Law Commons^™

One Spark Can Set A Fire: The Role Of Intent In Incitement To Genocide, Kate Kovarovic

Kate Kovarovic

The world was introduced to an entirely new method of warfare during World War II: that which was fought with words. Hitler mastered the art of media manipulation, and the world struggled to overcome his capacity to influence the German people. After the war, the international community felt compelled to restrict the type of conduct that had enabled Hitler to so easily gain control of his audiences. However, legal scholars struggled to balance this need with the protection of free speech. Eventually, the Genocide Convention was drafted to explicitly prohibit direct and public incitement to genocide, but not mere hate …

Unsex Cedaw: What's Wrong With "Women's Rights", Darren Rosenblum

International & Comparative Law Colloquium Papers

Although the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (“CEDAW” or the “Convention”) has succeeded in some respects, even its supporters acknowledge broad failures. CEDAW’s weakness draws on the titular mistaken diagnosis: “women” are not the issue&#;gender disparities are. The 1970’s drafting of CEDAW focused on bringing women to their place at the international law table. What’s wrong with women’s rights? In the international context, CEDAW attempts to empower women but fails to respect other gender inequality. As the preeminent treaty on gender inequality, CEDAW cannot succeed in creating gender equality if its scope remains limited …

Accountability For Property Crimes And Environmental War Crimes: Prosecution, Litigation, And Development, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Constitutions, International Law, And The Settlement Function Of Law: A Schema For Further Reflection, Larry Alexander

San Diego International Law Journal

Imagine a community living in a defined geographical area. Its members generally believe that their actions should be guided by moral norms, and they generally comply with those norms as they understand them. And, from our external vantage point, we believe that they are indeed subject to moral norms and should comply with them, both in dealing with each other and with those outside their community....

Norm Conflict In International Law: Whither Human Rights?, Marko Milanovic

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

Application Of Non-Implemented International Law By The Federal Court Of Appeal: Towards A Symbolic Effect Of S. 3(3)(F) Of The Irpa?, France Houle, Noura Karazivan

Dalhousie Law Journal

Since 1999, the Supreme Court has explored the linkages between domestic statutes and international norms and values and has slowly developed the basic principles underlying a new mechanism of relevancy that the authors call harmonization of domestic law with international law The authors analyze this development in PartI of the present article. In Part II, they study the application of this harmonization mechanism in the field of Canadian immigration law Of, particular importance in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is s. 3(3)(f), for it directs judges to construe and apply the IRPA in a manner that "complies with international …

The Dragon In The Room: China's Anti-Monopoly Law And International Merger Review, Christopher Hamp-Lyons

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a world where mergers affect every corner of the planet, any government seeking competitive markets has an interest in ensuring that these mergers are not harmful to competition. As China, the world's most populous country, has committed to a market economy, it has now taken the momentous step of enacting its own Anti- Monopoly Law ("AML"). This effects a dramatic change in the antitrust regulation of multinational mergers. In international antitrust, even subtle legal differences between jurisdictions create significant potential for conflict. For this reason, the advent of antitrust merger review by a country with such massive international economic …

The Fog Of Certainty, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

In a recent essay in the Yale Law Journal, constitutional law scholar Michael Stokes Paulsen argues that “[t]he force of international law, as a body of law, upon the United States is . . . largely an illusion.” Rather than law, he suggests, international law is mere “policy and politics.”

For all the certainty with which this argument is advanced, it cannot survive close scrutiny. At its foundation, Professor Paulsen’s essay rests on a pair of fundamental misconceptions of the nature of law. Law is not reduced to mere policy, to begin, simply because it can be undone. Were that …

Through A Russian Looking Glass: The Development Of A Russian Rule Of Law And Democracy, Whitney R. Cale

Whitney R Cale

U.S. policymakers, scholars, and citizens alike, have failed to recognize the reality of Russian law and democracy today. Instead, they have embraced a distorted view that concludes that Russian leadership has “hijacked” Russia. This Article challenges this dominant view arguing arguing that a more nuanced approach to Russia is necessary. Specifically, Russia’s multi-faceted and storied history, and intensely fervent nationalism have formed a unique worldview that provides the lens through which to view that country’s understanding of the rule of law and democracy. It is through this lens that the Russia of today may be reconciled, because although Russian leaders’ …

Start: Overcoming Remaining Challenges, Elizabeth Zolotukhina

Journal of Strategic Security

During the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and VladimirPutin, the governments of Russia and the United States could not agreeon how to codify their balance of strategic offensive nuclear forces after the existing Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) expired onDecember 5, 2009.1 The United States and Russia are currently engagedin negotiations to replace START with a new treaty before the end of this year.

"The Distant 'Big' Hospital": Linking Development, Poverty And Reproductive Health-A Gender Mainstreaming Approach, Edith Miguda

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Cyber Apocalypse Now: Securing The Internet Against Cyberterrorism And Using Universal Jurisdiction As A Deterrent, Kelly Gable

Kelly Gable

No abstract provided.

Cyber Apocalypse Now: Securing The Internet Against Cyberterrorism And Using Universal Jurisdiction As A Deterrent, Kelly Gable

Kelly Gable

No abstract provided.

A No-Excuse Approach To Transitional Justice: Reparations As Tools Of Extraordinary Justice, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

It is sometimes the case that a debate goes off the rails so early that riders assume the rough country around them is the natural backdrop for their travels. That is certainly true in the debate over reparations in transitions to democracy. Reparations traditionally are understood as material or symbolic awards to victims of an abusive regime granted outside of a legal process. While some reparations claims succeed—such as those made by Americans of Japanese decent interned during World War II and those made by European Jews against Germany after World War II—most do not. The principal culprits in these …

Rule-Skepticism, "Strategery," And The Limits Of International Law, David Gray

David C. Gray

This is a review essay of Eric Posner and Jack Goldsmith's fascinating book, The Limits of International Law. In the essay I provide an exegesis of the core argument of the book, which is that the conduct of states in fields occupied by international law is more powerfully described by game theory than by law talk. In particular, the authors argue that state conduct traditionally described in terms of obedience and violation is actually determined by self-interest modified by the strategic conditions of identifiable games; principally coincidence games, coordination games, coercion games, and iterated prisoner dilemmas. In the essay I …

Reproductive Rights In The Legal Academy: A New Role For Transnational Law, Martha F. Davis, Bethany Withers

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Legal Education Reform In China Through U.S.-Inspired Transplants, Matthew S. Erie

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Responsibility To Protect: Three Pillars And Four Crimes, Heraldo Muñoz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The adoption of the concept of “Responsibility to Protect” (RtoP) by the Heads of State and Government in the September 2005 United Nations World Summit was a historic landmark which has generated great attention as a potentially powerful instrument to impede humanitarian tragedies. Yet much has been missing, or misinterpreted, in the public discussion of this emerging norm. Some fear that RtoP could be abused by powerful countries to intervene in developing nations alleging altruistic motives, while others believe that RtoP is already a rule of customary international law that should be applied unconditionally and without delay in the face …

Influenza A(H1n1) And Pandemic Preparedness Under The Rule Of International Law, Lawrence O. Gostin

O'Neill Institute Papers

A novel strain of Influenza A (H1N1) spread rapidly through Mexico in April 2009 and now spans the globe. By the time WHO was notified and responded, geographical containment was not feasible, leading the agency to call for mitigation. The international outbreak of SARS in 2003 and the more recent Influenza A (H5N1) among birds with limited transmission to humans helped prepare the world for the current pandemic threat. SARS galvanized the WHO to revise the antiquated International Health Regulations (IHR) in 2005, which took effect June 15, 2007. Governments instituted preparedness plans in response to avian influenza.

Despite increased …

Book Review: The Iraq War And International Law, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Faculty Scholarship

A review of The Iraq War and International Law edited by Phil Shiner and Andrew Williams. Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2008.

The Merits Of Global Constitutionalism, Anne Peters

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Global constitutionalism is an agenda that identifies and advocates for the application of constitutionalist principles in the international legal sphere. Global constitutionalization is the gradual emergence of constitutionalist features in international law. Critics of global constitutionalism doubt the empirical reality of constitutionalization, call into question the analytic value of constitutionalism as an academic approach, and fear that the discourse is normatively dangerous because it is anti-pluralist, artificially creates a false legitimacy, and promises an unrealistic end of politics. This article addresses these objections. I argue that global constitutionalization is likely to compensate for globalization induced constitutionalist deficits on the national …

Introduction: Global Constitutionalism From An Interdisciplinary Perspective, Anne Peters, Klaus Armingeon

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Global Constitutionalism – Process and Substance, Symposium. Kandersteg, Switzerland, January 17-20, 2008

Defragmentation Of Public International Law Through Interpretation: A Methodological Proposal, Anne Van Aaken

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Fragmentation of public international law (PIL) is perceived as a growing problem and answers to it are proliferating. International courts and tribunals are adjudicating ever more on issues that would be considered-were they not transnational or international in nature-constitutional problems. In national law, countervailing values, or intra-constitutional conflicts, are reconciled through a balancing of those values that is usually embedded in the application of the proportionality principle. A similar mechanism in PIL remains underdeveloped from a methodological point of view. This article aims to develop a methodological proposal for defragmentation through interpretation, drawing on legal theory, to be more precise …

Civil Rights In International Law: Compliance With Aspects Of The "International Bill Of Rights", Beth Simmons

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

International law has developed what many might consider a constitutional understanding of individual civil rights that individuals can claim vis-à-vis their own governments. This article discusses the development of aspects of international law relating to civil rights and argues that if this body of law is meaningful, we should see evidence of links between acceptance of international legal obligation and domestic practices. Recognizing that external forms of enforcement of civil rights is unlikely (because doing so is not generally in the interest of potential "enforcers"), I argue that international civil rights treaties will have their greatest effect where stakeholders-local citizens-have …

When Common Interests Are Not Common: Why The Global Basic Structure Should Be Democratic, Andreas Føllesdal

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The global constitution-the fundamental international norms and structures that serve constitutional functions-should include mechanisms of democratic contestation and accountability. This central claim of global constitutionalism faces three objections extrapolated from arguments made by Andrew Moravcsik and Giandomenico Majone in debates about the democratic deficit of the European Union (EU): the global constitution only regulates issues of low salience for citizens; democratic control is explicitly counter to the self-binding system that international regulations aim to achieve; and the EU's track record suggests that democratic control at the international level may be unnecessary to ensure congruence between voters' preferences and actual regulations. …

Constitutionalization And The Unity Of The Law Of International Responsibility, André Nolkaemper

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The law of international responsibility fulfills essentially two functions: reparation for injury and protection of the rule of law and global order. Notwithstanding the fundamental difference between these objectives, the law of international responsibility traditionally has been conceived in unitary norms consisting of a single set of principles that applies to all breaches of rules of international law. With the further development of international law that unity becomes difficult to maintain. On the one hand, there is an increasing need for a further refinement of liability principles for the determination of compensation for injury. On the other hand, the process …

Constitutionalism, Legal Pluralism, And International Regimes, Alec Stone Sweet

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The international legal order, although pluralist in structure, is in the process of being constitutionalized. This article supports this claim in several different ways. In the Part L I argue that most accepted understandings of "constitution" would readily apply to at least some international regimes. In Part II,I discuss different notions of "constitutional pluralism," and demonstrate that legal pluralism is not necessarily antithetical to constitutionalism. In fact, one finds a great deal of constitutional pluralism within national legal orders in Europe. Part III puts forward an argument that the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and …

International Rule Of Law And Constitutional Justice In International Investment Law And Arbitration, Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Judicial administration of justice through reasoned interpretation, application and clarification of legal principles and rules is among the oldest paradigms of constitutional justice. The principles of procedural justice underlying investor-state arbitration remain controversial, especially if confidentiality and party autonomy governing commercial arbitration risk neglecting adversely affected third parties and public interests. There are also concerns that rule-following and formal equality of foreign investors and home states may not ensure substantive justice in the settlement of investment disputes unless arbitrators and courts take more seriously their customary law obligation of settling disputes in conformity with human rights obligations of governments and …

Multilayered Governance, Pluralism, And Moral Conflict, Thomas Cottier

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The quest for multilayered governance faces the problem of endemic tensions and disagreements in international relations and doubts as to whether nations truly share common values upon which an international society can be solidly built. Values, however, are equally controversial within the nation-state. We find similar tensions within domestic and regional layers of governance. In any system of governance, diverging and competing values are inevitable. There are differences in degree, but not in principle, when comparing traits of domestic and international governance. Legal experience in the fields of human rights and international trade regulation indicates that under such conditions, procedures …

A Look At Traditional Islam's General Discord With A Permanent System Of Global Cooperation, Meghan E. Tepas

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In today's world, nation-states do not operate in isolation. Rather, the myriad global organizations and cross-border treaties evidence that the post-World War II political climate is one of interconnectedness and cooperation between states. Against this backdrop, this Note surveys the tension between the current global world order and a strict adherence to traditional source-based application of Islamic law, Shari'a. The tension begins with the concept of statehood, seemingly absent in traditional Islam, and continues with the Islamic unification of religion and state and its limited role for a political leader. Using Iran as an example, this Note argues that political …