Law Commons^™

Secular Crosses And The Neutrality Of Secularism, Marie E. Roper

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note discusses analogous themes in two religious public display cases, Lautsi v. Italy, recently decided by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and Salazar v. Buono, recently handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Broader critiques of ECHR religious jurisprudence are addressed in the context of the interpretation and application of the principle of neutrality and the argument that secularism is not a necessary postulate of this demand. It is this theme of the relationship between neutrality and secularism that is also prominent in the American discussion about the relationship between government and religion. …

Treaty Bodies And The Interpretation Of Human Rights, Kerstin Mechlem

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The eight United Nations human rights treaty bodies play an important role in establishing the normative content of human rights and in giving concrete meaning to individual rights and state obligations. Unfortunately, their output often suffers from methodological weaknesses and lack of coherence and analytical rigor, which compromise its legitimacy.

This Article suggests that these deficits could in large part be addressed if the committees applied the customary legal rules of interpretation codified in Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention), which requires attention to the text, context, and object and purpose …

Return To Europe? The Czech Republic And The Eu's Influence On Its Treatment Of Roma, Matthew D. Marden

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Czech Republic has faced much criticism in the past fifteen years for the treatment of its Romani minority community. The European Union has successfully applied informal, non-legal means of pressuring the Czech Republic into making some changes necessary to improve living conditions for Roma. With the Czech Republic's recent accession to the European Union, legal human rights institutions will likely play a larger role in ensuring that the Czech Republic continues to improve conditions for Czech Roma. The Author uses a case brought by a group of Roma at the European Court of Human Rights to demonstrate the potential …

Predicting The Effect Of Italy's Long-Awaited Rape Law Reform On "The Land Of Machismo", Amy J. Everhart

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In 1996, the Italian Parliament enacted a new rape law, replacing a law written in 1936 under the direction of Fascist-era leader Benito Mussolini. While the old law classified rape as a crime against public morality, the new law declares it a crime against the person. That it took sixty years to reform the law is a reflection of Italy's long history of subordinating its women. That the law has finally been reformed is a reflection that those women have united to change that attitude. This Note discusses the history of the rape law in Italy and the role of …

Short V. The Kingdom Of The Netherlands: Is It Time To Renegotiate The Nato Status Of Forces Agreement?, Steven J. Lepper

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Major Lepper examines an apparent irreconcilability between the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as reflected in the recent Dutch High Court decision of Short v. The Kingdom of the Netherlands. Staff Sergeant Short, a member of the United States Air Force, was charged with the murder of his wife. Under the SOFA, the Netherlands was obligated to surrender Short to the United States. It refused, basing its actions on its adherence to the ECHR and its concerns about the possible implementation of the death penalty in the United States.

The ECHR …

Book Received, Law Library Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Books Received

Aspects of the International Banking Safety Net

By G.G. Johnson, with Richard K. Abrams

Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1983. Pp. v, 36. $5.00

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The Soviet Viewpoint

By Georgi Arbatov and Willem Oltmans

New York: Dodd, Mead, 1983. Pp. xviii, 219. $13.95

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The Law of Corporate Groups: Procedural Problems in the Law of Parent and Subsidiary Corporations

By Phillip I. Blumberg

Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1983. Pp. xxxii, 527. $65.00

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Iraq & Iran: Roots of Conflict

By Tareq Y. Ismael

Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982. Pp. xii, 226. $24.00 cloth; $12.95 paper …

An Analysis Of The Proposition Of Accession Of The European Communities To The European Convention On Human Rights, Yves Quintin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Considering the numerous problems created by the accession, including the length of time required and the administrative burdens placed on the EC, one may question the value of this project. The creation of a catalogue of rights, however, will require as much time as the accession. As Professor Schermers points out, producing such a catalogue specifically for the EC will further split Western Europe, isolate the other members of the Council of Europe, and limit the effectiveness of the ECHR to the extent that the provisions in the catalogue would offer higher standards of protection. One may argue, however, that …

United States Compliance With The Helsinki Final Act: The Treatment Of Aliens, David Carliner

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A casualty, sorely if not fatally wounded, of the Soviet armed intervention in Afghanistan is the once widely-touted Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe concluded in Helsinki on August 1, 1975. The Conference was originally proposed by the Soviet Union in the 1950's in order to promote its perceived security interest in Europe and to legitimize its territorial boundaries in Eastern Europe. Though initially opposed to the idea, the United States finally supported it in 1972 as a means of promoting the "security that would come from an expansion of cooperation between East and West …

Human Rights And The Belgrade Meeting, Arthur J. Goldberg

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In September of 1977, President Carter asked me to take on responsibility for what is familiarly called CSCE--the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Like most Americans, I had previously thought of the CSCE in terms of the Helsinki Summit of 1975 when President Ford signed the document called the Final Act, a lengthy text, not a treaty, but an expression at the highest political level of the commitment of the 35 states of Europe and North America to respect certain principles of interstate behavior, to respect human rights, to build mutual confidence in the military sphere, and to …

Book Notes, C. H. H., K. D. K.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Until the Nuremburg Tribunal, international thought concerning human rights conformed to the idea that the guarantor of these rights was the national sovereign. With the birth of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the need for international guarantees of human rights within a state was formally recognized; that individuals have certain inalienable human rights is a proposition which few nations will dispute today. Furthermore, despite wide ideological differences, most states have found it possible to agree on the scope and consequences of man's fundamental freedoms.