International Law Commons^™

Peace And The World Court: A Comment On The Paramilitary Activities Case, Robert F. Turner

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

One of the most painful experiences of my government service occurred on January 18, 1985, when as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs I was called on to sign letters informing Congress of the President's decision "not to participate further in the case brought by Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice." I felt deeply that the United States approach was mistaken--not so much on legal as on political grounds'--and in advocating my views I pushed strongly against the proper limits of legitimate dissent within the bureaucracy.

Having defended the Court against speculative criticism from lawyers …

United States Whale Policy: The Judiciary Casts Its Vote In Favor Of A Moderate Approach, Scott T. Larson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Supreme Court's decision in Japan Whaling Association temporarily settled the question of whether the United States would pursue whale conservation with a hard line or moderate approach. The Court's decision to affirm the moderate approach will affect United States conservation efforts as well as the IWC's efforts. Conservationists argue that a strict approach to whale protection is the only effective alternative. Current United States policy and law reject that view. Had a full Court adopted a strict conservationist position with Justice Marshall and the other three dissenters, United States whale policy would be markedly different. United States policy would …

Extradition And United States Prosecution Of The Achille Lauro Hostage-Takers: Navigating The Hazards, Jordan J. Paust

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On October 7, 1985, members of a Palestinian group hijacked the passenger ship Achille Lauro. Not only did the hijackers hold more than one hundred passengers and crew members hostage for several days, but they murdered one of the passengers, Leon Klinghoffer, a United States national. On October 9 the hijackers released the vessel and remaining hostages. On October 10 the hijackers and an alleged mastermind of the operation, Mr. Abbas, were on board an Egyptian aircraft flying over the high seas in the Mediterranean when United States military aircraft intercepted the Egyptian aircraft and forced it to land in …

A Study Of Mexico's Capital Markets And Securities Regulation, Samuel Wolff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article will analyze Mexico's capital markets and regulations, primarily from an empirical point of view. The discussion will begin with an overview of the Mexican financial and legal systems to provide a context for the analysis of the market and the law. The essay will then discuss the Mexican securities market, including history, participants and characteristics. Finally, Mexico's Ley del Mercado de Valores ("Securities Market Law") will be analyzed." The objective of the study is to increase understanding of the Mexican market by Mexicans and foreigners alike. The study should be useful to policymakers in Mexico and other developing …

Regional Human Rights Regimes: A Comparison And Appraisal, Burns H. Weston, Robin A. Lukes, Kelly M. Hnatt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

For Americans at least, active concern for human rights on the international plane is demonstrated perhaps most conspicuously in the promotion and protection of human rights through the United Nations and its allied agencies--apart, that is, from the promotion and protection of human rights through United States foreign policy and the work of such nongovernmental organizations as Amnesty International. Supplementing this globally-oriented human rights activity, however, are international human rights regimes operating regionally in Western Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Concededly, Asia is not yet represented, and only the first three of the represented regions have gone …

Remarks Of Professor John F. Murphy, John F. Murphy

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

have been asked to address the topic of legal responses to state sponsored terrorism. As has been mentioned, I am chairing an American Society of International Law Committee on Responses to State Sponsored Terrorism. You may be interested to know that the mandate from the president of the American Society of International Law, Keith Highet, said that we should focus our attention on responses other than the use of armed force. I think that was wise, because the members of that particular committee would never agree in any way on the subject of military responses to terrorism. I will discuss …

International Counterterrorism Cooperation: The Summit Seven And Air Terrorism, Geoffrey Levitt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article aims to contribute to an understanding of the reality and the potential of international cooperation to combat terrorism by examining one of the most important channels through which governments have attempted to achieve such cooperation: the Economic Summit Seven (the Seven or the Group). Focusing in particular on the Group's work in the area of terrorism against international civil aviation, this Article will discuss how and why the Group became involved in counterterrorism; review the Group's declarations on terrorism and their context; outline the international background to those declarations; describe the most important single action the Group has …

Economic Sanctions And International Terrorism, Kenneth W. Abbott

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article I hope to take at least a step toward clarifying these matters by presenting a framework for the analysis of antiterrorism sanctions and using that framework to discuss several of the sanctions that the United States currently employs.

Parts Two and Three of this Article set out the elements of the framework. Part Two begins by describing the varying forms or levels of state involvement in terrorism, shown graphically in Figure 1. All forms of state involvement are not alike, at least analytically, and Part Two will discuss the appropriateness of employing sanctions or other measures of …

Remarks Of Professor Robert A. Friedlander, Professor Robert A. Friedlander

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Terrorism, in its essence, consists of common crimes: murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, arson and whatever other act of violence is utilized for terrorist ends and as terrorist means. Admittedly the world's democracies have not only failed to develop an acceptable definition for the global arena, they have also been unable to fashion a proper meaning for their own domestic statutes. We should never forget the symbiotic relationship which exists between terrorism and democracy. As the French political analyst, Jean Francois Ravel, has cogently remarked: "The main target of international terrorism is the idea of freedom as …

Porfiry's Proposition: Legitimacy And Terrorism, Thomas M. Franck, Scott C. Senecal

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Suppose that, in 1938, the Prague government of President Edvard Benes, foreseeing the inevitable dismemberment of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Pact, had infiltrated a trained death squad of German Jewish exiles across the German border, in civilian clothing, to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Suppose they had succeeded and had then fled to Holland.

How should international law govern this hypothetical event? Should it require Holland either to try the assassins for murder or to return them to Germany for trial? Or should it exculpate, even commend, the assassins for a job well done? Or should the law remain silent? Would the …