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Full-Text Articles in Law

Oil Under Troubled Waters?: Some Legal Aspects Of The Boundary Dispute Between Malawi And Tanzania Over Lake Malawi, Tiyanjana Maluwa Apr 2016

Oil Under Troubled Waters?: Some Legal Aspects Of The Boundary Dispute Between Malawi And Tanzania Over Lake Malawi, Tiyanjana Maluwa

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines the legal aspects of the respective claims by the two claimants to the northeastern stretches of the lake: to the eastern shoreline by Malawi and to the median line by Tanzania. Maluwa proceeds as follows. First, the Article sketches out the historical and political background of the dispute and examines some preliminary legal issues in Part I. Part II discusses the legal significance of boundaries, state succession to boundary treaties, and the relevance of post-colonial African state practice in this respect. A central aspect of this practice is the adoption by African states of the principle of …


Special Feature Seventh Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway Jan 2016

Special Feature Seventh Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway

Michigan Journal of International Law

Refugee status at international law requires more than demonstration of a risk of being persecuted. Unless the risk faced by an applicant is causally connected to one of five specified attributes – his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion – the claim to be a refugee must fail. Because the drafters of the Refugee Convention believed that the world’s asylum capacity was insufficient to accommodate all those at risk of being persecuted, they opted to confine the class of refugees to persons whose predicament stems from who they are, or what they …


How Cosmopolitan Are International Law Professors?, Ryan Scoville, Milan Markovic Jan 2016

How Cosmopolitan Are International Law Professors?, Ryan Scoville, Milan Markovic

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article offers an empirical answer to a question of interest among scholars of comparative international law: why do American views about international law appear at times to differ from those of other countries? We contend that part of the answer lies in legal education. Conducting a survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of nearly 150 legal academics, we reveal evidence that professors of international law in the United States often lack significant foreign legal experience, particularly outside of the West. Sociological research suggests that this tendency leads professors to teach international law from predominantly nationalistic and Western perspectives, …


The Michigan Guidelines On Risk For Reasons Of Political Opinion Jan 2016

The Michigan Guidelines On Risk For Reasons Of Political Opinion

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Convention”) recognizes as refugees those who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on the basis of inter alia “political opinion,” are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of their home country


Toward A New Framework For Understanding Political Opinion, Catherine Dauvergne Jan 2016

Toward A New Framework For Understanding Political Opinion, Catherine Dauvergne

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper was written to frame the work of the Seventh Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law, held at the University of Michigan Faculty of Law, on March 27–29, 2015. To some extent, therefore, it has already served its purpose. It is somewhat tempting in the wake of the Colloquium to completely reconstruct the paper in light of the conversations and conclusions of that event. Such reconstruction, however, would be misleading. Instead, I have chosen to publish the paper in a form that is very similar to its earlier iteration, with a few corrections, clarifications, and explanatory notes about …


Shared Responsibility Regulation Model For Cross-Border Reproductive Transactions, Sharon Bassan Jan 2016

Shared Responsibility Regulation Model For Cross-Border Reproductive Transactions, Sharon Bassan

Michigan Journal of International Law

The term “cross-border reproductive transactions” refers to the movement of tens of thousands of people, who travel from one country to purchase reproductive services from suppliers in other countries, in order to have a child.2 It is estimated that between eleven and fourteen thousand patients in Europe alone engage in this practice annually.3 Historically, the phrase ‘medical tourism’ used to refer to the travel of patients from less-affluent countries seeking better healthcare in countries with superior healthcare standards. Today, the journey is just as likely to flow in the opposite direction, as patients travel from industrialized to less affluent countries …


Customary International Law: An Instrument Choice Perspective, Laurence R. Helfer, Ingrid B. Wuerth Jan 2016

Customary International Law: An Instrument Choice Perspective, Laurence R. Helfer, Ingrid B. Wuerth

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article proceeds as follows. Part II begins by considering custom’s design features, which the authors distinguish from the canonical elements of custom (state practice and opinio juris) and the individual doctrines associated with CIL. Specifically, they contend that, as an ideal-type, custom is non-negotiated, unwritten, and universal, three characteristics that distinguish CIL from both treaties and soft law, which are almost always negotiated, written, and rarely universal either in formation or application. These design features help to explain some of custom’s peculiar doctrinal characteristics, and they cut across the doctrinal divide which is said to distinguish “traditional” and …


Rescuing Policy And Terror Victims: A Concerted Approach To The Ransom Dilemma, C. Elizabeth Bundy Jan 2016

Rescuing Policy And Terror Victims: A Concerted Approach To The Ransom Dilemma, C. Elizabeth Bundy

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this Note will analyze the current framework governing hostage situations to determine the permissibility of ransom payments under international law. Part II will examine the two dominant positions that have developed among states and identify the justifications and shortcomings of each. Part III will conclude, firstly, that for states to develop a multilateral approach to hostage situations, they must take the lead within their respective domestic spheres and, secondly, that the option to negotiate for ransomed release should be preserved as an essential tool for confronting terrorist organizations.


Refugees Without Borders: Legal Implications Of The Refugee Crisis In The Schengen Zone, Bridget Carr Jan 2016

Refugees Without Borders: Legal Implications Of The Refugee Crisis In The Schengen Zone, Bridget Carr

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will first examine current practices utilized by Member States and their strategic partners outside the Zone to manage flows of third-country nationals from the Middle East and North Africa. It will then explore how these practices are not compatible with principles of protection from degrading and inhuman treatment, non-refoulement, and non-discrimination as codified in the Schengen Borders Code, European Convention on Human Rights, and the Refugee Convention, among others. Finally, this Note will propose targeted reforms for the Schengen Zone’s internal and external border management aimed at protecting the human rights of displaced persons and modifying incentive structures …