Law Commons^™

The Executive Branch And International Law, Arthur M. Weisburd

Vanderbilt Law Review

Public international law, through its rules regulating the dealings between independent nations, purports to impose limits on the actions of all governments, including those of the United States. In this context American lawyers interested in foreign relations may reasonably wonder whether American courts would enforce rules of public international law purporting to bind the United States against the United States government, particularly the executive branch. A fair number of Supreme Court cases have dealt with the enforce ability of treaties in American courts.' Treaties, however, are only one source of international law. The other important source, customary international law, is …

Advocacy For Aids Victims: An International Law Approach, Robert M. Jarvis

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Humanitarian Assistance The Right To Life In International Law The Right To Food, L C. Green

Dalhousie Law Journal

When the international community first became interested in the problem of human rights during the second world war and then enunciated those rights in a series of international instruments, there was a tendency among writers to deal with the issue as a comprehensive whole. Now, however, it has become increasingly popular for authors to deal with a specific right to the exclusion of all others.

Constitutional Law (Kempo), Jutta Brunnée

Dalhousie Law Journal

In 1976 Carl Heymanns Verlag published the first volume of a series on Japanese law. A recent addition to this collection covering areas as diverse as civil and criminal procedure, labor law, nuclear energy law, and international law, is Miyazawa Toshiyoshi's (1899-1976) book on constitutional law. With this German translation, Robert Heuser and Yamasaki Kazuaki provide their readers with the first systematical overview on Japanese constitutional law in a western language.

International Law And The Developing Countries, Jeremy Thomas

Dalhousie Law Journal

Professor Anand over the past two-and-a-half decades has established himself as one of the leading Third World publicists of international law. Less rhetorical than some, but just as vigorous, he has championed the development of a new international law based on cooperation in rejection of the old traditional and "Eurocentric" international law. In International Law and the Developing Countries Professor Anand brings together a collection of his previously published essays and wields them into a book for the purpose of evaluating "the traditional law and the process of change that it is undergoing to become a communal law of mankind".

Restoration Of The Rule Of Reason In Contract Formation: Has There Been Civil And Common Law Disparity, Kazuaki Sono

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Alien Tort Claims, Sovereign Immunity And International Law In U.S. Courts, Frederic L. Kirgis

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Conflicting Principles Of Canadian Environmental Reform: Trubeck And Habermas V. Law And Economics And The Law Reform Commission, Rod Northey

Dalhousie Law Journal

Early in the 1970s, the American legal scholar, David Trubeck, made a far-reaching observation: Law is a practical science. It does not ordinarily dwell on fundamental questions about the social, political and economic functions of the legal order. Satisfied with implicit working assumptions about these matters, legal thought moves rapidly to more tractable questions. But when law's solutions to social problems fail to satisfy, it becomes necessary to examine the basic theory from which they derive. Trubeck expounded this thesis in connection with legal developments in the Third World. Using an idea he termed the "core conception" of law, Trubeck …

Swiss Bank Secrecy: Its Limits Under Swiss And International Laws, Olivier Dunant, Michele Wassmer

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Chinese Views On The Sources Of International Law, Hungdah Chiu

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

Chinese Attitudes Toward International Law In The Post-Mao Era, Hungdah Chiu

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Act Of State Doctrine's Effect, Frederic L. Kirgis

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Customary International Law: The Problem Of Treaties, Arthur M. Weisburd

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article will not seek to address all issues concerning the sources of customary international law; the subject is too vast for treatment at anything less than book length. Rather, this Article will focus on one category of possible sources--international treaties. Of course, if one considers treaties purely as treaties, they affect relationships between states parties to them, but treaties as treaties are not the subject here. Rather, the inquiry here is, since customary law depends on the practice of states, and because one form of practice in which states engage is entering into treaties, what weight should the legal …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

THE JURIDICAL BAY

By Gayl S. Westerman

New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Pp. xii, 290. $39.95

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HELSINKI, HUMAN RIGHTS AND EUROPEAN SECURITY: ANALYSIS AND DOCUMENTATION

By Vojtech Mastney

Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1986. Pp. xxxv, 389. $49.50 hard cover, $18.95 soft cover

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NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY

By Stuart McMillan

Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. Pp. viii, 177

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INTERNATIONAL LAW OF TAKEOVERS AND MERGERS: THE EEC, NORTHERN EUROPE, AND SCANDINAVIA

By H. Leigh Ffrench

Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1986. Pp. viii, 390

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INTERNATIONAL LAW: PROCESS AND PROSPECT

By Anthony D'Amato

Dobbs Ferry, New York: …

Case Digest, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Alien Tort Statute Grants Federal Court Subject Matter Jurisdiction Over Foreign Sovereign for Tort Committed in Clear Violation of International Law and Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act is not Exclusive Jurisdictional Grant Over Sovereign-- Amerada Hess Shipping Corp. v. Argentina Republic 830 F.2d 421 (2nd Cir. 1987)

International Propaganda And Developing Countries, Adeno Addis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article will use the term propaganda in its negative sense and explore its impact on developing nations' capacity for self-determination. Following a brief suggestion about a workable definition in Part II, Part III isolates the particular threat that propaganda poses for developing nations. Part IV then surveys the fractured history of international propaganda regulation. Part V examines the relationship between self-determination and propaganda, with specific reference to disinformation and what will be termed "structural propaganda." Individual state responses to propaganda are outlined in Part VI. Part VII explores the same issue on the international level and suggests the creation …

Exploring The Foreign Country Exception: Federal Tort Claims In Antarctica, David J. Bederman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On November 28, 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 aircraft carrying tourists bound for an expedition to Antarctica crashed into the side of Mount Erebus, the highest peak on the frozen continent. All aboard perished. Four years later, the families of some of the New Zealander skilled in the accident brought suit against the United States Government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). They claimed that the negligence of the air traffic controllers at the United States scientific base at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, was the proximate cause of the crash.

This Article considers numerous aspects of this litigation and …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Books Received

CONTRACT LAW IN THE U.S.S.R. AND THE UNITED STATES, VOL. I: HISTORY AND GENERAL CONCEPT

By E. Allan Farnsworth and Viktor P. Mozolin

Washington, D.C.: International Law Institute, 1987. Pp.xiii, 340. $35.00

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FOREIGN RELATIONS AND NATIONAL SECURITY LAW: CASES, MATERIALS AND SIMULATIONS

By Thomas M. Franck and Michael J. Glennon

St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Company, 1987. Pp.lxiv, 941

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THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES IN LATIN AMERICA

By Tom J. Farer

New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1988. Pp. xxxii, 294

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JUDGES

By David Pannick

New York: Oxford University Press,1987. Pp. vii, 255. …

Deference And Its Dangers: Congress' Power To "Define ... Offenses Against The Law Of Nations", Charles D. Siegal

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article has not sought to argue that we are today bound to the framers' limited conception of the law of nations. The way that law develops has changed dramatically in 200 years; there is no reason to believe that the framers would not have supported an evolving definition of offenses against the law of nations. And, even if they did not, an originalist interpretation of the offenses clause is still not warranted. Nor has this Article argued that Congress has no leeway in defining offenses; its points are less strict.

When Congress determines that a certain set of actions …

Classical Theory Of Law , Norman Barry

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Brief Rejoinder, Anthony D'Amato

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Weisburd's reply to my essay adds helpful insights to the fascinating issue of the impact of treaties upon customary international law. For the most part, I think the positions on both sides have been clearly drawn, leaving to the reader the ultimate judgment on the merits.

One instance where the position is not so clearly drawn, however, is the question of what custom-creating force we can find in a treaty that itself disavows its custom-creating force. If the language says that the treaty is a matter of comity only, Professor Weisburd argues that the treaty cannot give rise to …

The Alien Tort Statute And How Individuals "Violate" International Law, John M. Rogers

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Does any argument favor a broad interpretation of the Alien Tort Statute? If I had to make such an agreement, I suppose I would try to cloud the difference between universal crimes and violations of international law. One way to do this would be to focus on those crimes that are also violations of the obligations of one state to another. For instance, an attack on a diplomat may be both a violation of international law (i.e., failure to prevent or punish the attack may result in international responsibility by the territorial state to the sending state) and a universal …

Treaty Interpretation From A Negotiator's Perspective, Kenneth J. Vandevelde

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international law of treaty interpretation is based on the perspective of an objective third party, such as a court, seeking to interpret an agreement after it has been negotiated. The result is a legal regime that attempts unnecessarily to apply a uniform approach to all treaty provisions and which places primary emphasis on resolving disputes rather than on enforcing the parties' intent. This approach takes insufficient account of the actual process of treaty negotiation, undercuts the legitimacy of the court's interpretation and potentially diminishes the effectiveness of treaties as a means of governing international relations. International law needs a …

Interpreting State Practice Under Treaties: A Brief Colloquy On The Composition Of Customary International Law, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the following discussion, Professor D'Amato takes issue with Professor Weisburd's interpretation of the impact of state practice under treaties. Although the central debate specifically addresses the issue of human rights, the discussion provides a valuable framework for deciding whether contrary state practice effectively undermines the conclusive effect of treaties in developing rules of customary international la

Custom And Treaty: A Response To Professor Weisburd, Anthony D'Amato

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Arthur M. Weisburd's article, "Customary International Law: The Problem of Treaties", focuses on an important problem that has been relatively overlooked: whether current doctrinal scholarship accords too much weight to treaties as constitutive of customary practice. Few issues in international law are more important than the question of where an international rule comes from and how it is proved. Professor Weisburd has addressed a significant component of this basic question. Since he regards me as the leading offender among writers who overdetermine the value of treaties, I would like to take this opportunity to respond.

As a preliminary matter, I …

A Reply To Professor D'Amato, A. M. Weisburd

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the foregoing article, Professor D'Amato has taken issue with a number of arguments I raised in an article published in a recent issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. In this reply, I attempt to refute his criticisms. The discussion that follows briefly recapitulates my article. I then seek to deal with the points made in Professor D'Amato's response one by one.

My article addressed an aspect of the relationship between treaties and customary international law. Taking as a starting point the assumption that treaties can be an element of the state practice necessary to constitute customary law, …

Comment, Section 337 And Gatt In The Akzo Controversy: A Pre- And Post-Omnibus Trade And Competitiveness Act Analysis, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Journal Articles

Section 337 of the United States Tariff Act of 1930 ("Section 337") protects intellectual property rights from international pirating and counterfeiting. It provides a mechanism for excluding infringing imports from the United States marketplace. Before the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (the "Omnibus Trade Act"), some argued that Section 337 should be amended to provide for further protection. Others maintained that Section 337 conflicts with United States obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT") or that further substantive amendments of Section 337 would conflict with GATT. A GATT Panel in Imports of Certain Automotive Spring …

The Law Of Piracy: "Piracy" In The Twentieth Century, Alfred P. Rubin

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Forward And Preface

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Nicaragua: United States Assistance To The Nicaraguan Human Rights Association And The Nicaraguan Resistance, Suzanne B. Goldberg, Lee Crawford, Kevin Reed, John Tennant

Faculty Scholarship

The question of providing aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance has been significant to United States human rights policy throughout the Reagan Administration. Although events have changed repeatedly during the winter of 1988, including a truce between the Nicaraguan Government and the Resistance and a Congressional decision not to provide military aid to the Resistance, the underlying policy issues remain constant. The Harvard Human Rights Yearbook presents two notes, infra, discussing the Military Construction Appropriations Act of 1987, which granted $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance. The first note discusses the Nicaraguan Human Rights Association (Asociacidn Nicaraguense Pro-Derechos Humanos …