Law Commons^™

The Scope Of Consular Immunity Under The Vienna Convention On Consular Relations: Towards A Principled Interpretation, Curtis J. Milhaupt

Faculty Scholarship

A consular officer, mistaken for a trespasser as he leaves his mission to attend a cultural function, struggles with a police officer and is subsequently charged with assault and battery. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provides that consular officers are immune from jurisdiction for "acts performed in the exercise of consular functions." Does the Vienna Convention shield the consular officer from suit? The scope of consular immunity is uncertain because courts differ in their application of the Convention's immunity rule.

This Note argues that a principled interpretation of the scope of consular immunity consistent with the Vienna Convention requires …

One Hundred And Two Years Later: The U.S. Joins The Berne Convention, Jane C. Ginsburg, John M. Kernochan

Faculty Scholarship

In historic votes on October 5 and October 12, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation designed to bring U.S. law into compliance with the Berne Convention. The legislation was signed by President Reagan on October 31, 1988. Also signed by the President was a Senate Resolution of October 20 of Ratification of the Berne Convention. Following deposit of the requisite instruments with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, U.S. adherence to Berne took effect on March 1, 1989.

For the U.S., this momentous step is the culmination of decades of struggle, including many failed attempts …

The Hague Evidence Convention In The Supreme Court: A Critique Of The Aérospatiale Decision, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

With its decision in Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale v. United States District Court, the United States Supreme Court resolved what had been widely regarded as "one of the most difficult and important issues in international civil litigation in United States courts." This opportunity arose out of the divergence of views among American courts on the proper way to reconcile the need for full disclosure of evidence with respect for the sensitivities of foreign states where that evidence might be located. The case before the Supreme Court, like many lower court cases, dealt specifically with the impact of the Hague …

Nicaragua: United States Assistance To The Nicaraguan Human Rights Association And The Nicaraguan Resistance, Suzanne B. Goldberg, Lee Crawford, Kevin Reed, John Tennant

Faculty Scholarship

The question of providing aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance has been significant to United States human rights policy throughout the Reagan Administration. Although events have changed repeatedly during the winter of 1988, including a truce between the Nicaraguan Government and the Resistance and a Congressional decision not to provide military aid to the Resistance, the underlying policy issues remain constant. The Harvard Human Rights Yearbook presents two notes, infra, discussing the Military Construction Appropriations Act of 1987, which granted $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance. The first note discusses the Nicaraguan Human Rights Association (Asociacidn Nicaraguense Pro-Derechos Humanos …

Chernobyl Fallout: Recent Iaea Conventions Expand Transboundary Nuclear Pollution Law, Michael A. Heller

Faculty Scholarship

After releasing a radioactive cloud over Europe, the April 1986 nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl in the USSR sparked a chain-reaction of diplomatic negotiation that culminated in two recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conventions on nuclear accidents. The Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (Convention on Early Notification) and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency (Convention on Assistance) were both opened for signature on September 26, 1986 at the end of a three-day IAEA special session on the lessons of the Soviet nuclear plant disaster. In the months …

Equity Joint Ventures In China: New Legal Framework, Continuing Questions, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

Foreigners participating in equity joint ventures in the PRC since such investments were authorized in 1979 have encountered a variety of problems. New legal institutions have been established to provide a framework for joint ventures but their reach and interpretation of the new rules in practice are still often uncertain. Changes in policy have affected, and will continue to affect, the operation of both joint ventures and the new legal rules. Potential investors need contractual protection against changes in laws, regulations and policies which may affect the joint venture. Some specific issues of importance to foreign investors in China include …

Technology Transfer In China: Policies, Practice And Law, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

The legal and practical aspects of technology transfer are of increasing importance as China's international economic relations expand. Chinese legislation on aspects of such transfers are beginning to appear and this paper discusses relevant regulations particularly the Technology Import Contract Regulations of May 1985. Practical issues include Chinese interest in up-to-date technology and comprehensive technical documentation, valuation of the technology to be transferred, payment terms, the terms and costs of technical training, and acceptance tests of the products manufactured using the transferred technology. Patent infringement and protection of proprietary information are also issues of concern to companies involved in technology …

Economic Perspectives On Trade In Professional Services, Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Faculty Scholarship

This paper will bring an economist's perspective to bear on three questions raised at this conference by some of the other important contributions:

1. How are services different from goods;
2. What implications do these differences have for the rules we seek to negotiate to free trade in services; and
3. How can we induce the key developing countries, such as Brazil, Egypt and India, which have generally opposed liberalization of trade in services, to support it?

Answers to these questions will naturally bear critically on the narrower question of international trade in professional, and especially legal, services, since recommendations and decisions on …

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal 1981-1983, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

It is in the nature of publishing schedules that this volume of papers presented at a colloquium in April of 1983 was printed in 1984, distributed in 1985, and reviewed in an issue to appear in early 1986. Those who have actively followed the work of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal are necessarily familiar with a large portion of the contents of this book. Not only were three of the seven chapters previously published elsewhere, but much of the descriptive and some of the analytical material throughout the book has been dealt with in a more timely fashion in the …

Banning The Bomb: Law And Its Limits, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

We can all agree with the contributors to this volume that nuclear weapons present the threat of unimaginable devastation that could bring an end to civilization and even to life on this planet. The grim calculations and stark images come back again and again, but they cannot be repeated too often: over 50,000 weapons in the United States and Soviet arsenals, each with a destructive force dwarfing the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; radiation effects producing indescribable suffering and death; environmental damage that defies quantification or prediction; the specter of nuclear winter rendering the earth uninhabitable. No rational being can …

Authors' Rights In France: The Moral Right Of The Creator Of A Commissioned Work To Compel The Commissioning Party To Complete The Work, André Françon, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The French law protecting authors' rights incorporates two distinct regimes of rights, "pecuniary" rights, and "moral" rights. As the denomination indicates, pecuniary rights pertain to the author's economic interests, and provide the author a monopoly in the reproduction and public performance of his work. Moral rights safeguard the author's "personality" interest in his work. Despite the appellation "moral" rights, the author's claims under French law to the security of his personality as expressed in his work are not precatory: moral rights entail several distinct and enforceable interests. These are: the right to make the work known to the public "droit …

Reforms And Innovations Regarding Authors' And Performers' Rights In France: Commentary On The Law Of July 3, 1985, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Following thirteen months of parliamentary deliberations, on July 3, 1985, France enacted a law which brings major reforms and additions to its copyright act of March 11, 1957. The new law becomes effective on January 1, 1986. Among the French modernizations and innovations discussed in this Article are the new law's provisions regarding: computer software protection and ownership; royalties for home taping of audio and audiovisual works; and the recognition and regulation of "neighboring rights." These provisions extend statutory protection for the contributions of performing artists, and also accord reproduction and performance rights to the producers of phono- and videograms. …

Emerging Functions Of Formal Legal Institutions In China's Modernization, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

In 1977 when China's leaders dedicated themselves to the four modernizations, they consciously decided to reestablish formal legal institutions as part of their ambitious plan of growth. In light of China's legal history since the Communist victory in 1949, this decision is significant. Since 1949 law had borne the heavy imprint of politics; since the late nineteen-fifties, the Chinese leadership had shown little concern for the fate of formal legal institutions; during the Cultural Revolution, the legal system had virtually disappeared. But since 1977, despite fluctuations in economic policy the attitudes of the leadership toward law, repeatedly echoed by lower …

The International Legal Status Of Foreign Government Deposits In Overseas Branches Of U.S. Banks, Robert B. Owen, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

Political as well as economic forces can lead governments to default on their obligations to foreign banks. For example, the demand of the revolutionary government of Iran that the United States return he former Shah and his wealth to Iran and the subsequent seizure of American embassy personnel in Tehran on November 4, 1979, were political events which quickly resulted in a default on Iranian obligations to U.S. banks.

Following the embassy seizure, the status of the Iranian Government's huge deposits in overseas branches of U.S. banks quickly came into question. In an effort to coerce the United States to …

Application Of Customary International Law By U.S. Domestic Tribunals, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years there has been a significant expansion of the number and kinds of cases in U.S. courts raising issues of customary international law. U.S. courts are increasingly asked to enforce international norms of behavior against foreign governments, state and local governments, and indeed the U.S. Government itself. To a greater and greater extent the courts themselves have become actors on the international scene: in the view of one party to a lawsuit, judicial or quasi-judicial acts may threaten to violate international law, while in the view of another party those same sorts of acts can contribute affirmatively to …

"No Soul To Damn: No Body To Kick": An Unscandalized Inquiry Into The Problem Of Corporate Punishment, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked?
—Edward, First Baron Thurlow 1731-1806

The Lord Chancellor of England quoted above was neither the first nor the last judge to experience frustration when faced with a convicted corporation. American sentencing judges are likely to face a similar dilemma with increasing frequency in the near future, for a number of signs indicate that corporate prosecutions will become increasingly commonplace. At first glance, the problem of corporate punishment seems perversely insoluble: moderate fines do not deter, …

Retaliation Or Arbitration – Or Both: The 1978 United States-France Aviation Dispute, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

It began as a very small dispute. Pan American World Airways planned to introduce a service from San Francisco to Paris with a stop in London, using a Boeing 747 aircraft from San Francisco to London and a smaller Boeing 727 aircraft from London to Paris. The change to a smaller plane would have enabled the most efficient and economic use of Pan Am's fleet. In aviation as in railroad terminology, a change along a route to equipment of a different size is called a "change of gauge."

In accordance with French law, Pan Am filed a schedule on February …

New Developments In Law In The People's Republic Of China, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

Recently, Chinese leaders have begun to promote the development of legal standards andformal legal institutions for China. In this article, Mr. Lubman explores the background and current status of the role of law in China and assesses its relationsho to China's economic development, domestic politics, and international economic relations. Mr. Lubman suggests that students of Chinese law must create new theoreticalperspectives to study the new developments.

On Understanding Chinese Law And Legal Institutions, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

Our unfamiliarity with Chinese legal institutions and policies toward law causes misunderstanding of the role of law in the People's Republic of China. The present unimportance of the formal legal system has deep historical reasons. As China's economy becomes more complex, regularity should increase, although it will remain controversial. In commercial contracts with the West, custom performs the role of law.

Presidential War-Making, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

The Vietnam "war" has convinced many persons that the president of the United States claims apparently unlimited power to commit this country to war. Not surprisingly, therefore, considerable interest has focused on the powers that inhere in the presidency. And many critics of the war – those who in other times and in other contexts might have been sympathetic to a spacious conception of presidential power – have concluded that the Vietnam conflict is not only a tragic error, but is the direct result of unconstitutional conduct by the president. I cannot accept this view; at bottom, it seems to …

The Truth-In-Negotiations Act – An Examination Of Defective Pricing In Government Contracts, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

Charges of excessive profitmaking on government contracts have issued from the Senate floor and the nation's press and have provided the impetus for recent congressional investigations and proposals for remedial legislation. Profiteering by government contractors is a problem of potentially enormous dimensions since purchases by the federal government total more than seventy-seven billion dollars – over ten per cent of the gross national product. Because the greatest part of these purchases are made by the Department of Defense, congressional action aimed at minimizing excessive profits has focused upon Defense Department procurement activities under the Armed Services Procurement Act (ASPA).

Mao And Mediation: Politics And Dispute Resolution In Communist China, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

We lack much essential knowledge, not only about Chinese Communist legal institutions, but about Chinese society generally – how it is organized, how power is distributed and wielded, and the nature of even the most ordinary relationships. Such ignorance is dangerous, especially when China and the United States, and their perceptions of each other, remain tragically far apart. An analysis of China's institutions for resolving disputes can teach much about its dominant values and authority relationships.

This Article examines the resolution of disputes between individuals in China, relying on documentary sources and on interviews conducted by the author in Mandarin …

The Unrecognized Government In American Courts: Upright V. Mercury Business Machines, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

What right have I, as the King's Judge, to interfere upon the subject of a contract with a country which he does not recognize?

Lord Eldon's words, written in 1823, have been echoed more than once by American judges, who have been as troubled as Eldon by problems complicated by diplomatic nonrecognition. Twentieth-century wars and revolutions have required American courts to decide whether unrecognized governments, entities created by them, their representatives, or their assignees could sue in domestic courts, often on matters of private right. Frequently, too, the courts have been perplexed by the effect of nonrecognition on the application …

"Public Policy" In The Conflict Of Laws, Monrad G. Paulsen, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

In deciding a conflict of laws question, a judge will sometimes say, "The foreign law ordinarily applicable will not be applied in this case because to do so would violate our public policy." The textwriters, language in the cases, and the Restatement agree: the "normal" operation of choice of law rules is subject to a "public policy" limitation. This paper is an attempt to explore the meanings and significance of "public policy," used in this general way, in the conflict of laws.