Digital Commons Network^™

Applying Torture And Asylum Protections To Prevent The Deportation Of Persons With Hiv/Aids, Christine Chiu

Christine Chiu

Granting a foreign national with HIV/AIDS permission to remain in a country, whether temporarily or indefinitely, is a weighty decision. Faced with limited resources and often fervent public antagonism towards increased immigration, states must pick and choose whom to expel from its borders. This paper examines the extent to which HIV status is considered in determining whether a petitioner is eligible or even has a right to remain in a country. The analysis consists largely of a comparison of the asylum and torture protections afforded to petitioners with HIV/AIDS in the United States, Canada, and the European Court of Human …

A Kind Of Judgment: Searching For Judicial Narratives After Death, Timothy W. Waters

Timothy W Waters

This Article is a work of original research interrogating the relationship between international criminal law and post-conflict reconciliation. Much of international criminal law’s attraction rests on the authoritative narrative theory: the claim that law’s authoritative judgments create incontestable narratives, which form the foundation for reconciliation in divided societies. So what happens when there is no judgment? By turning scholarship’s attention towards a terminated trial, this Article develops an indirect but powerful challenge to one of the dominant views about what international criminal law is for, with interdisciplinary implications for international law, international relations, diplomacy and political science. What can be …

Do Not Blame Non-Signatory Countries: Take Your Own Preventive Measures To Protect Children From Internationl Abduction, Ho Kon Yoo

Ho Kon Yoo

DO NOT BLAME NON-SINGATORY COUNTRIES: TAKE YOUR OWN PREVENTIVE MEASURES TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION Hokon Stephen Yoo

This Note recommends a preventive legal measure to protect children from international abduction rather than the existing post-abduction remedies. The Hague Convention of International Child Abduction has limited to help the leftover parent when another spouse wrongfully removes a child because the Convention lacks enforceability. To supplement the Hague Convention’s post-abduction remedies, this Note proposes a practical pre-abduction measure, an e-Child database program that judicial, legislative, administrative, and enforcement agencies could share. This Note recommends that each country, regardless of its …

Parallel Paths And Unintended Consequences: The Role Of Civil Society And The Icc In Rule Of Law Strengthening In Kenya, Christine S. Bjork Ms., Juanita Goebertus Estrada Ms.

Christine S Bjork

This paper examines the nexus between international criminal law and capacity building of domestic criminal justice systems. We question whether the ICC can contribute to either concrete domestic criminal justice reform or broader rule of law strengthening through its so-called preliminary examinations. Using Kenya as a case study, the paper discusses whether the ICC’s preliminary examination that took place between February 2008 and March 2010 (when the Pre-trial Chamber authorized the Prosecutor to open a formal investigation) has provided civil society fighting impunity for the post-election violence with a lever to trigger accountability. We assert that although Kenyan civil society …

The Evolution Of A Partisan: Observations Of A Criminal Defense Attorney At The Ictr, Beth S. Lyons

Beth S. Lyons

No abstract provided.

Mohammed Jawad And The Failure Of The Guantanamo Military Commissions, David J. Frakt

David J Frakt

In order to justify outrageous treatment of detainees at Guantanamo during the early years of the “Global War on Terror” it was necessary to portray the detainees as hardened terrorist criminals. But it was not enough to simply label them as such; the Bush Administration knew that in order to maintain popular support for their detention policies, they would have to convict a critical mass of the detainees in some sort of legal proceedings.

The problem for the Bush Administration was that few of the detainees were actually involved in any terrorist criminal activity. Fewer still had committed any offenses …

Tolerance And Rule Of Law: Lessons From Imperial Governance, Seongjo An

SEONGJO AN

Tolerance and Rule of Law : - Lessons from Imperial Governance - What is the condition that can make an empire socially and politically integrated and thus prosper for a long time? It is not easy to answer quickly for this question. This paper analyzes the book “Day of Empire” written by Amy Chua three years ago which submitted an answer for this question. The core thesis of “Day of Empire” is that every world-dominant empire was by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant during its rise to preeminence for all their enormous differences. According to Amy …

“I Am A Bit Sickened”: Examining Archetypes Of Congressional War Crimes Oversight After My Lai And Abu Ghraib, Samuel L. Brenner

Samuel L Brenner

Following both the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam conflict and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal during the Iraq War, many senators and representatives reacted in certain predictable ways by condemning atrocities and expressing horror or disgust at the evidence they had seen. At the same time, some of those same legislators denied that American forces had been involved with atrocities, attempted to foist blame on the victims or on a “small number” of bad soldiers, or suggested that examining American atrocities would be dangerous for American servicemen and for the United States generally. What is most startling about …

Harvey Milk, Jane Roe, And James Brady: Why Civic Organizing Matters, Palma Joy Strand

palma joy strand

This Article presents a view of the civic underpinnings of law by examining how civic interaction or the lack of such interaction facilitates or inhibits sociolegal change. The Article begins with empirical observations of civic experience and engagement, which ground more general conclusions about the importance of civic relationships and civic networks as well as the way personal stories contribute to the creation of both. The Article then applies these conclusions to three currently contentious and unsettled issues: gay rights, abortion, and guns. As to gay rights, the “coming out” process identified with Harvey Milk has transformed the civic landscape, …

Harder, Better, Faster Stronger: Regulating Illicit Adderall Use Among Law Students And Law Schools, Jennifer Schiffner

Jennifer Schiffner

The widespread illicit use of Adderall as a performance enhancer raises significant challenges for law schools and for law students entering the legal profession. Adderall, a stimulant-based performance enhancer prescribed for those with juvenile and adult attention deficit (ADD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), increases a person’s ability to concentrate by stimulating the production of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. Taken without a prescription for ADD or ADHD, Adderall over-stimulates the brain allowing for super-enhanced focus with a simple pill. For law students, the allure of this Controlled Substances Act Schedule II drug is simple: efficiency. However, despite easing …

Case Management And Online Public Access Systems Of The Courts – An Urgent Call Of Legislative Action, Joseph Zernik

Joseph Zernik

Digital voting machines were previously shown to be vulnerable to malfunction and malfeasance. Papers, recently published in computer science journal, likewise, outlined the invalidity of digital case management and online public access systems that govern the courts, jails, and prisons in the United States, and documented large-scale abuse of such systems. Invalid case management and online public access systems were claimed as key to deterioration of integrity of the justice system, which was previously opined in official, expert, and media reports. Such systems enabled the holding of prisoners under pretense of lawfulness, the conduct of pretense court proceedings, and the …

Rule Of Law Reform Without Cultural Imperialism: Reinforcing Customary Justice Through Collateral Review In Southern Sudan, David Pimentel

David Pimentel

Rule of Law reform efforts in developing areas face daunting challenges: (1) the stigma of imperialism when Western-style institutions are imposed, (2) the unwillingness of local communities to embrace the reforms, and (3) a severe shortage of resources—human, physical, and financial. At the same time, some of these developing and post-conflict societies have highly functional customary law institutions (in Africa, e.g., a tribal chief applying a customary law handed down by oral tradition). These systems enjoy public confidence and function on very limited budgets—often providing prompt and accessible dispute resolution in the community. Unfortunately these indigenous systems do not always …