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Full-Text Articles in Law

Customary International Law In The 21st Century: Old Challenges And New Debates, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker Jan 2010

Customary International Law In The 21st Century: Old Challenges And New Debates, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

This Article will survey the new scholarship that has emerged in international law to challenge the two traditional sources of customary norms, state practice and opinio juris. With the recent growth, in the international system, of self-contained international criminal tribunals, new challenges facing international law have emerged. Institutionally structured as self-contained legal regimes, international legal tribunals such as the ICTY, ICTR, and now the ICC have nevertheless contributed to a new paradigm within international law. The jurisprudence of these international criminal tribunals, on a wide range of international legal questions, has slowly begun to be elevated into norms of customary …


Universal Jurisdiction And The Case Of Belgium: A Critical Assessment, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker Jan 2009

Universal Jurisdiction And The Case Of Belgium: A Critical Assessment, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Praised in some quarters as a useful tool for bringing criminal perpetrators to justice, criticized by others as a threat to state sovereignty, universal jurisdiction has certainly emerged as a heated topic within international criminal law. In 1993, the Kingdom of Belgium enacted a domestic statute, the Loi du 16 Juin, which codified (in domestic Belgian law) the use and application of universal jurisdiction (for international crimes) in Belgian courts. The Statute, which went through two major revisions in February 1999 and April 2003, granted Belgian courts jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, regardless of where in …


Towards A New Transitional Justice Model: Assessing The Serbian Case, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker Jan 2009

Towards A New Transitional Justice Model: Assessing The Serbian Case, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Given the “third wave” of democratic development and entrenchment that has taken hold around the world within the past three decades, the topic of how these transitioning societies cope with the legacy of atrocity and criminality that often accompany authoritarian rule has taken on a fresh salience. The structural, ethical, legal, and political problems faced during such transitions have become the topic of a burgeoning “transitional justice” sub-field within the fields of Law and Political Science. This Article will survey key episodes of transitional justice in various countries since the 1970s, and then apply the lessons gleaned to the transition …


Proportionality In The Criminal Law: The Differing American Versus Canadian Approaches To Punishment, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker Jan 2008

Proportionality In The Criminal Law: The Differing American Versus Canadian Approaches To Punishment, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

The focus of this Article shall be upon the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution and s. 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, both of which prohibit “cruel and unusual punishment”; and their effect on mandatory criminal sentencing (via penal statute) in the two countries. The Article shall begin by briefly explain the differences between the jurisdictional application of criminal justice in the United States and Canada. The Article will next present and explain the American Eighth Amendment approach to the constitutionality of mandatory criminal sentencing and contrast this to the Canadian s. 12 approach to …


Racial Formation In Quebec: A Legal Retospective, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker Jan 2008

Racial Formation In Quebec: A Legal Retospective, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

This Article shall use the experience of the Quebecois in Canada to survey the linkage between cultural formation and race in Quebecois racial identity, and then map out these linkages and their relations to the political and legal discourse that has emerged in Canada on the place of the Quebecois in the country. Cultural formation and racial formation are unmistakably linked. Specific social and linguistic separatism can over time crystallize into racial formation, especially if aided by official government recognition and legal codification. As this Article shall demonstrate, the verification of this idea can be clearly seen the experience of …