Transnational Law Commons^™

L’Utilité Du Droit Comparé (The Utility Of Comparative Law), Vivian Grosswald Curran

Book Chapters

French Abstract: Cette contribution était le discours d’ouverture à la Conférence des 100 ans de l’Institut Édouard Lambert à l’Université de Lyon. Elle discute de l’utilité du droit comparé dans le monde actuel d’une perspective technique dans le cadre d’une situation aux États-Unis et d’une perspective plus politique dans le cadre d’un arrêt de la CJUE.

English Abstract: This essay was delivered as a keynote address to the conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Institut Édouard Lambert at the University of Lyon. It argues for the usefulness of comparative law in today’s world from a technical angle in …

Servotronics, Inc. V. Rolls-Royce Plc And The Boeing Company: Brief Of Professor Yanbai Andrea Wang As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Neither Party, Yanbai Andrea Wang, Michael H. Mcginley

All Faculty Scholarship

Rather than expressing a view on the issues raised and ably briefed by the parties, amicus submits this brief to inform the Court of the scholarly research she has conducted regarding Section 1782 proceedings since this Court’s seminal decision in Intel. As Section 1782 applications have proliferated, the lower courts have struggled to apply the Intel factors as this Court had envisioned. Especially in the context of Section 1782 applications submitted by parties to an international proceeding (as opposed to those made by the international tribunal itself), lower courts have frequently found themselves unable to analyze and apply the …

The Cisg: Applicable Law And Applicable Forums, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

Despite being in effect for over thirty years, a debate continues on whether the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) has been a success. With 89 Contracting States, it clearly is widely accepted. At the same time, empirical studies show that private parties regularly opt out of its application. It has served as a model for domestic sales law, and as an important educational tool. But has it been a success? In this article I consider that question, and suggests that the scorecard is not yet complete; and that it will perhaps take significantly …

Beyond Trade Deals: Charting A Post-Brexit Course For Uk Investment Treaties, Lise Johnson, Lorenzo Cotula

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Brexit referendum has raised questions about the future terms of the United Kingdom’s engagement with the world economy. While a debate over the UK’s future approach to trade deals has already begun, a similar discussion has yet to develop on the treaties that govern foreign investment. As this briefing note by Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development, and Lise Johnson of CCSI highlights, the stakes are high: ill-designed treaties could leave the UK excessively exposed to legal claims by foreign companies and could fail to address relevant economic, social and environmental challenges. While meaningful negotiations …

International Fisheries Regulation, John P. Rivers

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

When Bad Guys Are Wearing White Hats, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

Allegations of ethical misconduct by lawyers have all but completely overshadowed the substantive claims in the Chevron case. While both sides have been accused of flagrant wrongdoing, the charges against plaintiffs’ counsel appear to have captured more headlines and garnered more attention. The primary reason why the focus seems lopsided is that plaintiffs’ counsel were presumed to be the ones wearing white hats in this epic drama. This essay postulates that this seeming irony is not simply an example of personal ethical lapse, but in part tied to larger reasons why ethical violations are an occupational hazard for plaintiffs’ counsel …

The Arrival Of The "Have-Nots" In International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

Much has been written about the have-nots in domestic litigation and domestic arbitration, with an apparent assumption that their fate was mainly a domestic affair. In recent years, however, internet commerce has brought consumers to the international market, an increasingly globalized workforce has generated a class of international employees, and the link between international trade and human rights has revealed a host of victims. The arrival of these 'have-nots' in international arbitration means that previously latent questions about international arbitration's integrity as a system and role as a mechanism for transnational regulatory governance have been brought to the fore. Using …

Fit And Function In Legal Ethics: Developing A Code Of Conduct For International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

In this Article, I develop a methodology for prescribing the normative content of a code of ethics for international arbitration, and in a forthcoming companion article, I propose integrated mechanisms for making those norms both binding and enforceable. In making these proposals, I reject the classical conception of legal ethics as a purely deontological product derived from first principles. I argue, instead, that ethics derive from the interrelational functional role of advocates in an adjudicatory system, and that ethical regulation must correlate with the structural operations of the system. The fit between ethics and function, I will demonstrate, not only …

Context And Institutional Structure In Attorney Regulation: Constructing An Enforcement Regime For International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

The question that looms large over the future of international arbitration is: How much should states yield to the international arbitration system? This Article attempts to answer the question as it applies to the specific context of regulating attorney conduct.

Tax Liability And Inarbitrability In International Commercial Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau, Andrew W. Sheldrick

Thomas Carbonneau

This essay engages in a narrow but crucial inquiry into the limits the inarbitrability defense may now impose upon the exercise of arbitral jurisdiction. While it is assumed that matters relating directly to status and capacity, testamentary dispositions, and title to immovable property fall outside the jurisdictional reach of international arbitrators, the question becomes whether any national regulatory laws, such as tax laws, benefit from the same status of inviolability.

The Ballad Of Transborder Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

International commercial arbitration (ICA) is many things positive. Because business transactions cannot take place without a functional system of adjudication,ICA has enabled parties to engage in and pursue international commerce. As a result, it has had an enormous impact upon the international practice of law, the structuring of a de facto international legal system, and the development of a substantive world law of commerce. In a word, ICA has been a vital engine in the creation of a transborder rule of law. Furthering this design, the arbitral "method"has even been applied to the unruly political problems that attend international trade …

Rendering Arbitral Awards With Reasons: The Elaboration Of Common Law Of International Transactions, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

With the growth of international trade, arbitration has emerged as the preferred remedy for resolving private international commercial disputes. In fact, among major Western legal systems such as those of England, the United States and France, statutory and decisional law developments indicate a nearly complete acceptance of international arbitral adjudication. This recognition of arbitral procedure and the enforcement of awards, which are given uniform legal recognition and enforcement by domestic legal systems, either as provisions in international conventions or as principles of national statutory or decisional law. These rules, in effect, represent an international consensus on arbitration and constitute a …

Commercial Peace And Political Competition In The Crosshairs Of International Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

This article examines the mixed effect of arbitration upon the generation of international law norms; in particular, how arbitration can generate private law norms so effectively and yet still face strong resistance in public international law processes and controversies. The work of arbitration for international commercial litigation has been nothing less than spectacular. In both the private international and domestic civil contexts, arbitration has provided viable remedial solutions and functional adjudication when the law was either nonexistent or incapacitated. It has supplied a workable and adaptable trial system, which-on the international side-could also generate substantive legal norms. Arbitration thereby has …

America And Other National Variations On The Theme Of International Commercial Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

Despite attempts at harmonization through treaty relations and State participation in multilateral organizations, the international arena is a composite of unsettled and unsettling structures. The volatility of global politics and discordant national perceptions of legitimate lawful conduct constitute a precarious, usually unsuitable, basis for an international rule of law. Domestic concepts of legality rarely serve as adequate instruments for molding the character of international relations. The irreducible principle of national sovereignty makes the world community resistant to the adoption of universal juridical standards and consecrates the fragmentation of national self-interest as the ultimate source of legality among nation-states. This article …

Corruption In International Arbitration, Inan Uluc

SJD Dissertations

Corruption represents a great menace to national and international development. It jeopardizes democracy, human rights, and social justice. Consequently, corruption is vehemently abhorred and denunciated by members of the international arbitration arena. Unfortunately, while these players purport repugnance towards corruption and do not condone corrupt acts, there has arisen a misplaced distrust of arbitral process as a proper dispute resolution system. Further, when amalgamating the inherent opaqueness of the arbitral process, its structure founded upon party autonomy, and the clear lack of authority for arbitrators to compel evidence, such distrust persists and encourages belief that arbitration is a venue where …

Eyes Wide Shut On Isds, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Recent agreement among congressional leaders on a “fast-track” bill may have been a victory for the Obama administration’s trade agenda. However, members of congress should take a look at the recent Bilcon case, decided by a NAFTA tribunal, to understand what they are signing up for.

The Appeal Of Icsid Awards: How The Aminz Appellate Mechanism Can Guide Reform Of Icsid Procedure, Christopher Smith

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Chapter 16: Transnational Legal Process Theories, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

THIS chapter is devoted to transnational legal process theories. In 1955, Philip Jessup, in his Storrs Lectures at Yale, famously coined the term “transnational law” as he searched for a concept that would capture the legal regulation of actions or events that transcend national boundaries and that can accommodate both public and private international law. Further, while the traditional concept of “international law” referred to the law regulating relationships between states, the new term encompassed legal relationships of and amongst individuals, corporations, and organizations as well as states.

In other words, as early as the 1950s, and thereafter with increased …

Time To Join The “Bit Club”? Promoting And Protecting Brazilian Investments Abroad, Lucas Bento

Lucas Bento

The growing internationalization of Brazilian organizations calls for a greater array of investment protections available to them, particularly as they weave through an increasingly competitive and uncertain global economy. This article argues that the Brazilian government should consider ratifying BITs so as to provide greater protections to its own – domestic – investors.

When Bad Guys Are Wearing White Hats, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

Allegations of ethical misconduct by lawyers have all but completely overshadowed the substantive claims in the Chevron case. While both sides have been accused of flagrant wrongdoing, the charges against plaintiffs’ counsel appear to have captured more headlines and garnered more attention. The primary reason why the focus seems lopsided is that plaintiffs’ counsel were presumed to be the ones wearing white hats in this epic drama. This essay postulates that this seeming irony is not simply an example of personal ethical lapse, but in part tied to larger reasons why ethical violations are an occupational hazard for plaintiffs’ counsel …

Background Paper For Second Workshop On Contract Negotiation Support For Developing Host Countries, Vale Columbia Center On Sustainable International Investment, Humboldt-Viadrina School Of Governance

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance (HSVG) have initiated a process to discuss the desirability and feasibility of mechanisms to provide negotiation support for developing host countries in their negotiations with major investors.

At a first workshop held in October 2011, participants agreed on the need for an expansion of support for developing countries in their contract negotiations.

A second workshop was held at Columbia University in July 2012 that undertook a gap analysis between the existing sources of support for developing countries in relation to complex contracts and the countries’ needs for …

A Civil Matter For A Common Expert: How Should Parties And Tribunals Use Experts In International Commercial Arbitration?, Ruth Fenton

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

How should parties and tribunals use experts in international commercial arbitration? Are the common and civil law traditions blurred or blended, or should there be specific practices for international arbitration? To answer these questions, it is necessary to look at the common and civil law approaches to the use of experts in international commercial arbitration. This article will look at circumstances that may require an expert and arbitration laws and rules that assist parties and arbitrators in appointing an appropriate expert. The article highlights and discusses differences and similarities between civil and common law traditions and draws a conclusion as …

International Arbitral Appeals: What Are We So Afraid Of? , Erin E. Gleason

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will explore the advantages of instituting appellate mechanisms in investor-state disputes and international commercial arbitration. Part II begins with a review of the WTO Appellate Body's development and workings, followed by an analysis of other appellate procedures for international trade law arbitration, including the MERCOSUR system's Permanent Court and the Grain and Feed Trade Association's appeals process. Part III examines the current methods for reviewing investor-state arbitration awards under ICSID and NAFTA. Part III goes on to advocate for the creation of an Appeals Facility, separate from current arbitral institutions, which would be empowered to hear appeals in …

Balancing Transparency: The Value Of Administrative Law And Mathews-Balancing To Investment Treaty Arbitrations, Cornel Marian

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Greater reliance on arbitration to resolve cross-border disputes raises concern with the adequacy of arbitration procedural rules. In investment arbitration, transparency in the arbitrable proceedings is closely linked to the public need to review state conduct. This article draws on the responsibility of the arbitrator to balance the interests involved in an arbitration. Due consideration is given to the Global Administrative Law Project, which views many challenges affecting arbitration as the first step towards developing a global unifying standard of procedure. American domestic administrative law provides sufficient guidance in determining adequate procedure. The Mathews standard is of great value to …

Commercial Peace And Political Competition In The Crosshairs Of International Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Journal Articles

This article examines the mixed effect of arbitration upon the generation of international law norms; in particular, how arbitration can generate private law norms so effectively and yet still face strong resistance in public international law processes and controversies. The work of arbitration for international commercial litigation has been nothing less than spectacular. In both the private international and domestic civil contexts, arbitration has provided viable remedial solutions and functional adjudication when the law was either nonexistent or incapacitated. It has supplied a workable and adaptable trial system, which-on the international side-could also generate substantive legal norms. Arbitration thereby has …

The Arrival Of The "Have-Nots" In International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

Much has been written about the have-nots in domestic litigation and domestic arbitration, with an apparent assumption that their fate was mainly a domestic affair. In recent years, however, internet commerce has brought consumers to the international market, an increasingly globalized workforce has generated a class of international employees, and the link between international trade and human rights has revealed a host of victims. The arrival of these 'have-nots' in international arbitration means that previously latent questions about international arbitration's integrity as a system and role as a mechanism for transnational regulatory governance have been brought to the fore.

Using …

Trail Smelter Déjà Vu: Extraterritoriality, International Environmental Law And The Search For Solutions To Canadian-U.S. Transboundary Water Pollution Disputes, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the 1930s, a privately owned smelting plant in Trail, Canada was the focus of the most famous case in international environmental law: the Trail Smelter Arbitration. But the subject of that landmark case has not gone away. Over the last seventy years, the Trail smelter dumped millions of tons of mercury, arsenic, and toxic waste into the Columbia River. The dumping's effects have been felt in neighboring Washington State, where the toxic discharges have caused environmental harm. In 2003, the EPA began investigating the Washington border area for designation as a Superfund (CERCLA) site, and controversially demanded that the …

Context And Institutional Structure In Attorney Regulation: Constructing An Enforcement Regime For International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

The question that looms large over the future of international arbitration is: How much should states yield to the international arbitration system? This Article attempts to answer the question as it applies to the specific context of regulating attorney conduct.

Fit And Function In Legal Ethics: Developing A Code Of Conduct For International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

In this Article, I develop a methodology for prescribing the normative content of a code of ethics for international arbitration, and in a forthcoming companion article, I propose integrated mechanisms for making those norms both binding and enforceable. In making these proposals, I reject the classical conception of legal ethics as a purely deontological product derived from first principles. I argue, instead, that ethics derive from the interrelational functional role of advocates in an adjudicatory system, and that ethical regulation must correlate with the structural operations of the system. The fit between ethics and function, I will demonstrate, not only …

The Ballad Of Transborder Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Journal Articles

International commercial arbitration (ICA) is many things positive. Because business transactions cannot take place without a functional system of adjudication,ICA has enabled parties to engage in and pursue international commerce. As a result, it has had an enormous impact upon the international practice of law, the structuring of a de facto international legal system, and the development of a substantive world law of commerce. In a word, ICA has been a vital engine in the creation of a transborder rule of law. Furthering this design, the arbitral "method"has even been applied to the unruly political problems that attend international trade …