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Full-Text Articles in Law
International Law For American Courts: Why The “American Laws For American Courts” Movement Is A Violation Of The United States Constitution And Universal Human Rights, Maria Surdokas
University of Baltimore Journal of International Law
In recent years, the “American Laws for American Courts” movement has swept across the country in an attempt to ban international law from U.S. state courts. This article specifically examines the Oklahoma Save Our State Amendment and the Arizona Foreign Decisions Act. In doing so, it addresses both the constitutional and policy problems with these attempts, observing that what the states have been trying to do is neither legal nor practical. It analyzes the inability of individual states to unilaterally avoid compliance with the United States’ international law obligations. It notes the absurdity in outlawing international law in order to …
Sex On The Bench: Do Women Judges Matter To The Legitimacy Of International Courts?, Nienke Grossman
Sex On The Bench: Do Women Judges Matter To The Legitimacy Of International Courts?, Nienke Grossman
All Faculty Scholarship
This article seeks to advance our understanding of international courts' legitimacy and its relationship to who sits on the bench. It asks whether we should care that few women sit on international court benches. After providing statistics on women's participation on eleven of the world's most important courts and tribunals, the article argues that under-representation of one sex affects normative legitimacy because it endangers impartiality and introduces bias when men and women approach judging differently. Even if men and women do not think differently, a sex un-representative bench harms sociological legitimacy for constituencies who believe they do nonetheless. For groups …
Sex Representation On The Bench: Legitimacy And International Criminal Courts, Nienke Grossman
Sex Representation On The Bench: Legitimacy And International Criminal Courts, Nienke Grossman
All Faculty Scholarship
This essay examines the relationship between legitimacy and the presence of both male and female judges on international criminal court benches. It argues that sex representation – an approximate reflection of the ratio of the sexes in the general population – on the bench is an important contributor to legitimacy of international criminal courts. First, it proposes that sex representation affects normative legitimacy because men and women bring different perspectives to judging. Consequently, without both sexes, adjudication is inherently biased. Second, even if one rejects the proposition that men and women "think differently", sex representation affects sociological legitimacy because sex …