadequacies of current international frameworks for protecting environmental migrants with previous sources of Catholic Social Teaching, this Article speculates on the possible moral argument to be made by the Church in support of efforts to fill a gap in the international legal framework around climate change induced migration. Ultimately, the Paper speculates that such an argument would include three components: (1) a broadening of the definition of refugee, (2) a recognition of our interconnected and interdependent lives, and (3) the expectation …

The Blessing Of Talent And The Curse Of Poverty: Rectifying Copyright Law's Implementation Of Authors' Material Interests In International Human Rights Law, Saleh Al-Sharieh

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) grants authors the right to the protection of the material interests resulting from their intellectual works. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights interpreted these interests to comprise the ability to achieve an adequate standard of living (as a minimum). This paper argues that copyright law provides a useful yet incomplete model for the protection of authors’ material interests. Copyright creates the legal environment necessary for establishing a market for intellectual works but does not guarantee its benefits to authors. Therefore, States Parties to the ICESCR should …

International Legal Protections For Migrants And Refugees: A Response To Father Brennan, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Father Brennan’s Essay, “Human Rights and the National Interest: The Case Study of Asylum, Migration, and National Border Protection,” is a complex legal and ethical analysis of refugee law. This Commentary focuses on one aspect of the international law relevant to the Essay, namely, state obligations to migrants. Father Brennan’s main argument that migrants and refugees may be turned back, so long as the action respects human rights law, is consistent with the human right to life. Justly stopping migrants and refugees requires states to stop them before they enter either international waters or the state’s territorial waters. Further, Father …

Ngo Standing And Influence In Regional Human Rights Courts And Commissions, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Journal Articles

This article explores the extent to which nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have standing to bring claims in the European, Inter-American, and African human rights enforcement systems, examines the degree to which NGOs in fact bring such cases, and analyzes the ramifications of NGO involvement in these systems. Part I of this article considers how NGOs can be involved in the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. As detailed in this part, while …

International Human Rights Law And Security Detention, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

This article analyzes the grounds, procedures, and conditions required by International Human Rights Law for preventive detention of suspected terrorists as threats to security. Such detention is generally permitted, provided it is based on grounds and procedures previously established by law; is not arbitrary, discriminatory, or disproportionate; is publicly registered and subject to fair and effective judicial review; and the detainee is not mistreated and is compensated for any unlawful detention. In Europe, however, preventive detention for security purposes is generally not permitted. If allowed at all, it is permitted only when a State in time of national emergency formally …

The Nobel Effect: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates As International Norm Entrepreneurs, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

For the first time in scholarly literature, this article traces the history of modern international law from the perspective of the constructivist theory of international relations. Constructivism is one of the leadings schools of thought in international relations today. This theory posits that state preferences emerge from social construction and that state interests are evolving rather than fixed. Constructivism further argues that international norms have a life cycle composed of three stages: norm emergence, norm acceptance (or norm cascades), and norm internalization. As such, constructivism treats international law as a dynamic process in which norm entrepreneurs interact with state actors …

When Is A War Not A War? The Myth Of The Global War On Terror, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

It is essential to correctly classify situations in the world as ones of war or peace: human lives depend on the distinction, but so do liberty, property, and the integrity of the natural environment. President Bush's war on terror finds war where suspected members of al Qaeda are found. By contrast, war under international law exists where hostilities are on-going. To the extent there is ambiguity, the United States should err on the side of pursuing terrorists within the peacetime criminal law enforcement paradigm, not a wartime one. Not only does the criminal law better protect important human rights and …

Arbitrating Human Rights, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

The article addresses the vexing problem of holding corporations liable for assisting in the sovereign abuse of human rights. Currently domestic human rights litigation against corporations appears to be a proxy fight in which the accomplice is pursued while the principal evades punishment. Typically the principal malfeasor - the sovereign - is immune from suit because of foreign sovereign immunity. But corporations can be found liable for aiding and abetting those violations. This article suggests a solution to this problem, drawing on principles from contract law and arbitration. If a corporation is found liable for aiding and abetting sovereign abuse, …

Introduction And Postscript: Partial Progress On Un Reform, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

The conference on Reforming the United Nations: The use of force to safeguard international security and human rights, co-sponsored by Northwestern University School of Law and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Faculty of Law as their Fourth Annual Transatlantic Dialogue, was held in January 2005.

Its timing was propitious. It was held one month after publication of the report of the prestigious and geographically diverse High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Among many other proposals to reform the UN, the High-Level Panel recommended expansion of the Security Council, new guidelines for use of force …

Is There A New World Court?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

I am pleased to introduce our conference on Human Rights and the Law of War: New Roles for the World Court? Why this conference? And why now? Our conference is prompted by two contrasting phenomena: The caseload of the ICJ seems to have been transformed in the post-Cold War period. The World Court is now busier than ever. It has more cases, increasingly involving questions of human rights or ongoing armed conflict. Yet these three inter-related phenomena—increased caseload, and more cases involving human rights or armed conflict—have been little analyzed or studied. Our purpose is to contribute to public and …

A Framework Of Norms: International Human-Rights Law And Sovereignty, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

The international legal boundary between states; rights and human rights is not fixed. Long ago, the Permanent Court of International Justice - the judicial arm of the League of Nations and the precursor to the present International Court of Justice - recognized that "the question whether a certain matter is or is not solely within the jurisdiction of a State is an essentially relative question; it depends on the development of international relations." In recent decades international relations concerning both sovereignty and rights have developed quickly. An examination of those rights and the evolving realities of sovereignty are examined.

Does International Human Rights Law Make A Difference?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Does international human rights law make a difference? Does it protect rights in practice? The importance of these questions for rights protection is obvious: the institutions of international human rights law deserve our energetic support only to the extent they contribute meaningfully to protection of rights, or at least promise eventually to do so. Moreover, at the moment these questions have added urgency. They underlie an ongoing debate, fomented in part by this Journal, on the extent to which the United States should be prepared to cede degrees of its national sovereignty to international human rights institutions, in return for …

Lessons From The Americas: Guidelines For International Response To Amnesties For Atrocities, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Amnesty guidelines modeled on international law as defined by Latin American tribunals and treaties should be adopted and used by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and national governments involved in remedying human rights violations. The 10 guidelines are stringent and would rarely result in the granting of amnesty. They may better serve their function than treaties or customary laws be cause they are guidelines and not mandatory.