Law Commons^™

After Privacy: The Rise Of Facebook, The Fall Of Wikileaks, And Singapore’S Personal Data Protection Act 2012, Simon Chesterman

Simon Chesterman

This article discusses the changing ways in which information is produced, stored, and shared — exemplified by the rise of social-networking sites like Facebook and controversies over the activities of WikiLeaks — and the implications for privacy and data protection. Legal protections of privacy have always been reactive, but the coherence of any legal regime has also been undermined by the lack of a strong theory of what privacy is. There is more promise in the narrower field of data protection. Singapore, which does not recognise a right to privacy, has positioned itself as an e-commerce hub but had no …

Lobbying:The Italian Regulatory Framework Under The Comparative Perspective, Andrea Bortoluzzi

Andrea Bortoluzzi

The intention of the Author is to examine all the rules that the Italian legal system imposes on lobbying, in part for the purpose of limiting certain lobbying practices and in part to promote access to public decision-makers by establishing the requirement for transparency and trustworthiness in the relations between the lobbyist and the decision-maker. Lobbying is heavily dependent on the opportunities for the lobbyist to access the public decision-maker. The issue of access, however, viewed in terms of lobbying, relates not to the right to know the content of administrative documents but to the right to provide information to …

The Law Of Indicators On Women’S Human Rights: Unmet Promises And Global Challenges, Marta Infantino

Marta Infantino

Global indicators on human rights (HRs) aim to measure HRs scores against HRs standards. In other words, they aim to measure legal phenomena against legal benchmarks.

Despite HRs indicators’ reliance on legal knowledge, lawyers have so far neither made substantial contributions to their production, nor studied in depth the legal implications of their uses. The current state-of-the-art in the world of HRs indicators is the result of an ongoing process led by bureaucrats, economists, statisticians, and activists with limited legal training. It is these actors who are developing a new body of professional knowledge, and a new technology of governance …

The Aftermath Of Abusive Adoption Practices In The Lives Of Adoption Triad Members: Responding To Adoption Triad Members Victimized By Abusive Adoption Practices, David M. Smolin, Desiree L. Smolin

David M. Smolin

The above-titled presentation was given as a plenary presentation at the Annual Symposium of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) on April 18, 2012. Herein is a slightly modified version of the Power Point used at the presentation. We corrected some typos and made some editorial adjustments, but this is 99% the same as what was used at the presentation. Unfortunately the event itself was not taped.

It is important to note that the original context for this presentation is Intercountry Adoption to the United States. However, some of you may find some of these points relevant to …

Lack Of Judicial Independence And Its Impact On Transnational And International Litigation, Omar E. Garcia-Bolivar

Omar E Garcia-Bolivar

This article is about the impact of lack of judicial independence in different areas of transnational and international litigation, such as enforcement of foreign judgement and investment disputes.

Ezra Bronstein: In Defense Of The “Better Bailout,” A Heter-Iska Comparison, Ezra Bronstein

Ezra Bronstein

No abstract provided.

Equality Qua Equality: A Comparative Critique Of The Tiers Of U.S. Equal Protection Doctrine, Lorenzo Di Silvio

Lorenzo Di Silvio

On February 23, 2011, the Obama Administration announced that it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Of great significance in this announcement was the Administration’s position that classifications on the basis of sexual orientation warrant heightened judicial scrutiny. Notwithstanding this announcement, the level of review applied to sexual-orientation classifications—and the manner in which a court determines whether a particular type of classification deserves more searching review—is an open question, the answer to which typically dictates the outcome of challenges to government classifications. Apart from this outcome determinativeness, affording heightened scrutiny to some classifications but …

The Effect Of Military Conquest On Private Ownership: Jewish And Islamic Law, Amal Mohamad Jabareen, Israel Zvi Gilat

Amal Mohamad Jabareen

This article presents the legal outlooks of two fundamental religious judicial systems – Jewish (Halakha) and Muslim (Shari'a) – on the effect of war on private ownership. To be precise, this is when the conquered inhabitants are Jews or Muslims and halakhah or shari’a are their religion, respectively, but the conqueror is a non-believer or secular sovereign. Such situations evoke the following questions: To what extent the transfer of ownership by the conquering sovereign is recognized by the religious laws of the conquered population? May a member of the conquered religion acquire property that was seized by the non-believer sovereign …

Comparing Legal Argument, Jacco Bomhoff

Jacco Bomhoff

Extracts from a contribution setting out a methodological framework for the comparison of different forms of legal argument across different legal systems.

The full text of this chapter can be found in Adams & Bomhoff, Practice and Theory in Comparative Law (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

Государственная Власть И Местное Самоуправление В Израиле, Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

In the article features of the government and local self-government in Israel are considered. The urgency of their studying is caused by that in this country there is no Constitution in the form of the consolidated act that pulls together it with English State-legal tradition. The democratic political mode has affirmed as Israel, elections in authorities were never cancelled. The parliamentary form of government has predetermined legal status and the competence of the President of the State, the Knesset and the Government. The local self-government system promotes the statement of democratic principles of the Israeli society

Политические Процессы В Регионе Ближнего И Среднего Востока, Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

Studying of political processes in the countries of the Middle East represents considerable interest because the given region is near to southern borders of Russia, other Post-Soviet countries and should mention their political, economic and humanitarian interests. In a number of the region countries there are astable political modes (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), their constitutional development is braked and is affected by system of the international sanctions (the United Nations, the European Union) or State Law of the leading states of the West. On political development of some the countries (Islamic Republic Iran, the Lebanese Republic, Algeria, etc.) essential if not …

The Case For A Global Treaty On Soil Conservation, Sustainable Farming, And The Preservation Of Agrarian Culture, Nicholas A. Fromherz

Nicholas A Fromherz

Soil is the foundation of life, yet we have all but ignored it in conservation efforts and legal reforms. Right under our noses, we are losing topsoil at rates that far outpace nature’s ability to keep up. Erosion, salinization, desertification, nutrient depletion, contamination—these and other threats have conspired to take away the land that feeds us. But they have done so largely at our own command. Like most environmental crises, human decisions have played a critical role in the degradation of Earth’s soils. To remedy this situation—or at least get the ball moving in that direction—I argue that we need …

Regulation Not Prohibition: The Comparative Case Against The Insurable Interest Doctrine, Sharo Michael Atmeh

Sharo M Atmeh

American law requires an insurable interest—a pecuniary or affective stake in the subject of an insurance policy—as a predi-cate to properly obtaining insurance. In theory, the rule prevents both wagering on individual lives and moral hazard. In practice, the doctrine is avoided by complex insurance transaction structuring to effectuate both origination and transfers of insurance by individuals without an insurable interest. This paper argues that it is time to ab-andon the insurable interest doctrine. As both the English and Aus-tralian experiences indicate, elimination of the insurable interest doctrine will have little detrimental pecuniary effect on the insurance industry, while freeing …

Courts And New Democracies: Recent Works, Tom Ginsburg

Tom Ginsburg

Recent literature on comparative judicial politics reveals a variety of roles that courts adopt in the process of democratization. These include, very rarely, serving as a trigger for democratization and, more commonly, serving as downstream guarantor for departing autocrats or as downstream consolidator of democracy. In light of these roles, this article reviews six relatively recent books: Courts in Latin America, edited by Helmke and Rios-Figueroa (2011); Judges Beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile, by Hilbink (2007); Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America, edited by Couso, Huneeus, and Sieder (2011); The Legacies of …

Diapositives Versus Movies – The Inner Dynamics Of The Law And Its Comparative Account, Mauro Bussani, Ugo Mattei

Mauro Bussani

The paper is the introduction to the Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law. The book (as well as its introduction) goes through the variety of possible nuances of comparative law. Acknowledging that diverse working comparative methods can all be useful tools to the understanding of the legal phenomena, this preface sets up two provisos. One is that any method one relies on should enable the researcher to stay close to what the law is, to how the law lives in the different settings – regardless of what one would like (i.e. regardless of what any kind of personal and cultural bias …

Of Orphans And Adoption, Parents And The Poor, Exploitation And Rescue: A Scriptural And Theological Critique Of The Evangelical Christian Adoption And Orphan Care Movement, David M. Smolin

David M. Smolin

The primary purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that the scriptural and theological analysis undergirding the evangelical adoption and orphan care movement is patently and seriously erroneous. Thus, this essay will demonstrate that, based on the standards, methods, and presuppositions broadly shared by evangelical Christians in analyzing scripture and theology, the evangelical adoption movement’s specific analysis of concepts such as “adoption” and “orphans” has been seriously deficient and has produced conclusions that are demonstrably false. The second purpose of this essay will be to indicate that these errors of scriptural and theological analysis have produced, and are producing, practices …

The Education Of Special Needs Children In Uganda: Lessons From The American Legal Environment, David Brian Dennison

David Brian Dennison

This article is a comparative treatment of special education law and policy in Uganda and the United States. The purpose of the article provide additional perspective for those seeking to promote and champion the rights of special needs students in Uganda.

A Call For Stricter Appellate Review Of Decisions On Forum Non Conveniens, Nicholas A. Fromherz

Nicholas A Fromherz

Forum non conveniens has been criticized as anachronistic and unfair. Critics say that it amounts to little more than economic protectionism, serving as a pretext for the dismissal of suits brought against domestic corporate defendants. Even if one does not view the doctrine as inherently flawed, it is undeniable that its application has been extremely uneven owing to the broad discretion exercised by district courts ruling on the issue. Troubling in any circumstances, the misapplication of forum non conveniens is all the more so because of the high stakes pertaining to the matter. When a case is dismissed on forum …