Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

When (And Where) Is A Crime A Crime? “Double Criminality” As A Principle Of Fundamental Justice, Robert J. Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The idea that crime crosses borders is fast becoming ordinary, even old hat, particularly in an age of online crime such as ransomware attacks, cyber-extortion and the like. As we have become more geographically mobile, however, it is increasingly common for people to have engaged in criminal conduct in one state1 but then seek to exercise legal rights, or face legal entanglements, in others. Legal questions can then arise about what effect should be given by one state—in this article, Canada—to an individual’s conduct that was, or is alleged to have been, a crime in a foreign state. The inquiry …

We Shall Overcome: The Evolution Of Quotas In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of Samba, Stella Emery Santana

Seattle University Law Review

When were voices given to the voiceless? When will education be permitted to all? When will we need to protest no more? It’s the twenty-first century, and the fight for equity in higher education remains a challenge to peoples all over the world. While students in the United States must deal with the increase in loans, in Brazil, only around 20% of youth between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four have a higher education degree.

The primary objective of this Article is to conduct an in-depth comparative analysis of the development, implementation, and legal adjudication of educational quota systems within …

Australia And The United States: Two Common Criminal Justice Systems Uncommonly At Odds, Paul Marcus, Vicki Waye

Paul Marcus

At first glance the criminal justice systems of Australia and the United States look strikingly similar. With common law roots from England, they both emphasize the adversary system, the roleof the advocate, the presumption of innocence, and an appeals process. Upon closer reflection,however, they appear starkly different. From both Australian and U.S. perspectives, the authorsexplore those differences, examining important features such as the exclusion of evidence, rules regarding interrogation, the entrapment defense, and the open nature of trials. The Article concludes with an analysis of the reasons for those differences, reasons that heavily relate back to the founding of the …

Uganda’S New Sentencing Guidelines: Introduction, Initial Assessment And Early Recommendations, David B. Dennison

David Brian Dennison

In April of 2013 the Chief Justice of Uganda issued the Constitution (Sentencing Guidelines for the Courts of (Practice). In doing so Uganda joined a movement of criminal justice reform that cuts across anglophone jurisdictions. This article includes a general background on the emergence of sentencing guidelines and the two primary structural approaches to sentencing guidelines design.

This article’s primary purpose is to offer a preliminary critical assessment of Uganda’s Sentencing Guidelines. An overview of key features in the Sentencing Guidelines serves as a prelude to the analytical content.

Uganda’s Sentencing Guidelines are a commendable effort. They are more than …

Mexico's Gun Control Laws: A Model For The United States?, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

This article explicates Mexico’s constitutional right to arms and Mexico’s main gun-control statute, the Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives (Ley Federal de Armas de Fuego y Explosivos). Along the way, the article notes various proposals to move U.S. gun laws in a Mexican direction.

Part II of this article is an English translation of the Mexican constitution’s guarantee of the right to arms, as well as predecessor versions of the guarantee.

Part III explains the operation of Mexico’s gun-control system and provides some historical and statistical information about gun ownership and gun smuggling in Mexico.

Part IV describes some …

Criminal Justice Models: Canadian Experience In European And Islamic Comparative Perspective, Bruce P. Archibald

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper examines Canadian models of criminal justice in a European and Islamic comparative perspective. The traditional model of Canadian criminal justice is a state centred adversarial one intended to punish, deter and/or rehabilitate offenders who are accorded formal due process protections embedded in a liberal constitutional and procedural rights. This model has been transformed recently into an ambiguously tripartite adversarial model through an overlay of victims’ rights at all stages. However, Canadian law also recognizes alternative processes through various forms of problem solving courts and sometimes comprehensive restorative justice approaches, the latter rooted in relational notions of rights. Meanwhile, …

Can We Find And Stop The "Jihad Janes"?, Diane Webber

Diane Webber

Two female American citizens, Colleen LaRose, a.k.a. “Jihad Jane” and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, whose appearance and passports allow them to blend into Western society, currently represent “one of the worst fears” of intelligence and FBI analysts who work to identify terrorist threats. On both sides of the Atlantic, similar problems exist of homegrown terrorism and radicalization, and the internet has a huge impact on these issues. This paper examines the tools available to the U.S. and the U.K. to find and stop potential homegrown terrorists from perpetrating catastrophic acts of terror. After assessing the differences between U.S. and U.K. law, I …

Extreme Measures: Does The United States Need Preventive Detention To Combat Domestic Terrorism?, Diane Webber

Diane Webber

The paper examines current methods of preventive detention in the United States, that is the detaining of a suspect on home soil to prevent a terrorist attack. This paper looks at two recent events: the Fort Hood shootings and a preventive arrest in France, to consider problems in combating terrorist crimes on U.S. soil. I demonstrate that U.S. law as it now stands, with some limited exceptions, does not permit detention to forestall an anticipated domestic terrorist crime. After reviewing and evaluating the way in which France, Israel and the United Kingdom use forms of preventive detention to thwart possible …

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Scholarly Works

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …

Recent Private International Law Developments Before The Supreme Court Of Canada, Antonin I. Pribetic

Antonin I. Pribetic

A trilogy of interesting cases involving private international law recently wended their way to the Supreme Court of Canada: (1) King v. Drabinsky (an Ontario case addressing the applicability of the Charter in respect of the enforcement of a foreign judgment); (2) Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. v. Lloyd's Underwriters (a British Columbia case involving declaratory relief in the context of parallel proceedings and forum non conveniens); and (3) Yugraneft v. Rexx Management Corporation (an Alberta case which affirmed that the two-year limitation period under s.3 of Alberta's Limitations Act, governs when a party seeks the recognition and enforcement in Alberta …

Wild-West Cowboys Versus Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Some Problems In Comparative Approaches To Extreme Speech, Eric Heinze

Prof. Eric Heinze, Queen Mary University of London

All European states ban some form of hate speech. US law precludes such bans. In view of the political and symbolic importance of free speech, it becomes tempting to assume that trans-Atlantic differences towards hate speech reflect deeper cultural divisions.

However, we must pay attention to comparative methodology before drawing ambitious conclusions about cross-cultural social and political differences that derive solely from differences in formal, black-letter norms. In this volume, Robert Post claims that formal, constitutional requirements of content-neutral regulation reflect a freer public sphere in the US, in contrast to the European public sphere.

Yet a legal-realist approach casts …

Divided By A Common Legal Tradition, Intisar Rabb Phd

Intisar A. Rabb

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The Gold Standard Of Gun Control - Book Review Of Joyce Malcolm, Guns And Violence: The English Experience, David B. Kopel, Joanne D. Eisen, Paul Gallant

David B Kopel

Guns and Violence tells a remarkable story of a society's self-destruction, of how a government in a few decades managed to reverse six hundred years of social progress in violence reduction. The book is also a testament to the amazing self-confidence of British governments; Labour and Conservative alike have proceeded with an extreme anti-self-defense agenda, although the agenda has never had much supporting evidence beyond the government's own platitudes.

Australia And The United States: Two Common Criminal Justice Systems Uncommonly At Odds, Paul Marcus, Vicki Waye

Faculty Publications

At first glance the criminal justice systems of Australia and the United States look strikingly similar. With common law roots from England, they both emphasize the adversary system, the roleof the advocate, the presumption of innocence, and an appeals process. Upon closer reflection,however, they appear starkly different. From both Australian and U.S. perspectives, the authorsexplore those differences, examining important features such as the exclusion of evidence, rules regarding interrogation, the entrapment defense, and the open nature of trials. The Article concludes with an analysis of the reasons for those differences, reasons that heavily relate back to the founding of the …

Two Sides Of A "Sargasso Sea": Successive Prosecution For The "Same Offence" In The United States And The United Kingdom, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the U. S. constitutional law interpreting the concept of “same offence.” Included is a survey of the Supreme Court's attempts to interpret constitutional text in order to provide adequate protection for the underlying double jeopardy interest against vexatious reprosecutions, which have frequently produced inconsistent and illogical results. Part III of this article analyzes U.K. law relating to the concept of “same offence,” where the same narrow double jeopardy protection adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court is supplemented with a broad discretion to prevent unfair successive prosecution that constitutes an abuse of process. Part IV draws lessons from …

Review Of Giving Meaning To Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights, Edited By Isfahan Merali & Valerie Oosterveld, Intisar Rabb Phd

Intisar A. Rabb

No abstract provided.

The Correction Of Wrongful Convictions: A Comparative Perspective, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes the different modes in which two facially similar adversarial systems remedy wrongful convictions. Part I briefly examines the origins of wrongful convictions in both England and the United States. Part II describes the appellate processes in the two countries for correcting wrongful convictions. Part III addresses the processes for correcting wrongful convictions after the appellate processes have been completed. Part IV critiques the English process and examines whether aspects of that process may be carried over to the United States.

Legislative Conflicts Of Interest - An Analysis Of The Pennsylvania Legislative Code Of Ethics, James A. Shellenberger, Richard B. Hardt

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assistance In Addition To Counsel For Indigent Defendants: The Need For, The Lack Of, The Right To, Dennis W. Alexander

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.