International Law Commons^™

The International Rule Of Law In A Human Rights Era

Global Business & Development Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Global Right To Property, John G. Sprankling

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

Does a right to property exist under international law? The traditional answer to this question is “no”―a right to property can arise only under national law. But sweeping economic and political changes in recent decades have laid the foundation for recognizing a global right to property. Ideological opposition to property rights has faded with the end of the Cold War; China, Russia, and other socialist states have transitioned to market economies which are premised on private property; and the globalization of trade has enhanced international support for protecting property rights. Accordingly, it is appropriate to revisit the question.

This article …

The Subversion Of State – To State Investment Treaty Arbitration, Jarrod Wong

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

State-to-state arbitration provisions in bilateral investment treaties and other international investment agreements (collectively called BITs here) have been little used—and rightly so—given the introduction of investor-state arbitration provisions in the same BITs. In a handful of cases, however, some states have sought to resurrect state-to-state arbitration, either to contest issues already decided in separate investorstate arbitral proceedings, or else to stave off such proceedings. Most recently and controversially, in Ecuador v. U.S., Ecuador initiated arbitration against the United States under the U.S.-Ecuador BIT to (re)arbitrate an issue that had arguably been determined against Ecuador in a separate prior arbitration between …

An Introduction To The Symposium And An Examination Of Morrison’S Impact On The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Developing The Law Of The River: The Integration Of Law And Policy Into Hydrologic And Socio-Economic Modeling Efforts In The Willamette River Basin, Adell Louise Amos

Publications

A legal and policy infrastructure -- referred to as a "law of the river" -- exists for every river basin in the U.S. an can be as important as natural processes in terms of managing the future of the resource. Because of the way that water law and policy have evolved in the U.S., this infrastructure involves a matrix of state and federal law that governs the choices that policymakers, end users, and agencies make. This "law of the river" provides the context in which decisions are made and not made. It also draws the boundaries within which decision makers …

Jump In Before It's Too Late: Protecting And Increasing Streamflows In New Mexico, Sharon Wirth

Publications

Freshwater ecosystems need adequate streamflow to supply clean water for humans and maintain healthy habitat for wildlife. Over-appropriation, overuse, climate change, and drought plague New Mexico's rivers, taxing many rivers beyond sustainability. Despite the myriad of problems caused by little or no water in our rivers, policies and procedures to protect and increase streamflows in New Mexico are limited. While most Western states have made demonstrable progress in alleviating various legal and technical barriers to protecting and increasing streamflows, New Mexico has made only limited, recent progress towards solutions for our drying rivers. This article takes a critical look at …

Water Governance Challenges In New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley: A Resilience Assessment, Melina Harm Benson, Dagmar Llewellyn, Ryan Morrison, Mark Stone

Publications

No abstract provided.

Trading Away Human Rights, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Olivier De Schutter

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Trade negotiators in Singapore recently failed to finalize a deal on the long-awaited Trans-Pacific Partnership; they will soon have another chance to complete what would be the world’s largest regional free-trade agreement. But, given serious concerns that the TPP will fail to consider important human-rights implications, that is no cause for celebration.

Introduction To Intervention Under International Law, Mortimer N.S. Sellers

All Faculty Scholarship

The lawfulness or legitimacy of "external" intervention in the "internal" affairs of sovereign states is one of the most basic controversies in modern international law. The question arises in three separate but related forms: When is intervention lawful? When is intervention legitimate? And when should intervention occur? Discussion here will focus on the legal question, but legitimacy, morality, and brutal reality all form and sometimes trump the law. They dictate the parameters within which all legal determinations take place, including the legality of cross-border interventions. By "intervention" I mean any activity by one state or its agents that influences the …

Managing The Public Trust: How To Make Natural Resource Funds Work For Citizens, Andrew Bauer, Perrine Toledano, Malan Rietveld

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Given their collective size – approximately $3.5 trillion in assets as of end-2013 and growing – and concerns about the motivations of their government owners, much has been written on natural resource funds (NRFs), their investments and global influence. However their impacts on governance and public financial accountability at home have received far less attention.

On the one hand, these funds can be used to serve the public interest, for example by covering budget deficits when resource revenues decline, saving for future generations, or helping to mitigate Dutch Disease through fiscal sterilization. On the other hand, they can undermine public …

Dialogues Of Transitional Justice: Keynote Speech, Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Remedies For Foreign Citizens Subjected To Outsourced Pollution: A Case Study Of American Big Oil In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Ava Azad

Florida A & M University Law Review

The term “globalization” generally carries a positive connotation, invoking images of progress and international unity. “Technology” similarly enjoys a reputation of enabling human advancement and improving sustenance, shelter, education, and overall quality of life. Both promote the development of the other and their success has become intertwined. Development of the oil industry is one newsworthy example of the coming together of technology and globalization as nations rush to discover, extract, and refine oil wherever possible and sell the fuel to their own citizens or export it to other nations. Oil is also an example of dangers generally not associated with …

Comeback Of Community-Based Forest Management: The Need To Revamp Strategies To Promote Decentralized Environmental Governance In India And Brazil, Naysa Ahuja

Florida A & M University Law Review

The governance of forests and their resources has always been a contentious issue. It has created a divide between developing and developed countries, as well as within them. With the increasing recognition of forests as valuable commodities in the global market, the management of forests in developing countries is becoming a matter of constant concern for ecologists, economists, and politicians.

Part I of this article provides an overview of the Participatory Forest Management (PFM) approach in the international context. Part II and III examine environmental governance in the forest sector of two rapidly emerging economies of the world, India and …

Going Overboard: The Criminalization Of Seafarers In Violation Of Their Human Rights, Regional And Domestic Law's Conflict With Unclos And Marpol, And The Need For Reform, Megan K. Reid

Student Works

Following an oil spill, swift and aggressive measures are often taken to ensure that the public demand for justice is fulfilled. Unfortunately, seafarers are often placed in the post-incident spotlight, regardless of whether the incident involved operational error. During the 2002 Prestige accident, an oil spill formed off the coast of Spain in the middle of a raging storm. Spanish authorities denied the ship access to a calm harbor, which would have allowed the captain and crew to mitigate the environmental harm.

Part I of this article will review the Prestige oil spill, where criminal liability was imposed on the …

Unquenched Thirst: The Need For A Constitutionally Recognized Right To Water In Ghana, Tia Crosby

Student Works

The practice of privatizing water is often discussed as the leading method for improving access to adequate water in developing countries. Notably, this method has a cost that frequently impedes access to water in the developing world, while exploiting the profitability of a natural resource that is vital to human life. In Ghana, the failure of water privatization initiatives and the growing scarcity of adequate water have caused a public health crisis that necessitates a quick and efficient solution. As demonstrated in South Africa, the codification of the right to water in its constitution has improved access to adequate water, …

A Redd Solution To A Green Problem: Using Redd Plus To Address Deforestation In Ghana Through Benefit Sharing And Community Self-Empowerment, William Daniel Nartey

Student Works

The process of converting forests into non-forests deforestation claims 17 million hectares of the world’s tropical forests each year. Ghana is no stranger to the problem of deforestation. The developing country’s rainforest has been decreasing rapidly and significantly over time.

Part II of this paper addresses the primary driving factors of deforestation in Ghana, including human activities such as legal and illegal logging and unsustainable agricultural practices, as well as non-human factors such as poverty and population growth, which are inevitably linked. Part III identifies the constitutional land tenure rights and laws of the timber industry, assessing how these have …

The March Of Judicial Cosmopolitanism And The Legacy Of Enemy Combatant Case Law, Madalina Lulia Sontrop

LLM Theses

This thesis explores the concept of judicial cosmopolitanism and its prevalence in enemy combatant case law. The author draws upon the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan law to describe judicial cosmopolitanism as form of legal discourse through which judges show a willingness to extend constitutional protections based on a contemporary, functional understanding of sovereign jurisdiction. The purpose of this work is to address the correlation between enemy combatant jurisprudence and the aforementioned understanding of judicial cosmopolitanism. It is argued that a march of judicial cosmopolitanism developed early in enemy combatant cases, and that it came to a …

Informal Transnational Police-To-Police Information Sharing: Its Structure And Reform, Michael Robert Walton

LLM Theses

This thesis examines the informal sharing of information and cooperation between police agencies across international borders, and how it is or should be informed by international human rights law. The author looks at how intelligence-led policing theory has affected transnational policing. A distinction is made between police actions made on domestic soil that have adverse consequences abroad and police actions made on foreign soil that have adverse consequences. The first category of cases is firmly within jurisdiction and covered by domestic and international legal obligations. The second category of cases introduces the concept of the extraterritorial application of international human …

Sexual Violence Directed Against Men And Boys In Armed Conflict Or Mass Atrocity: Addressing A Gendered Harm In International Criminal Tribunals, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

No abstract provided.

Procedural Steps Addressing Sexual And Gender-Based Violence: The Legacy Of The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda And Its Application In The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

This paper examines certain procedural strategies adopted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to encourage and support victims of, and witnesses to, sexual and gender-based violence and traces their application in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. First, the paper explores specific methods used to protect the identity of victims and witnesses. Second, this paper considers steps taken by the ICTR to provide courtroom support to victims and witnesses. Finally, this paper surveys evidentiary approaches meant to reduce the retraumatization of sexual violence victims. The ICTR indeed has a legacy in these respects, somewhat positive and somewhat flawed.