Law Commons^™

Criminal Justice Is Local: Why States Disregard Universal Jurisdiction For Human Rights Abuses, Jeremy A. Rabkin, Craig S. Lerner

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A German court recently convicted a minor Syrian official of abuses committed in Syria's civil war. The case was announced with fanfare but has since stirred no interest. Nor should this be surprising. The world has been here before. There was intense excitement in 1998, when British authorities arrested Augusto Pinochet, the former president of Chile, for human rights abuses committed in Chile. It was taken at the time as vindicating the doctrine that the worst human rights abuses fall under "universal jurisdiction," allowing any state to prosecute, even for crimes against foreign nationals on foreign territory. As generally acknowledged …

Basic Rights And Anti-Terrorism Legislation, Kevin D. Kent

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note addresses whether Britain's Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act (CJTCA), which permits police officer opinion testimony as to whether a terrorist suspect is a member of an illegal terrorist organization and allows adverse inferences to be drawn from that suspect's silence, can be reconciled with the fair trial provisions of the Human Rights Act (HRA). Part II of this Note describes the background of the CJTCA, concentrating on the reasons for its rushed passage and on the evidentiary changes it makes to trials of defendants charged with terrorist offenses. Part II describes the background and mechanics of the …

The O.J. Inquisition: A United States Encounter With Continental Criminal Justice, Myron Moskovitz

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

October 3, 1995 marked the end of the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, which lasted 474 days and was billed "the trial of the century." After less than four hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Mr. Simpson of all charges. The following article is a dramatization of how a case similar to the Simpson trial might be handled by a civil-law European criminal justice system.

Utilizing an unusual format, Professor Myron Moskovitz examines and illustrates the differences between the United States and civil-law European criminal justice systems. The author uses a play script inspired by the events in the trial …

The Movement Toward Statute-Based Conspiracy Law In The United Kingdom And The United States, Kenneth A. David

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A single criminal charge of conspiracy, because it simultaneously involves an inchoate as well as a substantive offense, is characterized by a duality that for years has created confusion and uncertainty as to the proper prosecution and punishment for the crime. The author of this Note places responsibility for this confusion primarily on the judges whose rulings have produced a highly incoherent body of common law and secondarily on the complacent legislatures that have allowed judicial interpretation to shape conspiracy law in a haphazard manner.

The Note compares the approaches to conspiracy law taken by the United Kingdom and the …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

JAPANESE CRIMINAL JUSTICE

By A. Didrick Castberg

New York, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990. Pp. 153. $42.95.

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

By David P. Forsythe

Lexington, Massachusetts; Lexington Books, 1991. Pp. 209.$34.00.

FEDERAL COURTS AND THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PARADIGM By Kenneth C. Randall

Durham, North Carolina; Duke University Press. 1990. Pp. 295. $45.00.

ROMAN LAW AND COMPARATIVE LAW

By Alan Watson

Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1991. Pp. 328. $50.00

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND FOREIGN POLICY

By Victoria Marie Kraft

New York, New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. Pp. 185. $45.00.

Extradition Between France And The United States: An Exercise In Comparative And International Law, Christopher L. Blakesley

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This study is a comparative analysis of the international law of extradition as applied through the general extradition law of the United States and France. It will compare each country's approach to and attitude toward the phenomenon of extradition in a systematic analysis of the United States--French Treaty of Extradition.

Extradition is an extremely technical process that requires precision and cooperation between two sovereign systems, often different in fundamental legal theory and procedure. An extradition treaty represents an attempt by diplomatic and legal means to establish this process so that the two sovereign states can cooperate in rendering fugitive criminals …

Books Received, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

THE ARAB OIL WEAPON

By Jordan J. Paust & Albert P. Blaustein

Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, 1977. Pp. 370.$27.50.

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ARBITRATION IN SWEDEN

Stockholm: Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, 1977. Pp. 212. $25.00.

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THE DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY IN THE PHILIPPINES

A Report of Missions by William J. Butler, John P. Humphrey, & G.E. Bisson. Geneva: International Commission of Jurists, 1977. Pp. 97. $4.00.

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DE-RECOGNIZING TAIWAN: THE LEGAL PROBLEMS

By Victor H. Li

Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1977.Pp. 48. $1.50.

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EAST-WEST TRADE, A SOURCEBOOK ON THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF SOCIALIST COUNTRIES AND THEIR LEGAL …