Law Commons^™

Durability, Flexibility And Plasticity In The U.N. Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Sean Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The overall resilience of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea during the forty years since its adoption in 1982—its durability, its flexibility and its plasticity in the face of myriad challenges that have unfolded over time—is largely attributable to certain design features within the Convention, to a willingness to ‘bend’ the Convention toward practical outcomes when necessary, and to the foresight of the drafters in closely tying the Convention to other agreements and standards, as well as to the general field of international law, so that the Convention might evolve as the world evolves. There are risks …

Pandemic As Transboundary Harm: Lessons From The Trail Smelter Arbitration, Russell A. Miller

Scholarly Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused incalculable harm around the world. The fact that this immense harm can be traced back to a localized outbreak in or near Wuhan, China, raises questions about the responsibility China might bear for the pandemic under public international law. Famously applied in the seminal Trail Smelter Arbitration (1938/1941), the Transboundary Harm Principle provides that no state can use or allow the use of its territory in a manner that causes significant harm in the territory of other states. This article does not intend to tap into the unseemly, xenophobic spirit that animates much of the …

Now You See Them, Now You Don’T: International Court-Appointed Experts, Wartime Reparations, And The Drc V. Uganda Case, Sean D. Murphy, Yuri Parkhomenko

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

One intersection between scholarship and practice in international humanitarian law (IHL) is observable in international litigation concerning violations of the law of war. An interesting example in this regard recently arose in the case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by the Democratic Republic of the Congo against Uganda for war-related claims. At the reparations phase, the Court decided not to rely solely on the submissions of the Parties, but to task certain scholars and other experts to answer evidentiary questions. Yet, when the Court’s judgment was issued in February 2022, the role of these experts turned out to …

In Memoriam Thomas Buergenthal (1934-2023), Sean Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Thomas Buergenthal—a Holocaust survivor; a ground-breaking scholar, teacher, and mentor; and a practitioner who scaled the heights of his profession—died at his home in Miami on May 29, 2023. This In Memoriam briefly notes his remarkable life and professional accomplishments, including his youth spent in Nazi concentration camps and his service as a Judge of the International Court of Justice.

When reflecting on his life-long pursuit of robust and effective human rights, Judge Buergenthal understood that, despite great progress in the field of human rights, much remained to be done, and that sadly many atrocities continued across the globe. Yet …

Creativity In Dispute Settlement Relating To The Law Of The Sea, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This chapter, written in honor of David Caron, focuses on creativity in dispute resolution relating to the law of the sea. When the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was adopted in 1982, its dispute settlement procedures were heralded as highly creative in offering an array of possibilities for States (and even non-State actors). Now that almost three decades have passed since the Convention’s entry into force in 1994, can it be said that the promise of such creativity has been fulfilled? It appears that the answer to that question is largely yes, not just in …

A Theory Of Constructive Interpretation For Customary International Law Identification, Nadia Banteka

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

A Game Theoretic Analysis Of International Justice Disputes, Mishal Ayaz

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper works toward analyzing international justice disputes, through a game theoretic lens. The result of such an analysis is an accurate working model for the international justice dispute resolution process, limiting its scope to those disputes that fall under the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction post 1986. This time limitation on the explanatory power of the model was deduced from all of the court’s findings since its inception. The game can be formed in four ways: perfect information, incomplete information, no information, and partial information, all of which have their own unique equilibria, which are formed and discussed individually.

Nuclear Weapons, Elephants, Israel And The World Court, James J. Friedberg

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Judicial Bodies For Resolving Disputes Between States, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This chapter of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on International Adjudication assesses those international judicial bodies that are established principally to resolve disputes between States, notably the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body. Unlike courts oriented toward regional economic integration or regional human rights, such as the European Court of Justice or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, these courts and tribunals primarily focus on resolving disputes between States. Contentious cases before these bodies, for the most part, do not involve institutional organs or …

What A Difference A Year Makes: The International Court Of Justice's 2012 Jurisprudence, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

An analysis of any particular decision of the International Court of Justice sometimes misses broader, cross-cutting themes that animate the Court’s jurisprudence. This essay, prepared for an April 2013 symposium at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, in Florence, explores a few of the themes that emerged from the Court’s 2012 jurisprudence. First, notwithstanding the development of treaty regimes across a broad array of international law, there remains an enduring relevance of customary international law and general principles of law as sources of international law. Second, when identifying rules of customary international law, there is an …

Special Report: Kosovo After The Icj Opinion, Introduction, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

On October 22-25, 2012, judges, government officials, and scholars from Kosovo and the United States gathered at the University of Pittsburgh for a conference on “Kosovo after the ICJ Opinion.” The conference was organized by the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and the University of Prishtina Faculty of Law. It was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, Kosovo; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kosovo; the Forum for Civic Initiatives, Kosovo; the American Society of International Law (ASIL); and the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh …

The International Court Of Justice, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay on the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) is the first chapter in a new book on international courts and tribunals. Important constraints on the ICJ’s jurisdiction preclude it from resolving most disputes between States, and, as was the case for the predecessor Permanent Court of International Justice, the ICJ is not at the apex of an appellate system of international or national courts. Nevertheless, as the judicial wing of the United Nations, the ICJ stands as the most authoritative court for the interpretation of general rules of international law, with its decisions regularly cited by other global, regional, …

The Icj And The Future Of Transboundary Harm Disputes: A Preliminary Analysis Of The Case Concerning Aerial Herbicide Spraying (Ecuador V. Colombia), Robert Esposito

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

Introductory Note To International Court Of Justice: Decision On The Request For Interpretation Of The Avena Judgment, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

On 19 January 2009, the International Court of Justice ("ICJ" or "the Court") issued its Judgment On the Request for the Interpretation of the Avena Judgment ("Judgment") denying Mexico's request for interpretation, and holding that the matters claimed by Mexico "are not matters which ha[d] been decided by the Court in its Judgment," and thus could not give rise to an interpretation as requested by 2Mexico.' This is probably the last step in a complex and lengthy litigation between Mexico and United States,2 which began on January 9, 2003, when Mexico instituted proceedings at the ICJ against the U.S. for …

Form, Function, And The Powers Of International Courts, Dinah L. Shelton

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

At the end of the nineteenth century, the international community began creating its first tribunals with the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Since then, numerous courts and tribunals have been created on the international stage. This Article examines the interplay of form, function, and the powers exercised by international courts. It first considers the functions or attributes of any institution that carries the name "court" or "tribunal" and reflects upon whether there are powers that must be deemed inherent in such an institution to allow it to fulfill the judicial function, irrespective of limitations placed on the court's …

Article Iii And Supranational Judicial Review, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

With the rise of supranational legislative bodies, the use of supranational adjudicatory bodies has also increased. These adjudicatory bodies have even been allowed to review the domestic law decisions offederal administrative agencies, and their decisions are insulated from any review by Article III courts. These developments have been met by intense opposition. This Article addresses the question whether, as claimed by several writers, the emerging supranational adjudicatory order impermissibly contravenes the "essential attributes of the judicial power established by Article III." Examining two case studies, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Supreme Court's recent decisions regarding Article …

An Unrecognized State In Foreign And International Courts: The Case Of The Republic Of China On Taiwan, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the 1970s, Taiwan lost its United Nations seat, and most nations switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the People's Republic of China (PRC). The loss of Taiwan's diplomatic recognition became a fundamental issue in judicial proceedings. Contrary to the PRC's claim, the article argues that, from the viewpoint of international law, Taiwan has never been succeeded by the PRC. The article explores the Taiwan question faced by foreign courts and finds that, albeit the lack of diplomatic recognition, the courts around the world have almost uniformly accorded Taiwan the status of state and this judicial recognition has risen to …

Islamic Law In The Jurisprudence Of The International Court Of Justice: An Analysis, Clark B. Lombardi

Articles

This Article asks whether ICJ opinions to date suggest that judicial consideration of Islamic legal norms has played, can play, or should play a role in the ICJ's resolution of international legal disputes or in establishing the legitimacy of the results that it has reached. It is structured as follows. Part II gives an initial overview of the ICJ to help us understand how and why judges on the ICJ have reached the answers they have. Part III describes how the ICJ's enabling statute permits the Court, at least in theory, to look at Islamic legal norms. As I will …

Medellin, Norm Portals, And The Horizontal Integration Of International Human Rights, Margaret E. Mcguinness

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The dominant narrative of the Medellín v. Dretke line of cases challenging widespread noncompliance by the United States with the notification provisions of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) tells a story of vertical treaty enforcement. The United States has agreed to be bound by a treaty that requires law enforcement authorities to inform foreign nationals arrested in this country of their right to notify their consulates and also requires authorities to permit the foreign consulate to assist its nationals. The United States has further agreed that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has jurisdiction …

The Reagan Doctrine, The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq, And The Role Of A Sole Superpower, Anthony S. Winer

Faculty Scholarship

The particular focus of the comparison in this Essay is the relationship of the Reagan Doctrine and the Bush Doctrine to the international law on the use of force. This comparison will yield some tentative conclusions about the consequences of the United States serving, in some senses, as the world's sole superpower.

U.S. Bombing Of Afghanistan Not Justified As Self-Defense Under International Law, Leslie Rose

Publications

The United States military strikes against Afghanistan cannot be justified as self-defense under the United Nations Charter or customary international law. There is insufficient evidence of an armed attack by the state of Afghanistan and the strikes have been neither necessary nor proportional.

The Return Of The Standard Of Civilization, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: A Vision For The Future, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: A Vision For The Future, Claire M. Germain

UF Law Faculty Publications

The law library community has been talking about how to ensure permanent public access to primary legal information, both US (state and federal), as well as international and foreign legal information. Web Mirror Sites present a new way to disseminate and preserve digital legal information, and offer a security backup for issuing agencies, an increasingly important factor in the new cyberspace world prone to computer hacking.

Models And Documents: Artefacts Of International Legal Knowledge, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article draws upon one year of ethnographic research at United Nations conferences to challenge some common academic assumptions about what it means to "do" international law. The article compares the work of academic international lawyers - founded in making models of an international system - to the work of practitioners - exemplified by the work of making documents, and demonstrates the particular, peculiar nature of each kind of knowledge, from the point of view of the observer. This leads to a set of conclusions concerning how an academic study of international law influenced by an appreciation of the particularity …

From Stockholm To Kyoto And Back To The United States: International Environmental Law's Effect On Domestic Law, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

In Part I, I begin my discussion of the relationship between the two legal regimes with a brief introduction to modern international environmental law to assist those whose knowledge is as limited as mine was not too long ago. I also describe how the Allen Chair Symposium and seminar series was designed to facilitate exploration of major trends in international environmental law. Part II provides a more in-depth look at the specific relationship between domestic and international environmental law. I conclude that international environmental law informs domestic law as a wellspring of law leading to domestic innovation, a complement to …

The Promise Of The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea (Unclos): Justice In Trade And Environment Disputes, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Breard Case And The Virtues Of Forbearance, John G. Douglass

Law Faculty Publications

At a time when the scheduled execution of Angel Francisco Breard made Virginia the focus of a groundbreaking controversy over the reach of internationallaw into the domestic criminal process of the United States, law students and faculty at the University of Richmond had the unique opportunity to consider the case along with Philippe Sands, then a Visiting Allen Chair Professor at the University.

International Law And External Threats To National Parks, Daniel Barstow Magraw

External Development Affecting the National Parks: Preserving "The Best Idea We Ever Had" (September 14-16)

41 pages.

Contains references.