Rule of Law Commons^™

Negotiation And Settlement In Nagorno-Karabak: Maintaining Territorial Integrity Or Promoting Self-Determination? , Argam Derhartunian

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The little-known region of Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh, has been no stranger to conflict. This land, nestled in the historic "Armenian Plateau," has been ruled by many different dynasties and seen the faces of many different ethnicities and cultures. Today, both Armenians and Azeris claim an absolute historic right to Nagorno-Karabakh, periodically fighting over the region. Although the intense fighting ended in 1994, negotiation efforts regarding the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh remain stalemated. This has caused the leaders of Karabakh to declare the region an independent republic, although no state, including Armenia, has recognized this status. This article will …

Who Killed The Friendly Settlement? The Decline Of Negotiated Resolutions At The European Court Of Human Rights , Gregory S. Weber

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The "Friendly Settlement"--the negotiated settlement of cases at the European Court of Human Rights--is on the decline. The Friendly Settlement's decline will likely provoke mixed sentiments in the international human rights camp. Some may applaud the development, including those who believe that only judgments by the Court are likely to chastise member states sufficiently and to announce standards of conduct for other states to follow. But others may shed more than a few mournful tears. An active settlement program can help reduce the Court's huge case backlog and give complaining parties a faster, and often more generous, measure of resolution …

The Evolution Of A New International System Of Justice In The United Nations: The First Sessions Of The United Nations Appeals Tribunal, Tamara A. Shockley

San Diego International Law Journal

In this overview of the new U.N. administration of justice system, a review has been undertaken of the evolution of the process from the former internal justice system to the development of the new administration of justice system. The Appeals Tribunal had a partially blank slate upon which to begin a new jurisprudence in international administrative law. In the first two sessions, the Appeals Tribunal decided upon a wide range of issues ranging from receivability, case management, disciplinary measures and pension cases. As the U.N. attempts to reform and streamline its bureaucratic structure for the 21st century, the judicial tribunals …

Semantica Storica Dei Formanti Giuridici, Prof. Michele Carducci

Michele Carducci Prof.

No abstract provided.

Paving The Road To A More Free World: Adr As Sustainable Development - A Look At Bangladesh , Amadea M. Goresh

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In this paper, I will look at the sustainable impact that Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) programs are having in the third world by examining one such nation in particular, the country of Bangladesh. Due to its historical problems combating poverty and corruption, Bangladesh has uniquely devised alternative, extra judicial means of resolving conflict. I will begin by looking at the current state of affairs of the country's government and judicial systems. Next, I will examine the nation's distinctive dispute resolution mechanism, known as shalish, and then discuss the pivotal role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are playing in adapting the traditional ADR …

Negotiating And Mediating Peace In Africa , Nancy Erbe, Chinedu Bob Ezeh, Daniel Karanja, Neba Monifor, George Mubanga, Ndi Richard Tanto

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Last year, a law review solicited my thoughts about, in their words, pushing the envelope with social justice and negotiating peace in a world dominated by power and violence. Taking their language literally, one must ask how to effectively address contemporary obstacles to ensure that the message and, most importantly, the means of justice are truly delivered to those in need. One answer-which may seem obvious to readers but is actually much too rare in practice-is to work with, empower, and support the conflict work of the community members themselves. This article introduces the plans of five African professionals, demonstrating …

Multi-Stakeholder Dispute Resolution: Building Social Capital Through Access To Justice At The Community Level , Shala Ali, Williams E. Davis, Joanna Lee

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Systems of multi-stakeholder dispute resolution are increasingly recognized as objectives of good governance by international organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Such objectives arise out of insights based on the dynamics of social capital that community based initiatives cannot succeed where trust is absent and mechanisms for collective decision-making do not exist. Yet localized decision-making can take many forms-whether distributional, competitive, or collaborative. This paper will examine, in particular, the impact of collaborative systems of decision-making on building social capital through access to justice in local communities. It will do this through examining participant feedback, meeting minutes, …

University Of Baltimore Symposium Report: Debut Of “The Matthew Fogg Symposia On The Vitality Of Stare Decisis In America”, Zena D. Crenshaw-Logal

Zena Denise Crenshaw-Logal

On the first of each two day symposium of the Fogg symposia, lawyers representing NGOs in the civil rights, judicial reform, and whistleblower advocacy fields are to share relevant work of featured legal scholars in lay terms; relate the underlying principles to real life cases; and propose appropriate reform efforts. Four (4) of the scholars spend the next day relating their featured articles to views on the vitality of stare decisis. Specifically, the combined panels of public interest attorneys and law professors consider whether compliance with the doctrine is reasonably assured in America given the: 1. considerable discretion vested in …

Open Secret: Why The Supreme Court Has Nothing To Fear From The Internet, Keith J. Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

The United States Supreme Court has an uneasy relationship with openness: it complies with some calls for transparency, drags its feet in response to others, and sometimes simply refuses to go along. I argue that the Court’s position is understandable given that the internet age of fluid information and openness has often been heralded in terms that are antithetical to the Court’s operations. Even so, I also argue the Court actually has little to fear from greater transparency. The understanding of the Court with the greatest delegitimizing potential is the understanding that the justices render decisions on the basis of …

Sealand, Havenco, And The Rule Of Law, James Grimmelmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In 2000, a group of American entrepreneurs moved to a former World War II anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea, seven miles off the British coast, and launched HavenCo, one of the strangest start-ups in Internet history. A former pirate radio broadcaster, Roy Bates, had occupied the platform in the 1960s, moved his family aboard, and declared it to be the sovereign Principality of Sealand. HavenCo's founders were opposed to governmental censorship and control of the Internet; by putting computer servers on Sealand, they planned to create a "data haven" for unpopular speech, safely beyond the reach of any other …

Beyond War: Bin Laden, Escobar, And The Justification Of Targeted Killing, Luis E. Chiesa, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Using the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden as a case study, this Article contributes to the debate on targeted killing in two distinct ways, each of which has the result of downplaying the centrality of international humanitarian law (IHL) as the decisive source of justification for targeted killings.

First, we argue that the IHL rules governing the killing of combatants in wartime should be understood to apply more strictly in cases involving the targeting of single individuals, particularly when the targeting occurs against nonparadigmatic combatants outside the traditional battlefield. As applied to the bin Laden killing, we argue …

The Full Story Of U.S. V. Smith, America’S Most Important Piracy Case, Joel H. Samuels

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cash Or Credit: The Importance Of Financial Sector Stability In Rule Of Law Operations, Katherine E. Peterson

Katherine Peterson

“Rule of Law” missions occur in a variety of circumstances, each mission differing from the last by location, context, extent of operations, participants, or a combination of all of these things and more. These operations can occur during, or immediately after, an armed conflict, intra- or interstate, a natural disaster, or other destabilizing or destructive event. The United States, international organizations, and other developed countries play a significant role in rebuilding these states so that they may one day achieve “Rule of Law.” The U.S. Military defines Rule of Law as “a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions …

What's Your Weirdest Case? Judges Answer Questions On The Courts

Curtis E.A. Karnow

Section 1 answers scores of questions posed to the judges of the Superior Court by visiting school children. The questions concern how civil and criminal courts work, treatment of prisoners, what judges and lawyers do, and how one becomes a judge, among other topics. Section 2 collects a series of short essays on related subjects, as well as outlining the jury system, alternative dispute resolution, appeals, among other subjects, all in a format more suited to upper grade levels and adults. The paperback is availible through Amazon

Mapping Expansive Uses Of Human Dignity In International Criminal Law, J.Benton Heath

J.Benton Heath

International criminal law (ICL) makes frequent reference to the concept of human dignity, which also plays a central role in human rights law. While many of these invocations occur in the context of torture and cruel treatment, a handful of cases have used human dignity more expansively to justify punishment for hate speech and other crimes. In this chapter, I argue that such expansive invocations of human dignity fill gaps in substantive criminal law, motivate tribunals toward broad interpretations of the law, may serve to 'trump' competing claims, and provide an argument for overcoming strict applications of the principle of …

Human Dignity At Trial: Hard Cases And Broad Concepts In International Criminal Law, J.Benton Heath

J.Benton Heath

Broad and indeterminate invocations of human dignity play a sporadic but powerful role in the adjudication of international criminal law (ICL). Drawing on detailed case studies, I argue that the concept of dignity enables courts to fill gaps in the substantive criminal law, justify expansive interpretations, resolve conflicts between competing rights and values, and potentially overcome the requirements of strict legality. These features enable judges to reach important and sometimes morally compelling conclusions. But expansive uses of human dignity come into tension with rule-of-law principles, and they challenge the self-understanding of ICL as a regime of limited subject-matter jurisdiction. This …

Africa, Mark J. Calaguas

Mark J Calaguas

The Africa Committee's contribution to the 2011 Year-in-Review issue of the American Bar Association Section of International Law's quarterly journal, The International Lawyer.

A Recipe For Change: Constitutional Reform In Saint Lucia, Amit Chhabra, Damian Greaves

Amit Chhabra

In spite of relative peace over the years in the English-speaking Caribbean, recent debate has centered on whether certain constitutional charters should be amended or replaced in their entirety. This movement presents the first major opportunity for these British Commonwealth nations to re-examine their governments’ parliamentary underpinnings so as to account for adequate protections of civil liberties and inter-branch checks; moreover, it is an opportunity to disallow “the law to become the hostage of history.” Too often, “constitutional reform” is cited as an essential course of action, whereas an expansion of the body of law and improvements in enforcement of …

Superpower Responsibility For State Recognition: Charting A Course For Nagorno-Karabakh, Amit Chhabra

Amit Chhabra

Nations routinely refrain from intervening in one another’s domestic affairs out of mutual respect for territorial integrity and international comity. On this basis, the international community has since 1994 determined to not recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh region (NKR) as independent from the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the understanding that this view might change if an OSCE -sponsored negotiation effort determines that NKR should gain de jure independence rather than obtain a semi-autonomous status within Azerbaijan. By contrast, some of the world’s leading powers have quickly recognized or dismissed similar independence struggles, where doing so was guided by their own strategic interests …

Too Rough A Justice: The Ethiopia-Eritrea Claims Commission And Civil Liability For Claims For Rape Under International Law, Ryan S. Lincoln

Ryan S. Lincoln

The developments in international law prohibiting rape during armed conflict have grown at a rapid pace in recent decades. Whereas rape had long been considered an inevitable by-product of armed conflict, evolution in international humanitarian law (IHL) has relegated this conception mostly to the past. The work of international criminal tribunals has been at the forefront of this change, developing the specific elements of the international crime of rape, and helping to change the perception of rape in international law. Violations of IHL, however, also give rise to civil liability. Despite the advances with respect to rape made in the …