Transnational Law Commons^™

Revisiting The International Court Of Justice Procedure For The Revision Of Judgments, Juliette Mcintyre

Michigan Journal of International Law

The International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) is a court of first and last instance. Its decisions are “final and without appeal.” At first blush, this seems uncontroversial; it is a simple restatement of the well-established principle of res judicata. But if the court makes a judicial pronouncement without all the facts to hand, can one say that the decision is legitimate and authoritative? Pursuant to article 61 of the ICJ’s Statute, the court does have the authority to revise a judgment in certain, limited circumstances. Revision is a remedy that enables the court, upon the application of a party, …

Confessions In An International Age: Re-Examining Admissibility Through The Lens Of Foreign Interrogations, Julie Tanaka Siegel

Michigan Law Review

In Colorado v. Connelly the Supreme Court held that police misconduct is necessary for an inadmissible confession. Since the Connelly decision, courts and scholars have framed the admissibility of a confession in terms of whether it successfully deters future police misconduct. As a result, the admissibility of a confession turns largely on whether U.S. police acted poorly, and only after overcoming this threshold have courts considered factors pointing to the reliability and voluntariness of the confession. In the international context, this translates into the routine and almost mechanic admission of confessions— even when there is clear indication that the confession …

Courts Of Appeal And Colonialism In The British Caribbean: A Case For The Caribbean Court Of Justice, Ezekiel Rediker

Michigan Journal of International Law

In recent years, a public debate on law and the colonial legacy has engaged people of all walks of life in the English Speaking Caribbean (ESC), from judges and politicians to young people in the streets. Throughout the ESC, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC)—based in London and composed of British jurists—has been the highest court of appeal since the colonial era. In the past decade, however, Caribbean governments have sought greater control over their legal systems. In 2005, they created the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to supplant the British Privy Council as the Supreme Court for …

Identity, Effectiveness, And Newness In Transjudicialism's Coming Of Age, Mark Toufayan

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article attempts to expose and problematize the ideological connections and normative commitments between these theoretical explanations of effectiveness and the pragmatic process-oriented proposals made in the 1990s when the United Nations was searching for ways to renew the discipline of international human rights law while avoiding the dual risks of politicization and Third World normative fragmentation. The liberal theory of effective supranational adjudication was the culmination of decade-long efforts by American liberal internationalists to provide a theoretical basis for and programmatic proposals towards achieving a more "effective" international human rights regime. Their theory aims at structuring the interface between …

International Adjudication: A Response To Paulus--Courts, Custom, Treaties, Regimes, And The Wto, Donald H. Regan

Book Chapters

I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to Andreas Paulus’s very interesting contribution, and to elaborate on some of the matters he raises. As will be all too obvious, I am not an expert on general public international law. I undertook this assignment in the hope that I would learn something (as I have), and that I would eventually think of something useful to say (less clear). Happily, the one area of international law where I do have some expertise is the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is often used as an example in …

A Gambling Paradox: Why An Origin-Neutral 'Zero-Quota' Is Not A Quota Under Gats Article Xvi, Donald H. Regan

Articles

In US-Gambling, the Appellate Body held that an origin-neutral prohibition on remote gambling (which is how they mostly viewed the United States law) was "in effect" a "zero-quota", and that such a "zero-quota" violated GATS Article XVI:2. That holding has been widely criticized, especially for what critics refer to as the Appellate Body's "effects test". This article argues that the Appellate Body's "in effect" analysis is not an "effects test" and is not the real problem. The real mistake is regarding a so-called "zero-quota" as a quota under Article XVI. That is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the word …

Judicial Dialogue For Legal Multiculturalism, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article asserts that judicial exchange rather than dominance has inherent advantages as a technique for evolving a global legal culture. For insight into the global task, the Article looks first at an internecine struggle within the continental system. For further background, it describes how the U.S. Supreme Court has accommodated deviations from the basic legal model in U.S. administrative law as well as other internal U.S. legal systems. The supranational tribunals in the European setting and U.S. Supreme Court have shown the capacity to engage in dialogues over diverse legal philosophies. These experiences demonstrate the advantages of a mix …

Assessing Clashes And Interplays Of Regines From A Distributive Perspective: Ip Rights Under The Strengthened Embargo Against Cuba And The Agreement On Trips, Robert Dufresne

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article examines the clash of the two regulatory frameworks from the angle of distributive justice. By doing so, I suggest that in addition to the important issues of legitimacy, substantive norms, and hierarchy of legal orders, clashes between potential regulatory frameworks should also be conceptualized in the way in which they allocate goods (here the rights associated with IP) or recognize claims to or interests in such goods. The reasons for being concerned with distributive justice are threefold.

Envisioning A Global Legal Culture, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Michigan Journal of International Law

To encourage all, but particularly U.S., lawyers to think about transformation of the law, this Article will envision a global legal regime. The purpose is more reflective than predictive. Nominally, the Article has three parts. The first Part offers an overview description of the emerging supranational legal institutions and the major forces moving them. The next Part will outline civil law legal concepts and provide background for common law readers. To further the goal of this Article, it will do so as it suggests some issues that will arise as the civil law system is incorporated into the global legal …

Further Thoughts On The Role Of Regulatory Purpose Under Article Iii Of The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade: A Tribute To Bob Hudec, Donald H. Regan

Articles

My topic in this article is the role of regulatory purpose under Article III of the GATT, and I regard Bob [Hudec] as the patron saint of efforts to establish the relevance of purpose. His famous "Requiem for an 'Aims and Effects' Test" may have been called a requiem, but it was reluctant and sceptical. Bob thought dispute settlement tribunals ought to consider the regulator's purpose, and he thought they would do so, whatever they said. As decisions on Article III accumulate, we are in the process of learning that he was right on both counts.

The Effectiveness Of European Community Law With Specific Regard To Directives: The Critical Step Not Taken By The European Court Of Justice, Carla A. Varner

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this Note is to investigate the European Court of Justice's less expansive treatment of directives as compared to other forms of EC law through its failure to apply horizontal direct effect to directives. More specifically, this Note attempts to answer two questions which arise from the current status of ECJ jurisprudence: First, why has the Court been reluctant to implement horizontal direct effect for directives, especially in light of other actions it has taken to increase the potency of EC law? Second, given the alternative steps taken by the ECJ, is it still necessary to establish horizontal …

Positivism Regained, Nihilism Postponed, Jose E. Alvarez

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Law-Making in the International Community by G.M. Danilenko

The International Court Of Justice And Administrative Tribunals Of International Organizations, Joanna Gomula

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper will explore the origins of the Court's unusual system of review and underscore some of its problems. Surprisingly, this issue has not been adequately expounded, although occasionally different authors have discussed particular problems, such as the participation of individuals in proceedings before the Court.

The Impact Of The Case Law Of The Court Of Justice Of The European Communities On The Economic World Order, Pieter Vanloren Van Themaat

Michigan Law Review

Among Europeans, Eric Stein is generally considered to be the outstanding expert on European Community law in the United States. Now we Europeans flatter ourselves, of course, with the opinion that there are outstanding experts on Community law within Europe as well. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the reason why so many students and scholars from Europe have gone to Ann Arbor for post-graduate studies or research work on European Community law lies mainly in the fact that Eric Stein has always been appreciated as a great scholar in international law and the law of international organizations, as well as an …

Direct And Indirect Judicial Control Of Community Acts In Practice: The Relation Between Articles 173 And 177 Of The Eec Treaty, Gerhard Bebr

Michigan Law Review

The European Economic Community (EEC) Treaty contains two different judicial controls over the exercise of the powers granted to the Community by the Treaty: (1) a direct control through an action in the European Court of Justice under article 173 to annul a Community act; and (2) an indirect control through reference by a national court to the Court of Justice under article 177 to review the validity of a Community act. Each of . these controls is designed to ensure the legal exercise of power by Community institutions. In form, however, they are quite different procedures.

The present study …

Effects Of International Agreements In European Community Law: Are The Dice Cast?, Jacques H.J. Bourgeois

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this contribution is to explore the extent to which the "direct effect" doctrine, developed within the Community legal system for the purpose of the relations between Community law and the Member States' law, has spilled over into the field of the relations between international law and Community law, or, to use a somewhat daring comparison, to what extent the doctrine of McCulloch v. Maryland has been applied in a Foster and Elam situation.

The Court Of Justice As A Decisionmaking Authority, Ulrich Everling

Michigan Law Review

Eric Stein, to whom this Article is dedicated, has written a number of commentaries on the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice on the basis of his experience with both the European continental law and the common law systems. In conformity with his pragmatic approach, the following examination of the Court of Justice as a decisionmaking authority devotes less attention to the theoretical context than to the manner in which the Court attempts to accomplish its task in practice. This essay is intended to provide a judge's point of view, that is to say, a subjective contribution on the basis …

Citizen Access To Judicial Review Of Administrative Action In A Transnational And Federal Context, Eric Stein, Joseph Vining

Articles

In an international legal order dominated by states, the individual citizen is generally viewed as lacking international legal personality. It is true with little exception that an individual cannot appear in an international forum, political or judicial, to press his rights. Despite the dramatically increased emphasis upon international protection of basic human rights, individuals have been given access to international dispute-settlement machinery in only a few isolated instances within the United Nations system, and on a regional level pursuant to the European Convention on Human Rights. The Paris Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the Rome …

Permanent Court Of International Justice, Edwin D. Dickinson

Reviews

"The author of this volume of collected papers and addresses is well known as the Bemis Professor of International Law in Harvard Law School, sometime member of the Legal Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, and the most efficient advocate of the new Permanent Court of International Justice in America. His enterprise as an advocate is sufficiently attested by the fourteen brilliant papers reproduced in this volume and the nine other titles of similar nature listed in the bibliography, all of them produced during the last three years....

"The exceptional timeliness of the book and the quality …

International Political Questions In The National Courts, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"Much has been made of the principle, in England and America, that international law is part of the national law to be applied by national courts in appropriate circumstances. As Mr. Justice Gray has expressed it, in the Paquete Habana: 'International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of appropriate jurisdiction, as often as question of right depending upon it are duly presented for their determination...'

This principle is useful, where it is applicable, but it is subject to limitations which are sometimes inadequately appreciated ..."

Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law (Part 2), Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

PROBABLY no one in the British Empire or the United States would question the doctrine that it belongs exclusively to the political departments to recognize new governments or states. The difficulties involved are those which arise in the application of a doctrine so broadly stated. Not every situation involving an unrecognized government or state requires the decision of a question of recognition. If the decision of a political question is not involved, then it is entirely proper for the courts to take cognizance of a mere de facto government or state. In what situations may the courts appropriately take account …

Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law (Part 1), Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

From the decision of this novel case, reported as Pelzer v. United Dredging Co., we may infer that the New York courts regard unrecognized Mexico as a sort of legal vacuum. In granting the corporation's motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Supreme Court said: "The administratrix plaintiff is an officer of a foreign court. It is syllogistically true that if the foreign court has no recognized power here she may not assert a right derived through her appointment therefrom. The Mexican government is not de facto here, since recognition alone can make it so. It may have all the …