Digital Commons Network^™

Reclaiming The "Little Bees" And The "Little Bells": Colombia's Failure To Adhere To And Enforce International And Domestic Laws In Preventing Recruitment Of Child Soldiers, Veronica Escobar

Fordham International Law Journal

This Comment addresses the recruitment of Colombian children into the insurgent armed groups and the Colombian government's attempts to respond to the issue. Part I provides an overview of the worldwide child soldier epidemic, specifically of the Colombian child soldier. Part I also addresses the general history of the civil strife in Colombia and the impact on the lives of the country's children. Part II describes the existing international laws that protect civilians and children during internal armed conflicts, as well as those laws that address child combatants specifically. Part II also analyzes the Colombian government's response to the child …

Traumatized Socities: Social Cubism And The Predatory State Of Haiti, Karen Jenkins

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The end of the twentieth century has seen an increase in societies devastated and traumatized by mass violence.

La Economia Politica De Violencia E Inseguridad En Las Fronteras De Kenia Del Norte: Una Perspectiva Dei Cubismo Social, Joshia Osamba

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Desde los afios ochenta, los conflictos y la violencia que implican comunidades pastorales en las fronteras de Kenia del Norte se han hecho end6micos.

The Political Economy Of Violence And Insecurity In The Borderlands Of Nothernkenya: A Social Cubism Perspective, Joshia Osamba

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Since the 1980s, conflicts and violence involving pastoral communities in the borderlands of northern Kenya have become endemic.

The Legality Of Nato's Intervention In Yugoslavia In 1999: Implications For The Progressive Development Of International Law, Jeffrey S. Morton

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia in 1999 in response to violations of human rights raises a number of legal and moral questions concerning the right of states to respond to humanitarian disasters.

Social Cubism: A Comprehensive Look At The Causes Of Conflict In Sri Lanka, S. I. Keethaponcalan

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The conflict between the ethnic Sinhalese and the Tamils in Sri Lanka is one of the prominent ethnic problems in the world today.

Transitional Justice In Post-War Afghanistan, Ossai Miazad

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

"Artillery Lends Dignity To What Otherwise Would Be A Common Brawl": An Essay On Post-Modern Warfare And The Classification Of Captured Adversaries, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This essay allows the writer to enter a fluid fray being played out almost day-by-day in the media and, of course, where it counts: in the administration of President George W. Bush. Conscious of the ebbs and drifts of both the current debates and desperately anxious not to be preempted by the march of a swiftly moving time frame, this essay suggests an approach to U.S. integration of generally accepted rules for the treatment of POWs that will advance both the war on terrorism and America's need to embrace the reality of the globalization of humanistic mores and notions about …

Terrorists Are Unlawful Belligerents, Not Unlawful Combatants: A Distinction With Implications For The Future Of International Humanitarian Law, Michael H. Hoffman

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Befogged Vision: International Environmental Law A Decade After Rio, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Environmental management has emerged as an important element of governance in practically every nation. This was not the case before the United Nations convened the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. After Stockholm, nations learned to build environmental ministries and work across sectors nationally, and discovered how difficult it is to reshape entrenched national practices in order to curb pollution and conserve natural resources. With growing experience and knowledge, nations came to realize that no one government alone could safeguard the environment, and that international cooperation would need to be enhanced.

Principles For Collective Humanitarian Intervention To Succor Other Countries' Imperiled Indigenous Nationals, George K. Walker

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Biggest Peace: The Structure Of The Palestinian Legislative Council And The Politics Of Separation, Michel Paradis

Fordham International Law Journal

Part I of this Note summarizes the background leading up to the signing of the Oslo Accords. Part II details the overall structure and responsibilities laid out in Oslo II, with specific emphasis on the legal. Also, Part II presents for comparison the semi-autonomy arrangement devised and implemented in the Transkei of South Africa in the early 1960s. Part II concludes by examining the extent to which both of these arrangements were successful in satisfying the parties involved and makes some more general comparisons to similar reactions in Northern Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement. Part III attempts to draw …

The International Trial Of Slobodan Milosevic: Real Justice Or Real Politik?, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

There were disquieting echoes of Nuremberg at the arraignment of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague on July 3, 2001.

Can Additional Protocols I & Ii Apply To The Same Conflict & To Different Parties Within That Conflict?, Ratna Kancherla

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

The Tu Quoque Defense, Stephanie Berlin

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

One Small Step For Women: Female-Friendly Provisions In The Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court, Rana R. Lehr-Lehnardt

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Cluster Bombs Over Kosovo: A Violation Of International Law?, Thomas Michael Mcdonnell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As the United States continues to fight a war against private terror organizations, we and our coalition partners must avoid resorting to terror ourselves, lest our moral and legal standing be undermined. Both in Afghanistan and in Kosovo, the United States employed a weapon that violates the spirit if not the letter of humanitarian law. That weapon, the cluster bomb, unduly endangers and terrorizes civilians. Although focusing primarily on NATO's use of this weapon in Serbia and its Kosovo province, the thesis of this Article also applies to the United States' employing cluster bombs in our war in Afghanistan, a …

The Cedaw As A Collective Approach To Women's Rights, Brad R. Roth

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article will identify the individualist paradigm with the main current of contemporary liberal-individualist political thought, and more specifically with the approach to women's rights reflected in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which can be read most straightforwardly as reflecting a liberal-individualist conception of how the individual, society, and the State interrelate. This approach, dominant in the international human rights system as well as in the legal systems of some of the most influential States, can usefully be identified as that of the political Center.

(Dis)Embedded Women, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Michigan Journal of International Law

The position argued in this Article is that women's rights are individual rights. To explain this position, the Article will progress along the following arguments: 1) The dichotomy between Western individualism and non-Western collectivism is false. 2) Much of the debate regarding the role of women and women's rights confuses interest and identity. 3) Women do not necessarily constitute a social group. 4) "Women's" rights are actually universal human rights: they pertain mostly to women, but also to men. 5) The debate about whether women are a social group is rooted in part in differing conceptions of women's embeddedness in …

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

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this Article, the author develops a methodology for prescribing the normative content of a code of ethics for international arbitration, and in a forthcoming companion article, integrated mechanisms for making those norms both binding and enforceable are proposed. In making these proposals, the author rejects the classical conception of legal ethics as a purely deontological product derived from first principles. This Article argues, instead, that ethics derive from the inter-relational 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, the author …

Sovereignty, Territoriality, And The Rule Of Law, Joan Fitzpatrick

UC Law SF International Law Review

On November 13, 2001, President George W. Bush issued a Military Order in which he claimed power as Commander in Chief to detain indefinitely and to try, by ad hoc military commissions, persons designated by him as international terrorists. This Order represents a stunning claim to absolutist power and a rejection of any meaningful legal constraints on the treatment of the captives. The Order and the "War on Terrorism" on which it is premised challenge the most commonly accepted principles of post-Westphalian sovereignty: exclusive control over territory, noninterference, and equality among states.

The legal premise for the Order is the …

Bioterrorism, Public Health, And International Law, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Domains: A Declaration Of Independence Of Cctlds From Foreign Control, Kim G. Von Arx, Gregory R. Hagan

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In the year 2000, the Government Advisory Committee (“GAC”) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) passed a set of principles that essentially claimed national sovereignty over country code top-level domains (“ccTLD”s) such as .us, .ca, .uk and .au. Shortly thereafter, ICANN redelegated several ccTLDs in accordance with new GAC principles. Despite the outcry accompanying the passage of these principles and ICANN’s self-professed adherence thereto, the entire exercise could easily be criticized as merely symbolic because of the overriding power of ICANN in the operation of the Domain Name System (“DNS”). Indeed, Stuart Lynn, ICANN’s current president, …

Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords’ Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson

Scholarly Works

International law requires that a refugee have a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. It is not enough to be at risk of being persecuted, nor is it even enough to be a member of a particular race or religion. There must be a “nexus” between the danger and one of the five Convention-recognized reasons for persecution. In the 1998 decision in Adan v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, the House of Lords concluded that a man fleeing clan warfare in Somalia could not …

Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords' Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this Article, we argue that the House of Lords' reasoning in Adan was seriously flawed. The House of Lords correctly recognized that evidence that minorities face a heightened risk of being persecuted can be sufficient to show a nexus to a Convention ground. Yet it erred when it went on to hold that only differentially at-risk individuals or groups can benefit from refugee status. If a person's risk of being persecuted is causally linked to his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, the nexus requirement is satisfied irrespective of whether the …

The Terrors Of Dealing With September 11th, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Transitional Justice In A New Era, Ruti G. Teitel

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay offers an evaluation of the status of transitional justice in the wake of the new century and millennium. This Essay analyzes the evolution and direction of transitional justice in the new era and makes three observations about the current directions in transitional justice developments. Part I contend that while transitional justice is associated with a universal rights discourse, in recent decades of heightened transition, the conception of transitional justice has been closely associated with diverse nation-building projects and related local understandings of the rule of law and legitimacy. Part II addresses the ways contemporary transitional justice reflects its …

9/11: Usa And Uk, Philip A. Thomas

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article is based on the inviolability of the legal principles underlying rule of law and explores the ways in which various governments have responded. In addition, it considers the importance of the legislative processes, recognizing that the failure to honor them leaves open the door to executive exploitation and the misuse of power. It also reflects on the efficiency of anti-terrorist legislation. Does this legislation stop, deter or punish criminals; is it "comfort legislation" directed towards producing and maintaining public confidence; or is it counter-productive through the alienation of innocent victims and ethnic, religious and immigrant groups?

Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords' Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

International law requires that a person have a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group in order to be recognized as a refugee. That is, under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, there must be a nexus between the danger faced by the refugee and one of the five Convention-recognized reasons for persecution. However, in a 1998 decision of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, the House of Lords concluded that a man fleeing clan warfare in Somalia could not meet the nexus …

The Prosecution Of Rape Under International Law: Justice That Is Long Overdue, James R. Mchenry, Iii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note argues that despite theoretical criticisms, the prosecution of rape and sexual enslavement as crimes against humanity, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) fits within a larger, emerging picture of international legal jurisprudence. First, the ICTY built upon both its own prior decisions and the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), especially Prosecutor v. Akayesu, in order to close gaps in the international legal conceptualizations of rape and enslavement, torture, war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Second, building upon the example set by the ICTR, the ICTY broadened international protections of …