Law Commons^™

The Pivotal Role Of International Human Rights Law In Defeating Cybercrime: Amid A (Un-Backed) Global Treaty On Cybercrime, Professor Fatemah Albader

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On May 26, 2021, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution approving the drafting of a new global treaty on cybercrime, which commenced in February 2022. The proposed UN agreement on cybercrime regulation has garnered significant criticism among the international community, namely by state delegates, human rights advocates, and nongovernmental organizations. Fears stem from the belief that such a treaty would be used to legitimize abusive practices and undermine fundamental human rights. National cybercrime laws already unduly restrict human rights. However, at a time where the global community has moved toward a digital world, it becomes even …

Looking To The Future: The Scope, Value And Operationalization Of International Human Rights Law, Lorna Mcgregor

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international human rights system of which international human rights law (IHRL) is a part has been critiqued for being ineffective, too legal, insufficiently self-critical, and elitist, with some claiming that it self-generates some of the challenges it faces. This Article challenges this presentation of IHRL and in doing so, sets out three priorities for its future development. These are first, that it should continue to engage in critical analysis of how IHRL can effectively respond to the complex and multifactorial challenges it faces. Second, rather than refrain from developing due to critiques of over expansion, IHRL should prioritize the …

"Human Rights, Responsibilities, And Democracy," Comments On Tasioulas And Moyn Papers: "Symposium On The Future Of International Human Rights Law", Kathryn Sikkink

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It is a pleasure and a challenge to comment on these two very different Articles, "Saving Human Rights from Human Rights Law," by John Tasioulas, and 'On Human Rights and Majority Politics: Felix Frankfurter's Democratic Theory," by Samuel Moyn. Both are rich, complex, and thought-provoking. To the degree they share any common dimension, it would be their skepticism toward human rights law, and in particular toward the judicialization of human rights law. But the skepticism comes from quite different directions and from their different disciplines. In the case of Tasioulas's paper, the skepticism derives from his belief that legal human …

The Evolution And Identification Of The Customary International Law Of Armed Conflict, Sir Michael Wood

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Despite the many widely ratified treaties on the law of armed conflict (LOAC, also referred to as international humanitarian law (IHL)), customary international law remains of great importance in this branch of international law. So far as concerns international armed conflicts, customary international humanitarian law (CIHL) is of special importance in connection with states not party to Additional Protocol I of 1977. So far as concerns non-international armed conflicts, CIHL is of crucial importance for all states, since, for the most part, treaty provisions are rudimentary. The International Court of Justice has also had occasion to state that "a great …

Politics By Other Means: The Battle Over The Classification Of Asymmetrical Conflicts, Yahli Shereshevsky

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Transnational armed conflicts between states and non-state armed groups have emerged as a defining characteristic of twenty-first century warfare. Humanitarian actors tend to classify such conflicts (e.g., between the United States and ISIL) as non-international armed conflicts rather than international armed conflict. This classification is subject to considerable debate; yet both sides present their views as the inevitable result of the interpretation of the relevant International Humanitarian Law (IHL) treaty articles.

This Article demonstrates that the classification of transnational armed conflicts as non-international armed conflicts does not merely concern the application of the relevant laws, but represents a fundamental shift …

Predictive Due Process And The International Criminal Court, Samuel C. Birnbaum

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The International Criminal Court (ICC) operates under a regime of complementarity: a domestic state prosecution of a defendant charged before the ICC bars the Court from hearing the case unless the state is unable or unwilling to prosecute the accused. For years, scholars have debated the role of due process considerations in complementarity. Can a state that has failed to provide the accused with adequate due process protections nonetheless bar a parallel ICC prosecution? One popular view, first expressed by Professor Kevin Jon Heller, holds that due process considerations do not factor into complementarity and the ICC could be forced …

Undocumented Migrants And The Failures Of Universal Individualism, Jaya Ramji-Nogales

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In recent years, advocates and scholars have made increasing efforts to situate undocumented migrants within the human rights framework. Few have examined international human rights law closely enough to discover just how limited it is in its protections of the undocumented. This Article takes that failure as a starting point to launch a critique of the universal individualist project that characterizes the current human rights system. It then catalogues in detail the protections available to undocumented migrants in international human rights law, which are far fewer than often assumed. The Article demonstrates through a close analysis of relevant law that …

Dynamics Of Healthcare Reform: Bitter Pills Old And New, Christopher N.J. Roberts

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The United States is at a crossroads--albeit one it has visited several times before. Although the Supreme Court has ruled upon the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the polarizing controversy surrounding national healthcare that began several generations ago is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. In this latest round of national debates, the issue of healthcare has been framed exclusively as a domestic issue. But history shows that the question of national healthcare in the United States has also been an extremely important issue for international law and international politics. To shed light on the …

When Globalization Hits Home: International Family Law Comes Of Age, Barbara Stark

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Not that long ago, international family law (IFL) referred to a series of multilateral conventions basically concerned with conflicts of law questions. It could be studied as part of a course on family law or as part of a course on conflicts of law. But IFL, or family law in which more than one State has an interest, has grown up and become a subject of its own. This is not merely a curricular development. Rather, it reflects and reinforces two of the most powerful trends of the last fifteen years: globalization and the spread of human rights. Globalization is …

Women And Globalization: The Failure And Postmodern Possibilities Of International Law, Barbara Stark

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article examines the role of international law, particularly human rights law, as it relates to the process of globalization and its effects on women. Initially, the Article sets the stage by describing the course of globalization and the dramatic impact it has had on the world economy. The Author next examines the multiple and contradictory consequences of globalization for women.

The Article approaches this analysis from two perspectives. First, from a 'classic perspective," the Author contends that international law is the only legal system with the potential to regulate the principal agents of globalization--multinational corporations, banks and investment firms, …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Extraterritorial Employment Standards of the United States: The Regulation of the Overseas Workplace

By James Michael Zimmerman

New York, New York: Quorum Books, 1992. Pp.206.

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Fact-Finding before International Tribunals

Edited by Richard B. Lillich

Irvington-on-Hudson, New York: Transnational Publishers Inc., 1992, Pp. 338.

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International Human Rights Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean

Edited by Angela D. Byre and Bevereley Y. Byfield

Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1991. Pp. 398.

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Taxation in the People's Republic of China

By Jinyan Li

New York, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991. Pp. 208. $49.95.

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Liberating the Law: Creating Popular Justice in Mozambique

By Albie Sachs and Gita Honwana Welch

Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Zed Books, 1990. Pp. 132. $55.00.

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International Fugitives: A New Role for the International Court of Justice

By Barbara M. Yarnold

New York, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991. Pp. 168. $37.95.

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Effective Lobbying in the European Community

By James N. Gardner

Boston, Massachusetts: Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers,1991. Pp. xix, 162. $45.00.

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European Human Rights Law

By …

Regional Human Rights Regimes: A Comparison And Appraisal, Burns H. Weston, Robin A. Lukes, Kelly M. Hnatt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

For Americans at least, active concern for human rights on the international plane is demonstrated perhaps most conspicuously in the promotion and protection of human rights through the United Nations and its allied agencies--apart, that is, from the promotion and protection of human rights through United States foreign policy and the work of such nongovernmental organizations as Amnesty International. Supplementing this globally-oriented human rights activity, however, are international human rights regimes operating regionally in Western Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Concededly, Asia is not yet represented, and only the first three of the represented regions have gone …

Freedom Of Transnational Movement: The Helsinki Accord And Beyond, Daniel C. Turack

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Initial formal evaluation of the implementation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe signed at Helsinki on August 1, 1975, [hereinafter Helsinki Accord] took place at a 35-nation conference in Belgrade during the period from October 4, 1977, to March 9, 1978. The Helsinki Accord, though not a treaty, sets forth various principles of governmental conduct concerning freedom of transnational movement. The Accord morally commits participating states to implement certain measures either domestically or with other states, to respect, promote, and encourage human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Helsinki Accord is divided into three …