Law Commons^™

The Road Ahead: Gaps, Leaks And Drips, Michael J. Glennon

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Geography Of Armed Conflict: Why It Is A Mistake To Fish For The Red Herring, Geoffrey S. Corn

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

The Syrian Intervention: Assessing The Possible International Law Justifications, Michael Schmitt

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Belligerent Targeting And The Invalidity Of A Least Harmful Means Rule, Geoffrey S. Corn, Laurie R. Blank, Chris Jenks, Eric Talbot Jensen

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Esperando A La Haya, Jose Luis Sardon

Jose Luis Sardon

Peruanos debemos estar preparados para ganar o perder diferendo marítimo con Chile.

The United Nations And The Magna Carta For Children, Winston E. Langley

Winston E. Langley

The impulse that invited the preparation of this book is one which is linked to the convergence of a number of factors bearing on my interest in human rights. First, the brutality visited on children during World War II has had an abiding negative effect on my sense of what is possible in human conduct. Second, I am persuaded that children are not simply the means by which human societies are continued, but, as well, the potential source of moral revitalization and transformation for those societies. Third, I recognize that the human rights movement, which followed World War II, holds …

Re-Visiting Homosexuality In Cameroon: Effective Advocacy On The Path From Homophobia To Dignity And Equality, Jean Cedric Ndzomo

Master's Theses

Cameroon, one of the countries in the world that continues to criminalize homosexuality, has been on the news recently due to the torture and murder of young journalist and gay activist, Eric Ohena. This paper examines the discrimination faced by the LGBTI community in Cameroon by exploring the origins of homophobic violence, the role played by Cameroon's legal system, and the struggles of LGBTI Cameroonians in their fight for a better life. The analysis includes a review of the work by scholars on colonialism and sexuality in Africa, and questions the roots of violence and abuse against the LGBTI community …

The Plight Of Kenyan Domestic Workers In Gulf Countries, Caroline Muthoni Gikuru

Master's Theses

Kenya’s economy remains the regional leader within the East African Community (EAC) and among East African countries at large. However, political instability such as the 2007 post-election violence and the region’s social and political instability trickling into Kenya, have negatively affected the country’s economic growth. To bridge the economic gap, Kenyan women are seeking employment in the domestic service sector in the Gulf Countries, with Saudi Arabia being the most popular destination. At their destination countries, some domestic workers are subjected to various forms of abuse by their employers, leaving the worker without recourse due to the lack of legal …

Continued Oversight Of U.S. Government Surveillance Authorities : Hearing Before The S. Committee On The Judiciary, 113th Cong., December 11, 2013 (Statement By Professor Carrie F. Cordero, Geo. U. L. Center), Carrie F. Cordero

Testimony Before Congress

My views are informed by this up-front perspective regarding how the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, and later the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, vastly improved the Intelligence Community’s ability to protect the nation from another attack on the scale of September 11th. More recently, I have had the added benefit of having spent the past three years outside of government to reflect, and to engage with the academic community, and to some extent the public, regarding some of the issues this Committee is considering today.

The World Trade Organization Dispute Over Genetically Modified Organisms: The Precautionary Principle Meets International Trade Law, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

“Precaution” is increasingly accepted as a basis for governmental policy in the areas of public health and environment on both the domestic and international levels. A precautionary perspective counsels action to avert danger or threats in situations of scientific uncertainty or incomplete information. Precautionary approaches find expression in internationally harmonized formulations as non-binding exhortations, binding treaties, and meta-level principles. Precaution is a particular challenge to free trade agreements, whose purpose is to eliminate unjustified barriers to trade. In that context, precaution as a justification for a challenged governmental measure may appear to be nothing more than a pretext for protectionism. …

Engineering The Climate: Geoengineering As A Challenge To International Governance, David A. Wirth

David A. Wirth

The challenge of global climate change has attracted recommendations for remediation from a number of professions, including engineering. The possibilities suggested for “geoengineering” the climate generally fall into one of two categories: (1) carbon capture and storage; and (2) solar radiation management. Specific and often controversial proposals include the aerial dispersion of aerosols, launching reflective gratings into orbit around the Earth, and seeding the oceans with iron filings. These proposals share a number of characteristics, including the following: (1) they can often be undertaken within the territorial jurisdiction of a single state or in areas beyond national jurisdiction; (2) they …

Friendship Treaties ≠ Judgment Treaties, John F. Coyle

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

It is hornbook law that the United States is not currently a party to any treaty governing the enforcement of foreign judgments. At least, it was hornbook law until 1993. In that year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit adopted a novel interpretation of a provision in a bilateral treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation ("FCN treaty") between the United States and Greece that transformed the treaty into a de facto judgments treaty. Two years later, in 1995, the Third Circuit adopted the same interpretation of an identical clause in the United States-Korea FCN treaty. Each of …

Mission Creep Or A Search For Relevance: The East African Court Of Justice’S Human Rights Strategy, James Gathii

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Custom In Constitutional And International Law, Michael D. Ramsey

San Diego Law Review

This Article does not contend that arguments for extension of custom are illegitimate. Instead, it makes two more limited claims. First, there is an important difference between arguments from pure custom and arguments for the extension of custom, with the latter being more properly called common law arguments. Second, the legitimacy of common law arguments in some fields, especially constitutional law and international law, is substantially more problematic than the legitimacy of arguments from pure custom. The Article develops as follows. Part II sets out in greater detail the proposed distinction between arguments from pure custom and arguments for extension …

Evaluating Flexibility In International Patent Law, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

Global patent law has raced toward harmonization over the past decades. Countries with vastly different industries, values, and levels of development now offer robust patent rights with similar contours through membership in the World Trade Organization and consequent adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”). However, patent law is still far from harmonized among countries or static within countries. Jurisdictions tailor their patent laws to accommodate differences between industries, unforeseen inefficiencies, and diverse views of the costs and benefits associated with offering patent rights to stimulate innovation. Prior scholarly work consists of either doctrinal analyses …

Articulating Moral Bases For Regional Responses To Deforestation And Climate Change: Africa, Amelia Chizwala Peterson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Deforestation and desertification, archenemies of efforts to maintain forests as sinks for greenhouse gas emissions, are marching on unabated in Africa, where 90 percent of forests were lost in West Africa over the last century alone. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, whose work to restore some of Kenya’s decimated forests predates the connections made by the climate science community between deforestation and climate change, wrote:

Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its lifesupport system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal …

"Soaring" Gas Prices: Policy Considerations For The European Union Emissions Trading System And Aviation, Kaylin Gaal

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Natural Law As Part Of International Law: The Case Of The Armenian Genocide, Fernando R. Tesón

San Diego Law Review

In this Article I argue that some norms are part of international law even if they have never been created by treaty or custom. Because such norms have never been posited, they are natural law norms, and my thesis is that these natural law norms are as much part of international law as the posited norms. By this I mean that these norms should figure in any catalog of what international law prescribes or permits.

Ineffective, Opaque, And Undemocratic: The Ious Of—Too Much—International Law And Why A Bit Of Skepticism Is Warranted, James Allan

San Diego Law Review

In this Article I want to give you an outsider’s view of international law, or at least this outsider’s view. And by outsider I mean someone who is usually interested in legal philosophy and constitutional law and who may well be thought to lack standing to offer the sort of views and criticisms that are to come.... The structure of this Article will be simple. I will criticize certain aspects of international law, especially rights-related international law, under the three headings you see in the title to this Article. However, I am going to take those headings and critiques in …

Shame, Memory, And The Unspeakable: The International Criminal Court As Damnatio Memoriae, Michael Blake

San Diego Law Review

The first [part] will discuss two ways of looking at the court and why the conventional justifications of punishment might not be adequate to justify what the court is doing. The second will examine the issue of the politically unspeakable and argue that the court’s mandate might indeed be the responsibility of making certain ideas and persons politically shameful. The final Part will try to give some justification for the claim that this mandate might give rise to a justification for the court’s existence. On the account I provide here, even if the court could not be justified with reference …

Plain Packaging And The Interpretation Of The Trips Agreement, Daniel J. Gervais, Susy Frankel

Daniel J Gervais

Plain packaging of cigarettes as a way of reducing tobacco consumption and its related health costs and effects raises a number of international trade law issues. The plain packaging measures adopted in Australia impose strict format requirements on word trademarks (such as Marlboro or Camel) and ban the use of figurative marks (colors, logos, etc.). As a result, questions have been raised as to plain packaging’s compatibility with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). WTO members can validly take measures to protect and promote public health, but in doing so they …

Symposium - The U.S.-Iranian Relationship And The Future Of International Order

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

No abstract provided.

Costa Rica And Nicaragua Before The International Court Of Justice – Trying To Work Out The Complicated Relationship Between Law And The Environment, Britta Sjöstedt

Britta Sjöstedt

Nicaragua and Costa Rica have twice turned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to resolve disputes related to environmental damage occurring in a transboundary context. In these two cases the Court has to consider at least two issues. The first issue concerns the territorial status of a disputed border area. The disagreement is triggered by natural variations of the San Juan River at the border between the two countries, which causes confusion as to where the State line lies. The second issue concerns environmental damage; more specifically, it involves adversely affected wetlands protected under the Ramsar Convention. The obligations …

Introducing The ‘Reconciliatory Approach’ – Harmonizing International Environmental Law With Other Specialised Areas Of International Law, Britta Sjöstedt

Britta Sjöstedt

In this paper, I argue that international environmental treaties can interact with other specialised areas of law applicable to the same subject matter in the same context by using the ‘reconciliatory approach’ (RA). This approach entails that the institutions established under the environmental treaties are empowered to develop the treaty provisions in a manner that may also take other legal areas into account and thereby be able to reconcile obligations of other specialised legal areas. The RA functions on the premise that international law is one system with the inherent ambition to coherently systematize its norms. By looking at the …

The Place Of Treaties In International Investment, Eustace Chikere Azubuike

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

This paper is divided into seven parts. Part 1 traces the history of foreign investment treaties and provides the factors that led to the emergence of the current investment regime. Part 2 discusses the significance of treaties in the vexed question of whether or not there is a hierarchy of international law sources. Part 3 examines treaty-making in the current international investment regime – visiting the argument about whether or not the provisions of investment treaties have ripened into customary international law, highlighting the dominance of bilateral investment treaties over multilateral investment treaties, offering explanation for the near absence of …

A Holistic Approach To The Conflict Of Israel And Palestine: Where We Are Now And Where We Can Go, Oraneet Shikmah Orevi

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has spanned over six decades, resulting in brutal deaths of civilians, assassinations of political figures, and casualties of countless soldiers on both sides. Dominant discourse on the conflict focuses largely on the prevalence of violence and State-figures’ failure to properly address the issue. This paper will take a different approach by exploring the legality under International Law of the continual expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and by illuminating the peacebuilding efforts of grassroots organizations focused on education, uniting communities, and engaging international actors. A discussion of the history is important not only to inform …

A Comparative Analysis Of Judicial Councils In The Reform Of Judicial Appointments Between Kenya And England, Njeri Thuki

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

In this paper, I focus on the selection of judicial officers using judicial commissions. These judicial commissions are also referred to as “judicial councils” or “merit commissions,” so for the purposes of this study, these three terms are synonymous. This paper focuses on Kenya and England because they have taken similar paths to judicial reform. For example, they both added an extra tier to the hierarchical structure and therefore both have a Supreme Court. They both have robust judicial commissions that have changed the selection of judicial officers. However, the judicial commission in Kenya, known as the Judicial Service Commission …

Terrorism And International Law: Cure The Underlying Problem, Not Just The Symptom, Sir Arnold K. Amet

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

Terrorist activities are not of recent origin on the international plane. They have been around since the beginning of humanity. Although international law may not be accused of addressing the issue of terrorism with levity, it was after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States that the international community’s efforts toward fighting terrorism garnered more strength and attention.

The debatable critical question is whether terrorism under international law should be studied and treated as a specific subject in developing the legal norms and principles for its fight and regulation, or whether terrorism should be fought and regulated based on …

Foreword, Jon H. Sylvester

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

“Sed Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodies?” (But Who Will Guard The Guardians?) The Case For Elevating Official Corruption To The Status Of A Crime In Positive International Law, Ndiva Koefele-Kale

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

Keynote Address to the 22nd Annual Fulbright Symposium - Confronting Complexity in International Law.

Cite as: 19 Annl. Survey Int'l. Comp. L. 1 (2013).