Should Domestic Courts Prosecute Genocide? Examining The Trial Of Efrain Rios Montt,
2014
University of Michigan Law School
Should Domestic Courts Prosecute Genocide? Examining The Trial Of Efrain Rios Montt, Jillian Blake
Jillian Blake
In a highly publicized 2013 case, Efraín Ríos Montt, the de facto leader of Guatemala from 1982–1983, was ordered to stand trial for genocide in Guatemala for the deaths of at least 1771 Ixil Mayan people during the most violent period of the country’s thirty-six-year-long civil war. The trial was historic; Ríos Montt became the first former head of state to be tried for genocide in his home country. This Article, using the Guatemalan trial as an example, asks: should domestic courts prosecute genocide? The Article argues that domestic prosecution of genocide is not inherently negative or positive, but could …
Self-Interest And Sinecure: Why Law School Can’T Be “Fixed” From Within,
2014
Cleveland State University College of Law
Self-Interest And Sinecure: Why Law School Can’T Be “Fixed” From Within, David Barnhizer
David Barnhizer
The issue of how best to do a legal education is being approached as if it were an intellectual and pedagogical question. Of course in a conceptual sense it is. But from a political and human perspective (law faculty, deans and lawyers) it is a self-interested situation in terms of how does this affect me? The reality is that for law faculty and deans it is mainly a life style, status, economic benefit and political situation in which the various interests protected by the traditional faculty slot placeholders [as well as the non-traditional practice-oriented teachers) are being masked by self-serving …
Surveillance, Speech Suppression And Degradation Of The Rule Of Law In The “Post-Democracy Electronic State”,
2014
Cleveland State University College of Law
Surveillance, Speech Suppression And Degradation Of The Rule Of Law In The “Post-Democracy Electronic State”, David Barnhizer
David Barnhizer
None of us can claim the quality of original insight achieved by Alexis de Tocqueville in his early 19th Century classic Democracy in America in his observation that the “soft” repression of democracy was unlike that in any other political form. It is impossible to deny that we in the US, the United Kingdom and Western Europe are experiencing just such a “gentle” drift of the kind that Tocqueville describes, losing our democratic integrity amid an increasingly “pretend” democracy. He explained: “[T]he supreme power [of government] then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society …
Justice Stewart Meets The Press,
2014
Syracuse University
Justice Stewart Meets The Press, Keith Bybee
Keith J. Bybee
Among the Supreme Court Justices who have articulated distinctive views of free expression, Justice Potter Stewart alone placed particular emphasis on the First Amendment's protection of a free press. Drawing upon the lessons of history, the plain language of the Constitution, the political events of his day, and his own personal experience, Stewart argued that the organized news media should be considered an essential part of the checks-and-balances competition between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government. Stewart’s emphasis on the special structural function of the established press placed him at odds with most of his colleagues …
Reconciliation And The Rule Of Law: The Changing Role Of International War Crimes Tribunals,
2014
Scripps College
Reconciliation And The Rule Of Law: The Changing Role Of International War Crimes Tribunals, Oriana Lavilla
Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union
This paper explores the relationship between international war crimes tribunals and reconciliation in post-conflict societies. The aim of the present study was to examine how the role of international war crimes tribunals has changed in the peacebuilding process since the early years after World War II. Due to the evolving nature of international law and the international criminal legal system, international tribunals have become increasingly recognized as an integral component of peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was the first international tribunal with a mandate to contribute to international peace and security. The …
Function And Dysfunction In Post-Conflict Justice Networks And Communities,
2014
Vanderbilt University Law School
Function And Dysfunction In Post-Conflict Justice Networks And Communities, Elena Baylis
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
The field of post-conflict justice includes many well-known international criminal law and rule of law initiatives, from the International Criminal Court to legal reform programs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Less visible, but nonetheless vital to the field, are the international staff (known as internationals) who carry out these transitional justice enterprises, and the networks and communities of practice that connect them to each other. By sharing information, collaborating on joint action, and debating proposed legal rules within their networks and communities, internationals help to develop and implement the core norms and practices of post-conflict justice. These modes of collaboration are …
The Child Independence Is Born: James Otis And Writs Of Assistance,
2014
University of New Hampshire
The Child Independence Is Born: James Otis And Writs Of Assistance, James M. Farrell
Communication
This chapter is a reexamination of the Writs of Assistance speech by James Otis. In particular, it is a reconsideration of the evidence upon which rests the historical reputation of Otis’s address. Are the claims by historians who credit Otis with sparking the Revolutionary movement in colonial America warranted or not? That reassessment begins with a detailed review of the nature and function of writs of assistance within the political, legal, and economic environment of colonial Massachusetts. It then turns to an analysis of the legal dispute over writs of assistance in the 1761 trial. From there we will reconstruct …
Rule Of Law With Chinese Characteristics: An Empirical Cultural Perspective On China, Hong Kong And Singapore,
2014
University of Missouri - Kansas City, School of Law
Rule Of Law With Chinese Characteristics: An Empirical Cultural Perspective On China, Hong Kong And Singapore, Jeffrey E. Thomas
Faculty Works
This article uses empirical data to analyse the meaning of rule of law with Chinese characteristics. It compares rule of law data on China, Hong Kong and Singapore from the World Justice Project and finds patterns of more limited protection of individual rights and fewer limits on governmental powers. It then uses Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to consider whether those patterns are related to common cultural characteristics. It finds low scores on the cultural value of individualism in those three jurisdictions are correlated with lower protection for individual rights, and that high scores on Hofstede’s Power Distribution Index are inversely …
China: The Quest For Procedural Justice,
2014
Columbia Law School
China: The Quest For Procedural Justice, Stanley B. Lubman
Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies
This essay is contributed in recognition of Don Wallace’s dedication to furthering procedural justice in the U.S. and abroad. Don’s interests are wider than anyone else’s I can think of. Even though China and Chinese law are not represented in his published scholarship, in the course of our long friendship he has expressed thoughtful interest in many ways, including his constructive participation in the first delegation of the American Bar Association to visit China, which I escorted in 1978, and his later visits to China. Under Don’s leadership as Director of the International Law Institute at the Georgetown Law School, …
What Is The Rule Of Law Good For? Democracy, Development And The Rule Of Law In Classical Athens,
2014
Stanford University (Student)
What Is The Rule Of Law Good For? Democracy, Development And The Rule Of Law In Classical Athens, Federica Carugati
Buffalo Law Review
No abstract provided.
Civil Consequences Of Corruption In International Commercial Contracts,
2014
American University Washington College of Law
Civil Consequences Of Corruption In International Commercial Contracts, Padideh Ala'i
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
The United States legal system seeks to prevent and prohibit bribery and corruption through a myriad of laws, regulations and policies. Anti-corruption jurisprudence is more developed in the context of public sector contracts where the United States criminalizes bribery of public officials through 18 U.S.C. §201 (Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses). In addition, the United States was the first country to criminalize bribery of foreign government officials in 1977 with the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA has since been amended to comply with the adoption of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign …
The Resilience Principle,
2014
Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
The Resilience Principle, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Resilient self-help is essential in coping with life’s upsets. This essay explores the prospect of recognizing Resilience as a Principle of Law. The propositions set forth here were debated at two conferences held in Brasilia, in December of 2013. The first, for legislators, was convened in the Senate of Brazil by the National Congress’ Joint Permanent Committee on Climate Change, and the second, for judges, was convened by the Federal Judicial Council’s Judicial Studies Center (Conselho da Justiça Federal Centro de Estudos Judiciários) and the High Court of Brazil (Superior Tribunal de Justiça). This eJournal of the IUCN Academy of …
Technology, Ethics, And Access To Justice: Should An Alogrithm Be Deciding Your Case?,
2014
Indiana University Kelley School of Business
Technology, Ethics, And Access To Justice: Should An Alogrithm Be Deciding Your Case?, Anjanette H. Raymond, Scott J. Shackelford
Michigan Journal of International Law
At a time of U.S. budget cuts, popularly known as the “sequester,” court systems across the nation are facing financial shortfalls. Small claims courts are no exception. Among the worst hit states is California, which is suffering staffing cutbacks that result in long delays prompting consideration of the old maxim, “justice delayed is justice denied.” Similar problems, albeit on a larger scale, are evident in other nations including India where the Law Commission has argued that the millions of pending cases combined with the lagging uptake of technological best practices has impeded judicial productivity, leading to “disappointment and dissatisfaction among …
The Law Is A Causeway: Metaphor And The Rule Of Law In Russia,
2014
Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law
The Law Is A Causeway: Metaphor And The Rule Of Law In Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
The chapter explores how a metaphor for the rule of law created by the playwright Robert Bolt captures the difficulty that Russia has experienced in its self-proclaimed pursuit of a rule-of-law state: "The law is not a 'light' for you or any man to see by; the law is n instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely." In Russia, the failure to build a rule-of-law state has been, among other things, a failure to create what this metaphor describes as the essence of that …
Legal Reform: China's Law-Stability Paradox,
2014
Columbia Law School
Legal Reform: China's Law-Stability Paradox, Benjamin L. Liebman
Faculty Scholarship
In the 1980s and 1990s, China devoted extensive resources to constructing a legal system, in part in the belief that legal institutions would enhance both stability and regime legitimacy. Why, then, did China’s leadership retreat from using law when faced with perceived increases in protests, citizen complaints, and social discontent in the 2000s? This law-stability paradox suggests that party-state leaders do not trust legal institutions to play primary roles in addressing many of the most complex issues resulting from China’s rapid social transformation. This signi½es a retreat not only from legal reform, but also from the rule-based model of authoritarian …
Book Review: Lawless Capitalism: The Subprime Crisis And The Case For An Economic Rule Of Law,
2014
University of Missouri - Kansas City, School of Law
Book Review: Lawless Capitalism: The Subprime Crisis And The Case For An Economic Rule Of Law, William K. Black
Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Lost Classics Of Intellectual Property Law,
2014
University of PIttsburgh School of Law
Lost Classics Of Intellectual Property Law, Michael J. Madison
Articles
Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” American legal scholarship often suffers from a related sin of omission: failing to acknowledge its intellectual debts. This short piece attempts to cure one possible source of the problem, in one discipline: inadequate information about what’s worth reading among older writing. I list “lost classics” of American scholarship in intellectual property law. These are not truly “lost,” and what counts as “classic” is often in the eye of the beholder (or reader). But these works may usefully be found again, and intellectual property law scholarship would be …
The Nacirema Revisited,
2014
Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law
The Nacirema Revisited, Jeffrey D. Kahn
SMU Law Review
In 1956, anthropologist Horace Miner published the article for which he is best known, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." This short but groundbreaking essay described personal rituals practiced by a fascinating but poorly understood people. Inspired by Miner's work and based on close-quarters field research, this essay revisits the strange world of the Nacirema. Two of the more "legal" features of their society are explored: (1) what might be termed the higher-order constitutional design of their society, and (2) the mechanisms of day-to-day maintenance of their social order.
Brief For Amici Curiae Professors Of Law In Support Of Petitioner,
2014
Duke Law School
Brief For Amici Curiae Professors Of Law In Support Of Petitioner, Neil Vidmar, Lisa Kern Griffin
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Can The Law Meet The Demands Made On It?,
2014
Duke Law School
Can The Law Meet The Demands Made On It?, George C. Christie
Faculty Scholarship
This is my contribution to a festscrift in honor of Professor Don Wallace on his retirement from the Georgetown University School of Law. My essay points out the problems and dangers of the increasing delegation to international and domestic courts, in broad and vague value-laden language, the responsibility of making basic moral and policy decisions for society. It saddles courts with a task that they are not particularly suited to perform and it is certainly not the way a democratic society should function.
