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Full-Text Articles in International Law
Interrogation Of Detainees: Extending A Hand Or A Boot?, Amos N. Guiora
Interrogation Of Detainees: Extending A Hand Or A Boot?, Amos N. Guiora
ExpressO
The so called “war on terror” provides the Bush administration with a unique opportunity to both establish clear guidelines for the interrogation of detainees and to make a forceful statement about American values. How the government chooses to act can promote either an ethical commitment to the norms of civil society, or an attitude analogous to Toby Keith’s “American Way,” where Keith sings that “you’ll be sorry that you messed with the USofA, ‘Cuz we’ll put a boot in your ass, It’s the American Way.”
No aspect of the “war on terrorism” more clearly addresses this balance than coercive interrogation. …
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, And ?: The Correlation Between Policy Areas, Signing, And Legal Ratification Of Organization Of American States’ Treaties By Member States., Alexandra R. Harrington
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, And ?: The Correlation Between Policy Areas, Signing, And Legal Ratification Of Organization Of American States’ Treaties By Member States., Alexandra R. Harrington
ExpressO
Abstract: Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and ?: The Correlation Between Policy areas, Signing, and Legal Ratification of Organization of American States’ Treaties by Member States.
Like any organization, the Organization of American States’ ability to affect lasting policy changes through treaties is only as strong as the will of the federal legislative bodies of its member states. No matter how lofty or well-meaning the OAS’s goals in any area or matter addressed by a treaty, or the number of OAS member states which sign onto a treaty reflecting these goals, under the OAS Charter, and the federal constitutions of most member …
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.
From Origin To Delta: Changing Landscape Of Modern Constitutionalism, Jiunn-Rong Yeh, Wen-Chen Chang
From Origin To Delta: Changing Landscape Of Modern Constitutionalism, Jiunn-Rong Yeh, Wen-Chen Chang
ExpressO
This article deals with the question of whether and to what extent the two forces of democratization and globalization have altered our understandings of constitutionalism. We attempt to theorize a changing landscape of constitutionalism that includes transitional and transnational perspectives and examine respectively their features, functions and characteristics. First, we analyze respective developments of transitional and transnational constitutionalism by identifying their features, perspectives, functions, and characteristics. Then we examine to what extent and in what ways the developments in transitional and transnational constitutionalism pose challenges to our traditional understanding of modern constitutional laws. Finally, we shall picture a new constitutional …
Theories Of Supranationalism In The Eu, Rafael Leal-Arcas
Theories Of Supranationalism In The Eu, Rafael Leal-Arcas
ExpressO
Supranationalism has been a topic of analysis from various points of view when trying to understand the process of European integration. This article aims at presenting the major theories of supranationalism when discussing the ongoing process of European integration. Three main theories are examined: 1) normative versus decisional supranationalism; 2) theories of partial integration, and 3) legal theories of economic integration (such as the neo-liberal economic policy, the European Community (EC) as a special-purpose association of functional integration, as well as the theory of the supranational and intergovernmental dual structure of the EC).
Polycephalous Anatomy Of The Ec In The Wto: An Analysis Of Law And Practice, Rafael Leal-Arcas
Polycephalous Anatomy Of The Ec In The Wto: An Analysis Of Law And Practice, Rafael Leal-Arcas
ExpressO
This article analyzes the unique legal position of the European Community (EC) in the world trading system. Its polycephalous anatomy derives from the fact that all 25 Member States of the EC are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) along with the EC itself. This means that when referring to the EC, the whole as well as its parts are independent Members of the WTO. This has legal and political consequences related to the allocation of powers between the national and supranational levels that will be analyzed. The article explains what is meant by a “mixed agreement” and analyzes …
Light From The Trees: The Story Of Minors Oposa And The Russian Forest Cases , Oliver Austin Houck
Light From The Trees: The Story Of Minors Oposa And The Russian Forest Cases , Oliver Austin Houck
ExpressO
This article describes two lawsuits in the late twentieth century that changed their countries in ways from which there will be no return. One took place in the Philippines, emerging from the reign of Fernando Marcos, and the other in Russia, following a near century of communist rule. They have two things in common. They declared the rights of their citizens to challenge, and reverse, government decisions. And they were about the environment, more particularly, trees. What we learn is that notions of environmental protection, citizen enforcement and judicial review have traveled the world and that, in differing legal systems, …
Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativst . . . Sometimes, David C. Gray
Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativst . . . Sometimes, David C. Gray
ExpressO
The burgeoning literature on transjudicialism and constitutional comparativism generally reaffirms the familiar lines of contest between textualists and those more inclined to read the Constitution as a living document. As a consequence, it tends to be politicized, if not polemic. This essay begins to shift the debate toward a more rigorous focus on first principles. In particular, it argues that full faith to the basic commitments of originalism, as advanced in Justice Scalia’s writings, opinions, and speeches, requires domestic courts to consult contemporary foreign sources when interpreting universalist language found in the Constitution. While the essay does not propose a …
Is Ec Trade Policy Up To Par?: A Legal Analysis Over Time - Rome, Marrakesh, Amsterdam, Nice, And The Constitutional Treaty, Rafael Leal-Arcas
Is Ec Trade Policy Up To Par?: A Legal Analysis Over Time - Rome, Marrakesh, Amsterdam, Nice, And The Constitutional Treaty, Rafael Leal-Arcas
ExpressO
This article is an attempt to a thorough chronological analysis of the European Community’s (EC) existing law and policy in the field of international trade law since the beginning of the European Economic Community. It deals with the evolution of the EC’s common commercial policy competence through the years, starting with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), moving on to the necessary changes brought by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, signed in Marrakesh in 1994, until the days of the European Union (EU) Constitutional Treaty, with a view to enabling the EC with a coherent trade policy in …
Redefining The Right To Be Let Alone: Privacy Rights And The Constitutionality Of Technical Surveillance Measures In Germany And The United States, Nicole E. Jacoby
Redefining The Right To Be Let Alone: Privacy Rights And The Constitutionality Of Technical Surveillance Measures In Germany And The United States, Nicole E. Jacoby
ExpressO
U.S. and German courts alike long have struggled to find the proper balance between protecting the privacy rights of criminal suspects and granting law enforcement officials the adequate tools to fight crime. The highest courts in each country have produced different paradigms for determining where the public sphere ends and the private sphere begins. In a series of cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has inquired whether a criminal defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy when the state conducted a warrantless search of the suspect’s person, premises, or belongings. Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, in contrast, has asked whether an investigative …
Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp
Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.
How Should A Court Deal With A Primary Question That The Legislature Seeks To Avoid? The Israeli Controversy Over Who Is A Jew As An Illustration, Gidon Sapir
ExpressO
Legislative avoidance of principled decisions on substantive questions, by transferring the decision making task to the executive branch, is a frequent scenario. The legislature does this by way of either express, or hidden delegation, i.e. by using ambiguous wording that on the face of it only requires interpretation, but which in fact requires a substantive decision on the matter at stake. The Israeli legislature resorted to the hidden delegation tactic in order to avoid the adoption of a substantive decision in the dispute over the question of: “who is a Jew” - a dispute that has divided Israeli society and …
The Secret Is Out: Patent Law Preempts Mass Market License Terms Barring Reverse Engineering For Interoperability Purposes, Daniel Laster
The Secret Is Out: Patent Law Preempts Mass Market License Terms Barring Reverse Engineering For Interoperability Purposes, Daniel Laster
ExpressO
As patent protection has emerged to protect software, courts and commentators have mistakenly focused on copyright law and overlooked the centrality of patent preemption to limit contract law where a mass market license which prohibits reverse engineering (RE) for purposes of developing interoperable products leads to patent-like protection. Review of copyright fair use cases on RE and Congress’s policy favoring RE for interoperability purposes in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act reinforce the case for patent preemption. Also, the fundamental freedom to RE embodied in state trade secret law, coupled with federal patent and copyright law and policies, cumulatively should override …
Resurrection From Babel: The Cultural, Political, And Legal Status Of Christian Communities In Lebanon And Syria And Their Prospects For The Future, Alexandra R. Harrington
Resurrection From Babel: The Cultural, Political, And Legal Status Of Christian Communities In Lebanon And Syria And Their Prospects For The Future, Alexandra R. Harrington
ExpressO
In the well-known Biblical story, the faithful, attempting to create a place of unity for themselves, set about building the Tower of Babel, only to see the Tower implode due to linguistic differences and power assertions. Thousands of years later, the world is still plagued by sectarian strife and warfare. Indeed, the situation has only become more involved since Babel, as there are now inter-communal and intra-communal conflicts for supremacy and superiority – a notable difference in these conflicts is that the ultimate tool of getting to Heaven is no longer a tower, it is now a state. Within the …
The Transnational Judicial Discourse And Felon Disenfranchisement: Re-Examining The Textual Premise Of Richardson V. Ramirez, Jason G. Morgan-Foster
The Transnational Judicial Discourse And Felon Disenfranchisement: Re-Examining The Textual Premise Of Richardson V. Ramirez, Jason G. Morgan-Foster
ExpressO
This article is simultaneously an international comparative law piece about prisoner disenfranchisement in various countries, a transnational work of legal theory providing a framework for the use of foreign law in domestic constitutional courts, and a domestic analysis of the constitutional underpinnings of felon disenfranchisement.
The article begins with a comprehensive comparative analysis of the recent prisoner disenfranchisement decisions in Canada, South Africa, and Europe. It notes that the over-arching theme of these decisions is to view the acceptability of prisoner disenfranchisement along a continuum, where it becomes more acceptable the more serious the offense committed.
The article then examines …
Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor
Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
Water Justice In South Africa: Natural Resources Policy At The Intersection Of Human Rights, Economics, & Political Power, Rose Francis
Water Justice In South Africa: Natural Resources Policy At The Intersection Of Human Rights, Economics, & Political Power, Rose Francis
ExpressO
This paper analyzes water as a social justice issue in South Africa, a nation that has undergone tremendous political and legal transformations over the last fifteen years, but whose population nonetheless continues to suffer from severe inequities in access to freshwater resources. In light of growing water scarcity worldwide, this paper highlights that legal treatment of water resources has significant socioeconomic and distributive justice impacts, even in progressive constitutional democracies that have embraced principles of human rights and international legal norms. The paper explores historical changes in South African water law and evaluates the current political and legal status of …
The Case For The Legislative Override, Nicholas Stephanopoulos
The Case For The Legislative Override, Nicholas Stephanopoulos
ExpressO
What is the optimal arrangement of judicial review? Most scholars who have addressed this question have assumed that there are only two important alternatives: judicial supremacy and parliamentary sovereignty. The literature has neglected the conceptual space that exists between these two poles, in particular the innovative legislative override model. This Article describes and evaluates the experiences of the two countries that have adopted the override, Canada and Israel. It also introduces a refined override model that promises to protect fundamental rights while promoting democratic decision-making. Finally, the Article explains which institutional and political contexts are hospitable to the override and …
A Case Study In The Banning Of Political Parties: The Pan-Arab Movement El Ard And The Israeli Supreme Court, Ron Harris
A Case Study In The Banning Of Political Parties: The Pan-Arab Movement El Ard And The Israeli Supreme Court, Ron Harris
ExpressO
Attempts to outlaw political groups that are alleged to approve the use of violence, to limit the expression of views that challenge the core values of democratic nation-states, and to ban radical, separatist, or religious political parties are more widespread in recent years than at any other time since 1945. They gave rise in the last few years to litigation in Constitutional Courts and Supreme Courts in Spain, Germany, Turkey, France, Israel, and Latvia, as well as in the European courts.
The present article tells the story of the encounter in the years 1959-1965 between the Pan-Arab national movement El …
“Which One Of You Did It?” Criminal Liability For “Causing Or Allowing” The Death Of A Child, Lissa Griffin
“Which One Of You Did It?” Criminal Liability For “Causing Or Allowing” The Death Of A Child, Lissa Griffin
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Crisis Over The Proposed Supreme Court For The United Kingdom, Peter L. Fitzgerald
Constitutional Crisis Over The Proposed Supreme Court For The United Kingdom, Peter L. Fitzgerald
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
The Right To Family Life And Civil Marriage Under International Law And Its Implementation In The State Of Israel, Yuval Merin
The Right To Family Life And Civil Marriage Under International Law And Its Implementation In The State Of Israel, Yuval Merin
ExpressO
The article deals with the protection of the right to family life under international law and its implementation in the State of Israel on three levels: protection of the family cell as a single unit; protection of the individuals comprising the family unit; and protection of the family in special circumstances (e.g., immigration rights).
The article begins by analyzing the characteristics of the right to family life and examining various definitions of the “family” under international and Israeli law. It also examines what it is that the right to family life encompasses and how it should be classified within the …
Beyond Rights: Legal Process And Ethnic Conflicts, Elena A. Baylis
Beyond Rights: Legal Process And Ethnic Conflicts, Elena A. Baylis
ExpressO
Unresolved ethnic conflicts threaten the stability and the very existence of multi-ethnic states. The realities of ethnic conflict are daunting: ethnic disputes tend to be both persistent and complex, and efforts to use democracy or ethnic-blind policies to deal with those conflicts tend to fail. While multi-ethnic states have struggled to devise political solutions for ethnic conflict, they have largely ignored the role that legal processes might play in resolving ethnic discord. But at certain crucial moments in the development of ethnic conflicts, legal processes such as mediation, adjudication, and constitutional interpretation might effectively address these disputes.
This article explores …
Trial Of The Accused Taliban And Al Qaeda Operatives Captured In Afghanistan And Detained On A U.S. Military Base In Cuba, Jaime Jackson
Trial Of The Accused Taliban And Al Qaeda Operatives Captured In Afghanistan And Detained On A U.S. Military Base In Cuba, Jaime Jackson
ExpressO
A timely piece proposing solutions for issues certain to be raised in the upcoming trials of the accused Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives captured in Afghanistan and detained on a U.S. military base in Cuba. In the article, I begin by examining the history and jurisdiction of Article I and Article III courts and then address the history and structure of the Al Qaeda and Taliban regimes. After considering the Constitution, federal statutes, politics, and geographical limitations, I conclude that Al Qaeda detainees should be tried in Article III courts under terrorism statutes and Taliban detainees, as military combatants, should …
The Perils Of "Consensus": Hans Kelsen And The Legal Philosophy Of The United Nations, J. Peter Pham
The Perils Of "Consensus": Hans Kelsen And The Legal Philosophy Of The United Nations, J. Peter Pham
ExpressO
Recently the United States and a number of its traditional allies have clashed over a variety of foreign policy issues that are profoundly juridical: the authority for war and peace, the International Criminal Court, etc. The source of these recent tensions is to be located at a level deeper than that of narrow national interests and specific policies. Rather, they arise from significant differences concerning the nature of "consensus" and, ultimately, legal philosophy. While the United Nations and many other international organizations derive their legal visions from the philosophy of law of Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), one of the most important …