Digital Commons Network^™

No More Secret Laws: How Transparency Of Executive Branch Legal Policy Doesn't Let The Terrorists Win, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

One of the key hallmarks of a democratic nation is that there are no secret laws. In the post-September 11, 2001 era, the George W. Bush administration relied on national security concerns and the unitary executive theory of presidential power as justifications for maintaining secret legal policies that govern parts of the war on terrorism that affect serious issues of human rights and civil liberties. These legal policies sometimes staked out positions that are at odds with legislation, treaties, and court decisions—but the parameters of the executive branch legal policies were sometimes unknown because of the lack of public disclosure. …

Supreme Court As Interstitial Actor: Justice Ginsburg's Eclectic Approach To Statutory Interpretation Symposium: The Jurisprudence Of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg: A Discussion Of Fifteen Years On The U.S. Supreme Court, James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court is in the midst of an extended debate regarding the proper approach to construing federal statutes. A number of Justices have engaged in heated dialogue addressing the pros and cons of textualism or intentionalism, as well as the virtues and limitations of Chevron deference. Although Justice Ginsburg has not participated in these judicial exchanges, she has adopted her own approach to the challenge of interpreting federal statutes. This Article explores Ginsburg’s approach by focusing on four opinions that construe federal criminal laws and three that interpret labor relations and anti-discrimination laws. The Article’s central thesis is that …

Reconstructing The Responsibility To Protect In The Wake Of Cyclones And Separatism, Jarrod Wong

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

This Article reconceptualizes the doctrine of the responsibility to protect (R2P). R2P provides that when a government fails to protect its citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity (“mass atrocities”), that responsibility shifts to the international community acting through the United Nations.

The U.N.'s apparent failure to include natural disasters in the catalogue of harms potentially justifying R2P intervention generated considerable controversy following Myanmar's refusal of foreign aid following the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis. Those seeking to limit the scope of R2P considered it inapplicable in the case of Myanmar, reading the U.N.'s focus on …

Obstacles On The Road To Gender Justice: The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda As Object Lesson , Beth Van Schaak

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Essay: Conventions In Science And In The Courts: Images And Realities, Jerome R. Ravetz

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Untold Stories: Restoring Narrative To Pleading Practice, Elizabeth Fajans

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Targeting Enemy Forces In The War On Terror: Preserving Civilian Immunity, Richard D. Rosen

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the interpretation given to it by many in the international community (e.g., UN, NGOs, media) provide perverse incentives to terrorist and insurgent groups to shield their military activities behind civilians and their property. In other words, the law governing targeting is fundamentally defective; it allows terrorist and insurgent groups to gain strategic and tactical advantages through their own noncompliance with the law and their adversaries' observance of it. The consequence has been increasing noncompliance with the law and growing civilian casualties. This Article proposes structural changes to the law governing targeting …

The Crisis Of International Law, Rafael Domingo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article delves into the reasons for the current crisis in the traditional international law system, considering how the system developed through the centuries in order to respond to the needs and circumstances of past historical epochs, as well as how the system is no longer capable of meeting the unique developments and needs of life in the Third Millennium. The Article considers the fundamental problems of a state-based system of international law that--rather than focusing on the prime actor and focus of the law, the human person, and his inherent dignity--concentrates on and gives enormous power to the artificial …

Tax Reform In The (Multi)National Interest, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This letter will attempt to raise some proposals for U.S. corporate and international tax reform. It will begin by asking why we need to tax corporations at all, since the rationale for the corporate tax is important for assessing reform proposals. It will then discuss options for corporate and international tax reform, beginning with long-term options (a 10-year horizon), continuing with the medium term (2-5 years), and concluding with short-term options like the Obama proposals (1-2 years).

The Future Of American Labor And Employment Law: Hopes, Dreams, And Realities, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

In many respects the US is a deeply conservative country. Unique among the major industrial democracies of the world, it imposes the death penalty, provides no national health insurance, fixes a high legal drinking age, and subscribes to the doctrine of employment at will. Perhaps not surprisingly, its labor movement is also one of the most conservative on earth, eschewing class warfare and aiming largely at the bread-and-butter goal of improved wages, benefits, and working conditions. Yet American employers have generally never been as accepting of unionization as their counterparts in other countries (Bok 1971; Freeman and Medoff 1984). Over …

Rwandan Genocide: Taking Notes From The Holocaust Reparations Movement, Yael Weitz

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the failure to provide adequate reparations to rape victims of the Rwandan genocide, drawing parallels with the Holocaust reparations movement. It argues that while international law has advanced in recognizing rape as a grave crime, the existing mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), have failed to deliver reparations. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is proposed as a potential solution, despite jurisdictional limitations, through cooperation with the ICTR to address the urgent needs of Rwandan rape victims.

The Triumph Of Confucianism: How A Subjugated Legal System Is Failing A Generation Of Chinese Women And Girls, Yufan Stephanie Wang

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the resurgence of Confucianism in China's legal system, arguing that it undermines gender equality and fails to protect the rights of women and girls despite economic reforms. It highlights how traditional Confucian values, emphasizing morality and social hierarchy, have persisted and influenced laws, leading to the subjugation of women in both legal and societal contexts.

Steroid Regulation In Professional Sports: Sarbanes-Oxley As A Guide, Sarah R. Heisler

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Anticompetitive Trade Remedies: How Antidumping Measures Obstruct Market Competition, Sungjoon Cho

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of International Armed Conflict, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …

Cybercrimes Vs. Cyberliberties, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

Cybercrimes vs. Cyberliberties, Chapter 8 in Internet Policy and Economics: Challenges and Perspectives 2nd ed. at 110-127 ( W.H. Lehr & L.M. Pupillo, eds. Springer, 2009).

Course Correction: My Term At Afghanistan's Graduate School Of War, Ganesh Sitaraman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Camp Julien is surrounded by reminders of Afghanistan's past. The coalition military base which sits in the hills south of Kabul, just high enough to rise above the thick cloud of smog that perpetually blankets the city, is flanked by two European-style palaces built in the 1920s by the modernizing King Amanullah. Home to Soviet troops and mujahedin during the past decades of war, the now-crumbling palaces are littered with bullet holes and decorated with graffiti in multiple languages. Uphill from Julien is the old Russian officers' club, dating from the Soviet invasion and featuring a recently refilled swimming pool …

Exceptional Engagement: Protocol I And A World United Against Terrorism, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article challenges the prevailing view that U.S. "exceptionalism" provides the strongest narrative for the U.S. rejection of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The United States chose not to adopt the Protocol in the face of intensive international criticism because of its policy conclusions that the text contained overly expansive provisions resulting from politicized pressure to accord protection to terrorists who elected to conduct hostile military operations outside the established legal framework. The United States concluded that the commingling of the regime criminalizing terrorist acts with the jus in bello rules of humanitarian law would be untenable …

Some Observations On The Future Of U.S. Military Commissions, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Obama Administration confronts many of the same practical and legal complexities that interagency experts debated in the fall of 2001. Military commissions remain a valid, if unwieldy, tool to be used at the discretion of a Commander-in-Chief. Refinement of the commission procedures has consumed thousands of legal hours within the Department of Defense, as well as a significant share of the Supreme Court docket. In practice, the military commissions have not been the charade of justice created by an overpowerful and unaccountable chief executive that critics predicted. In light of the permissive structure of U.S. statutes and the framework …

Latina/Os' And Latina/O Legal Studies: A Critical And Self-Critical Review Of Latcrit Theory And Legal Models Of Knowledge Production, Margaret E. Montoya, Francisco Valdes

Faculty Scholarship

For the twelfth time in as many years, the LatCrit community convened its annual conference to underscore the importance of location and locality in the work that we do. The conference theme's framing around Critical Localities: Epistemic Communities, Rooted Cosmopolitans and Knowledge Processes not only focused our collective attention on questions of epistemic community and intellectual (as well as physical) location, but also invited reflection on the meanings we inscribe onto the positions we elect to stake out for ourselves and our work in light of the options and traditions that serve as background. The "Critical Localities" theme invites an …

Sovereignty, Deference, And Deportation: Allocating And Enforcing Immigrants' Rights In The United States And Europe, Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction, David Glazier

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Post Bellum Aspects Of The Laws Of Armed Conflict, Jeremy Waldron

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Trusteeship To Self-Determination And Back Again: The Role Of The Hague Regulations In The Evolution Of International Trusteeship, And The Framework Of Rights And Duties Of Occupying Powers, Ralph Wilde

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Uneasy Lies The Head That Wears The Crown: Why Content's Kingdom Is Slipping Away, Jonathan Handel

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article examines the ongoing power struggle between the content industries (with a particular focus on Hollywood) and the technology industry. These two sectors are intertwined like never before, yet their fates seem wildly divergent, with content stumbling while distribution technology thrives.

The Article begins by illustrating that, even before the recession took hold, traditional paid content was in trouble, and that this was and is true across a range of distribution platforms and content types, including theatrical motion pictures, home video, network television, music, newspapers, books, and magazines. The Article next posits six reasons for content's discontent: supply and …

Knocked Down Again: An East L.A. Story On The Geography Of Color And Colors, Steven W. Bender

Faculty Articles

The article discusses the history of struggle of Latin Americans and the legacy of gang violence in East Los Angeles, California. The author states that the positive thing about the place is the closeness of the community and families. However, the 2000 Census states that ninety-seven percent of the city's population is Latin American with about a quarter living below poverty line. Moreover, sociologists consider gang warfare as a defense of turf marked by defined geographic boundaries.

Secrecy And Democratic Decisions, Mark A. Chinen

Faculty Articles

Secrecy to protect intelligence sources and methods appears often in the nation's discourse about controversial national security matters. Often it is asked whether such secrecy is consistent with the nation's democratic principles and processes. This article argues such principles and processes provide a framework through which we try to answer questions about secrecy and indeed legitimate them, but are often too broad to provide definitive guidance in specific cases. At the same time, the sources and methods argument itself is overbroad because of the nature of the sources and methods themselves; the tentative nature of intelligence assessments derived from those …

A Tragedy Of The Commons: Property Rights Issues In Shanghai Historic Residences, Kara Phillips, Amy Sommers

Faculty Articles

This article explores the tensions between China’s newly privatized model of urban housing ownership and its socialist foundations. Through a combination of interviews and local research, the authors investigate the evolution of property ownership in Shanghai’s architecturally-distinctive stock of historic housing, encompassing various architectural periods and styles (including leading examples of Art Deco), which have gone through periods of private ownership (pre-1949), gradual socialization (1949-1965), militant squatting and occupation (1966-1976), and now privatization (1977 to current). Originally single-family residences, many were gerrymandered into multi-family units, in which the original owner/resident was relegated a small portion of space, and the remainder …

A Concise Guide To The Records Of The State Ratifying Conventions As A Source Of The Original Meaning Of The U.S. Constitution, Gregory E. Maggs

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article was published by the University of Illinois Law Review in 2009. The citation is: Gregory E. Maggs, A Concise Guide to the Records of the State Ratifying Conventions as a Source of the Original Meaning of the U.S. Constitution, 2009 U. Ill. L. Rev. 457.

Starting in the fall of 1787, legislatures in the original thirteen states called for conventions for the purpose of deciding whether to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Many of the records of these state ratifying conventions have survived. The records reveal some of what the delegates at the state conventions said during their debates …

The International Legality Of U.S. Military Cross-Border Operations From Afghanistan Into Pakistan, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

To date, U.S. cross-border operations from Afghanistan into Pakistan have taken three forms: the use of Predator drones to target Al Qaeda fighters (although such drones may be launched solely from within Pakistan); the "hot pursuit" of militants who engaged in raids from Pakistan against U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government; and the deployment of special operations forces into Pakistan as a means of striking at Al Qaeda. These types of cross-border operations clearly implicate the jus ad bellum, in that they entail one state projecting highly coercive military force into another state. Arguably …