Law Commons^™

Our Exceptional Constitution, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

Inter-Country Adoption And The Special Rights Fallacy, James G. Dwyer

James G. Dwyer

No abstract provided.

Ashes To Ashes: Comparative Law Regarding Survivors’ Disputes Concerning Cremation And Cremated Remains, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Eloisa C Rodríguez-Dod

One should plan for unassuming post-mortem issues, as most state laws do not provide a complete framework when there is no testamentary instruction by the deceased. Judicial determination is often needed, however reported opinions are scarce. Final disposition issues also arise in foreign law. Spain has no civil code regarding disposition of a deceased but delegates its funerary laws to local governments and autonomous communities, while the French have established an order of priority for funerary decisions and provide for a judicial determination and stay of the funerary process in case of dispute. The author gives a brief history of …

Internet Governance Is Our Shared Responsibility, Vinton Cerf, Patrick Ryan, Max Senges

Patrick T. Ryan

This essay looks at the the different roles that institutions play in the Internet governance ecosystem. We propose a model for thinking of Internet governance within the context of the layered model of the Internet. We use the example of the negotiations in Dubai in 2102 at the World Conference on International Telecommunications to show why it is important for different institutions within the governance system to focus on their areas of expertise (e.g., the ITU, ICANN, and IGF). Several areas of conflict are reviewed, such as the desire to promote more broadband infrastructure (a topic that is in the …

Framing The Responsibility To Protect Doctrine As A Means Of Legal And Moral Intervention With Universal Jurisdiction Legal Obligations Of The Responsibility To Protect Doctrine And Universal Civil Jurisdiction In The Syrian Civil War Crisis, David Satnarine

David Satnarine

No abstract provided.

Measuring State Compliance With The Right To Education Using Indicators: A Case Study Of Colombia’S Obligations Under The Icescr, Sital Kalantry, Jocelyn Getgen, Steven A. Koh

Sital Kalantry

The right to education is often referred to as a “multiplier right” because its enjoyment enhances other human rights. It is enumerated in several international instruments, but it is codified in greatest detail in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Despite its importance, the right to education has received limited attention from scholars, practitioners, and international and regional human rights bodies as compared to other economic, social and cultural rights (ECSRs). In this Article, we propose a methodology that utilizes indicators to measure treaty compliance with the right to education. Indicators are essential to measuring compliance …

The French Jury At A Crossroads, Valerie P. Hans, Claire M. Germain

Claire Germain

This article describes the contemporary landscape of the French jury. Putting the institution in its historical and political context, it begins with an overview of the rich history of the French jury. We describe the earliest form of community judgment in France, the introduction of a formal jury system following the French Revolution, and the political and legal influences that transformed it from an independent body of lay citizens to a mixed decision-making body of professional and lay judges. We next identify characteristic features of contemporary French jury trial procedure and the respective roles and responsibilities of professional and lay …

Developing An International Carbon Tax Regime, Steven Specht

Steven Specht

As atmospheric CO2 remains in the range of 400 ppm, it is necessary to find new international coordination to deal with climate change. The best way forward is an international regime of harmonized domestic carbon taxes. By agreeing to a minimum amount of taxation on domestic, point-source producers, money can be set aside for adaptation costs and alternative means of energy production. Finally, such a plan will overcome the problem of non-participation of countries in agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. As this is a treaty dealing with economics and trade, countries can place taxes on imports of non-participatory countries under …

Buried Treasure Or Buried Hope? The Status Of Mexico-U.S. Transboundary Aquifers Under International Law, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Transboundary aquifers found along the 2,000 mile-long border between Mexico and the United States are not governed by any treaty. Yet, these aquifers are the primary source of water for many of the twelve million people who live in this parched region. The region’s groundwater, however, is being over-exploited and contaminated, which is threatening the very life that it currently sustains. As populations continue to expand and current rates of haphazard development persist, the absence of an agreement for the management and allocation of this critical resource could lead to bi-national economic, social and environmental tragedies. This study reviews groundwater …

Rethinking Transboundary Ground Water Resources Management: A Local Approach Along The Mexico-U.S. Border, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Gabriel Eckstein

Despite more than forty years of promises to the contrary, neither Mexico nor the United States have shown any inclination to pursue a border-wide pact to coordinate management of the border region’s transboundary ground water resources. As a result, these critical resources – which serve as the sole or primary source of fresh water for most border communities on both sides – are being overexploited and polluted, leaving the local population with little recourse. Imminently unsustainable, the situation portends a grim future for the region. In the absence of national governmental interests and involvement on either side of the frontier, …

A Comparison Of The Jurisprudence Of The Ecj And The Efta Court On The Free Movement Of Goods In The Eea: Is There An Intolerable Separation Of Article 34 Of The Tfeu And Article Of 11 Of The Eea?, Jarrod Tudor

Jarrod Tudor

Article 11 of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and Article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) prohibit quantitative restrictions on the free movement of goods. The EEA is monitored by the European Free Trade Area Court (“EFTA Court”) and the TFEU is monitored by the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”). In theory, the EFTA Court and the ECJ should interpret Article 11 and Article 34 in the same manner in order to promote harmonization of the law on the free movement of goods and allow for further economic integration between EFTA and the EU. …

Afghan Juvenile Code In Practice: Assessing Against International Juvenile Law, Christopher W. Carlson Jr.

Christopher W. Carlson Jr.

This Article assesses and compares Afghanistan’s juvenile procedures with the systems and norms advocated by the United Nations (“UN”). The Afghan Juvenile Code of 2005 is compared with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’s four key guidelines. The four guidelines include: (1) imprisonment of juveniles “shall be used only as a measure of last resort”; (2) any such imprisonment shall be “for the shortest appropriate period of time”; (3) juveniles who are in prison shall be “separated from adults”; and (4) they shall have the right to maintain “family contact.” These guidelines serve as a medium through …

The Free Movement Of Capital In Europe: Is The European Court Of Justice Living Up To Its Framers' Intent And Setting An Example For The World?, Jarrod Tudor

Jarrod Tudor

The benefits to free movement of international financial flows are numerous but include an efficient asset market and the opportunity for economic growth and development for countries engaged in an agreement allowing for such freedom. The free movement of capital is one of the four pillars of the Treaty on the Function of the European Union (TFEU) along with the free movement of goods, services, and labor. Article 63 of the TFEU prohibits limitations on the free movement of capital while Article 65 of the TFEU allows for some exceptions. Not only does the free movement of capital doctrine suppose …

Discriminatory Internal Taxation In The European Union: The Power Of The European Court Of Justice To Limit The Tax Sovereignty Of Member-States Under Article 110 Of The Tfeu, Jarrod Tudor

Jarrod Tudor

Protectionism can come in a variety of methods including the use of internal taxation policies that discriminate against imports making those imports more expensive on the domestic market and thus favoring domestically-produced goods. Discriminatory taxation policies have been developed by member-states to mask protectionism by distinguishing products based on import status, product similarity, product life cycle, consumption, tax collection practices, transportation charges, and state aid. The Framers of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) wrote Article 110 with the objective in mind to prohibit internal taxation policies from discriminating against goods in made in other member-states. …

Notes From A New Underground: The Intersection Of Russian Orthodoxy, Religious Liberty, Lgbt Rights, And State Authority, John Ehrett

John Ehrett

Current laws in the Russian Federation impose sanctions against both speech deemed offensive to Russia’s traditional religious groups and speech considered “propaganda” of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This Article offers a contemporary examination of the historical, cultural and political forces underlying these ongoing trends, and offers an interdisciplinary consideration of issues surrounding the intersection of liberty of religious expression with liberty of LGBT expression in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. This is historically contextualized through consideration of the political integration of church and state as a contributing factor toward limitations on these political freedoms. Ultimately, a vision of …

Promoting “Academic Entrepreurship” In Europe And The United States: Creating An Intellectual Property Regime To Facilitate The Efficient Transfer Of Knowledge From The Lab To The Patient, Constance Bagley, Christina Tvarno

Constance E. Bagley

In 2014, the European Commission announced the launch of a study of knowledge transfer by public research organizations and other institutes of higher learning “to determine which additional measures might be needed to ensure an optimal flow of knowledge between the public research organisations and business thereby contributing to the development of the knowledge based economy.” As the European Commission has recognized, the EU needs to take action to “unlock the potential of IPRs [intellectual property rights] that lie dormant in universities, research institutes and companies.” This article builds on our earlier work on structuring efficient pharmaceutical public-private partnerships (PPPPs) …

Impartiality And Independence: Misunderstood Cousins, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Demanding Individual Rights And Civil Liberties: An Iranian Approach, Zahra Takhshid

Zahra Takhshid

Iran has a long history of social movements and revolutions. The 1906 Constitutional Revolution led to the recognition of individual rights as part of Iran’s first Constitution. With the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a new constitution was enacted, which devoted one chapter to “the Rights of the Nation.”

The Constitution has introduced several methods to protect the recognized rights: the Guardian Council, the Tribunal of Administrative Justice, and the Commission of Article 90.

In addition to the institutions introduced in the Constitution, the Legislature and the Executive branch proposed new safeguarding procedures and adopted new statutes, which recognized broader range …

Thinking Globally, Policy Locally: A Plan For Decentralized Law Enforcement In Côte D’Ivoire, __ J. Of Int’L Bus. & L. __ (Forthcoming 2015), Hugh Mundy

Hugh Mundy

During a 2009 speech in Ghana, President Barack Obama said, “Africa doesn’t need strongmen. It needs strong institutions.” Obama credited Ghana’s “impressive rates of growth” to the country’s “repeated peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections.” Free elections and non-violent power transfers, he said, “may lack the drama of the twentieth century’s liberation struggles” but “will ultimately be more significant.” Last July, the president expressed similar sentiments during a highly anticipated trip to Kenya. Côte d’Ivoire offers a stark example of the instability wrought when an unseated leader refuses to cede power. Once hailed as …

Cisg Translation Issues: Reducing Legal Babelism, Claire M. Germain

Claire Germain

The CISG (Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods) has remarkably facilitated commercial transactions across boundaries and different legal systems. This article, to be published as a Book Chapter, discusses some possible difficulties caused by using different languages, or words which might be interpreted differently, and some solutions and ways to deal with these difficulties. Three kinds of issues have appeared: the first has to do with drafting issues, and the peculiar problem of the six official languages of the Convention. The second set of issues deals with the interpretation of the Convention and the so-called homeward trend. …

Punishment For Unjust War: First International Court Decision Awarding Damages For Aggression, Allen E. Shoenberger

Allen E Shoenberger

The Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights Cyprus v. Turkey, both the merits decision in 2001 and the just satisfaction decision in 2014 establish important precedents in international law and stand as a caution to potential aggressor states.

The Road Most Travel: Is The Executive’S Growing Preeminence Making America More Like The Authoritarian Regimes It Fights So Hard Against?, Ryan T. Williams

Ryan T. Williams

Suspicious Rights: Pealing Back The Principle Of Separation, Jihan A. Kahssay

Jihan A Kahssay

No abstract provided.

Does Customary International Law Obligate States To Extradite Or Prosecute Individuals Accused Of Committing Crimes Against Humanity?, Eveylon Cw Mack

Eveylon CW Mack

The effort to establish a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) has gained support at the U.N. International Law Commission. Proponents of a CAH Convention assert that the lack of a treaty addressing inter-State cooperation promotes impunity for international crimes that are particularly egregious and are prohibited as norms recognized as jus cogens. In order to avoid safe havens for those who commit CAH, many CAH Convention proponents advocate for inclusion of an obligation to extradite or prosecute an offender that turns up in a State party’s territory. They assert that the inclusion of such an obligation is particularly important …

Taming The "Feral Beast": Cautionary Lessons From British Press Reform, Lili Levi

Lili Levi

Abstract: As technology undermines the economic model supporting traditional newspapers, power shifts from the watchdog press to those it watches. Worldwide calls for increased press “responsibility” are one result. Pending British press reform provides a troubling example with far-ranging implications for freedom of the press. Under the guise of modest press self-regulation, the U.K. is currently poised to upend 300 years of press freedom via the recently-approved Royal Charter for Self-Regulation of the Press. The Royal Charter was adopted in response to the moral panic engendered by Britain’s tabloid phone-hacking scandal. An example of 20^th Century regulation poorly fitted …

“Friend To The Martyr, A Friend To The Woman Of Shame”: Thinking About The Law, Shame And Humiliation, Michael L. Perlin, Naomi Weinstein

Michael L Perlin

The need to pay attention to the law‘s capacity to allow for, to encourage, or (in some cases) to remediate humiliation, or humiliating or shaming behavior has increased exponentially as we begin to also take more seriously international human rights mandates, especially – although certainly not exclusively – in the context of the recently-ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a Convention that calls for “respect for inherent dignity,” and characterizes "discrimination against any person on the basis of disability [as] a violation of the inherent dignity and worth of the human person...."

Humiliation and shaming, …

"To Kill A Cleric?: The Al-Awlaki Case And The Chaplaincy Exception Under The Laws Of War", K Benson

K Benson

Anwar al-Awlaki was the first American citizen to be targeted for extrajudicial assassination by the Obama administration. While scholarly attention has focused on legality of his killing under domestic law, his status as a chaplain under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has gone unexamined. The possibility that Anwar al-Awlaki may have been a protected person as a chaplain has profound ramifications for the legality of his killing and for the conduct of the war on terror more generally. As the definition of a "Chaplain" under IHL is under-developed at best and vague at worst, ideologues such as Mr. al-Awlaki operate in …

Protecting Workers As A Matter Of Principle: A Latin American View Of U.S. Work Law (With S. Gamonal C.), César Rosado Marzán

César F. Rosado Marzán

Scholars have noted that judicial conservatism has eroded labor and employment law (hereinafter referred to as “work law”) in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Roberts Court has kept in line with such conservatism, perhaps with sharpened audacity, deciding a number of key work law cases in the favor of employers. Moreover, the current seemingly pro-employer judicial hue over recent work law cases comes at the heels of recent legal scholarship calling for a rethinking of the “idea of labor law,” the demise of the standard employment contract, and an upsurge in labor precarity. Work law, which has always been under …

India’S State Of Legal Education: The Road From Nlsiu To Jindal, Deepa Badrinarayana

Deepa Badrinarayana

This narrative is a reflection of the changes that the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) ushered in India, prior to globalization. It reflects on the challenges to legal education in India pre-globalization and the efforts made through the creation of NLSIU to address these challenges, and it also introduces some of the challenges facing Indian legal education in a globalized world.

A Spectrum Of International Criminal Procedure: Shifting Patterns Of Power Distribution, Jessica S. Peake

Jessica S Peake

International criminal procedure is characterized by a fundamental structural shift in the allocation of power between the actors in a criminal trial – the judges, Prosecution and defense - away from that traditionally ascribed under an adversarial system and towards the power distribution structure more common to the inquisitorial system. By looking at the Statutes and RPEs of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), it is possible to identify varying degrees of power shifts in each court: across each we see a …