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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Corporate Face Of The Alien Tort Claims Act: How An Old Statute Mandates A New Understanding Of Global Interdependence, Lorelle Londis Nov 2017

The Corporate Face Of The Alien Tort Claims Act: How An Old Statute Mandates A New Understanding Of Global Interdependence, Lorelle Londis

Maine Law Review

In the past thirty-five years, international human rights lawyers and, more recently, international environmental lawyers, have been invoking the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) as a tool to prosecute human rights abuses committed abroad by transnational corporations (TNs) in U.S. federal courts. The ATCA provides: “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” Although plaintiffs' lawyers have experienced some success in the human rights context, most claims of environmental abuses have failed. In all these …


Boumediene V. Bush: Flashpoint In The Ongoing Struggle To Determine The Rights Of Guantanamo Detainees, Michael J. Anderson Oct 2017

Boumediene V. Bush: Flashpoint In The Ongoing Struggle To Determine The Rights Of Guantanamo Detainees, Michael J. Anderson

Maine Law Review

Following the harrowing events of September 11, 2001, and pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed soon thereafter by Congress, the United States Armed Forces began capturing and detaining individuals at the Naval Air Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The choice of where to house these detainees was not random. Internal memoranda from the Justice Department reveal that the Naval Base was selected as a means of avoiding any legal entanglements that might ensue from such imprisonment. What resulted was what some commentators have called a “legal black hole” at Guantanamo, a place where any individual …


African Lawyers Harness Human Rights To Face Down Global Poverty, Lucie E. White Oct 2017

African Lawyers Harness Human Rights To Face Down Global Poverty, Lucie E. White

Maine Law Review

This is an exciting time in Africa. Yes, of course it is true that the rise of fundamentalist political movements, armed conflict, epidemic diseases, and extreme poverty will challenge the continent for decades to come. I don’t need to tell you that. Yet at the same time, we are witness to what many call an “African Renaissance.” In many domains, including the arts, civil society, social provision, and democratic governance, African nations are beginning to take their place in a newly configured globe. One of these domains of energy, innovation, and hope is a new human rights movement. This movement …


Refugees And Internally Displaced: A Challenge To Nation-Building, Rebecca M.M. Wallace, Diego Quiroz Oct 2017

Refugees And Internally Displaced: A Challenge To Nation-Building, Rebecca M.M. Wallace, Diego Quiroz

Maine Law Review

Recent statistics published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicate that there are at least 32.9 million people who are “persons of concern to UNHCR.” This growing population includes “refugees, returnees, [and] stateless and internally displaced persons (IDPs).” Furthermore, it is estimated that there are some “[thirty] states in the world . . . that are at some stage or another along the road to possible failure.” These are weak states beset by invasion, civil war, ethnic rivalry and tribal warfare, or struggling in the wake of any of these catastrophes. Given that 2006 saw a fifty-six …


Examining The Board Of Immigration Appeals' Social Visibility Requirement For Victims Of Gang Violence Seeking Asylum, Elyse B. Wilkinson Oct 2017

Examining The Board Of Immigration Appeals' Social Visibility Requirement For Victims Of Gang Violence Seeking Asylum, Elyse B. Wilkinson

Maine Law Review

Since the late 1990s, Latin America has been plagued by gang violence. The increasingly organized and progressively larger gangs are known as the Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang (collectively referred to as the “Mara” in this Comment). These gangs are ubiquitous within certain Latin American countries and pose a serious threat to the economic and social stability of the region. The targets of the Mara are mostly youth between the ages of fifteen and eighteen (but as young as eight), women, and those who decry the gang's violence. Resistance to the Mara has resulted in death …


Comparative Perspectives On Specialized Trials For Terrorism, Sudha Setty Oct 2017

Comparative Perspectives On Specialized Trials For Terrorism, Sudha Setty

Maine Law Review

President Obama has made clear that the United States must grapple with questions of how to detain and try potentially dangerous terrorism suspects in a manner that maximizes national security while adhering to the rule of law. Yet the United States faces a serious quandary in terms of how to prosecute suspects who have been detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that puts at risk the reputation of the United States justice system and its adherence to rule of law. The question of what trial system to use for suspected terrorists requires an historical interrogation of how and to what effect …


Nineteenth Annual Frank M. Coffin Lecture On Law And Public Service: Community, Rights, And Climate: A Challenge To A Clever Species, Jonathan Lash Oct 2017

Nineteenth Annual Frank M. Coffin Lecture On Law And Public Service: Community, Rights, And Climate: A Challenge To A Clever Species, Jonathan Lash

Maine Law Review

I want to talk to you today about individual rights and community. I have been struck in reading the Judge’s books and recalling working with him how he honored two competing ideas simultaneously: respect for individual liberty, and a deep belief in the power of government to enhance fairness and promote public well-being. As I shall explain, the tension between those ideas has become increasingly important in the debate over how to address global environmental problems.


Dussault V. Rre Coach Lantern Holdings, Llc: Does The Maine Human Rights Act Recognize Disparate Impact Liability For Claims Of Housing Discrimination Brought By Section 8 Recipients Under Maine Law?, Ari B. Solotoff Feb 2017

Dussault V. Rre Coach Lantern Holdings, Llc: Does The Maine Human Rights Act Recognize Disparate Impact Liability For Claims Of Housing Discrimination Brought By Section 8 Recipients Under Maine Law?, Ari B. Solotoff

Maine Law Review

In Dussault v. RRE Coach Lantern Holdings, LLC, Nicole Dussault filed a complaint with the Maine Humane Rights commission (Commission) alleging a claim of unlawful housing discrimination. Dussault asserted that when RRE Coach Lantern Holdings, LLC and Resource Real Estate Management, Inc. (collectively, Coach Lantern) refused to include a federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program tenancy addendum in her apartment lease, Coach Lantern discriminated against her because her status as a public assistance recipient. Following an investigation and hearing, the Commission unanimously concluded that there were reasonable grounds for a belief of unlawful housing discrimination. Dussault then brought suit …