Digital Commons Network^™

The War On Gangs: El Salvador’S Playground For International Human Rights Violations, Sanobar Valiani

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

International human rights law was developed with the underlying philosophy that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. However, since its development, we have seen a vast number of human rights violations persist with no recourse. The War on Gangs in El Salvador is just one example of this. This Note examines the history of the War on Gangs in El Salvador, the tumultuous political landscape that has spurred as a result, and how political efforts to address gang violence have been used as a tactic to strip Salvadorans of their fundamental rights and dignity. …

Unleashing The Beast: Confronting Animal Trafficking As Organized Crime In The Americas, Erick J. Wilson

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Wildlife trafficking is a serious yet often overlooked issue across the Americas. This Note examines wildlife trafficking across the Americas, analyzing the legal frameworks and challenges facing countries like the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. Three key obstacles emerge: the lack of recognition of trafficking as organized crime, limited resources for enforcement, and deficient penalties. Though the United States has laws like the Lacey Act to address importation of illegally traded wildlife, weak foreign laws constrain efficacy. Many Latin American nations do not categorize wildlife trafficking as organized crime, despite its intricate parallels with activities like drug …

The Global Practice Of Systematic Enforced Disappearances Of Children In International Law: Strategies For Preventing Future Occurrences And Solving Past Cases, Jeremy J. Sarkin, Elisenda Calvet Martinez

Catholic University Law Review

The aim of this article is to first investigate and understand the widespread and systematic practice of enforced disappearances against children around the world, with a key purpose being to show that it is a regular occurrence. The article reviews the systematic disappearances of children in their historical context, beginning from the Second World War. A variety of country examples –some historical and some contemporary –are discussed to indicate the widespread nature of the practice. The variety of cases is used to understand why states participate in such practices and why children specifically are targeted as victims of enforced disappearances. …

Out Of Reach: The Mdlea’S Impermissible Extraterritorial Reach On Maritime Drug–Traffickers, Andres Chinchilla

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

46 U.S.C. § 70503, known as the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA), prohibits individuals on board covered vessels from manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with an intent to distribute or manufacture, a controlled substance. The statute, as enacted, permits the prosecution of individuals arrested beyond U.S. jurisdiction and even within the territorial seas of other States. This provision is argued to be an impermissible extraterritorial reach absent a nexus requirement—showing a connection between the drug smuggling activity and the U.S. Recently, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held the statute’s extraterritorial reach and lack of nexus requirement as unconstitutional under …

Extraterritorial Human Trafficking Prosecutions: Eliminating Zones Of Impunity Within The Limits Of International Law And Due Process, Caroline A. Fish

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the Baston court was incorrect both in finding the Amendment consistent with the protective principle and in its analysis of the defendant’s nexus with the United States. This Note asserts, instead, that (1) the Amendment is not valid under any traditional bases of prescriptive jurisdiction but is consistent with the United States’ international obligations to “extradite or prosecute,” and (2) the Amendment may be applied under the international anti-trafficking conventions to foreign defendants present in the United States, regardless of nexus, without violating due process.

Part I of this Note describes the complex nature of …

“Ya Me Canse”: How The Iguala Mass Kidnapping Demonstrates Mexico’S Continued Failure To Adhere To Its International Human Rights Obligations, Justin A. Behravesh

Justin A. Behravesh

This article addresses the recent kidnapping and disappearance of forty-three college students from Iguala, Mexico (the “Iguala Mass Kidnapping”), under the lens of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (the “Convention”). While Mexico’s reporting documents on its compliance with the Convention paint a positive picture of how that country is adhering to Convention, any notion that the country was in compliance with the Convention was completely shattered through the Iguala Mass Kidnapping. The article concludes that the actions of state officials during the Iguala Mass Kidnapping violated articles one, six, and twenty-three of the …

Rights Relationships And The Experience Of Children Orphaned By Aids, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

The global AIDS pandemic has left more than fifteen million children orphaned. These children constitute one of the most vulnerable populations, yet their situation has received relatively little scrutiny from legal scholars. This Article intends to fill that void by explicating the experience of children orphaned by AIDS, situating it in the broader context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and evaluating protections available under international human rights law. Analyzing human rights law as applied to children orphaned by AIDS exposes the extent to which rights are interrelated, particularly for marginalized populations. In current scholarship, the interrelationship among rights, for the most …

A Criminal’S Path To The American Dream: Extradition As A Drug Enforcement Policy Tool, Laura A. Gavilan

Laura A Gavilan

This article explores a little-known avenue of immigration to the United States: the path that criminals from other nations embark on when they are extradited to the United States and, through cooperation agreements with law enforcement, are able to obtain immigration benefits and legal status. To illustrate this phenomenon, this article outlines the case of the United States’ war on drugs, which has led to the extradition of hundreds of Colombian drug traffickers and paramilitary leaders to the United States during the past two decades. While many of these extradited individuals have been deported back to Colombia after fulfilling their …

A Criminal’S Path To The American Dream: Extradition As A Drug Enforcement Policy Tool, Laura A. Gavilan

Laura A Gavilan

This article explores a little-known avenue of immigration to the United States: the path that criminals from other nations embark on when they are extradited to the United States and, through cooperation agreements with law enforcement, are able to obtain immigration benefits and legal status. To illustrate this phenomenon, this article outlines the case of the United States’ war on drugs, which has led to the extradition of hundreds of Colombian drug traffickers and paramilitary leaders to the United States during the past two decades. While many of these extradited individuals have been deported back to Colombia after fulfilling their …

Post-Conflict Justice In The Aftermath Of Modern Slavery, Roy L. Brooks

Roy L. Brooks

Abstract

Modern slavery is defined as human exploitation over a period of time effectuated through coercion, fraud or trickery. An estimated 12.3 million people worldwide are held in some form of modern slavery, including forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude. Children and women bear the brunt of modern slavery. Divided into three stages—trafficking, exploitation, and post-conflict—modern slavery has attracted much scholarly interest in recent years. However, relatively little scholarly attention has been given to the post-conflict stage. This article attempts to initiate such discussion by drawing upon the reparative framework crafted in the years since the …

The Case For Mexican Asylum Seekers Fleeing Cartel Violence, Perry B. Nava

Perry B Nava

The number of Mexican immigrants filing for asylum in the United States is on the rise as cartel violence affects more people each year. The perceived increase in cartel-related, violent crime is displacing people similar to how a war forces displaced refugees out of a country; but the United States is not accepting a great majority of the applications for asylum. This paper explores the more broadly applicable law that protects persecuted people; some of the issues that have simultaneously contributed to increased migration to the United States and aggressive expansion by the drug cartels; the result of the application …

West Africa, The Eu's Mexico: Extraditions And Drug Prosecutions In The Eu Could Be The Answer, Melanie M. Reid

Melanie M. Reid

The rise in drug trafficking and the growth of organized crime in Africa has become an increasing national security threat for the European Union [EU]. South American drug trafficking networks have integrated with African and European buyers and distributors, and these organized criminal groups are exploiting governmental weakness, ill-equipped law enforcement agencies, and corruption prevalent in many African nations. Africa is a strategic geographic location to be used as a transit base and storage location for various drugs destined for European markets. The question is what strategies the EU should utilize in order to disrupt and dismantle the most significant …

Mexico's Crisis: When There's A Will, There's A Way, Melanie M. Reid

Melanie M. Reid

The United States under the Obama administration is committed to many of the tools being advocated in Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s holistic approach to combat drug trafficking. This Article explores the United States’ Merida Initiative policy and critiques its effectiveness. The Beyond Merida Initiative announced in 2010 revamped the prior 2007 initiatives, and provided more emphasis on additional training rather than equipment or direct financial aid to Mexico. Neither initiative corrects problems endemic to Mexico which limits the possibility of success. Corruption, anti-American resentment, and a drastically different legal system in Mexico hinder our efforts to become an effective ally …

Is An International Treaty Needed To Fight Corruption And The Narco-Insurgency In Mexico?, Stuart S. Yeh

Stuart S Yeh

Mexican government corruption prevents effective law enforcement against drug traffickers and the violence associated with drug trafficking. This article reviews the nature and scope of government corruption, including a first-hand account by a Mexican state police commander, then suggests how and why an international treaty establishing United Nation (UN) inspectors who are empowered to investigate corruption at all levels of government could be effective in deterring corruption and restoring the rule of law in the U.S.–Mexico border region. The article suggests that the Rome Statute provides a model for establishing this type of treaty and a precedent for all of …

Privatization As An International Phenomenon: Kazakhstan, Yuilya Mitrofanskaya

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ethical Issues In International Legal Education, José Antonio Viera-Gallo

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women And Children Last: The Prosecution Of Sex Traffickers As Sex Offenders And The Need For A Sex Trafficker Registry, Geneva Brown

Law Faculty Publications

Sex trafficking is a moral and legal tragedy that affects thousands in the United States and abroad. The U.S. State Department estimates that human traffickers bring between 14,500 and 17,500 persons annually into the United States for various avenues of exploitation, including involuntary servitude and forced prostitution. Human traffickers are highly organized into criminal syndicates that reap exponential profits exploiting vulnerable women and children. Individual states struggle to prosecute traffickers and must rely on federal prosecution of trafficking enterprises. International cooperation with local law enforcement is essential in combating trafficking, especially in the sex trade. This Article proposes that an …

Africa, Mark J. Calaguas

Mark J Calaguas

The Africa Committee's contribution to the 2010 Year-in-Review issue of the American Bar Association Section of International Law's quarterly journal, The International Lawyer.

International Legal Updates, Aimee Mayer, Jessica Lynd, Shubra Ohri, Catherine Davies, Roushani Mansoor, Molly Hofsommer, Misty Seemans, Leah Chavla, Kaitlin Brush

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The International Control Of Illegal Drugs And The U.N. Treaty Regime: Preventing Or Causing Human Rights Violations?, Daniel P.P. Heilmann Ph.D., Ll.M.

Daniel P.P. Heilmann Ph.D., LL.M.

The article attempts to answer the question whether the international drug control system (i.e. the three conventions on which the U.N. regime is based) is still serviceable in light of recent trends on the illegal drugs markets and whether the regime is up to the standards of modern human rights law. In a first step, the set-up of the international control system is outlined in order to give an overview of the situation (Part II). The second step is to summarize recent trends in global drug markets and to assess the impact of the control system on illicit manufacturing, trafficking …

International Legal Updates, Aimee Mayer, Jessica Lynd, Christopher Tansey, Molly Hofsommer, Misty Seemans, Kaitlin Brush, Leah Chavla

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Jam Tomorrow: Distributive Justice And The Limits Of International Economic Law, Barbara Stark

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

The chasm between the rich and the poor has become unfathomable. This Article asks whether existing international economic law can bridge this chasm and effectuate distributive justice. "Distributive justice" itself is an ambiguous goal. This Article inquires, as a threshold question, what, exactly, is required for actual "distributive justice". It takes as a starting point the relatively modest objective of the Millennium Development Goals-to halve the number living in extreme poverty by 2015. It argues that this objective is not going to be achieved under the aegis of international economic law for two reasons. First, distributive justice is not an …

Beyond The Global Summits: Reflecting On The Environmental Principles Of Sustainable Development, Stathis N. Palassis

Stathis N Palassis

Sustainable development advocates that in meeting the economic needs of the present we must not compromise the ability of the planet to provide for the needs of future generations. Sustainable development promotes a new economic paradigm integrating traditional economics with ecological economics and also requires developed States to reduce their environmental impact leaving space for developing States to meet their own needs. Beyond that, however, a more precise meaning of sustainable development is subject to competing interpretations thus making its content far from clear. The concept has been broadly utilized in areas including biodiversity, threatened species, fisheries, climate change, international …

The International Tropical Timber Organization And Conservationist Forestry Norms: A Bridge Too Far, Gerry J. Nagtzaam

Gerry J Nagtzaam

This article explores the attempts to create an global tropical timber regime and examines its underlying competing environmental norms of exploitation, conservation and preservation. It outlines a history of forestry exploitation over time and tracks the stilted development of a global tropical timber regime. It further examines the development of the International Tropical Timber Agreement and its concomitant Organisation. Legro’s test of the robustness of a norm is applied to the tropical timber regime to determine when and why, and through whose agency, normative change has not been effected within the International Tropical Timber Organisation where conservationist norms have failed …

Putting Aside The Rule Of Law Myth: Corruption And The Case For Juries In Emerging Democracies, Brent T. White

Brent T. White

Since the mid-1990’s, international donor agencies and development banks have invested millions to reform post-communist judiciaries in Central Asia and Europe. This investment has been driven by the belief that economic growth and democracy depend upon the “rule of law.” “Rule of law” in turn depends on a well-functioning and independent judiciary. After over a decade of rule of law reform, however, Central Asia is characterized by growing authoritarianism and judiciaries across both Central Asia and Eastern Europe are afflicted by rampant corruption. Both the rule of law and democracy have been elusive. Rule-of-law reform projects throughout the post-Soviet space …

International Legal Updates, Carlin Moore, Bryan Bach, Megan Chapman, Soumya Venkatesh, Kate Kovarovic, Angad Singh, Hellia Kanzi

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

International Legal Updates, Carlin Moore, Bryan Bach, Megan Chapman, Soumya Venkatesh, Kate Kovarovic, Angad Singh, Juvaria Khan

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Governing Guns, Opposing Opium: A Theory Of Internationally Regulated Goods, Asif Efrat

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

The paper examines a significant phenomenon overlooked by the trade literature: internationally regulated goods. Contrary to the general trend of trade liberalization, specific goods, such as drugs, small arms, and antiquities, have come under increasing international control in recent decades through a set of global regulatory agreements. I argue that these goods are unique in that they involve transnational negative externalities. Whereas certain countries benefit from the trade in these goods, the trade inflicts negative effects on other countries. Examples of such negative externalities include fatalities and refugee flows resulting from rampant gun violence, high crime rates associated with widespread …

Gendercide And The Cultural Context Of Sex Trafficking In China, Susan W. Tiefenbrun, Susan W. Tiefenbrun

Susan W Tiefenbrun

Abstract:Gendercide and the Cultural Context of Sex Trafficking in China

By Susan Tiefenbrun and Christie Edwards

Women in China are bought and sold, murdered and made to disappear in order to comply with a strict government One Child Policy that coincides with the cultural tradition of male-child preference and discrimination against women. Everyday “500 female suicides” occur in China because of “violence against women and girls, discrimination [against women] in education and employment, the traditional preference for male children, the country’s birth limitation policies, and other societal factors…” As a result of a widespread and arguably systematic disappearance and death …

Human Tracking Technology In Mutual Legal Assistance And Police Inter-State Cooperation In International Crimes, Katina Michael, G. L. Rose

Professor Katina Michael

The objective of this paper is to explore the role of human tracking technology, primarily the use of global positioning systems (GPS) in locating individuals for the purposes of mutual legal assistance (MLA), and providing location intelligence for use in inter-state police cooperation within the context of transnational crime. GPS allows for the 24/7 continuous real-time tracking of an individual, and is considered manifold more powerful than the traditional visual surveillance often exercised by the police. As the use of GPS for human tracking grows in the law enforcement sector, federal and state laws in many countries are to a …