Law Commons^™

Learning From Others: Sustaining The Internationalization And Globalization Of U.S. Law School Curriculums, James Maxeiner

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This address has three principal points: (1) An overview of how we are going about internationalizing the law school curriculum today in the United States; (2) Whether we are making as much progress as we should and how learning from others is central to sustaining our progress such as it is; and (3) What some of the obstacles to such learning are.

The International Joint Commission And Great Lakes Diversions: Indirectly Extending The Reach Of The Boundary Waters Treaty, A. Dan Tarlock

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The 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty (Treaty) is a model of, international water resources cooperation because it provides a permanent dispute mechanism, the six member International Joint Commission (IJC). Thus, both Canada and the United States have much to celebrate on the 100th anniversary of the Treaty. However, the most interesting aspect of the Treaty is the regime's ability to evolve through state practice beyond its original dispute resolution function, despite the inconsistent support for IJC involvement in transboundary water issues of the United States. The Treaty has been severely criticized by governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially in, Canada, for …

Some Realism About Legal Certainty In The Globalization Of The Rule Of Law, James Maxeiner

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The rule of law is at the heart of globalization. It promises both international and domestic routes to peace, security, democracy, human rights and sustainable development worldwide. A central tenet of the rule of law is legal certainty. For most modern jurists, it is a matter of course that legal certainty is a systemic goal, even if that goal is not always fully realized. But for American jurists who count themselves legal realists, legal certainty is not even a flawed goal; it is a childish myth. This address seeks to raise awareness of this fundamental difference and to show its …

Bringing Baseball To Israel, Kenneth Lasson

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This brief article discusses little leagues in Israel, as well as individuals interested in baseball in that nation, especially those from the Maryland and Baltimore area. Mentioned is assistance sent to the little leagues by the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, and some of the memories of those involved of baseball in the United States, but who now reside in Israel.

Transnational Legal Practice 2006-2007, Laurel S. Terry, Carol Silver, Ellyn Rosen, Carol A. Needham, Robert E. Lutz, Peter D. Ehrenhaft

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Law practice continues to expand across borders, and lawyers and law firms from the United States and other countries are substantially invested in representations that take them outside of their home jurisdictions.[1] Unfortunately, reliable information relating to the extent of internationalization of the legal market is scarce. Neither the number of lawyers and law firms working in the international legal services market nor the receipts generated from internationally-related work are readily and reliably available. Nevertheless, statistics from both the United States and United Kingdom provide a sense of the numbers from the largest present sources of international legal practice.

In …

Guiding Litigation: Applying Law To Facts In Germany, James Maxeiner

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"Judges should apply the law, not make it." That plea appears perennially in American politics. American legal scholars belittle it as a "simple-minded demand" that is "silly and misleading. It is not; it is what the public rightly expects from law. H.L.A. Hart, reminded U.S. jurists that "conventional legal thought in all countries conceives as the standard judicial function: the impartial application of determinant existing rules in the settlement of disputes."

This essay discusses the German method of judicial applying of law to facts. called, in German, the "Relationstechnik," that is, in English, literally "relationship technique." This essay shows how …

The Argentine Financial Crisis: State Liability Under Bits And The Legitimacy Of The Icsid System, William W. Burke-White

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This essay examines the jurisprudence of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral tribunals in a series of cases brought against the Republic of Argentina in the wake of the 2001-2002 Argentine financial collapse. The essay considers the ICSID tribunals' treatment of non-precluded measures provisions in Argentina's bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and the customary law defense of necessity and argues that the ICSID tribunals have sought to radically narrow the opportunities available to states to craft policy responses to emergency situations while strengthening investor protections beyond the intent of the states parties to the BITs under …

Depoliticizing Individual Criminal Responsibility, Bartram Brown

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No abstract provided.

Competing For Capital: The Diffusion Of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 1960-2000, Zachary Elkins, Andrew T. Guzman, Beth A. Simmons

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Over the past forty-five years, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have become the most important international legal mechanism for the encouragement and governance of foreign direct investment. Their proliferation over the past two decades in particular has been phenomenal. These intergovernmental treaties typically grant extensive rights to foreign investors, including protection of contractual rights and the right to international arbitration in the event of an investment dispute. How can we explain the diffusion of BITs? We argue that the spread of BITs is driven by international competition among potential host countries - typically developing countries - for foreign direct investment. We …

Proactive Complementarity: The International Criminal Court And National Courts In The Rome System Of Justice, William W. Burke-White

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When the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002, States, NGOs, and the international community had extraordinarily high expectations that the Court could bring an end to impunity and provide broad-based accountability for international crimes. Nearly five years later, those expectations appear unfulfilled, due to political constraints, resource limitations, and the inability of the ICC to apprehend suspects. This article offers a novel solution to the misalignment of resources, expectations, and legal mandate of the ICC, arguing that the Court must more actively engage with national governments and encourage States to undertake their own prosecutions of international crimes. The …

Investment Protection In Extraordinary Times: The Interpretation And Application Of Non-Precluded Measures Provisions In Bilateral Investment Treaties, William W. Burke-White, Andreas Von Staden

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When threatened by crises such as global terrorism, financial collapse, pandemic diseases, and natural disasters, states may resort to measures that harm the interests of foreign investors protected under the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) regime. Many such BITs, however, contain heretofore under-studied clauses that preclude liability for state actions taken in response to exceptional circumstances. These non-precluded measures (NPM) clauses effectively transfer the risk of and costs associated with state action in exceptional circumstances from the host-states of international investments to the investors. In two recent cases brought against Argentina in response to the Argentine financial crisis, ICSID tribunals have …

Human Freedom And Two Friedmen: Musings On The Implications Of Globalization For The Effective Regulation Of Corporate Behavior, Leo E. Strine Jr.

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In this essay, which was delivered as the Torys Lecture at the University of Toronto, Vice Chancellor Strine considers the implications of globalization for the effective regulation of corporate behavior affecting interests other than those of stockholders against the backdrop of the West’s political and economic experience. He concludes that consistent with prior experience, the globalization of corporate markets will require a corresponding expansion of the polity to protect those aspects of human freedom that are affected in important ways by corporate behavior. As a practical matter, this means that if the U.S. and other Western nations wish to limit …

The Domestic Influence Of International Criminal Tribunals: The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia And The Creation Of The State Court Of Bosnia & Herzegovina, William W. Burke-White

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International criminal tribunals are often criticized for having minimal influence on the states over which they exercise jurisdiction. This article argues that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has had a far more positive impact on domestic governance in Bosnia & Herzegovina than previously assumed by both the academic and policy communities. The article develops a theoretical model to explain the impact of international criminal tribunals on domestic governance and tests that model against the ICTY¹s influence in Bosnia. More specifically, the article advances the claim that the nature of the tribunal¹s jurisdictional relationship with domestic judicial institutions …