Law Commons^™

Legitimizing International Criminal Justice: The Importance Of Process Control, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

U.S. Foreign Policy And The Arab Spring: Ten Short-Term Lessons Learned, Paul Williams, Colleen Popken

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The End Of The Beginning - A Comprehensive Look At The U.N.'S Business And Human Rights Agenda From A Bystander Perspective, Jena Martin

Faculty Articles

With the endorsement of the Guiding Principles regarding the issue of business and human rights, an important chapter has come to a close. Beginning with the then U.N. Secretary-General's "global compact" speech in 1999, the international legal framework for business and human rights has undergone tremendous change and progress. Yet, for all these developments, there has been no exhaustive examination in the legal academy of all of these events; certainly, there is no one piece that discusses or analyzes all the major instruments that have been proposed and endorsed by the U.N. on the subject of business and its relationship …

The Us Veto Over Palestine's Un Membership, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

While the United Nations is in debate over Palestinians’ request for UN membership, the US has already announced their decision to veto. But the over two thirds of Americans who are neither Jewish nor Evangelical should consider saying yes. It may not solve every problem but it could increase the prospects for successful negotiations between Palestine and Israel.

Development For The Past, Present, And Future: Defining And Measuring Sustainable Development, Max Cantor

Senior Honors Projects

In 1987, the United Nations released the Brundtland Report, which defined sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” While this definition provides a relatively stable theoretical base from which development economists and political scientists can begin to tackle issues surrounding sustainable development, the inherently amorphous nature of this definition has also created a fair amount of ambiguity in both the economic literature surrounding sustainable development and the subsequent attempts by economists to measure it.

Historically, those interested in the science of development have typically …

United Nations Peacekeeping Operations And Security And Reconstruction, Muna Ndulo

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Several studies show that despite recent increases in the number of minor conflicts, long-term trends suggest that international and civil wars are declining. Analyzing the causes of the improvement in global security since 1990, the 2006 Human Security Report argues that the United Nations played a critically important role in spearheading a huge upsurge of international conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities. Although the number of wars has decreased, far too many remain — and there are still several places of instability around the globe that could easily turn into conflict areas. In August 2000, a famous UN report, the …

We Live In A Country Of Unhcr: The Un Surrogate State And Refugee Policy In The Middle East, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

Many gaps in the protection of refugees can be connected to a de facto transfer of responsibility for managing refugee policy from sovereign states to United Nations agencies. This phenomenon can be seen in dozens of countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) manage refugee camps, register newly arrived asylum-seekers, carry out refugee status determination, and administer education, health, livelihood and other social welfare programs.

In carrying out these functions, the UN acts to a great …

Using Human Rights Mechanisms Of The United Nations To Advance Economic Justice, Risa E. Kaufman, Joann Kamuf Ward

Human Rights Institute

As a growing number of social justice lawyers employ human rights standards and strategies to advocate for their clients. human rights mechanisms of the United Nations have become a promising way for lawyers to work toward economic justice. These mechanisms are not only an alternative to traditional litigation and administrative advocacy but also unique opportunities for collaboration among U.S. civil society groups and engagement with policymakers. Because they are grounded in international human 1ights norms. human rights mechanisms have the potential to deal with social and economic issues beyond the reach of traditional domestic protections. By strategically using these mechanisms. …

'Accountability' As 'Legitimacy': Global Governance, Global Civil Society And The United Nations, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This essay is a contribution to a symposium on international NGO accountability. It distinguishes between "internal" accountability for NGOs (fiduciary standards, fiscal and internal governance controls, etc.) and "external" accountability (the legitimacy with which they act in the international world, and the legitimacy which they confer upon others, and why). The essay focuses upon the latter, external accountability, and argues that the transformation of international NGOs into "global civil society" signaled an ideological move with regards to legitimacy in the global community, one which asserted claims of "representativeness" and not merely interest or expertise. The essay criticizes this legitimacy move, …

International Human Rights: Problems Of Law, Policy, And Practice, Dinah L. Shelton, Hurst Hannum, S. James Anaya

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The introductory chapter of this book discusses how a unifying concern for human dignity led to the establishment of human rights as part of the body of international law. Next, the chapter includes excerpts from multiple writers’ works to employ slavery as a case study to demonstrate how the international community has used the notion of human rights to create binding law. Third, this chapter discusses the philosophical drivers of human rights by including writings from other scholars and the history of the presence of human rights in international law. The chapter concludes that increasing concern for human rights may …

Adoption Of The Responsibility To Protect, William W. Burke-White

All Faculty Scholarship

This book chapter traces the legal and political origins of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine from its early origins in the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty through the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document and up to January 2011. The chapter examines the legal meaning of the Responsibility to Protect, the obligations the Responsibility imposes on states and international institutions, and its implications in for the international legal and political systems. The chapter argues that while the Responsibility to Protect has developed with extraordinary speed, it is still a norm in development rather than a binding legal rule. Its …

Internet Access Rights: A Brief History And Intellectual Origins, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If there is anything we have learned from recent protest movements around the world, and the heavy-handed government efforts to block, censor, suspend, and manipulate Internet connectivity, it is that access to the Internet, and its content, is anything but certain, especially when governments feel threatened. Despite these hard truths, the notion that people have a "right" to Internet access gained high-profile international recognition last year. In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in early 2011, Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, held that Internet access should be recognized as a "human right". …

Global Finance, Multinationals And Human Rights: With Commentary On Backer's Critique Of The 2008 Report By John Ruggie, Faith Stevelman

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Internet Access Rights: A Brief History And Intellectual Origins, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If there is anything we have learned from recent protest movements around the world, and the heavy-handed government efforts to block, censor, suspend, and manipulate Internet connectivity, it is that access to the Internet, and its content, is anything but certain, especially when governments feel threatened. Despite these hard truths, the notion that people have a "right" to Internet access gained high-profile international recognition last year. In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in early 2011, Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, held that Internet access should be recognized as a "human right". …

Security Council Resolution 1973 On Libya: A Moment Of Legal & Moral Clarity, Paul Williams, Colleen Popken

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Criminalized State: The International Criminal Court, The Responsibility To Protect, And Darfur, Republic Of Sudan, Matthew H. Charity

Faculty Scholarship

The international community continues to struggle with the question of what to do when a nation fails to protect its own people from systemic neglect, mistreatment, or even genocide. For many years, this debate pitted proponents of humanitarian intervention by a third-party against those who believe that all others must defer to the sovereign right of the state to control its own affairs and the affairs of its people. In the midst of this debate, the international community has adopted a middle road: insisting that states must acknowledge their responsibility to protect their populations and if the state manifestly fails …

Continental Shelf Delimitation Beyond 200 Nautical Miles: Approaches Taken By Coastal States Before The Commission On The Limits Of The Continental Shelf, Coalter G. Lathrop

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cyber-Attacks And The Use Of Force: Back To The Future Of Article 2(4), Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article makes two overarching arguments. First, strategy is a major driver of legal evolution. Most scholarship and commentary on cyber-attacks capture only one dimension of this point, focusing on how international law might be interpreted or amended to take account of new technologies and threats. The focus here, however, is on the dynamic interplay of law and strategy – strategy generates reappraisal and revision of law, while law itself shapes strategy – and the moves and countermoves among actors with varying interests, capabilities, and vulnerabilities. The purpose is not to come down in favor of one legal interpretation or …

Should New Bills Of Rights Address Emerging International Human Rights Norms? The Challenge Of 'Defamation Of Religion', Robert C. Blitt

Scholarly Works

The emerging international human rights norm of “defamation of religion,” an ongoing flashpoint in debates at the United Nations (UN) and elsewhere, merits the attention of all parties playing a role in the drafting of new bills of rights. This article uses the case study of defamation of religion, as an emerging norm and the current debate over a possible Australian bill of rights, to argue that a well-rounded drafting process. This drafting process should contemplate the relevancy and impact of emerging norms as a means of enhancing the process, deepening domestic understanding of rights, and ensuring an outcome instrument …

Child, Family, State, And Gender Equality In Religious Stances And Human Rights Instruments: A Preliminary Comparison, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recently began its third decade. Why has the United States still not ratified the CRC, celebrated as the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history? Once again, this question is on the table: Congressional resolutions that President Obama should not transmit the CRC to the Senate for advice and consent rapidly followed intimations that the Obama Administration had some qualms about the U.S. keeping company only with Somalia in not ratifying it. Some scholars contend that enlisting the unique resources of religions would help to ground a culture …

Introduction: The New Collective Security, Peter G. Danchin, Horst Fischer

Faculty Scholarship

Whether viewed as a socio-legal project gently civilizing states away from an older politics of diplomacy, deterrence, self-help and legitimate warfare, or as an institutional project establishing a collective security system premised on the rule of law, the primary purpose of the United Nations today remains the maintenance of international peace and security and the abolition of the “scourge of war.” In March 2003, the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq, a member State of the United Nations, in order to disarm it and change the regime of Saddam Hussein. The war shook the United Nations and leading capitals around …

Things Fall Apart: The Concept Of Collective Security In International Law, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter provides an introduction to the analytical and historical aspects of the concept of collective security in international law. Taking the examples of Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 during the League of Nations and the complaint brought by Hyderabad against India at the very inception of the United Nations in 1948, the chapter traces the complex dialectics of normativity and concreteness in debates concerning collective security. Mirroring the normative and institutional dilemmas underlying the two cases of Ethiopia and Hyderabad, it is observed that the questions of “external threats” (the threat or use of force between States) and …

Assessing The High-Level Panel Report: Rethinking The Causes And Consequences Of Threats To Collective Security, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Faculty Scholarship

This is a contribution to a volume of essays anchored in the evaluations of proposed reforms of the United Nations system extant in the middle half of the last decade. The essay’s focus is primarily on the role of the Security Council as the provider of collective security within the system. It contends that the term “collective security” has become far too amorphous and too all-embracing to be useful, and that it runs the risk of distorting the proper allocation of power within the international system. It argues for a more circumscribed view of collective security, and for a less …

Implementing The Standby Letter For Credit Convention With The Law Of Wyoming, James J. White

Articles

For the first time in American practice, we propose to implement a convention by a federal adoption of law previously enacted by the states – from Wyoming to New York – to implement the Convention on Independent Guarantees and Standby Letters of Credit (“Convention”).1

Leveraging Asylum, James C. Hathaway

Articles

I believe that the analysis underlying the leveraged right to asylum is conceptually flawed. As I will show, there is no duty of non-refoulement that binds all states as a matter of customary international law and it is not the case that all persons entitled to claim protection against refoulement of some kind are ipso facto entitled to refugee rights. These claims are unsound precisely because the critical bedrock of a real international legal obligation-namely, the consent of states evinced by either formal commitments or legally relevant actions -does not yet exist.

Cultural And Economic Self-Determination For Tribal Peoples In The United States Supported By The Un Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Angelique Eaglewoman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Un Peacekeeping: A Sheep In Wolves Clothing? Review Of Un Peacekeeping In Lebanon, Somalia And Kosovo: Operational And Legal Issues In Practice, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

Scholars and practitioners have been debating the legal and operational aspects of UN military operations since its enforcement actions in North Korea in 1950 and the Congo in 1960 (UN Operation in the Congo [ONUC]). Since then, the UN Security Council (UNSC) has authorized some semblance of enforcement action in Kuwait, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, East Timor and Albania, and authorized, sanctioned or co-deployed forces in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Coˆte d’Ivoire and Sudan. The scholarly literature is abundant with analysis of nearly every aspect of peacekeeping and peace enforcement …

Paradigm Shifts In International Justice And The Duty To Protect; In Search Of An Action Principle, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article places the emerging “responsibility to protect” within the historical development of international human rights and criminal law, while also attempting to more fully theorize the responsibility to ensure that it can be a basis for action in the face of a state’s commission of atrocities against its citizens. The main point of departure concerns the issue of “right authority” at that point in time when a coercive intervention is justified. Rather than rely solely on the Security Council in these situations, this article contends that unilateral and multilateral action must be countenanced by a fully theorized “responsibility to …

Kick The Habit: A Un Guide To Climate Neutrality, United Nations

AALL Legal Website of the Month

Kick the Habit, is written by experts from many disciplines and various countries, with leading research organizations involved in preparing and reviewing the publication. It presents solutions, from reducing consumption and increasing energy efficiency to offsetting emissions via carbon trading schemes, for individuals, businesses, cities and countries plus other groups that have similar characteristics such as NGO and intergovernmental organizations. The book contains case studies, illustrations, maps and graphics and serves also as reference publication.

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vise versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.