Law Commons^™

Changing The International Law Of Sovereign Immunity Through National Decisions, Lori F. Damrosch

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international law of sovereign immunity derives from state practice embodied in national judicial decisions and legislation. Although some U.S. Supreme Court decisions refer to this body of law using terms like "grace and comity," the customary international law of sovereign immunity is law, which national courts should consider when arriving at immunity decisions. While it would be possible for a widely followed international treaty to work changes in customary international law, the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property has not done so yet. National legislation such as the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act can precipitate …

The Future Of The World Health Organization: What Role For International Law?, David P. Fidler

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article has tried to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role of international law in WHO's future. Whether WHO realizes it, international law has had and will continue to have effects on international health policy. In the future, WHO has a choice: It can continue to act as if international law plays no role in global public health or it can build the commitment and capacity needed to integrate international law into its endeavors and into the creation of global health jurisprudence. Building such commitment and capacity will not resurrect WHO to its past glories, but they may very …

Straightening The "Timber": Toward A New Paradigm Of International Law, Louis R. Beres

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Immanuel Kant once remarked: " Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made, nothing entirely straight can be built." Understood in terms of international law, this philosopher's wisdom points toward a far-reaching departure from traditional emphases on structures of global power and authority. Newly aware that structural alterations of international law are always epiphenomenal, ignoring root causes of international crimes in favor of their symptomatic expressions, we could craft from this departure a new and promising jurisprudence. Acknowledging that human transformations must lie at the heart of all world-order reform, we could build upon the knowledge …

Provisional Measures In The Inter-American Human Rights System: An Innovative Development In International Law, Jo M. Pasqualucci

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Pasqualucci examines the developing jurisprudence of provisional measures in the Inter-American human rights system. Through the adoption of provisional measures, a human rights court may order a state to protect persons who are in danger of imminent death or torture. The author first provides an overview of the Inter-American system of human rights. She then describes the historical background of the jurisprudence of provisional measures in the International Court of Justice and the European human rights system, which served as models for provisional measures in the developing Inter-American system. Finally, she analyzes the use of provisional …

The Role Of International Law As A Canon Of Domestic Statutory Construction, Ralph G. Steinhardt

Vanderbilt Law Review

From the beginning of our constitutional life, the Supreme Court has articulated principles that structure the juridical relationship between international law and domestic law. These principles purportedly offer rules of decision for resolving in domestic courts the potential in-consistencies between external and internal sources of law, and they do so with the surface simplicity of axioms. Treaties, for example, cannot trump constitutional norms.' Customary international law can provide a rule of decision at least in the absence of controlling legislative or executive acts. In the case of an irreconcilable conflict between a treaty and a statute, the latter-in-time prevails. When …

The Beagle Channel Affair: A Failure In Judicial Persuasion, David M. Himmelreich

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It has been demonstrated that although the Argentine Declaration of Nullity does not contain valid legal arguments for rejection, it does indicate weaknesses in the Court's opinion that make it vulnerable to rejection for political reasons. Specifically, the Court's remarks about Chilean possession of disputed islands outside the hammer were especially ill-advised. In addition, the Court failed to clearly articulate the reason for dividing the small Channel islands by appurtenance while refusing to do so for PNL. Finally, the Court's refusal to apply an Oceanic principle, even in a narrow sense, was questionable in a case in which the legal …

The Jurisprudence Of Judge Hardy Cross Dillard, Charles E.M. Kolb

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical assessment of Judge Dillard's performance during his tenure on the International Court of Justice. Much of this article will be "jurisprudential" in scope, endeavoring to examine developments in international legal theory and international organizations during the past two decades and to assess recent decisions written by the Court. The approach will in part be an institutional one, taking into consideration the ability of an individual member of the Court to shape decisional outcomes of an international body which must resolve contentious litigation and render advisory opinions within the structure of …

Book Reviews, Max Rheinstein, Eugene V. Rostow, William O. Thweatt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

JUDICIAL REVIEW IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

By Mauro Cappelletti

Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1971. Pp. xi, 117. $8.50 ($4.50 student edition).

reviewer: Max Rheinstein

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THE PRICE OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE

Philip C. Jessup

New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. Pp. ix, 82. $5.95.

reviewer: Eugene V. Rostow

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THREE WORLDS OF DEVELOPMENT: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL STRATIFICATION

By Irving Louis Horowitz

New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. Pp. xxx, 556. $15.00 (Paperback, $3.50).

reviewer: William O. Thweatt

Books Received, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

G.I. RIGHTS AND ARMY JUSTICE: THE DRAFTEE'S GUIDE TO MILITARY LIFE AND LAW

By Robert S. Rivkin

New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1970. Pp. vii, 383. $1.75.

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HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL ACTION

By Ernst B. Haas

Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1970.Pp. vii, 184.

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INDIRECT TAXATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

By John F. Due

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1970. Pp. v, 201. $9.00.

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INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE REGULATION OF THE RADIO SPECTRUM

By David M. Leive

Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.: Oceana Publications Inc., 1970. Pp. 11, 386.$16.50.

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THE WINDS OF FREEDOM

By Dean Rusk …

Case Comments, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Sovereign Immunity and Act of State -- A Foreign Sovereign instituting Suit in a United States Court waives Immunity to a Set-off arising from an Act of that Sovereign

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International Law--Nuremburg Doctrine invoked in Domestic Court-Martial