International Law Commons^™

Going To Court, Internationally, Detlev F. Vagts

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The International Court of Justice at a Crossroads Edited by Lori Fisler Damrosch

Extraterritorial Application Of Penal Legislation, B. J. George Jr.

Michigan Law Review

One of the most difficult words in the legal lexicon to delineate is the term "jurisdiction"; it is equally difficult to relate this term to the concept of "venue." The term "jurisdiction" is constantly invoked by courts in a variety of contexts, some relating to geography, some to governmental and judicial structure, some to legislative or judicial power, some to persons, and some to procedures. Thus, it is difficult to discern a common thread of meaning or a consistent pattern of application from the cases in which the word appears.

The Maritime Boundaries Of The States, Avrum M. Gross

Michigan Law Review

It has long been recognized that the boundaries of coastal states encompass certain adjoining maritime areas. The settled existence of those boundaries, however, stands in marked contrast to the confusion which has surrounded their location. The geographic extent of the waters to which state jurisdiction extends has remained largely undetermined.

The recent development of refined methods for extracting minerals from offshore areas has translated questions of state jurisdiction into issues of substantial economic significance. In this regard, an increasing number of disputes have arisen between the states and the federal government, primarily over rights to offshore oil deposits. The …

Federal Appellate Jurisdiction-International Extradition-Review Of Extradition Proceedings, Martin R. Fine S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Consul General of Venezuela filed a complaint in a federal district court, pursuant to treaty and statute, seeking the extradition of former President Perez Jimenez for the crimes of murder and embezzlement. While the required extradition hearings were pending, Venezuela sought to use the civil deposition and subpoena procedure8 to compel several New York banks to produce records of deposits and to give depositions concerning the accounts of Jimenez and his alleged confederates. Jimenez moved for a protective order' to prevent Venezuela from obtaining and using these records as evidence against him in the extradition hearings. On appeal from …

International Law-Sovereign Immunity-State Court Authority To Determine Title To Property Under Its Jurisdiction Despite A Department Of State Suggestion Of Immunity, John A. Krsul Jr., S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In 1952 plaintiff brought a creditor's action for the appointment of a permanent receiver for the assets of the defendant located in New York. Defendant, Zivnostenska Banka, was a Czechoslovak corporation that had at one time been engaged in banking activities in New York. Plaintiff succeeded in having a receiver appointed upon proving that defendant had been nationalized, contrary to New York policy and law, by a 1950 decree of the Czechoslovak Government which had merged the defendant and its assets with the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. The instant controversy arose when the receiver attempted to set aside, as a …

International Law- Criminal Law- Jurisdiction Over Aliens For Crimes Committed Abroad, Frank G. Reeder S. Ed

Michigan Law Review

Six alien defendants were convicted under a federal statute for knowingly making false statements before United States consular officials abroad in order to procure nonquota immigrant visas. Their motion to dismiss this count on the ground that the district court lacked jurisdiction to indict and try aliens for crimes committed outside the territorial limits of the United States was denied. On appeal, held, affirmed. As a necessary incident to its sovereignty, the United States is competent to punish aliens apprehended within the United States for acts against its sovereignty committed outside the country. Rocha v. United States, 288 …

The Lex Fori - Basic Rule In The Conflict Of Laws, Albert A. Ehrenzweig

Michigan Law Review

The following summary of this thesis will show its essential connection with the progressing reform of the law of jurisdiction.

Federal And International Proceedings - United States Acceptance Of International Court Of Justice Compulsory Jurisdiction, Robert Jillson

Michigan Law Review

In October 1957 Switzerland, on behalf of the holding company now commonly known as Interhandel, addressed an application against the United States to the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.). Claiming I.C.J. jurisdiction by reason of the United States adherence to article 36 (2) of the Statute of the Court, Switzerland's submissions were essentially that the United States was under an obligation (1) to restore to Interhandel assets of the General Aniline and Film Corp which had been seized in 1942 pursuant to the Trading with the Enemy Act, and, as an alternative, (2) to submit the dispute to arbitration. The …

International Law - The United Nations Emergency Force - Legal Status, Dudley H. Chapman S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to consider the legal status of UNEF and of a potential permanent force of the same type. Some of the incidental legal problems confronting the United Nations will also be considered.

Snee & Pye: Status Of Forces Agreement: Criminal Jurisdiction, B. J. George Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Status of Forces Agreement: Criminal Jurisdiction: Criminal Jurisdiction. By Joseph M. Snee, S.J. and Kenneth A. Pye

Torts In English And American Conflict Of Laws: The Role Of The Forum, S. I. Shuman, S. Prevezer

Michigan Law Review

''Private international law owes its existence to the fact that there are in the world a number of separate territorial systems of law that differ greatly from each other in the rules by which they regulate the various legal relations arising in daily life." Where the systems are those of member states of a federal union, there should be less difference in their laws than where they are those of sovereign nations divided by strong cultural, social and political barriers. Interstate conflicts and international conflicts are likely to give rise to somewhat different considerations and rules, and it is surely …

Jessup: Transnational Law, Eric Stein

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Transnational Law. By Phillip C. Jessup.

International Law - Sovereign Immunity - Act Of State, Arthur M. Wisehart S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In 1953 the government of Peru authorized the issuance of scrip certificates to holders of certain of its bonds. Plaintiffs were members of a class of former bondholders who were not among the distributees of the scrip under the terms of the Peruvian enabling act. They alleged that they were entitled to share in the scrip by reason of contracts with the government of Peru and that defendants tortiously had induced Peru to breach these contracts by excluding the plaintiffs from the terms of the legislative enactment. The defense interposed was that litigation of the cause would make it necessary …

International Law-Jurisdiction Of International Court Of Justice, Duncan Noble S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On May 1, 1951, Iranian legislation enacting the so-called nationalization of the oil industry in Iran received the imperial assent. Thus was set in motion the increasingly bitter course of events whereby Iran has practically cut herself off from the western world. A not insignificant element in these events is the abortive effort of the British to deal with the problem through the International Court of Justice. On July 5, 1951, the United Kingdom obtained an order from the Court designed to maintain the status quo pending further judicial proceedings. In the subsequent course of these proceedings the U .K. …

International Law-Jurisdiction-Application Of United States Seaman's Laws To Foreign Seamen On Foreign Vessels, Philip Smullin

Michigan Law Review

Libelants, eleven Greek seamen, signed a contract in the United States for a voyage from this country to Spain on a Greek vessel. They were discharged when the ship reached Barcelona. The shipowners made advance payments to these seamen, as they had in the past, and deducted such payments when settlements were made in the United States at the end of the voyage, a practice contrary to a federal statute. Prior to libelants' return to the United States from Spain, where they had been properly discharged, suit was instituted in their behalf for wages. Respondents paid into court a sum …

International Law-Military Tribunals For The Trial Of War Criminals As International Courts, David S. Dewitt S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, a German citizen confined in the American Zone of Occupied Germany in the custody of the United States Anny, petitioned the United States District Court, District of Columbia for a writ of habeas corpus. The respondents were the Secretary of Defense and others alleged to have directory control over the jailers in Germany. The petitioner had been convicted of war crimes by Military Tribunal IV at Nuremburg, Germany. This tribunal was established by order of General Clay, United States Military Governor and Zone Commander, pursuant to Control Council Law No. 10 which carried out the London Agreement and the …

International Law -- Anti-Smuggling Bill -- Jurisdiction On The High Seas, James H. Roberton

Michigan Law Review

The control which a littoral state may exercise over the adjacent sea has never been the subject of complete agreement among the nations of the world. Inability to agree and resulting confusion have arisen in many instances from a failure to distinguish between a claim of control over a definite strip of adjacent water, often spoken of as "territorial waters," analogous to the control exercised on land and a claim that, for the well-being of the littoral state, control for limited and specific purposes may be extended beyond these territorial waters. The most obvious example of this latter type of …

Foreign Consul - Exemption From Suit In State Courts, Julius I. Puente

Michigan Law Review

In a recent case decided in California the defendant, De Besa, and others, were licensed brokers, and in that character acted as fiscal agents for the sale of the stock of a certain California corporation. Plaintiff sued to rescind the contract for misrepresentation. Neither at the time suit was filed, nor at any time prior to the day when he testified at the trial was the defendant, De Besa, a recognized consular officer; but it seems (on this point the facts of the case are very vague) that on the date of the trial and at the time of the …

The Doctrine Of "Hot Pursuit"--A New Application

Michigan Law Review

A recent decision of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina involves a point apparently unique in the records of international law. The Vinces, a schooner of British registry, laden with a cargo of intoxicating liquors not under seal, was discovered by the United States Coast Guard cutter Mascoutin seven and one-half miles off the coast and within one hour's sailing distance from the United States headed in the direction of land. On being hailed by the Mascoutin, the Vinces turned about and headed for the high seas. The cutter followed in continuous chase and overtook …

International Law-Extraterritorial Criminal Jurisdiction

Michigan Law Review

The importance of assertions of the right to punish extraterritorial crime is directly related to the advance of international commercial and social intercourse. The earliest serious attempts to assert such a jurisdiction date only from the eighteenth century. Now, practically every state exercises some degree of jurisdiction over offenses committed abroad. But the extent of the power claimed by the different nations varies so as to cause doubt as to what is the international rule on the subject.

The Case Of The S. S. "Lotus", George Wendell Berge

Michigan Law Review

A momentous judgment was rendered by the Permanent Court of International Justice, sitting at the Hague, on September 7, 1927, in the Case of the S.S. Lotus. Interest in the case is especially manifest among students of international and maritime law, as well as others, because it is perhaps the first case to come before the Permanent Court in which the question for decision was a point of general international law. Thorough analysis and comment on the questions involved would fill a good-sized volume. Only a few observations can be made in this article on the merits of the …

Note And Comment, George E. Longstaff, George L. Clark, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Constitutionality of the LA Follette Amendment to the Internal Revenue Law of 1921 - The United States Senate on November 5, 1921, inserted in the Revenue Act, then before the Senate, a provision that taxpayers in their income tax returns must specify what state and municipal bonds they hold, or else be subject to a penalty of five per cent. That provision was dropped out in conference, but it will come up again, and it is well to look at its constitutionality under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting unreasonable searches.

Status Of The Philippines, George A. Malcolm

Michigan Law Review

The mainland included within the boundaries of the United, States proper is now made up of States, and of the District of Columbia, specially created for the national capital. Outside of this compact territory are other units, not States, related in. some manner to the national government.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Acknowledgement--Impeachment--Examination of Married Woman; Bankruptcy--Discharge--Libel; Bankruptcy--Selection of Trustee--Right of Creditors to Elect; Bills and Notes--Genuine Draft with Forged Bill of Lading; Bills and Notes--Release of Indorsers; Carriers--Refulsal to Give Transer--Passenger's Motive in Requesting; Covenants--covenant Against Incumbrances--Runs with the Land; Deeds--Parties--One Not Names as Grantor Signing; Elections--Corrupt Practices Act--who is a Candidate; elections--voting Machines--Statute Unconstitutional; Eminent Domain--Taking of railroad Right of Way for Street Purposes--Measure of Damages; Equity--maxims--application in Suit for Divorce on Statutory Grounds; Evidence--Opinion as to One's Physical Condition--Expert Testimony; Foreign Corporations--Right to do business in State can Become Vested; Foreign Corporations--Service of Process on--What Constitutes "Doing Business"; Foreign …