Law Commons^™

Appropriate Role Of Foreign Judgments In The Interpretation Of American Law: Hearing Before The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 108th Cong., Mar. 25, 2004 (Statement Of Vicki C. Jackson, Prof. Of Law, Geo. U. L. Center), Vicki C. Jackson

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Democracy In Hong Kong: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On East Asian And Pacific Affairs Of The S. Comm. On Foreign Relations, 108th Cong., Mar. 4, 2004 (Statement Of Professor James V. Feinerman, Geo. U. L. Center), James V. Feinerman

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Brief Of International Law And Jurisdiction Professors As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioners, Rasul V. Bush, Nos. 03-334 & 03-343 (U.S. Jan. 12, 2004), Barry E. Carter

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Dialogue And Human Dignity: States And Transnational Constitutional Discourse, Vicki C. Jackson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The U.S. Supreme Court has been slower than some other national courts to become familiar with and discuss, distinguish, or borrow from related constitutional approaches of other nations and systems. The growth in transnational judicial discourse, especially on constitutional issues relating to human rights, has been remarked by many. National courts in Argentina, Botswana, Canada, Germany, India, South Africa, and elsewhere not infrequently refer to the constitutional jurisprudence of other nations in resolving domestic constitutional questions. Although such references are not unheard of in the United States, transnational discourse involving national courts, supranational and international tribunals is still subject to …

International Law Status Of Wto Dispute Settlement Reports: Obligation To Comply Or Option To "Buy Out"?, John H. Jackson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In four further parts of this comment, I undertake to fulfill my "obligation" to present a more thorough analysis. In part II, I briefly introduce some of the different elements that would go into normal treaty interpretation related to the issue in question, such as which text should be part of the analysis and whether "preparatory work" or intent of the parties, including statements by some nation-state governmental officials made contemporaneously with the drafting of the treaty, should be considered. Likewise, I mention the importance of the forty seven years of GATT practice to the interpretive process, and I note …

Egyptian Feminism: Trapped In The Identity Debate, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article argues that if we wish to account for the limited gains made in the area of family law reform in Egypt in the twentieth century, it is crucial to relate the debate on family law with another debate, one revolving around the identity of the Egyptian legal system. Whereas the dispute over family law reform forced decisions on gender and the family, the contest surrounding identity centered on the ongoing and agonized struggle by Egyptians to define the nature of their country's contemporary cultural identity. The question of identity was often framed as a debate over the "character" …

Folktales Of International Justice, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

When Laura Dickinson asked me to participate on this panel, she very nicely said that she hoped I could bring a different perspective to the discussion. I thought I knew what she meant. The other panelists share a profound knowledge of how international criminal-law institutions work. My "different perspective" would therefore be the perspective of abject ignorance.

Taking comfort from the Socratic dictum that there is wisdom in knowing what you do not know, I accepted the invitation because it gives me the opportunity to pose questions rather than proposing answers. I will raise my questions by examining some stories …

Lecture Commentary On Islam And International Law: Toward A Positive Mutual Engagement To Realize Shared Ideals, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

An-Na'im as I read him is postulating a process theory when it comes to the relationship of Islamic law to international law. He is advocating a bargaining relationship in which the Islamic side and the international side meet as equals in negotiating their contributions to the universal international. This process-based equality can only be achieved if, first, the international eschews its We sternness and the Islamic retains its internal sense of diversity, indeed secularism. The international abandons its Westernness when it abandons its pre-World War II impulse to colonize, imperialize, and hegemonize, acts which at heart render equality in the …

War Everywhere: Rights, National Security Law, And The Law Of Armed Conflict In The Age Of Terror, Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Both international and domestic law take as a basic premise the notion that it is possible, important, and usually fairly straightforward to distinguish between war and peace, emergencies and normality, the foreign and the domestic, the external and the internal. From an international law perspective, the law of armed conflict is triggered only when a armed conflict actually exists; the rest of the time, other bodies of law are applicable. Domestically, U.S. courts have developed a constitutional and statutory jurisprudence that distinguishes between national security issues and domestic questions, with the courts subjecting government actions to far less scrutiny when …

The Politics Of (Mis)Recognition: Islamic Law Pedagogy In American Academia, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The combination of presence (of Islamic law) and absence (of legal transplant) in the course materials assigned by Islamic law instructors, the scholarship on law in the Islamic world by Islamic law scholars as well as by Comparatists, betrays an ideological project. I would describe it as an identitarian one with an underlying teleological notion of history. By identitarian I mean the positing of a common identity shared by all "Muslims" based on their religio/legal beliefs, a project that to my mind recalls what I called earlier the "fantasy effect." "[F]antasy is the means by which real relations of identity …

The Varied Policies Of International Juridical Bodies: Reflections On Theory And Practice, John H. Jackson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I would like to turn to how my current thinking and writing relate to the broader issues of international law norm creation. One such article is quite recent and it represents some of my thinking in these broader general issues. It is entitled Sovereignty Modern, and it is a close look at the question of sovereignty and how it affects the fundamental logic of international law. I do not pretend that I have finalized my views, but fundamentally very few people really accept the original, Westphalian idea of sovereignty anymore. There are many other constructs of what sovereignty currently means, …

Modernizing Muslim Family Law: The Case Of Egypt, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Author discusses the dynamics of family law reforms in modern Egypt as an instance of similar dynamics of reforms in other Muslim countries. The forces that push for reforms as well as those that try to limit them are also introduced. The Author begins by describing the historical legal background shared by the vast majority of Muslim countries, including Egypt. An account of the general evolution of Islamic law-from a dominant system existing within an Islamic state to a subordinate system existing within an overall secularized legal system characterized by legal borrowing from European codes-is given. Islamic law has …

The Human Rights Of Persons With Mental Disabilities: A Global Perspective On The Application Of Human Rights Principles To Mental Health, Lawrence O. Gostin, Lance Gable

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article examines the human rights of persons with mental disabilities and the application and development of these rights by the various international and regional systems that have been established to protect human rights. An international system of human rights with universal application has been developed under the auspices of the United Nations. Regional human rights systems have applied additional human rights protections to their respective geographic regions. Both the international and regional systems have addressed the human rights of persons with mental disabilities through treaties, declarations, and thematic resolutions. Moreover, regional institutions have incrementally formulated a body of law …

Domestic And External Debt: The Doomed Quest For Equal Treatment, Anna Gelpern, Brad Setser

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Until recently, governments borrowed from domestic residents and foreign investors using very different instruments. Residents bought "domestic debt" - paper denominated in local currency and governed by domestic law. Foreign investors preferred "external debt", which offered foreign currency and foreign law. Because there was virtually no overlap between resident and nonresident holdings, it mattered little that lawyers and economists defined domestic and external debt differently: lawyers focused on features such as governing law and jurisdiction, economists on the holder's residence and currency of denomination. The legal and economic definitions of domestic and external debt were effectively bundled: "domestic debt" meant …