Digital Commons Network^™

Did The Transitional Assembly Have The Constitutional Powers To Revise The Statute Of The Iraqi Special Tribunal Without Amending The Law Of Administration For The State Of Iraq For The Transitional Period (Tal)?, James T. Tsai

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Plunder And Pillage Within The Framework Of Internal Armed Conflicts, Amanda J. Perkett

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

The Criminal Culpability Of The Defendants And Saddam Hussein In Connection With The Treatment Of The People Of The Village Of Al-Dujayl, Prathima C. Reddy

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

The Ma’Dan (Marsh Arabs) And What Constitutes A Crime Against Humanity Through Environmental Attacks, Shane A. Brinkman

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Were The Atrocities Committed By Saddam Hussein Against The Citizens Of Al-Dujail, In Response To A Failed Assassination Attempt In 1982, Justified As A Lawful Exercise Of Self Defense Under International Law?, Eric Reeves

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

What Are The Contours Of The Crime Of Aggression In International Law As It Would Apply To The Iraqi Attack On Iran And Iraqi Attack On Kuwait? What Defenses Are Uniquely Available With Respect To This Crime?, Katherine Mowat

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Supranationalism And The Superpower Rubicon, Imtiaz Hussain

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Chapter VII Powers of the United Nations Security Council by Erika de Wet. Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 2004. 413pp.

Neotrusteeship In Afghanistan, Melanie Kawano

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Afghanistan is currently under the tentative rule of an international administration, or neotrusteeship, thereby restricting its national sovereignty. However, self-determination and nonintervention have never been persistent features of Afghanistan. Foreign interventions, invasions and great power showdowns on its territory have made a truly autonomous Afghan state a shortlived phenomenon. The outcome at each stage of Afghan history has been an unstable state that seems to invite even more external involvement.

State-Building In Afghanistan, Melanie Kawano, Amy Mcguire

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Since the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghan citizens and members of the global community have been grappling with the question of how to build a state that can fill the void created by decades of conflict and violence. However, the concept of “state-building” is complex. The term describes both an internal process and international assistance; it requires short-term action as well as a long-term vision. While no precise formula for state-building exists, there are historical precedents and “models” of state-building expressed by great powers and multilaterals. In reality, however, these are based on best guesses that fail …

State-Building In Bosnia, Chris Saeger

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Although the idea of state-building is at least as contentious as the idea of the state itself, international technocrats and foreign policymakers remain resigned to this project. International state-building has been conceived of as maintaining intermestic social order, protecting individual rights, and consolidating transnational linkages of power. Yet whatever the motive, effect or standard form of state-building, some political organization called “the state” is a necessary condition for membership in international society, if not for protecting individual human rights.

Background For The “War On Terror”

Human Rights & Human Welfare

September 11 changed the United States’ understanding of terrorism. Prior to these attacks, Americans typically viewed terrorist events and actors through the lens of foreign affairs, quite removed from “everyday” concerns. Terrorist events involving Americans did occur, occasionally on American soil, but a sense of American invulnerability never truly wavered. September 11 challenged this presumption; as well as perspectives on the history of terrorism, compelling some to reexamine past events in order to find portents of the future tragedy.

Sri Lanka, Amanda Donahoe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sri Lanka has been entrenched in a civil war for two decades. As in ethnic conflicts in many other post-colonial countries, the different groups of Sri Lanka give loyalty primarily to the group, rather than to the entire country. The Sinhalese majority have slowly populated the government and treated the Tamil minority as a threat to national stability, instead of as candidates for conciliation and power sharing. Consequently, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has taken up arms against the Sinhalese controlled government to fight for an independent homeland in the north and north-east parts of the country in …

How Will The Negotiation History Of The Rome Conference And Jurisprudence Of Ad Hoc Tribunals Aid The International Criminal Court In Its Interpretation Of The Gender-Related Provisions Unique To The Rome Statute?, Joshua Joseph

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Ferrari & Durham, Law And Religion In Post-Communist Europe, Mark Weston Janis

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Disaster Relief And Governance After The Indian Ocean Tsunami: What Role For International Law?, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The tsunami in the Indian Ocean at the end of 2004 has produced heightened scrutiny of how international disaster relief is supplied and governed. This scrutiny connects to arguments by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that more effective and efficient disaster relief requires the significant development of international law on disaster relief. This commentary analyses the historical and current relationship between international law and disaster relief and challenges the arguments that more international law on disaster relief is needed.

The Meaning Of Moscow: "Non-Lethal" Weapons And International Law In The Early 21st Century, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

At the intersection of new weapon technologies and international humanitarian law, so-called "non-lethal" weapons have become an area of particular interest. This article analyses the relationship between "non-lethal" weapons and international law in the early 21st century by focusing on the most seminal incident to date in the short history of the "non-lethal" weapons debate, the use of an incapacitating chemical to end a terrorist attack on a Moscow theatre in October 2002. This tragic incident has shown that rapid technological change will continue to stress international law on the development and use of weaponry but in ways more politically …

The Law On Intervention: Africa's Pathbreaking Model, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This article seeks to examine the sum and substance of the evolving intervention regime in Africa. I employ a structural approach to highlight the normative framework governing humanitarian intervention in Africa at the sub-regional and regional levels. The article is meant to be a snapshot rather than a comprehensive treatment of the law of intervention in Africa. Space constraints preclude examination of the legality of the various post-Cold War, unilateral African interventions (i.e., those that took place without prior Security Council authorisation or valid state consent). These include the interventions by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in …

From Stockholm To New York, Via Rio And Johannesburg: Has The Environment Lost Its Way On The Global Agenda?, Paolo Galizzi

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article will examine the response of the international community to the compelling evidence on the environmental crisis facing our Planet. It will analyze the place of the environment in the international agenda from the early 1970s, when an international environmental agenda emerged, to the 2005 World Summit, where Heads of State and Government gathered to renew their commitment to the international agenda for the twenty-first century agreed at the Millennium Summit. More specifically, the Article will examine the "comprehensive" international environmental agenda that has emerged within the U.N.

Preventive Use Of Force: The Case Of Iraq, Feisal Amin Istrabadi, Henry Bienen, Jan Wouters, David Hannay

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Dred Scott And International Law, Mark Weston Janis

Faculty Articles and Papers

As we ponder the contemporary debate about the proper use of international and foreign law in interpreting U.S. constitutional law, it might be well to remember that in 1857, the Supreme Court, in its most infamous judgment, Dred Scott v. Sandford, was already struggling with the controversy. This Article looks first at the increasingly hostile position that international and foreign law took towards slavery in the period from the American Revolution to our Civil War. Second, we discuss the nine judicial opinions in Dred Scott and explain how the judges variously relied on international and foreign law to defend or …

Subjects Of International Law: A Power-Based Analysis, Guido Acquaviva

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, the Author challenges the definition of the term "state" that is commonly accepted in legal scholarship as the basis for assessing whether an entity is a subject of international law. By analyzing a number of cases that do not fit into the "traditional" model--including the Holy See, Napoleon, and the Confederacy--the Author reaches the conclusion that the only essential element of a subject of international law is its sovereignty. An entity is sovereign when it is able effectively to assert that it is not subordinate to another authority: territory and population are therefore not essential attributes of …

Law And War: Individual Rights, Executive Authority, And Judicial Power In England During World War I, Rachel Vorspan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this-Article Professor Vorspan examines the role of the English courts during World War I, particularly the judicial response to executive infringements on individual liberty. Focusing on detention, deportation, conscription, and confiscation of property, the Author revises the conventional depiction of the English judiciary during World War I as passive and peripheral. She argues that in four ways the judges were activist and energetic, both in advancing the government's war effort and in promoting their own policies and powers. First, they were judicial warriors, developing innovative legal strategies to legitimize detention and other governmental restrictions on personal freedom. Second, they …

The International Law Of Environmental Warfare: Active And Passive Damage During Armed Conflict, Eric T. Jensen

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

One of the constant elements of warfare is its degrading effects on the environment. Many writers blame this destruction of the environment on inadequate standards in the international law of environmental warfare. To remedy this shortfall, the international law of environmental warfare should be categorized as either passive or active environmental warfare. Active environmental warfare requires the intentional "use" of the environment as a weapon of waging armed conflict. Passive environmental warfare includes acts not specifically designed to "use" the environment for a particular military purpose but that have a degrading effect on the environment. Passive environmental warfare violates international …

Waging War: Japan's Constitutional Constraints, John O. Haley

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Both electoral results and public opinion polls have long revealed what most observers have viewed as a paradox if not a contradiction. By significant majorities, the Japanese people appear to oppose any revision of article 9, but support the SDF and their deployment with legislative sanction. The seemingly antithetical aspects of these views can be reconciled if one accepts the proposition that the public is willing to allow an armed force but only within parameters that are still ill-defined. So long as article 9 remains, the government is constrained by the need for legislative approval and at least potential judicial …

Profile: Judge George H. Aldrich, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Re-Establishing The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate's Reservation Boundaries: Building A Legal Rationale From Current International Law, Angelique A. Eaglewoman

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Empire, Again, Jedediah S. Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

Noah Feldman has emerged as one of the most serious and thoughtful contributors to U.S. strategy in the age of terrorism and counterterrorism. Professor Feldman spent a good chunk of 2003 in Baghdad as a constitutional advisor to the Iraqi Governing Council, which was established under the occupation government of Ambassador Paul Bremer. Since then, Feldman has become an important commentator on U.S. policy in Iraq. Many young political operatives cycled through Iraq in 2003 and 2004, but Feldman was unusually well qualified for his position. He holds a degree in Islamic thought, speaks fluent Arabic, and specializes in the …

The Status Of Detainees From The Iraq And Afghanistan Conflicts, Srividhya Ragavan, Michael S. Mireles

Faculty Scholarship

The paper is premised on the idea that the future course of international law will be impacted by the United States' ability to adhere to international treaties to which it is a signatory. Hence, the current administration bears a responsibility to avoid unwisely stretching, distorting, or avoiding the principles of international law for short-term gain in a manner that jeopardizes long-term sustainable policy. The United States should be wary of creating a dangerous precedent - not only for the world, but for itself. If the United States shirks from or misinterprets international legal principles, it leaves the forum open for …

The Doctrine Of Preemptive Self-Defense, Sean D. Murphy

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

State-Building In Iraq, Hafsteinn Hafsteinnsson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Whether the 2003 invasion of Iraq was principally strategic or humanitarian, the United States’ involvement in Iraq has become a complex state-building mission. While there is agreement within the international community on the importance of rebuilding a democratic Iraq, there are many conflicting viewpoints on how this operation should proceed.