Law Commons^™

The Forms Of International Law, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

For those who are not familiar with international law, just what it is or how it operates is often a puzzle. Some will doubt whether there even is such a thing, or, as it is often put, whether international law really is law. To answer this question, one must consider the forms that international law takes and how it functions. This analysis begins with a consideration of how law works in general and then proceeds to examine international law to consider how it resembles and how it differs from the law most people—lawyers and non-lawyers alike—are familiar with. Much international …

What Is Due To Others: Speaking And Signifying Subject(S) Of Rape Law, Penelope J. Pether

Working Paper Series

Australian journalist Paul Sheehan's representation of the alleged and convicted immigrant Muslim/Arab rapists he demonises in 'Girls Like You', like his representation of the rape survivors in that text, has much to tell us about the law's production of rape law's speaking and signifying subjects, “real rape” victims and survivors, false accusers and perpetrators. This article uses a variety of texts, including 'Girls Like You', recent Australian rape law jurisprudence and legislative reform, texts involving two controversial recent US rape cases — one from Maryland and one from Nebraska — and a recent UK study on attrition in rape prosecutions, …

Behind The Red Curtain: Environmental Concerns And The End Of Communism, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

Twenty years ago, the edifice of Communism collapsed constructed over the preceding three-quarters of a century from Berlin to Vladivostok and from Murmansk to Addis Ababa. Suddenly, between 1989 and 1991, all of the Communist states in Europe collapsed, as well as some Communist states in Asia and Africa, while most of the surviving Communist states largely abandoned Communist economic systems. While the crumbling edifice still hangs on, at least in vestigial forms, in some parts of the world, the collapse of the wall serves as an apt metaphor for the destruction of that edifice. The two years between 1989 …

Interest As Damages, John Y. Gotanda, Thierry J. Sénéchal

Working Paper Series

In this article, we posit that when arbitral tribunals decide international disputes, they typically fail to fully compensate claimants for the loss of the use of their money. This failure occurs because they do not acknowledge that businesses typically invest in opportunities that pose a significantly greater risk than the risk reflected in such commonly used standards as U.S. T-bills and LIBOR rates. Claimants also must share the blame when they do not set out a well-constructed claim for interest as damages. However, even when claimants do so, tribunals often award damages at a statutory rate or at rate reflecting …

“Militant Judgement?: Judicial Ontology, Constitutional Poetics, And ‘The Long War’”, Penelope J. Pether

Working Paper Series

This Article, a contribution to the Cardozo Law Review symposium in honor of Alain Badiou’s Being and Event, uses Badiou’s theorizing of the event and of the militant in Being and Event as a basis for an exploration of problems of judicial ontology and constitutional hermeneutics raised in recent decisions by common law courts dealing with the legislative and executive confinement of “Islamic” asylum seekers, “enemy combatants” and “terrorism suspects,” and certain classes of criminal offenders in spaces beyond the doctrines, paradigms and institutions of the criminal law. The Article proposes an ontology and a poetics of judging equal to …

Presidential Authority And The War On Terror, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

Immediately after the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush claimed, among other powers, the power to launch preemptive wars on his own authority; the power to disregard the laws of war pertaining to occupied lands; the power to define the status and treatment of persons detained as “enemy combatants” in the war on terror; and the power to authorize the National Security Agency to undertake electronic surveillance in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. With the exception of the power to launch a preemptive war on his own authority (for which he …

International Law's Lessons For The Law Of The Lakes, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

The eight Governors of the Great Lakes States signed a proposed new compact for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence basin on December 13, 2005, and they joined with the Premiers of Ontario and Québec in a parallel agreement on the same topic on the same day. Neither document is legally binding—the proposed new compact because it has not yet been ratified by any state nor consented to by Congress; the parallel agreement because it is not intended to be legally binding. Both documents are designed to preclude the export of water from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin apart from …

A Study Of Interest, John Y. Gotanda

Working Paper Series

In recent years, a number of tribunals, mainly those deciding investment disputes, have re-examined traditional practices concerning the awarding of interest, particularly whether interest should be awarded at market rates and on a compounded basis. However, many tribunals deciding transnational contracts disputes continue to follow the practice of applying national laws on interest, which often results in the application of domestic statutory interest rates calling for a fixed rate of interest to accrue on a simple as opposed to compound basis. These statutory rates often do not change to reflect economic conditions and thus may under compensate or over compensate …

Charting Developments Concerning Punitive Damages: Is The Tide Changing?, John Y. Gotanda

Working Paper Series

This essay discusses a number of developments outside of the United States concerning punitive damages, which may ultimately signal a change in the way other countries view American awards of such damages.

To date, courts in many countries have refused to recognize and enforce American punitive damages awards on the ground that they violate the host country’s public policy. In most civil law countries, such as France and Germany, penal damages can only be ordered in criminal proceedings; a civil award of such damages has been viewed as contrary to ordre public. In common law countries, while punitive damages generally …

Damages In Lieu Of Performance Because Of Breach Of Contract, John Y. Gotanda

Working Paper Series

In contract disputes between transnational contracting parties, damages are often awarded to compensate a claimant for loss, injury or detriment resulting from a respondent’s failure to perform the agreement. In fact, damages may be the principal means of substituting for performance or they may complement other remedies, such as recision or specific performance.

Damages for breach of contract typically serve to protect one of three interests of a claimant: (1) performance interest (also known as expectation interest); (2) reliance interest; or (3) restitution interest. The primary goal of damages in most jurisdictions is to fulfil a claimant’s performance interest by …

Rules Are Made To Be Broken: How The Process Of Expedited Removal Fails Asylum Seekers, Michele R. Pistone, John J. Hoeffner Esq.

Working Paper Series

Immigration inspectors are authorized to deport persons who arrive at U.S. ports without valid travel documents. This process, which usually occurs within 48 hours and does not allow for judicial review, is called expedited removal. This article begins by summarizing the findings of the few studies allowed access to the process. The authors extrapolate from the studies to demonstrate that thousands of genuine asylum seekers have erroneously been deported via expedited removal. The greatest cause of erroneous deportation is a failure by the agency responsible for the process, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to follow its own rules. The heart …

Terrorism And Asylum Seekers: Why The Real Id Act Is A False Promise, Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Working Paper Series

The Real ID Act, passed on May 11, 2005, is the first post-September 11 antiterrorism legislation specifically to target a group of vulnerable individuals to whom the United States has historically granted protection: asylum seekers. The passage of the Real ID Act led asylum advocates to wring their hands in despair and immigration restrictionists to clap their hands in glee. This Article argues that both sides of the debate may have been justified in their reactions, but not because of the immediate chilling impact on asylum that they seem to expect. With regard to requirements for establishing asylum eligibility, the …

New International Human Rights Standards On Unauthorized Immigrant Worker Rights: Seizing An Opportunity To Pull Governments Out Of The Shadows, Beth Lyon

Working Paper Series

Governments cannot ignore international human rights standards for unauthorized migrant workers forever. This chapter presents a call for comparative work on the issue of the legal regimes affecting unauthorized immigrant workers in order to bring governments into greater awareness and compliance with their obligations to unauthorized immigrant workers.

Global illegal migration by laborers seeking economic opportunities is expanding, resulting in an increasing number of migrants in every country who are working in violation of immigration laws. Unauthorized immigrant workers are numerous enough to form a recognizable group in every major world economy, because most receiving countries have immigration laws that …

The W Visa: A Legislative Proposal For Female And Child Refugees Trapped In A Post-9/11 World, Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Working Paper Series

This article addresses an urgent humanitarian crisis affecting unaccompanied or abused refugee children and widowed, divorced, abandoned or abused female heads of refugee households. Such women and children suffer the consequences of the post-9/11 U.S. refugee resettlement backlog more severely than the general refugee population. They are far more at risk of life-threatening harm such as trafficking, sexual exploitation and rape. Moreover, they are far less likely to present a threat to U.S. national security than many people who are able to secure visas to the United States quickly and with fewer background checks. Despite their vulnerability and lack of …

Deconstructing Development, Ruth E. Gordon, Jon H. Sylvester

Working Paper Series

Whether it is being praised or excoriated, defended or condemned, the concept of development shapes and dominates our thinking about the Third World. Indeed development has evolved into an essentially incontestable paradigm with such a hold on our collective imaginations, that it is almost impossible to think around or beyond it. This article, however, interrogates development to its very core, demonstrating that although it is presented as something that is universal, natural and inevitable, in truth it is part of the Western political and cultural imagination. Moreover, the interlocking ideological assumptions that support this paradigm are inherently hierarchical and by …

Discourse In Development: Viewing The United Nations Committee On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights Through The Post-Colonial Lens, Beth Lyon

Working Paper Series

This article uses post-colonial theory to examine the cluster of international human rights known as economic, social and cultural rights. The article surveys the jurisprudence of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, making it relevant for scholars of international human rights as well as post-colonial theory.

Traditionally, international human rights divide into two branches: 1) civil and political rights, and 2) economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). ESCRs were virtually ignored during the cold war era, but they now receive expanded attention at the international and regional levels. The creation of the UN Committee on Economic, Social …

Punitive Damages: A Comparative Analysis, John Y. Gotanda

Working Paper Series

In light of expanding international trade, it is increasingly likely that politicians, courts and tribunals will wrestle with whether punitive damages are appropriate in transnational disputes, and whether countries that traditionally do no allow exemplary relief should recognize and enforce foreign awards of such damages. Furthermore, by seeing how different systems address these problems, we can gain a deeper understanding of the role of punitive damages in our own legal system and be better able to deal with punitive damages issues in the international arena. This Article undertakes a thorough comparative study of punitive damages in common law countries. It …

Criminal Aliens Get Pinched: Sandoval V. Reno, Aedpa's And Iirira's Effect On Habeas Corpus Jurisdiction, Matthew J. Droskoski

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Extraterritorial Effect Of The Registration Requirements Of The Securities Act Of 1933, Peter John Mitchell Rohall

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Covenant On Civil And Political Rights As The Law Of The Land, Alice A. Noble

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Nationalization Of Chile's Large Copper Companies In Contemporary Interstate Relations, John Fleming

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Enforcement Of Air Security - United States Initiatives, Charles N. Brower

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Phenomenological Approach To Law: A Treatment For The Schizophrenia Of Contemporary Legal Regimes, George S. Robinson

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreign Intellectual Property And The United States Department Of Defense, Harry M. Saragovitz, William G. Gapcynski

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Armed Reprisals During Intermediacy - A New Framework For Analysis In International Law, Alan N. Salpeter, Jonathan C. Waller

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Compensation For Expropriated Property In Recent International Law, Amir Rafat

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judgments Rendered Abroad - State Law Or Federal Law, Albert A. Lindner

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Congress Answers The Supreme Court: Is Sabbitino Still Law, Dolores B. Sesso

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Law: Through National Or International Courts, Thomas M. Franck

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Pyrrhic Victory At Foley Square: The Second Circuit And Sabbatino, Richard B. Lillich

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.