Law Commons^™

The Future Of Ad Hoc Tribunals: An Assessment Of Their Utility Post-Icc, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Over the past two decades, various mechanisms of international and regional justice have developed. The proliferation of international courts, hybrid tribunals, domestic war crimes chambers, truth commissions, civil compensation commissions, and other tools of accountability has sparked an academic debate over the usefulness of any such mechanism for redressing past violations of international law. This Article briefly discusses some of the best-known mechanisms of international, national, and "hybrid" justice, and assesses their role in light of the creation and existence of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the only permanent tribunal in international criminal law. Does international justice have a place …

The Implementation Gap: What Causes Laws To Succeed Or Fail?, David Barnhizer

David Barnhizer

It is important to go behind the “paper systems” many countries and private sector actors have created to manufacture the appearance of commitments to responsible economic activity, environmental protection and social justice. This produces the need to penetrate the veils that mask governments’ “apparent compliance” with the terms of sustainable development, and to be honest about the inability of voluntary codes of practice to shape the behavior of business and government. Implementation requires effective systems to carry out the law and policy mandates. Laws and policies are often poorly designed or deliberately sabotaged in their creation, but in many instances …

The Reality Of Business And Governmental Decision-Making In The Context Of Sustainable Development, David Barnhizer

David Barnhizer

It is absolutely rational for economic actors and decision-makers to seek to operate in their own self-interest. The challenge for anyone who wishes to influence or alter the process lies in knowing where that self-interest lies and changing the nature of the self-interest if that is required or possible. That is a far greater challenge than many understand because regardless of what we might like to do in our personal lives, it is the institution within which we work that dictates how we think and what we value in our service to that institution. Given the short time frame within …

New “Architecture” And Revitalizing The Un Global Compact, David Barnhizer

David Barnhizer

Some advocates of sustainable development possess an almost theological faith in what I refer to as “rhetorical” sustainable development as the path to providing for the sound future of human civilizations and critical ecological systems. Simply put, if we try to think “too big” and “bite off too much” then the system we are trying to control or influence consumes us and our resources and we fail miserably. There is real and predictable danger in grandeur. This means we need to think about achieving sustainability in very specific and concrete terms applied to clear goals and an honest understanding of …

Assimilation Anxiety: Islamic Migration As A Perceived Threat To Western Cultures, David Barnhizer

David Barnhizer

In this cynical age it is common to smirk at claims about what is sometimes called American Exceptionalism, a term standing for the conclusion that America is an historically distinct (and better) system. To some degree it does represent cultural arrogance founded on assumption rather than fact. It also ignores “exceptionally” dark chapters in American history, including slavery, seizing of lands from Native Americans and imprisoning of US citizens of Japanese descent. Nonetheless it seems that given the diversity of the population and the sheer enormity of the nation that, as stated by an Asian Indian friend who is a …

International Criminal Law In 2013: The Most Significant Developments (Proceedings Of The Asil Annual Meeting), Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Presentations and Testimony

While many events have shaped the development of international criminal law over the past year, the most significant ones, in my view, included the Special Court for Sierra Leone's appellate confirmation of the Charles Taylor verdict, as well as the United Nations Security Council's failure to refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

How The Rescue And Return Agreement Can Protect (And Harm) The Interest Of A Creditor Under The Cape Town Convention, Mark J. Sundahl

Law Faculty Contributions to Books

This volume contains the proceedings of the 55th Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space held in Naples, Italy in October 2012, including the 27th IAA-IISL Scientific-Legal Roundtable, as well as the papers presented at the IISL-ECSL Space Law Symposium held on the occasion of the 51st session of the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna, Austria in March 2012, and of the 7th Eilene M. Galloway Symposium on Critical Issues In Space Law, held in Washington D.C., United States in December 2012. It also contains the report and best written …

The Doha Development Dysfunction: Problems Of The Wto Multilateral Trading System, Erik M. Dickinson

Global Business Law Review

This Note argues that WTO member nations should use bilateral and regional trade agreements to solve key issues facing the Doha Round negotiations in order to lower trade barriers and foster a climate of free trade necessary to resurrect the stalled Doha Round. Several problems including the WTO’s lack of authority to enforce DSU decisions, protectionist trade measures, and the single undertaking have threatened the long term stability of the WTO’s multilateral trading system. However, if bilateral and regional trade agreements were used to solve key issues, much like they were used by the United States in the 1970s, WTO …

Defining The Scope Of Indirect Expropriation For International Investments , Peter D. Isakoff

Global Business Law Review

At present, arbitral tribunals have applied a variety of standards to ascertain when indirect expropriation occurs. This article examines the complexities and ambiguities of current indirect expropriation standards and argues that a clear, uniform standard is needed to identify indirect expropriation. Ultimately, this article proposes that arbitral tribunals should only find that indirect expropriation occurs when (i) a state takes actions that substantially deprive the foreign investor of the profitability of its investment, and (ii) the state action was not reasonably predictable to the investor. Part I of this article provides a summary of the current state of expropriation doctrine. …

Disparate Protections For American Human Trafficking Victims , Amanda Peters

Cleveland State Law Review

The federal government places victims, for the purpose of receiving protections, into two categories: first, international victims and second, American citizens or permanent residents. If an international trafficking victim qualifies to receive services as a result of having been trafficked, the United States will provide refugeelike protections through the TVPA. These protections include housing, food, cash assistance, job training, counseling, medical care, legal assistance, and other services that are available for a period of several years. Victims who are Americans, on the other hand, must find protection elsewhere. The United States government specifically excludes its own trafficked citizens from receiving …

A Troubled Agreement For Troubled Waters: How An Amended Boundry Waters Treaty Can Solve The Great Lakes Agreement's Fatal Flaws, Paul Shugar

Global Business Law Review

Great Lakes water fuels $4.2 trillion of gross-domestic product (“GDP”), making the Great Lakes Region the largest bi-national regional economy in the world. But what are the United States and Canada doing to protect the world’s largest readily available freshwater resource? The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement’s failures show that Canada and the United State must amend the outdated Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. This amended treaty would provide a uniform approach to regulating the Great Lakes so the states and provinces on both sides of the border must play by the same rules regarding water …

The Cost Of Progress: Enduring The Tax Deductibility Of International Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives, Wayne C. Wood

Global Business Law Review

Until the end of the twentieth century, the predominant view in America was that a corporation’s sole duty was to supply wealth to its shareholders. The idea that a corporation owes a broader duty to all of its stakeholders has gained ground based largely on the emerging international recognition of human rights norms. Increasingly American MNCs have opted to voluntarily create and implement CSR policies for moral, economic, and political reasons. While charitable donations made to exempt organizations are expressly deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code, the same might not be true for a given CSR expenditure. …

Juvenile Pirates: "Lost Boys" Or Violent Criminals?, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has flourished over the past decade, and has both caused a global crisis in maritime shipping and destabilized regional security in East Africa. In addition, piracy attacks have spread more recently to the coast of West Africa, and in particular, the Gulf of Guinea. Thus, piracy is an ongoing global issue that should continue to occupy many maritime nations in the near future, and one that should command continuous scholarly attention.

This article examines the issue of juvenile piracy, with a specific focus on the treatment of juvenile piracy suspects by both the capturing …