Law Commons^™

Law Enforcement Cooperation In Anti-Trafficking Cases, Anne T. Gallagher, Paul Holmes

Anne T Gallagher

Gallagher and Holmes consider the extent to which cross-border cooperation between national law enforcement agencies is necessary for an effective criminal justice response to trafficking. In exploring the opportunities and challenges of such cooperation, the presenters draw on first-hand experience of working with the ASEAN Heads of Specialist Trafficking Units Process ; established in 2004 to promote exchange of intelligence and good practices between specialist trafficking units in South East Asia.

Changing The Culture Of Corruption - Do Small Steps Count?, Rhona Smith

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Corruption is endemic in modern society, but history attests this problem is as old as states themselves. No single solution to date has garnered sufficient political and/or popular support to effect change. Could education play a role in changing the culture?

U.S. Certified Claims Against Cuba: Legal Reality And Likely Settlement Mechanisms, Timothy Ashby

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Misconceptions abound regarding U.S. certified claims against Cuba for properties taken by the Castro regime. Given the probability that the Obama administration may pursue a different Cuba policy than its predecessors, a realistic approach to resolution of the claims issue requires an objective understanding of the legal environment and options for settlement.

Bilateral Investment Treaties And Fdi Flows, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Given that one of the principal purposes of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) is to help countries attract investment flows (by protecting investments), it is only natural that the question has been raised whether they do, in fact, lead to higher investment flows. The main studies on this topic from the past decade are collected in The Effect of Treaties on Foreign Direct Investment: Bilateral Investment Treaties, Double Taxation Treaties, and Investment Flows (Oxford University Press, 2009), a volume I edited with Karl P. Sauvant.

Introductory Note To The Optional Protocol To The International Covenant On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights, Tara J. Melish

Journal Articles

This Introductory Note to the publication in ILM of the newly-adopted Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) seeks to put the primary source document in proper context by briefly explaining its history, content, and significance in international law. The Note is accompanied by the text of the OP-ICESCR, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 10, 2008 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The OP creates an individual complaints procedure for alleged violations of the ICESCR, rectifying a thirty year asymmetry in human rights treaty law.

The Detainees' Dilemma: The Virtues And Vices Of Advocacy Strategies In The War On Terror, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Bromfield V. Mukasey Correctly Applied U.S. Immigration Law In A Victory For Civil Rights And A Scathing Rebuke Of Jamaica's Pervasive Homophobia, Michael D. Ford

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The United States As Global Cop: Defining The 'Substantial Effects' Test In U.S. Antitrust Enforcement In The Americas And Abroad, Jordan A. Dresnick, Kimberley A. Piro, Israel J. Encinosa

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Meta-Theory Of International Criminal Procedure: Vindicating The Rule Of Law, Jens David Ohlin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

International criminal procedure is in a second phase of development, moving beyond the common law/civil law dichotomy and searching for its sui generis theory. The standard line is that international criminal procedure has an instrumental value: it services the general goals of international criminal justice and allows punishment for violations of substantive international criminal law. However, international criminal procedure also has an important and often overlooked intrinsic value not reducible to its instrumental value: it vindicates the Rule of Law. This vindication is performed by adjudicating allegations of criminal violations that occurred during periods of anarchy characterized by the absence …

The Danish Cartoon Controversy And The Rhetoric Of Libertarian Regret, Robert A. Khan

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The publication of cartoons insulting the prophet Mohammed created afar greater controversy in Europe than it did in the United States. In this article, I attempt to trace this difference to broader differences in the way Americans and Europeans think about offensive speech. While Americans have developed a language of "libertarian regret, " which allows them to criticize speech that they nevertheless concede the legal system must protect, Europeans are much more concerned about the threat posed by acts of intolerance. As a result, Europeans tended to view Muslim protests against the cartoons as a potential harbinger of totalitarianism. By …

Actual Exploitation, Simulated Exploitation And A Tin Drum: A Comparative Analysis Of Child Pornography Law In The United States And Canada, Maurice "Mac" Verstandig

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The United States and Canada two of the world's foremost modern, liberalized societies regularly combat an awkward and painful tension between free speech rights and the wellbeing of minors. Though there generally exists a consensus that child pornography represents a certain dark realm of material outside the oft-amorphous protections afforded speech, the establishment of an acceptable working definition of this criminal fodder has proven contentiously difficult. This paper explores each nation's struggles with this tension, through the lens of legislative efforts, judicial responses, and the productions that seem to perennially blur the line between art and crime. It is ultimately …

April Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Cambodia's Curse” by Joel Brinkley. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2009.

Cursing Cambodia, Charli Carpenter

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Joel Brinkley has written a heartbreaking piece in Foreign Affairs about Cambodian society thirty-five years after Pol Pot. We are presented with anecdote after anecdote about historical trauma, corruption, and poverty. It’s a depressing picture, and an important country case to have on the US’ foreign policy radar screen.

No Show, Mark Gibney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For someone of my generation, any mention of Cambodia conjures up a jumble of images and emotions—albeit, nearly all from the distant past. Always appearing, but in no particular order, would be: the revelation of Nixon’s secret war; the killings at Kent State; strikes that closed down a number of American college campuses; Pol Pot; the seemingly endless debate whether to use the term Cambodia or the more radical “Kampuchea”; Prince Sihanouk; and last but certainly not least: the Khmer Rouge as the personification of a Third World liberation movement.

New Government In Cambodia, Tyler Moselle

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The government of Cambodia is replete with corruption and does not respond adequately to the needs of its citizens according to Joel Brinkley’s Foreign Affairs article “Cambodia’s Curse.” Pol Pot, the killing fields, and the Khmer Rouge still linger in the memories of most Americans when Cambodia’s name is mentioned. Yet, the country is currently languishing in the arms of an unresponsive governing elite whose fortunes may continue to improve due to oil and continuous aid grafting.

A Curse Not Limited To Cambodia, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Brinkley’s piece draws welcome attention to the virtual farce of hybrid justice now underway in Cambodia, although the emphasis of the piece on the prevalence of corruption de-emphasizes a broader point: human rights protections are not respected in Cambodia, and serious accountability for the abuses by the Khmer Rouge or any subsequent abuses are unlikely, not merely because leaders are corrupt, but because the wide scale culture of impunity makes the protection of human rights and functional rule of law virtually impossible.

A Coincidental Trip To Cambodia, Rebecca Otis

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In a timely coincidence, Henry Alford’s recent travel article, “Banishing the Ghosts in Cambodia,” recently tantalized this reader with visions of a destination vacation in mind. Written for the travel-inspired readership of the New York Times, Alford’s version of Cambodia as a newly reborn hotspot for far flung Westerners approaches the point of lulling his decidedly non-Cambodian audience into pleasantly myopic vision of a plush Cambodian phoenix fully risen from its mired ashes. Amidst the outcropping of chic resorts and beautiful beaches reincarnated from the elegant, pre-Khmer Rouge moment of Cambodia’s forgotten past, Alford banishes the ghosts of Pol Pot’s …

Reviewing Supranational Criminology: Towards A Criminology Of International Crimes, Alette Smeulers & Roelof Haveman, Eds. (2008), Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Outsourcing And Insourcing Crime: The Political Economy Of Globalized Criminal Activity, Tomer Broude, Doron Teichman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Globalization is on the rise. The last few decades have been marked by dramatic reductions in transaction costs that have helped bring together local markets. Technological advances such as wireless telecommunications and the Internet have connected buyers and sellers of goods and services across the planet through transactions that were not even feasible, let alone cost-effective, as little as a decade ago. No less importantly, the systematic removal of regulatory barriers to international trade has facilitated economic globalization. At the forefront of international economic liberalization, the creation of the World Trade Organization ("WTO") in 1995 extended multilateral trading rules beyond …

The Rise Of International Criminal Law: Intended And Unintended Consequences, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The rise of international criminal law has been one of the remarkable features of international law since 1990. One of the less-explored questions of international criminal law is its social effects, within the international community and the community of public international law, in other parts and activities of international law. In particular, what are the effects of the rise of international criminal law and its emerging system of tribunals on the rest of the laws of armed conflict? What are the effects upon apparently unrelated aspects of humanitarian and human rights law? What are the effects upon other large systems …

The National Flood Insurance Program: Maintaining Its Head Above Water, Aparna Kirknel Majmudar

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

National flood insurance programs implement flood prevention, create flood zone land-use policy, and establish protocols for relief With climate change and development raising the risk and exposure of human populations to flood, the United States 'National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been heavily scrutinized, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This article examines the validity of the two main criticisms of NFIP, and seeks to inform a better understanding of NFIP's integrity through a comparative analysis between NFIP and several different flood insurance models in Europe. As a result, this analysis yields recommendations that can benefit NFIP, as well …

Atrocity Crimes Litigation: 2008 Year-In-Review, Beth Van Schaack

Faculty Publications

This survey of 2008's top developments in these international fora will focus on the law governing international crimes and applicable forms of responsibility. Several trends in the law are immediately apparent. The tribunals continue to delineate and clarify the interfaces between the various international crimes, particularly war crimes and crimes against humanity, which may be committed simultaneously or in parallel with each other. Several important cases went to judgment in 2008 that address war crimes drawn from the Hague tradition of international humanitarian law, and the international courts are demonstrating a greater facility for adjudicating highly technical aspects of this …

Collaborative Governance: Lessons For Europe From U.S. Electricity Restructuring, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cuban Private International Law: Some Observations, Comparisons, And Suppositions, Kevin Tuininga

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lawful Permanent Residents: The Forced Bachelors And Bachelorettes Of America, Gisela Alouan Ades

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Testimonial Deficiencies And Evidentiary Uncertainties In International Criminal Trials, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

In this article, the author describes the flaws inherent in the process of international criminal tribunals which seek to punish the inhumane actions of dictators. The author first describes how international criminal trials confront severe impediments to accurate factfinding. It continues on to discuss the failure of witnesses in these tribunals to accurately convey the information needed to make a fully- informed decision. This problem is compounded by the fact that what clear information is provided during witness testimony often is inconsistent with the information that the witness previously provided in a pre-trial statement. The author also explores the causes …

Historical American Perspectives On International Law, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

The United States’ relationship with international law, although oft-discussed, is poorly understood. Depictions of the relationship are often little more than caricatures. Depending on when the caricature is drawn, the United States may be a longstanding “champion” of international law, an “exceptionalist” defender of American values, or a hypocritical opponent of international governance. Many traditional histories do little to complicate these views. Focused primarily on foreign affairs law and constitutional war powers, these histories highlight moments of tension between the United States and international law. Missing from these histories of American diplomacy and warcraft, foreign affairs caselaw and doctrinal development …

Bloodstains On A "Code Of Honor": The Murderous Marginalization Of Women In The Islamic World, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

In the real world of the Twenty-first Century, deep biases against women are prevalent in much of Muslim society. Although there is no explicit approval of honor killing in Islamic law (Sharia), its culture remains fundamentally patriarchal. As unfathomable as it is to Western minds, "honor killing" is a facet of traditional patriarchy, and its condonation can be traced largely to ancient tribal practices. Justifications for it can be found in the codes of Hammurabi and in the family law of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, honor killings in the Twenty-first Century are not isolated incidents, nor can they be regarded …

Use And Enjoyment Of Intangible Services: The Czech Republic's Vat Derogation, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On January 1, 2009 a minor change in the Czech Republic VAT became effective. A use and enjoyment standard was added to modify the sourcing of certain service transactions. Traditional proxy-based rules, derived from Articles 43 and 56(1) of the Recast VAT Directive (RVD), are set aside by this modification when the customer receiving the services has a permanent establishment (PE) in the Czech Republic. The modification is authorized by RVD 58.

This change is a limited adoption of RVD 58(b), and functions like a full force of attraction principle in direct taxation. If caught by these rules, transactions that …

Gender-Related Violence And International Criminal Law And Justice, Christine Chinkin

Book Chapters

The treatment of gender-related violence within ICL is inextricably tied up with the recognition of women's rights as human rights, and the growing jurisprudence recognizing violence against women in non-armed conflict situations as human rights violations. Following from the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985 women's NGOs campaigned to have gender-based acts of violence against women recognized as abuses of human rights, a goal that was achieved at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. That Conference was held against the backdrop of the 'massive, organized and systematic detention and rape of women that were …