International Law Commons^™

Non-State Actors For Profit: Revisiting Transnational Corporations' Personhood And Responsibility Under International Law, Katayoon Beshkardana, Faraz Shahlaei

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The growing impact of Transnational Corporations (TCs) on international trade, investment, and human rights raises the question of international corporate responsibility. For international responsibility, TCs must be recognized as subjects of international law with legal personality. Apart from states as the primary subjects of international law, such status has been granted to inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). The factors that contributed to the IGOs’ recognition as international law subjects seem to be present for TCs today. While the International Court of Justice granted such legal status to IGOs, for TCs, the best path to recognition would be to establish a global authority …

The Effect Of The Pro Act On Secondary Activity And International Trade, Christopher R. Rodenbaugh

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Live And Let Liv?: The Case Against Antitrust Alarm And The Multi-Tour Future Of Professional Golf, Reed Silverman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Disciplining Cbdcs: Achieving The Balance Between Privacy Protection And Central Bank Independence, Cheng-Yun Tsang, Yueh-Ping Yang, Ping-Kuei Chen

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Central bank digital currency (“CBDC”) is a crucial FinTech development that aspires to overhaul the current payment system. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, CBDCs’ promises to reduce personal contact, facilitate socially desirable use of money, and initiate more targeted monetary measures have increased their popularity. In addition, CBDCs can potentially serve as a tool to internationalize a sovereign’s currency. World central banks, thus, have gradually formulated a consensus on structuring CBDCs, leaving the regulatory aspects of CBDCs deserving more attention. Among the regulatory issues related to CBDCs, observers often mentioned their association with privacy concerns, but comprehensive studies …

Leveling The Playing Field: How To Get International Student-Athletes Paid Under Name, Image And Likeness, Justin Auh

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Trends In China-Africa Economic Relations And Dispute Settlement, Won Kidane

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The rapid rise in the last two decades of China-Africa economic interactions in trade, investment, construction projects, and loans require sustained inquiry into the substantive rules of engagement and mechanisms of dispute settlement. Evidently, however, it would quickly emerge that the improvements in supranational legal frameworks have not kept pace with the growing scale and complexity of the economic interactions. While trade relations between China and Africa are theoretically subject to the same multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, they are in practice mostly based on informal unilateral concessions. Moreover, investment relations are partially governed by fragmented and mostly outdated …

Monitoring Sanctions Compliance At Sea, Richard L. Kilpatrick Jr.

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

What Remains Of The Alien Tort Statute After Nestlé Usa, Inc. V. Doe?, Clara Petch

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Abstract

The Alien Tort Statute (ATS), which provides U.S. courts with jurisdiction over violations of the law of nations, has been a crucial mechanism for obtaining redress for international human rights abuses. However, over the past four decades, the Supreme Court has continually chipped away at the jurisdictional reach of the statute. Most recently, in June 2021, the Supreme Court addressed the scope of the ATS in two consolidated cases: Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe and Cargill, Inc. v. Doe. Plaintiffs were former trafficked and enslaved children forced to work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast under grueling conditions. Plaintiffs …

Clarity About Comity: How Courts Have Attempted Greater Guidance For Chapter 15 Litigants, Sabrina Lieberman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Abstract

This note explores the development of courts’ refusal to extend comity to foreign representatives who have filed a proceeding under chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Congress adopted chapter 15 as part of a comprehensive 2005 bankruptcy reform. It allows foreign entities to receive protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. In most cases, foreign representatives who file a chapter 15 proceeding are involved with ancillary insolvency proceedings outside the United States. There is often a question of how or if a U.S. court overseeing the chapter 15 proceeding will defer to a judgment or process within the foreign …

Married To Sustainability: The Sdg Wedding Cake Framework As A Tool For Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, Jacob Aubrecht

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

If anything can be said about the future, it is that nothing is certain. In this acceleratingly dynamic reality, stability and certainty are among the greatest assets a leader can have. The opportunity to secure long term stability is something that few would pass up. Broadly speaking, corporate leaders must be acutely aware of global market forces, government regulation, and their own power in the marketplace to create cogent predictions about the future.

This paper is designed for the burgeoning corporate leader that is looking to craft their strategic position on corporate social responsibility (CSR), or the savvy one looking …

Chasing The Fruits Of Misery: Confronting The Historical Relationships Between Opioid Revenues, Offshore Financial Centers, And International Regulatory Networks, Stephen C. Wilks

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

As the opioid crisis continues to claim lives throughout the U.S., tort litigants have faced challenges pursuing Purdue Pharma – one of the drug makers responsible for aggressively promoting OxyContin while downplaying the drug’s addictive effects. Much of this litigation posture sought to recover billions in public health costs incurred responding to the crisis at federal, state and local levels. As the plaintiff class grew, Purdue Pharma petitioned for bankruptcy protection, at which point auditors discovered the entity’s beneficial owners had caused it to wire billions in opioid profits into offshore accounts – placing them beyond the reach of litigants. …

Mechanisms For Consultation And Free, Prior And Informed Consent In The Negotiation Of Investment Contracts, Sam Szoke-Burke, Kaitlin Cordes

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Investor-state contracts are regularly used in low- and middle-income countries to grant concessions for land-based and natural resource investments, such as agricultural, extractive industry, forestry, or renewable energy projects. These contracts are rarely negotiated in the presence of, or with meaningful input from, the people who risk being adversely affected by the project. This practice will usually risk violating requirements for meaningful consultation, and, where applicable, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and is particularly concerning when the investor-state contract gives the investor company rights to lands or resources over which local communities have legitimate claims.

This article explores how …

A Critical Reassessment Of The Role Of Neutrality In International Taxation, David Elkins

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Neutrality plays a central role in the literature on international taxation. In its most prevalent form, the concept of neutrality posits that in order to maximize aggregate global welfare, capital needs to flow to where it would produce the highest pretax return. The thesis of this Article is that neutrality is ordinarily inapplicable in the field of international taxation.

When considering neutrality in the international arena, the problem that one encounters is that the term “international taxation” is commonly used to describe a number of very different types of tax regimes (what the Article refers to as “intranational taxation,” “supranational …

The Circumvention Of Uefa's Financial Fair Play Rules Through The Influx Of Foreign Investments, Patrick J. Sims

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

European football is undergoing rapid changes spurred on by enormous investments from around the globe. Although regulations exist to curtail teams buying their way to success, foreign investors have become ingenious at circumventing Financial Fair Play rules. The European football governing body needs to reevaluate existing rules and strengthen them by looking to outside examples. This article analyzes the current regulations established by the governing bodies of European football and details how foreign investors are able to circumvent these regulations. Further, this article articulates potential solutions to the current Financial Fair Play rules and how the spirit of the current …

I Got 99 Problems And They’Re All Fatca, Nirav (Jonathan) Dhanawade

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Offshore personal income tax evasion accounts for approximately $50 billion in annual lost revenue for the United States. These large sums of money are squirrelled away in tax havens—jurisdictions, such as Aruba, the Cayman Islands, and Dubai, whose laws allow some U.S. citizens to evade paying their U.S. income taxes. Before the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted, U.S. citizens could avoid taxes on passive income by not reporting this income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To detect tax evasion, the IRS pursued U.S. citizens with undeclared assets in foreign banks. But the IRS’s quest was largely …

The Role Of Precedent In Defining Res Judicata In Investor–State Arbitration, Pedro J. Martinez-Fraga, Harout Jack Samra

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

As international arbitration, and investment arbitration in particular, becomes more prevalent, the risks of doctrinal fragmentation also increase, in part driven by the disparate treatment of the doctrine of res judicata throughout most jurisdictions, and in the arbitration context. Notwithstanding the general consensus regarding the broad contours of res judicata and its firm position as a principle of international law, there is little agreement regarding how it is to be administered. These developments threaten to undermine the international arbitration system, wresting from it normative legitimacy. The U.S. common law version of res judicata, which is distinct from res judicata as …

Contingent Capital In European Union Bank Restructuring, Christoph K. Henkel, Wulf A. Kaal

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The uncoordinated reorganization and resolution of Systemically Important Financial Institutions in different countries pose many challenges. Contingent capital provides a viable alternative for the efficient restructuring and resolution of failing financial institutions. Contingent Capital provides a mechanism for internalizing banks’ failure costs and helps return distressed financial institutions to solvency. This article offers a comparative perspective on bank resolution and restructuring in the European Union, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Germany and shows that Contingent Capital could play a substantial role in bank restructuring.

The Hierarchy That Wasn’T There: Elevating “Usage” To Its Rightful Position For Contracts Governed By The Cisg, William P. Johnson

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Under domestic U.S. sales law, usage of trade is relevant in ascertaining the meaning of an agreement, and it can be used to supplement, qualify, or explain an agreement. However, usage of trade may not be used under domestic U.S. sales law to contradict a written agreement. Moreover, any course of performance or course of dealing between the parties will prevail over inconsistent usage of trade. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, or CISG, similarly provides for consideration of usage to establish the terms of the agreement between the parties, as well as to …

Is Canada The New Shangri-La Of Global Securities Class Actions?, Tanya J. Monestier

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

There has been significant academic buzz about Silver v. Imax, an Ontario case certifying a global class of shareholders alleging statutory and common law misrepresentation in connection with a secondary market distribution of shares. Although global class actions on a more limited scale have been certified in Canada prior to Imax, it can now be said that global classes have “officially” arrived in Canada. Many predict that the Imax decision means that Ontario will become the new center for the resolution of global securities disputes. This is particularly so after the United States largely relinquished this role in Morrison v. …

Chuaigh Ár Lá – Debt Of A Gaelsman: Ireland’S Sovereign Debt Crisis, National And International Responses, James Croke

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

How did a small island nation on the periphery of Europe go from the pauper of the European Union, to a paragon of a market economy, and back to fiscal ruin within the space of twenty years? Ireland was the poorest nation in the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1988. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s it undertook structural reforms to fundamentally reshape its economy, the result was a booming economy throughout the mid-to-late 1990’s and early 2000’s, primarily fueled by exports and foreign direct investment. Rather than continue on a sustained, but slower, growth path in the 2000’s, …

The Scorecard So Far: Emerging Issues In Cross-Border Insolvencies Under Chapter 15 Of The U.S. Bankruptcy Code, Megan R. O'Flynn

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code was modeled after the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, drafted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade and Law (UNCITRAL) in 1997. Despite the relatively small number of cases commenced in U.S. Courts under Chapter 15 since its adoption, no other section of the current Bankruptcy Code has broader implications for international business transactions and global foreign business relations than the provisions of Chapter 15. Moreover, since the United States has long been an innovator at the forefront of international insolvency law, interpretation of key provisions of the Chapter and related UNCITRAL …

Culpa In Contrahendo In European Private International Law: Another Look At Article 12 Of The Rome Ii Regulation, Najib Hage-Chahine

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Precontractual liability is liability that arises out of a harmful conduct that occurs during the formation period of a contract. Where the harmful conduct occurs during international negotiations, a conflict of laws issue arises. The determination of the applicable law to precontractual liability can be a complex and tedious task, which is why the European Legislature has provided a special conflict-of-law rule in Article 12 of the Rome II Regulation on the applicable law to non-contractual obligations. Through this provision, the European Legislature aims to achieve uniformity between EU Member States, while providing an appropriate conflicts rule. The present essay …

Cleared For Landing: Airbus, Boeing, And The Wto Dispute Over Subsidies To Large Civil Aircraft, Jeffrey D. Kienstra

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Competition between Airbus and Boeing in the large civil aircraft industry grew contentious as Airbus began to overtake Boeing in its long-held position as the world‘s leading producer of large civil aircraft. Airbus and Boeing had also each embarked on multi-billion dollar investments into the development of new aircraft, further raising the stakes. The United States and European Communities in turn increasingly scrutinized the subsidies provided by their counterpart to its respective aircraft manufacturer. This conflict over subsidies, which had persisted between the United States and European Communities since the inception of Airbus in 1970, reached a head in 2004 …

A Bright Idea: A Bright-Line Test For Extraterritoriality In F-Cubed Securities Fraud Private Causes Of Action, Jennifer Mitchell Coupland

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Whether a foreign or American claimant has a private right of action in so-called ―Foreign-Cubed‖ or ―Foreign-Squared‖ claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-5 has been the subject of much debate among U.S. courts, Congress, and the international community. Historically, these cases have been heard in the United States if the conduct had a substantial effect in the United States or on U.S. citizens (the effects test), or if the fraudulent or wrongful conduct occurred in the United States (the conduct test). However, in June 2010, …

Why Does The Complainant Always Win At The Wto?: A Reputation-Based Theory Of Litigation At The World Trade Organization, Matthew C. Turk

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

World Trade Organization (WTO) litigation presents an empirical puzzle: complaining parties "win" close to 90 percent of cases, while standard theories of litigation predict a strong tendency towards a 50 percent plaintiff win-rate. This Article explains the high win-rate by examining the reputational costs and benefits of filing a case. The WTO's lack of centralized enforcement means that the consequence of a judgment is merely to disseminate information that alters a party's reputation for compliance with its trade obligations. Such a "reputational sanction" applies to both losing respondents and complainants. The result is that only cases with a very high …

Making Wto Sps Dispute Settlement Work: Challenges And Practical Solutions, Eric Gillman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) represents an effort by the Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to balance competing interests in liberalizing trade, on one hand, and protecting human, animal, and plant life from risks posed by the free flow of goods on the other. SPS disputes center around a core question: Does the imported product at issue present a sufficiently serious threat to national health to warrant the imposition of trade-restrictive measures? Over twelve years and six disputes, panels and the Appellate Body (AB) have addressed this question by evaluating respondents' risk assessments. The …

Beyond Culture Vs. Commerce: Decentralizing Cultural Protection To Promote Diversity Through Trade, Sean A. Pager

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

For the past three decades, culture defenders and free traders have fought a pitched battle over global regulation of audiovisual industries, a collision of seemingly incompatible worldviews whose destructive repercussions policy-makers and scholars have struggled to contain. The battle has played out at multiple levels of international trade law, investment treaties, and UNESCO conventions. Now, the culture-trade war threatens to engulf e-commerce. Fortunately, there is a better way. The extraordinary flowering of Korean popular culture in recent decades—commonly known as the "Korean Wave"—can be traced directly to a set of decentralized policies enacted by South Korea's government in the 1990s. …

“Say On Pay”: The Movement To Reform Executive Compensation In The United States And European Union, Marisa Anne Pagnattaro, Stephanie Greene

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In the aftermath of an array of economic failures, there is a growing movement to reform executive compensation. Concerned that executive compensation structures reward inappropriate risk taking and create a short-term perspective, the United States and the European Union are taking steps to reform the ways executives are compensated. Part I analyzes governmental and regulatory action in the United States, including SEC disclosure rules and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Part II details new initiatives in the European Union that recommend changes to remuneration for directors of listed companies and remuneration in the financial services sector, …

Recent Decisions Under The Investment Canada Act: Is Canada Changing Its Stance On Foreign Direct Investment?, Simone Collins

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

With the globalization of the world’s economy, countries have relied heavily on foreign direct investment within their borders to spur domestic economic growth and compete in the global marketplace. Canada, historically a leading destination for foreign investors, has seen its share of global foreign direct investment decline steadily over the past several decades. Most recently, Canada has made waves in the global community by taking positive actions to interfere with foreign acquisitions of Canadian entities, despite the Canadian government’s declarations to global competitors advocating free market principles and denouncing protectionist policies. This article discusses Canada’s procedures governing foreign direct investment …

The Trade Litigant's Gauntlet: The Hanging Judge And The Teflon Tribunal, Jay Charles Campbell

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The two U.S. agencies charged with conducting antidumping investigations may justifiably be labeled a "hanging judge" and a "Teflon tribunal." The Department of Commerce (DOC) investigates whether foreign firms have engaged in "dumping" exports to the United States. Since assuming responsibility for dumping investigations in 1980, the DOC has found that over 90% of the firms it investigated were "guilty." Such one-sided results subject far too many foreign firms to antidumping duty orders - which impair their ability to sell to the U.S. market - and send the wrong message to the United States' trading partners. Because the U.S. antidumping …