International Law Commons^™

Workshop Democracy: Making Policy In Cote D'Ivoire, Max Levin

Max Levin

Development experts would benefit from a better understanding of how policy is made in developing countries. In this article, I describe how health policy is made in Cote d’Ivoire, from the perspective of a Westerner embedded in the Ministry of Health for 10 months. I provide a narrative of how one health system reform—performance-based financing—moved from policy idea to enacted reform. I describe the origins of the reform in Cote d’Ivoire, how the government came to support the reform, and then the mechanics of how the reform was enacted. I then present observations on how policymaking in Cote d’Ivoire differs …

Balancing The Scales: Adhuc Sub Judice Li Est Or Trial By Media, Casey J. Cooper

Casey J Cooper

The right to freedom of expression and free press is recognized under almost all major human rights instruments and domestic legal systems—common and civil—in the world. However, what do you do when a fundamental right conflicts with another equally fundamental right, like the right to a fair trial? In the United States, the freedom of speech, encompassing the freedom of the press, goes nearly unfettered: the case is not the same for other common law countries. In light of cultural and historic facts, institutional factors, modern realities, and case-law, this Article contends that current American jurisprudence does not take into …

The Cost Of Doing Business In Asia: A Comparative Legal Study Of Environmental Regulations In The Emerging Markets Of Thailand, Malaysia, And Indonesia, Brooke R. Padgett

Brooke R. Padgett

Abstract: This article explores whether voluntary standards, customary law, or more binding bilateral investment treaties are best for corporations, the emerging markets of Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and the environment itself. While corporations, markets, and the environment facially seem to have divergent priorities, environmental disasters are more costly after the fact than they are to prevent so in reality their priorities may not be so different after all. Some of the potential issues the paper will examine and address are big picture macro level such as fairness to future generations, intergenerational rights; the actual cost through questions of polluter pays, …

Does Customary International Law Obligate States To Extradite Or Prosecute Individuals Accused Of Committing Crimes Against Humanity?, Eveylon Cw Mack

Eveylon CW Mack

The effort to establish a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) has gained support at the U.N. International Law Commission. Proponents of a CAH Convention assert that the lack of a treaty addressing inter-State cooperation promotes impunity for international crimes that are particularly egregious and are prohibited as norms recognized as jus cogens. In order to avoid safe havens for those who commit CAH, many CAH Convention proponents advocate for inclusion of an obligation to extradite or prosecute an offender that turns up in a State party’s territory. They assert that the inclusion of such an obligation is particularly important …

“A Pointless Legal Revolution? Constitutional Supremacy And Eu Membership In Spain, 1978-2014”, Antonio-Carlos Pereira-Menaut

antonio-carlos pereira-menaut

This topic belongs to history. After Franco’s death (1975) Spain embarked on a ‘legal revolution’ that, if pressed to its extremes, could be hardly compatible with European integration. Understandably, the Spaniards throve to create not just a new constitution but also a whole new legal order, with the following traits:

First, legal monism, and pyramid-like shape. Second, every legally relevant thing should be traceable back to the Constitution, that would legitimate and pervade all laws, by-laws, decrees, orders, administrative acts and judicial rulings. Ideally, every law, act or verdict would be but a development of the Constitution. Third, the border …

Taming The "Feral Beast": Cautionary Lessons From British Press Reform, Lili Levi

Lili Levi

Abstract: As technology undermines the economic model supporting traditional newspapers, power shifts from the watchdog press to those it watches. Worldwide calls for increased press “responsibility” are one result. Pending British press reform provides a troubling example with far-ranging implications for freedom of the press. Under the guise of modest press self-regulation, the U.K. is currently poised to upend 300 years of press freedom via the recently-approved Royal Charter for Self-Regulation of the Press. The Royal Charter was adopted in response to the moral panic engendered by Britain’s tabloid phone-hacking scandal. An example of 20^th Century regulation poorly fitted …

“Friend To The Martyr, A Friend To The Woman Of Shame”: Thinking About The Law, Shame And Humiliation, Michael L. Perlin, Naomi Weinstein

Michael L Perlin

The need to pay attention to the law‘s capacity to allow for, to encourage, or (in some cases) to remediate humiliation, or humiliating or shaming behavior has increased exponentially as we begin to also take more seriously international human rights mandates, especially – although certainly not exclusively – in the context of the recently-ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a Convention that calls for “respect for inherent dignity,” and characterizes "discrimination against any person on the basis of disability [as] a violation of the inherent dignity and worth of the human person...."

Humiliation and shaming, …

The Evolution Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act; Changing Interpretations Of The Dmca And Future Implications For Copyright Holders, Hillary A. Henderson

Hillary A Henderson

Copyright law rewards an artificial monopoly to individual authors for their creations. This reward is based on the belief that, by granting authors the exclusive right to reproduce their works, they receive an incentive and means to create, which in turn advances the welfare of the general public by “promoting the progress of science and useful arts.” Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or …

Enforcement In A Regime Complex, Sergio Puig

Sergio Puig

Today’s international business environment is fundamentally different than that of fifty years ago. Traditional trade meant selling into one nation goods that were made in another; now trade is mostly about making things in multiple countries and selling them everywhere. Yet the two main branches of public international law that address international business—international trade law and international investment law—have their providence and continue to be viewed as two discrete, separate systems. Through case studies, this Article explores how trade and investment are converging, and the resulting difficulties governments and private interests face when international rules are enforced. The tasks of …

"To Kill A Cleric?: The Al-Awlaki Case And The Chaplaincy Exception Under The Laws Of War", K Benson

K Benson

Anwar al-Awlaki was the first American citizen to be targeted for extrajudicial assassination by the Obama administration. While scholarly attention has focused on legality of his killing under domestic law, his status as a chaplain under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has gone unexamined. The possibility that Anwar al-Awlaki may have been a protected person as a chaplain has profound ramifications for the legality of his killing and for the conduct of the war on terror more generally. As the definition of a "Chaplain" under IHL is under-developed at best and vague at worst, ideologues such as Mr. al-Awlaki operate in …