Law Commons^™

Beyond The Borders: The Rise Of Judicial Corruption And Universal Jurisdiction, Rose Mahdavieh

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Atrocities Committed In Ukraine: A New Era For Universal Jurisdiction?, Yvonne M. Dutton

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

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 …

Playing The Game Of International Law, Uri Weiss, Joseph Agassi

Touro Law Review

In the realist game of international negotiations, each state attempts to promote their interest regardless of international law. Thus, it is negotiations in the shadow of the sword, i.e., a negotiation in which each side knows that if the parties will not achieve an agreement, the alternative may be a war, and thus the bargaining position of each party is a function of their capacities in a case of war. Negotiation in the shadow of international law is an alternative to it: in this alternative the parties negotiate according to their international legal rights. It reduces injustice and incentive to …

The Icc Should Not Encourage Occupation, Uri Weiss

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Piracy Prosecutions In National Courts, Maggie Gardner

Maggie Gardner

At least for the time being, the international community must rely on national courts to prosecute modern-day pirates. The first wave of domestic piracy prosecutions suggests, however, that domestic courts have yet to achieve the necessary consistency and expertise in resolving key questions of international law in these cases. This article evaluates how courts trying modern-day pirates have addressed common questions of international law regarding the exercise of universal jurisdiction, the elements of the crime of piracy, and the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. In doing so, it evaluates five decisions issued in 2010 by courts in Kenya, the …

Corporate Criminal Responsibility For Human Rights Violations: Jurisdiction And Reparations, Kenneth S. Gallant

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Law In The Post-Human Rights Era, Ingrid Wuerth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

International law is in a period of transition. After World War II, but especially since the 1980s, human rights expanded to almost every corner of international law. In doing so, they changed core features of international law itself, including the definition of sovereignty and the sources of international legal rules. But what might be termed the golden-age of international human rights law is over, at least for now. Whether measured in terms of the increasing number of authoritarian governments, the decline in international human rights enforcement architecture such as the Responsibility to Protect and the Alien Tort Statute, the growing …

Genocide Treaty - Ethnic Cleansing - Substantive And Procedural Hurdles In The Application Of The Genocide Convention To Alleged Crimes In The Former Yugoslavia, John Webb

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Beyond "De-Nile" - The United Nations' Genocide Problem In Darfur, William Reisinger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Enemies Of All Humankind: The Fourth Circuit's Application Of Universal Jurisdiction In United States V. Shibin, Alicia A. Olive

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

The Pre-History Of Piracy As A Crime & Its Definitional Odyssey, Michael J. Kelly

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

You're A Crook, Captain Hook! Navigating A Way Out Of The Somali Piracy Problem With The Rule Of Law, Andrew Michael Bagley

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Kiobel, Extraterritoriality, And The "Global War On Terrorism", Craig Martin

Craig Martin

For the purpose of exploring the issues of extraterritoriality raised in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., this project sought to examine how the federal courts have considered extraterritoriality in cases arising in the so-called “global war on terror” (GWOT). The inquiry leads to some new and arguably important observations about extraterritoriality in the GWOT policies and related jurisprudence. The plaintiffs in Kiobel claimed, under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), that the defendant corporations were liable for complicity in Nigeria’s conduct of indefinite detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing. The U.S. Supreme Court departed from the issue of corporate liability under …

The Supreme Court And The Alien Tort Statute: Kiobel V. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., Ingrid W. Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Alien Tort Statute litigation has generated a growing number of questions about the the scope of statute, but in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. the Supreme Court finally answered one of them: the presumption against extraterritoriality applies to the statute. Going forward, courts may apply a robust version of the presumption, effectively ending ATS litigation as we currently know it. Or, they may not. The Court’s citations to Morrison v. Nat’l Austl. Bank Ltd. suggest the former; some language in the various opinions suggests the latter. This article explores these uncertainties and also discusses additional factors that may be …

Kiobel: Muddling The Distinction Between Prescriptive And Adjudicative Jurisdiction, Anthony J. Colangelo

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Kiobel V. Royal Dutch Petroleum: A Practitioner's Viewpoint, Marco Simons

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Contradiction Between Alien Tort Statute Jurisprudence And The Continued Immunity Of U.S. Officials For Acts Of Torture Committed Abroad, Jules Lobel

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Universal Jurisdiction In The New Architecture Of Transnational Justice, Diane Orentlicher

Diane Orentlicher

In this essay the author addresses several issues raised by emerging trends in the use of universal jurisdiction. She argues that recent developments raise concerns about how jurisdictional authority should be allocated among states as well as between officials of states and officers of international tribunals. Growing recourse to universal jurisdiction raises questions about whose claim should receive priority when more than one court seeks to prosecute an individual for the same crime. The question has been further complicated by the emergence of a new breed of court, such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is shaped by …

Piracy Prosecutions In National Courts, Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

At least for the time being, the international community must rely on national courts to prosecute modern-day pirates. The first wave of domestic piracy prosecutions suggests, however, that domestic courts have yet to achieve the necessary consistency and expertise in resolving key questions of international law in these cases. This article evaluates how courts trying modern-day pirates have addressed common questions of international law regarding the exercise of universal jurisdiction, the elements of the crime of piracy, and the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. In doing so, it evaluates five decisions issued in 2010 by courts in Kenya, the …

The Wane In Spain (Of Universal Jurisdiction): Spain's Forgetful Democratic Transition And The Prosecution Of Tyrants, James J. Friedberg

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remarks On The Gjil Symposium On Corporate Responsibility And The Alien Tort Statute, Vivian Grosswald Curran

Articles

The following essay is a summary of remarks I delivered at the symposium on corporate responsibility and the Alien Tort Statute held at Georgetown Law School after the first Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. Supreme Court oral argument. My remarks addressed the importance of considering foreign national law when judging the meaning of universal civil jurisdiction, and, implicitly, the inextricability of domestic from international law matters.

Universal Jurisdiction Not So Universal: A Time To Delegate To The International Criminal Court, Dalila V. Hoover

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

The exercise of universal jurisdiction in cases involving crimes under international law remains highly debated and underlines a certain number of legal and political issues in its implementation. Because the principle of universal jurisdiction relies on national authorities to enforce international prohibitions, pivotal decisions are expected to reflect, to a greater or lesser extent, domestic decision-makers’ positions as to the interests of justice, the national interest and other criteria. In many States, the legal system lacks the means to investigate or prosecute on the basis of universal jurisdiction. Indeed, many legal systems do not define the term “crimes” that can …

Crime Upon The Sea: Reshaping American Jurisprudence On International Piracy, Ta'ronce Stowes

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Law And The U.S. Common Law Of Foreign Official Immunity, Curtis A. Bradley, Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

In Samantar v. Yousuf, 130 S. Ct. 2278 (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not apply to lawsuits brought against foreign government officials for alleged human rights abuses. The Court did not necessarily clear the way for future human rights litigation against such officials, however, cautioning that such suits “may still be barred by foreign sovereign immunity under the common law.” At the same time, the Court provided only minimal guidance as to the content and scope of common law immunity. Especially striking was the Court’s omission of any mention of the …

An Empirical Examination Of Universal Jurisdiction For Piracy, Eugene Kontorovich, Steven Art

Faculty Working Papers

This Essay presents the first systematic empirical study of the incidence of universal jurisdiction prosecutions over an international crime. Using data on the number of piracies committed in a twelve year period (1998-2009) obtained from international agencies and maritime industry groups, we determine the percentage of acts of piracy where nations prosecuted under universal jurisdiction we determine the percentage of these cases where nations exercised UJ. Studies of the worldwide use of UJ over other crimes simply count how often UJ has been exercised, but do not attempt to determine the rate of prosecution.

We find that of all clearly …

R. V. Munyaneza: Pondering Canada's First Core Crimes Conviction, Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada recently completed its first genocide trial, which resulted in the conviction of the Rwandan accused, Desiré Munyaneza, for crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. While the case is still under appeal, it represents a significant success for Canada’s relatively new core crimes legislation, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and was the first prosecution undertaken pursuant to that law. Drawing upon the Munyaneza case, the authors analyze the legislation and evaluate its effectiveness. They conclude that the model is an effective one that both bodes well for Canada’s future participation in the battle against impunity, and provides …

Does The World Need Knights Errant To Combat Enemies Of All Mankind? Universal Jurisdiction, Connecting Links, And Civil Liability, Zachary Mills

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Define And Punish" Clause And The Limit Of Universal Jurisdiction, Eugene Kontorovich

Faculty Working Papers

This Article examines whether the "Define and Punish" clause of the Constitution empowers Congress to criminalize foreign conduct unconnected to the United States. Answering this question requires exploring the Constitution's "Piracies and Felonies" provision. While it is hard to believe this can still be said of any constitutional provision, no previous work has examined the scope of the "Piracies and Felonies" powers. Yet the importance of this inquiry is more than academic. Despite its obscurity, the Piracies and Felonies power is the purported Art. I basis for a statute currently in force, which represents Congress's most aggressive use of universal …

Universal Jurisdiction And The Case Of Belgium: A Critical Assessment, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Praised in some quarters as a useful tool for bringing criminal perpetrators to justice, criticized by others as a threat to state sovereignty, universal jurisdiction has certainly emerged as a heated topic within international criminal law. In 1993, the Kingdom of Belgium enacted a domestic statute, the Loi du 16 Juin, which codified (in domestic Belgian law) the use and application of universal jurisdiction (for international crimes) in Belgian courts. The Statute, which went through two major revisions in February 1999 and April 2003, granted Belgian courts jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, regardless of where in …