Digital Commons Network^™

The Shortcomings Of Corporate Accountability In Post-Conflict Colombia: Land, Rivers And Animals, Isabella Ariza Buitrago, Luisa Gomez Betancur

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Although the notion of sustainable peace requires acknowledging the role played by all actors, transitional processes around the world have inadequately addressed or completely ignored the direct and indirect participation of economic actors. In particular, Colombia's transitional justice regime left out corporations entirely. A skillshare between Colombian lawyers and US-based human rights attorneys showed some of the gaps that let corporations continue in impunity for profiting, benefiting from, or directly financing the conflict. Other than harming and deeply fracturing communities, the shortcomings of corporate accountability in post-conflict Colombia also leave land, rivers, and animals without redress. This paper explores some …

Islamist Terrorism And The Classical Islamic Law Of War, Joseph Hoelz

International Law Studies

Islamist terrorists have had a large influence on U.S. foreign and domestic policy for more than twenty years, and yet policy makers, legal practitioners, and the public know very little about what motivates these violent extremist organizations. A primary unifying principle among the various Islamist terrorist groups is their desire to return to a religiously ordered State, justified and based upon their interpretation of the Shari’a, or Islamic law. This article explores the Islamist terrorist interpretation of Shari’a law and how it generally contradicts that of mainstream Islamic scholars. The article begins with a review of the primary and secondary …

Drones And Civilians: Emerging Evidence Of The Terrorizing Effects Of The U.S. Drone Programs, Keenan, Patrick J.

Santa Clara Journal of International Law

The Biden Administration, in one of its first consequential foreign policy decisions, announced that it would undertake a comprehensive review of the United States drone program. Officials promised that this review would consider all available evidence. This article shows that the U.S. drone program violates international law because of the ways it terrorizes civilian populations. U.S. officials from both parties have argued that drones are an effective part of the U.S. counterterrorism strategy. However, effectiveness is not the legal standard. The law requires that the program not unduly harm civilians. For as long as the U.S. has been using drones, …

In Defense Of 5g: National Security And Patent Rights Under The Public Interest Factors, Kenny Mok

University of Chicago Law Review

Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 authorizes the International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop—or “exclude”—patent-infringing imports. Exclusion orders protect the country against unfair trade practices and help enforce U.S. patent rights. But before issuing an order, the ITC is required by Section 337 to consider the order’s harm to the public health and welfare, its effect on competitive conditions, the availability of substitutes, and the harm to consumers. Because it rarely finds that these “public interest factors” outweigh the benefits of patent enforcement, the ITC has mostly granted exclusion orders despite growing concerns related to the public’s reliance …

Arms Control 2.0: Updating The Cyberweapon Arms Control Framework, Evan Mulbry

Michigan Technology Law Review

This Note analyzes multiple problems with the existing arms control framework for cyberweapons as well as surveillance technology and calls for four specific areas of reform. First, the existing framework does not specifically enumerate the software controlled under existing arms control treaties, which can lead to gaps in international export control compliance. Cyberweapons should be enumerated with greater specificity to prevent confusing and disjointed implementation by states. Second, the divide between Wassenaar and Shanghai Cooperation Organization conceptions of what constitutes a cyberweapon reduces the effectiveness of international control because nations do not share an agreed upon cyberweapon definition. States should …

If You Think Ai Won't Eclipse Humanity, You're Probably Just A Human, Gary D. Brown

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Building machines that can replicate human thinking and behavior has fascinated people for hundreds of years. Stories about robots date from ancient history through da Vinci to the present. Whether designed to save labor or lives, to provide companionship or protection, loyal, capable, productive machines are a dream of humanity.

The modern manifestation of this interest in using human-like technology to advance social interests is artificial intelligence (AI). This is a paper about what that interest in AI means and how it might develop in the world of national security.

This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.

Pain Is Enough: Chronic Pain As Disability, Katherine L. Moore

Buffalo Law Review

States have historically failed to recognize chronic pain as a disability. In medicine, chronic pain has gained increasing recognition as a disability in and of itself, even absent a current, medically determinable physical impairment. The law, however, has been slow to catch up. This Article argues that chronic pain is a disability, even without medical evidence of an underlying impairment, because of pain’s significant functional impact on the body and mind. In the 2018 case of Saunders v. Wilkie, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recognized that “pain is enough” for a veteran to be …

Autonomous Weapons Systems And The Procedural Accounta- Bility Gap, Afonso Seixas-Nunes

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The development and well-established principles of Internationla Humanitarian Law have been progressively establishing limits to the means and methods of warfare. Those principles and rules are necessarily applicable to future autonomous weapon systems (AWS), but questions regarding liability for violations of IHL caused by AWS have been looming the international debate. This article has two parts. The first part aims to identify a technical dimension of AWS that has been neglected by international lawyers: States responsibility for IHL violations caused by errors in AWS’ software. This article argues that “errors” can neither be identified with “malfunctions” nor attributed to human …

Metaphors Of International Law, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

This chapter explores international law in search of its hidden and not-so-hidden metaphors. In so doing, it discovers a world inhabited by states, where rules are mined or picked when ripe, where trade keeps boats forever afloat on rising tides. But is also unveils a world in which voices are silenced, inequality is ignored, and hands are washed of responsibility.

International law is built on metaphors. Metaphors provide a language to describe and convey the law’s operation, help international lawyers identify legal subjects and categorize situations in doctrinal categories, and provide normative justifications for the law. Exploring their operation at …

War & The Constitution: Chemical Agents And The Rights Of Protestors, Yomidalys GüIchardo Morel

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Holy See's Diplomacy: An Analysis Of Papal Mediation In The Middle East, Amanda Mcfarlane

Florida Journal of International Law

This Article will begin with an introduction of the literature on international mediation to provide an overview of the characteristics unique to international disputes and to illustrate the attributes of the parties that make international mediation a distinct paradigm of dispute resolution. The second Part will then complicate the international mediation literature by introducing the international relations theory with respect to conflict resolution. The theory provides a predictive framework of different mediation approaches and sources of legitimacy for non-state actors. The second Part will also apply the theory with respect to the Holy See to illustrate its international legal personality …

Half Monk, Half Hitman: Applying Just War Theory To Private Military And Security Companies In The Context Of Humanitarian Intervention, Robert J. Peters

Florida Journal of International Law

In Part II, this Article will discuss potential benefits of private military companies. Part III will address and acknowledge criticisms of PMSCs. Part IV provides a brief legal context, and Part V will discuss the just war theory criteria relevant to PMSCs in the context of humanitarian intervention. This section will examine why PMSC humanitarian intervention may be permissible in certain circumstances. The PMSC Executive Outcomes will serve as a dual case study; on the one hand, it would have been authorized by just war theory to contract with the United Nations to intervene in Rwanda. However, Executive Outcomes also …

The "Comfort Women" Reparation Movement: Between Universal Women's Human Right And Particular Anti-Colonial Nationalism, Ethan Hee-Seok Shin

Florida Journal of International Law

In this Article, I seek to place the “comfort women” reparation movement in East Asia’s broader colonial and post-colonial legal history. This Article will follow a largely chronological order with discussion of relevant legal points. Part II narrates the history of political and legal developments since the Imperial Japan period that set the stage for the “comfort women” reparation movement from the 1990s. In Part III, I will discuss the main legal issues concerning the Japanese reparation. Parts IV and V will explore and analyze the redress efforts at the U.N. human-rights bodies in the 1990s and the South Korean …

Justiciability Of All Human Rights: Scottish Independence As Redress For British Human Rights Abuses, Ann M. Piccard

Florida Journal of International Law

On September 18, 2014, an overwhelming number of Scottish residents turned out to vote on one simple question: Should Scotland be an independent country? The deceptively simple yes or no question on the ballot could not begin to reflect the complex underlying issues. If the Independence Referendum had been approved—meaning a “yes” vote, the goal of Independence proponents and of the Scottish National Party (SNP)—every facet of life for the Nation and its citizens could have been affected. The presence of nuclear weapons; membership in the European Union; the very nature and name of the currency used in every transaction …

Nuclear Chain Reaction: Why Economic Sanctions Are Not Worth The Public Costs, Nicholas Colby Watson Wolfe

Florida Journal of International Law

The purpose of this Article is to convince policymakers that the achievement of an interim nuclear agreement with Iran should not be seen as a mandate on the effectiveness of economic sanctions, and that further use of economic sanctions is not worth the public costs to targeted nations or the United States. First, this Article will explain the basic uses and legal provisions for economic sanctions. Second, this Article will detail the public costs that economic sanctions can inflict on the United States and on the nations it targets. Lastly, this Article will explain the interim nuclear agreement with Iran, …

Refining Japan’S Integrative Position On The Territorial Sovereignty Of The Senkaku Islands, Atsuko Kanehara

International Law Studies

China and Japan face a tense situation in the East China Sea over conflicting sovereignty claims to the Senkaku Islands. In order to cope with the situation appropriately and precisely, Japan needs to thoroughly analyze it from the dual perspectives of the law of the sea and the law of territorial acquisition. Japan denies any existence of a dispute with China over the territorial sovereignty of the islands. The legal effects of the existence of a “dispute” need to be understood and considered by Japan when it constructs its position from the perspectives of the law of the sea and …

Blackwater Rising: The Legal Issues Raised By The Unprecedented Privatization Of U.S. Military Functions, Robert D. Peltz

University of Miami Law Review

The Army has used civilian contractors to provide supplies and services to its forces in the field since the Revolutionary War. These early contractors fed the cavalry’s horses and transported supplies. Over the years, the role of the civilian contractor has dramatically evolved. Following the Vietnam War and the end of the draft, there has been an ever-increasing privatization of functions previously performed by the military.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which began in response to the September 11 attacks and have only recently started to come to a formal end, have significantly accelerated this process. As a result, …

The Constitutionality Of Amended 10 U.S.C. Sec. 802(A)(10): Does The Military Need A Formal Invitation To Reign In "Cowboy" Civilian Contractors?, Andres Healy

Florida Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adapting U.C.C. § 2-615 Excuse For Civilian-Military Contractors In Wartime, Jennifer S. Martin

Florida Law Review

When should a civilian seller of goods who delays delivery or cancels altogether under wartime contract be able to claim excuse under U.C.C. Article 2? The unprecedented extent of the U.S. military’s use of contractors abroad calls for a rethinking of U.C.C. impracticability, as private parties face wartime risks once encountered solely by the government. The traditional approach typically denies the seller the right to excuse the failure of delivery in instances where the wartime risk might be categorized as foreseeable or is expressly or impliedly allocated to the seller. This analysis forces a dilemma upon the seller facing threats …

The Air Littoral: Another Look, Maximilian K. Bremer, Kelly A. Grieco

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Assessing threats to the air littoral, the airspace between ground forces and high-end fighters and bombers, requires a paradigm change in American military thinking about verticality. This article explores the consequences of domain convergence, specifically for the Army and Air Force’s different concepts of control. It will assist US military and policy practitioners in conceptualizing the air littoral and in thinking more vertically about the air and land domains and the challenges of domain convergence.

The Grand Strategic Thought Of Colin S. Gray, Lukas Milevski

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Colin S. Gray distinguished himself from other scholars in the field of strategic studies with his belief that grand strategy is indispensable, complex, and inherently agential. This article identifies key themes, continuities, conceptual relationships, and potential discontinuities from his decades of grand strategic thought. Gray’s statement that “all strategy is grand strategy” remains highly relevant today, emphasizing the importance of agential context in military environments—a point often neglected in strategic practice.

Parameters Winter 2021, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Broken Nest: Deterring China From Invading Taiwan, Jared M. Mckinney, Peter Harris

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan without recklessly threatening a great-power war is both possible and necessary through a tailored deterrence package that goes beyond either fighting over Taiwan or abandoning it. This article joins cutting-edge understandings of deterrence with empirical evidence of Chinese strategic thinking and culture to build such a strategy.

Defeat Mechanisms In Modern Warfare, Frank Hoffman

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article explores the current debate about service and Joint operating concepts, starting with the Army’s multi-domain operations concept. It argues for adaptations to an old operational design technique—defeat mechanisms; updates to Joint and service planning doctrine; and discipline regarding emerging concepts. Rather than debate over attrition versus maneuver, combinations of a suite of defeat mechanisms should be applied to gain victory in the future.

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Contributor's Guidelines And Article Index, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

What Went Wrong In Afghanistan?, Todd Greentree

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Critics of the Afghan war have claimed it was always unwinnable. This article argues the war was unwinnable the way it was fought and posits an alternative based on the Afghan way of war and the US approach to counterinsurgency in El Salvador during the final decade of the Cold War. Respecting the political and military dictates of strategy could have made America’s longest foreign war unnecessary and is a warning for the wars we will fight in the future.

Sherman And His Historians: An End To The Outsized Destroyer Myth?, Mitchell G. Klingenberg

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

For years, scholars have viewed the career of William Tecumseh Sherman in light of an antiquated destroyer myth and neglected his memoirs, which were written as a military textbook. This essay reviews Sherman’s legacy and literature, both of which contributed to the advancement of modern military thought. His experiences may serve as a prescriptive text to servicemembers, providing critical lessons on military warfare and philosophy still relevant today.

Commentary And Reply, Claude A. Lambert

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Article Index, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.