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Full-Text Articles in Law

Amending The Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act To Promote Accountability For Violations Of Peremptory Norms Of International Law, Joshua Newman May 2024

Amending The Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act To Promote Accountability For Violations Of Peremptory Norms Of International Law, Joshua Newman

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The current state of the United States legal system, and international law at large, fails to afford victims of violations of international law with proper redress, when those violations were facilitated by a domestic taking. The Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act provides foreign sovereigns immunity from the jurisdiction of United States courts when those foreign sovereigns effectuate of a violation of international law through domestic takings. Courts have attempted to circumvent the restrictions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act with exceptions such as the genocide exception. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Federal Republic of Germany v Philipp renounced the …


Thai Drug Offenses And Narcotic Charges: Tracing Thailand’S Drug Control And Capital Punishment History, Jonathan Hasson May 2024

Thai Drug Offenses And Narcotic Charges: Tracing Thailand’S Drug Control And Capital Punishment History, Jonathan Hasson

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The Article examines Thailand's political economy of drugs and use of sanctions, including capital punishment, using a historical approach. It traces Thailand's nation building and emergence as a global hub for illicit drugs against the backdrop of European and US interventions since the colonial era. The Article reveals how Western concepts and discourses were appropriated by Thai elites to advance local agendas while suppressing democratic movements. The Article explores how the drug trade became entangled with government corruption, militarization, and extrajudicial state violence which often targeted ethnic minorities. In light of recent cannabis policy changes, the Article considers the historical …


Labor Enforcement In The Us-Mexico-Canada Agreement: Design, Motivation, And Reality, Inu Manak, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon May 2024

Labor Enforcement In The Us-Mexico-Canada Agreement: Design, Motivation, And Reality, Inu Manak, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) includes a novel feature in the agreement’s dispute settlement provisions: the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM). The stated purpose of the RRM is to ensure the remediation of a denial of collective bargaining rights for workers in certain covered facilities. Its novelty is that it does not follow the typical labor claims processes as found in previous trade agreements, nor is it structured like traditional state-to-state dispute settlement. Primarily, it provides a means to take swift action against a facility when the complainant deems that a denial of specific labor rights is taking place. Essentially, …


Public Participation In The Constitution-Making Process: The Afghan Experiment, Shamshad Pasarlay Dec 2023

Public Participation In The Constitution-Making Process: The Afghan Experiment, Shamshad Pasarlay

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This Article explores the public participation process conducted during the drafting of Afghanistan’s 2004 Constitution. It examines scores of questionnaires, public comments, written submissions and minutes of town hall meetings that the framers used to gather public opinion and input. The Article highlights that the makers of the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan designed and implemented an extensive public participation process, but public opinion did not have a real impact on constitutional outcomes. Instead, the content of the constitution was settled by the political elites whose agreement was needed for constitutional ratification. Drawing on this case study, the paper suggests that …


Enough Excuses On Drug Importation: A New Transnational Paradigm For Fda Regulation And Lower Us Drug Prices, Gabriel Levitt Dec 2023

Enough Excuses On Drug Importation: A New Transnational Paradigm For Fda Regulation And Lower Us Drug Prices, Gabriel Levitt

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which enforces drug safety laws, asserts that under most circumstances the importation of prescription drugs is illegal. Yet because of high drug prices in the United States, over the past couple of decades, tens of millions of Americans have imported prescription drugs for personal use. For many, this was their only way to afford them. A unique array of federal laws, regulations, and policies, including the de facto decriminalization of the practice of personal drug importation, have in effect permitted personal drug importation. The same exceptions, however, are not available for commercial drug …


African Courts And International Human Rights Law, John Mukum Mbaku Aug 2023

African Courts And International Human Rights Law, John Mukum Mbaku

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and since then, the international community, with the help of the United Nations, has adopted other international human rights instruments designed to recognize and protect human rights. Since international human rights instruments do not automatically confer rights that are justiciable in domestic courts, each African country must domesticate these instruments in order to create rights that are justiciable in its domestic courts. Given the fact that many African countries have not yet domesticated the core international human rights instruments, international human rights law’s ability to positively impact …


Tailspin: Examining The Distortive Effects Of The Airbus-Boeing Duopoly On Trade Dispute Resolution Between The United States And European Union, Sam Bhat Dec 2022

Tailspin: Examining The Distortive Effects Of The Airbus-Boeing Duopoly On Trade Dispute Resolution Between The United States And European Union, Sam Bhat

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This Note surveys the perverse effects of the Airbus–Boeing dispute on international trade, examining how this unique and unprecedented duopoly challenges WTO agreements regarding state assistance to domestic manufacturers of large civil aircraft. This trade dispute has precipitated significant consequences for industries unrelated to aircraft manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic. Theoretically, the WTO’s dispute resolution framework is designed to maintain an undistorted status quo between member states. The case of Airbus–Boeing, however, has shown that a duopoly conflict masquerading as a WTO dispute leads to escalating tariffs with substantial repercussions. This is the costliest dispute in the history …


Is Investment Arbitration An Effective Alternative To Court Litigation? Towards A Smart Mix Of Litigation And Arbitration In Resolving Investment Disputes, Wanli Ma, Michael Faure Dec 2022

Is Investment Arbitration An Effective Alternative To Court Litigation? Towards A Smart Mix Of Litigation And Arbitration In Resolving Investment Disputes, Wanli Ma, Michael Faure

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This article analyzes litigation and arbitration as commonly used methods for dispute resolution, more particularly between foreign investors and host states. It compares investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) via investor-state arbitration with dispute resolution via domestic courts in the host state. The article adopts a goal-based approach for assessing the effectiveness of international adjudication and analyzes the extent to which the current ISDS system is aligned with its predetermined goals. The article starts by identifying four goals of ISDS: 1) fair and efficient dispute resolution, 2) norm compliance, 3) facilitating the objectives of the investment law regime, and 4) legitimizing the …


The Uncitral Model Law And Secured Transactions Law Reform, Louise Gullifer Dec 2022

The Uncitral Model Law And Secured Transactions Law Reform, Louise Gullifer

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

No abstract provided.


From The Golden Gate To London: Bridging The Gap Between Data Privacy And The Right Of Publicity, Kristin Kuraishi Dec 2021

From The Golden Gate To London: Bridging The Gap Between Data Privacy And The Right Of Publicity, Kristin Kuraishi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Currently, there is no global standard or recognition for the right of publicity. Even within the United States, the recognition, scope, and protections vary by state. As the world becomes increasingly reliant on social media for news, information, communication, and recommendations, micro-influencers and non-celebrities require a way to control their developed and curated name, image, and likeness from unauthorized commercial uses by others. Advertising is occurring more frequently online, and brands recognize the power that micro-influencers have on commerce. Some countries, like the United Kingdom, do not recognize the right of publicity, potentially leaving many individuals without recourse for the …


Protecting Internet Access: A Human Rights Treaty Approach, Harpreet Kaur Dec 2021

Protecting Internet Access: A Human Rights Treaty Approach, Harpreet Kaur

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

With the evolution of the internet, the world has also seen a marked increase in government-ordered internet shutdowns and restrictions, sometimes with dubious justifications and sometimes with no justification at all. As people have become increasingly reliant on the internet for their day-to-day activities and to keep up with important news, internet restrictions often disrupt lives and violate people’s civil and human rights. While no international law directly protects internet access, it is implicitly advocated for under the freedom of opinion and expression. The upward trend of internet restrictions, however, suggests that an implied protection of access to a necessary …


Apocalypse Ahoy: How The Cruise Industry Boom Is Harming The World’S Oceans And Problems With Enforcing Environmental Regulations, Nicholas J. Sarnelli Dec 2021

Apocalypse Ahoy: How The Cruise Industry Boom Is Harming The World’S Oceans And Problems With Enforcing Environmental Regulations, Nicholas J. Sarnelli

Brooklyn Law Review

The global cruise line industry enjoyed an incredible surge in popularity before the coronavirus pandemic. While the industry nearly sank in the wake of the pandemic, cruise lines are poised to continue to enjoy record-breaking profits while continuing to build larger and more opulent ships. This boom exacts a heavy toll on the environment, as cruise ships burn dirty fuel and dump dirty water into the world’s oceans. The current international legal framework for regulating the world’s shipping industry allows companies to effectively select which nation’s environmental laws to submit to, with ships flying under so-called “flags of convenience”. While …


Remedies For Government Breach: Lessons From The United States And A Zone Of Appealable Remedies For Southeast Asia, Benjamin D. Black Dec 2021

Remedies For Government Breach: Lessons From The United States And A Zone Of Appealable Remedies For Southeast Asia, Benjamin D. Black

Brooklyn Law Review

Though international investment treaties may supplant domestic contract law in cross-border government contracts, their limited use in Southeast Asia informs the continued importance of clear remedies for a government breach of contract under domestic law. As investment from China’s Belt and Road Initiative continues to flow into the region, private parties require clear rules and remedies when a government breaches a contract. This note argues that the lack of clear and codified public contract law in Southeast Asia presents a substantial risk to private contractors and that the extreme variance in public contract law is detrimental to both parties involved. …


Transnational Legal Process: An Evolving Theory And Methodology, Regina Jefferies Dec 2021

Transnational Legal Process: An Evolving Theory And Methodology, Regina Jefferies

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Harold Koh introduced Transnational Legal Process in 1996 as a constructivist theory of international legal compliance which draws lessons from international legal theory and the discourse between international law and international relations scholarship. This article situates Transnational Legal Process (TLP) within the broader literature on international legal compliance and traces the theory’s evolution over the years, highlighting scholarship which addresses three critical theoretical limitations: (1) insufficient description of the actors and processes of norm internalization; (2) insufficient explanation of why States internalize certain norms; and (3) insufficient identification and description of norm-creation processes. This article uses the legal origins of …


Gulf Of Guinea And Maritime (In)Security: Musings On Some Implications Of Applicable Legal Instruments, Edwin E. Egede Dec 2021

Gulf Of Guinea And Maritime (In)Security: Musings On Some Implications Of Applicable Legal Instruments, Edwin E. Egede

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) is an enormous and diverse region consisting of approximately 6,000 km of coastline extending from Senegal to Angola. It is a maritime area of strategic importance because it is resource-rich with hydrocarbons, fish and other resources. Also, it is important as a vital maritime transit hub. Unlike certain other shipping lanes that have been identified as chokepoints, the GoG, because of its width, is not susceptible to blockades and major shipping accidents. Previously the maritime (in)security in the GoG had not received the same high-profile attention from the international community as the situation in the …


Autonomous Weapons Systems And The Procedural Accounta- Bility Gap, Afonso Seixas-Nunes Dec 2021

Autonomous Weapons Systems And The Procedural Accounta- Bility Gap, Afonso Seixas-Nunes

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The development and well-established principles of Internationla Humanitarian Law have been progressively establishing limits to the means and methods of warfare. Those principles and rules are necessarily applicable to future autonomous weapon systems (AWS), but questions regarding liability for violations of IHL caused by AWS have been looming the international debate. This article has two parts. The first part aims to identify a technical dimension of AWS that has been neglected by international lawyers: States responsibility for IHL violations caused by errors in AWS’ software. This article argues that “errors” can neither be identified with “malfunctions” nor attributed to human …


High Time For A Change: How The Relationship Between Signatory Countries And The United Nations Conventions Governing Narcotic Drugs Must Adapt To Foster A Global Shift In Cannabis Law, Alexander Clementi Dec 2021

High Time For A Change: How The Relationship Between Signatory Countries And The United Nations Conventions Governing Narcotic Drugs Must Adapt To Foster A Global Shift In Cannabis Law, Alexander Clementi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Since the early 1970’s, the inclusion of cannabis and its byproducts in the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs has mandated a strict prohibition on cultivation and use of the substance, which has led to a largely global practice of criminalization and imprisonment of anyone found to be in its possession. Yet recently, mostly in response to growing public health concerns, countries like Uruguay, Portugal, The Netherlands, Canada, and the United States have enacted laws which seek to decriminalize or even legalize cannabis use and possession. Yet, cannabis remains classified as a Schedule IV narcotic under the Single Convention, …


Level-Up: Towards A More Competitive & Labor-Friendly E-Sports Industry, Andrew Ramstad Dec 2021

Level-Up: Towards A More Competitive & Labor-Friendly E-Sports Industry, Andrew Ramstad

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Despite humble beginnings, the advent of the modern internet has seen the explosion of e-sports into an industry commanding hundreds of millions of annual viewers and nearly a billion dollars in annual advertising revenue. Facilitating this expansion has been a shift from independently run competitive e-sports leagues to leagues created and operated by the developers of the league’s underlying game. This vertical integration by developers increases e-sports accessibility to viewers, but at the cost of decreased player bargaining power and professional flexibility. The integration further incentivizes ever-increasing working hours and self-destructive or rule-breaking behavior by players to stay competitive. This …


Digital Privacy Rights And Cloud Act Agreements, Tim Cochrane Dec 2021

Digital Privacy Rights And Cloud Act Agreements, Tim Cochrane

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) will soon bring into force a new international law enforcement data sharing ‘CLOUD Act agreement’ (US-UK Agreement), the first of its kind under the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act 2018 (CLOUD Act). These agreements enable law enforcement in one state to directly request data from service providers based in the other state. They respond to long-standing concerns with the main mechanism for obtaining overseas data, mutual legal assistance (MLA). The US and UK claim the US-UK Agreement will significantly speed up data access relative to MLA while “respecting privacy and …


The Case For An International Solution To The Restitution Of Cultural Property: Morality, Legality And Righting Western Wrongs, Ariana Catarisano Dec 2021

The Case For An International Solution To The Restitution Of Cultural Property: Morality, Legality And Righting Western Wrongs, Ariana Catarisano

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2020, the conversation surrounding the return of cultural property acquired during the colonial era was given new life after the world watched as Black Lives Matter activists exposed systemic racial injustice in the United States. Thousands of objects currently sit in western museums under the guise of sharing these cultures and civilizations with the world, but this brings little comfort to communities suffering the genocidal consequences of colonialism. As formerly colonized nations battle the western world for the return of their cultural property, success is often dictated by a combination of power, money, and the ability to turn the …


Prosecuting The Phone Scammer When Extradition Fails And Concurrent Jurisdiction Exists, Michelle Lepkofker Dec 2021

Prosecuting The Phone Scammer When Extradition Fails And Concurrent Jurisdiction Exists, Michelle Lepkofker

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Advancements in technology allow people to place phone calls half a world away via the internet. This technology has made it easier and cheaper for consumers to communicate, but it has also made it easier for scammers to reach more unsuspecting victims. In 2020, TrueCaller, an app designed to block scam phone calls, successfully blocked, and identified 31.3 billion spam calls in 20 countries. In the same year, Americans alone lost a total of USD $ 29.8 billion to scam calls. This Note argues that phone scams continue to be lucrative, in part, because criminal prosecutions of transnational crimes are …


Data Governance And The Elasticity Of Sovereignty, Roxana Vatanparast Dec 2020

Data Governance And The Elasticity Of Sovereignty, Roxana Vatanparast

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Traditionally, the world map and territorially bounded spaces have dominated the ways in which we imagine how states govern, make laws, and exercise their authority. Under this conception, reflected in traditional international law principles of territorial sovereignty, each state would have exclusive authority to govern and make laws over everything concerning the land within its borders. Yet developments like the proliferation of data flows, which are based on divisible, mobile, and interconnected components of data, are not territorially bounded. This presents a challenge to the traditional bases for territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction under international law, which some scholars claim is …


Functional Statehood In Contemporary International Law, William Thomas Worster Dec 2020

Functional Statehood In Contemporary International Law, William Thomas Worster

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The international community lacks a form of territorial-based, international legal personality distinct from statehood, and yet, non-state, territorial entities of varying degrees of autonomy or independence need to function within the international community in some form. Some of these entities cannot be recognized as states because their creation violates jus cogens norms, though others are not recognized based on an assessment that they may not fully qualify as a state or that there are political reasons to refuse recognition. However, existing states still need to engage with these territorial quasi-states through the only paradigm the international community has—statehood. For example, …


Directors’ Duty Of Care In Times Of Financial Distress Following The Global Epidemic Crisis, Leon Yehuda Anidjar Dec 2020

Directors’ Duty Of Care In Times Of Financial Distress Following The Global Epidemic Crisis, Leon Yehuda Anidjar

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The global COVID-19 pandemic is causing the large-scale end of life and severe human suffering globally. This massive public health crisis created a significant economic crisis and is reflected in a recession of global production and the collapse of confidence in the functions of markets. Corporations and boards of directors around the world are required to design specific strategies to tackle the negative consequences of the crisis. This is especially true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that suffered tremendous economic loss, and their continued existence as ongoing concern is under considerable risk. Given these uncertain financial times, this Article …


Easing The Burdens Of A Patchwork Approach To Data Privacy Regulation In Favor Of A Singular Comprehensive International Solution—The International Data Privacy Agreement, Scott Resnick Dec 2020

Easing The Burdens Of A Patchwork Approach To Data Privacy Regulation In Favor Of A Singular Comprehensive International Solution—The International Data Privacy Agreement, Scott Resnick

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Data privacy has become one of the premier hot-button issues in today’s increasingly digital human experience. Legislatures around the globe have attempted to act swiftly in an effort to safeguard the highly coveted personal information of their citizens and combat misuse at the hands of international businesses operating with an online presence. Since the European Union’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, countries around the globe have been grappling with how best to replicate the EU’s leading data privacy regulation while providing the same or greater level of transparency into data collection practices. While a mere …


Brave New World: A Post-Coronavirus Perspective On Trade, Kevin J. Fandl Dec 2020

Brave New World: A Post-Coronavirus Perspective On Trade, Kevin J. Fandl

Journal of Law and Policy

Trade policy during the Obama Administration largely reflected the pinnacle of the globalist moment in history. The dream of global peace through economic security was on the cusp of being achieved, with a comprehensive set of trade alliances linking countries both economically and politically to one another, a worldwide system of rules which nearly all countries abided in their economic relationships, and a deeply integrated global supply chain that not only enabled companies to satisfy consumer demands at exceedingly low cost and rapid development, but also empowered more and more workers in poor countries to join the global economy. This …


Comity & Calamity: Deference To The Executive And The Uncertain Future Of The Fsia, Michael Cooper Jun 2020

Comity & Calamity: Deference To The Executive And The Uncertain Future Of The Fsia, Michael Cooper

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 1976, Congress set out to remedy the haphazard and politically influenced system by which foreign states were granted sovereign immunity from United States’ courts. Its remedy was the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which explicitly put the power to determine whether a foreign state should be granted immunity from a court’s jurisdiction in the hands of the judiciary. Moreover, with some minor exceptions, the FSIA did not explicitly contemplate any involvement from the executive branch in reaching those determinations. However, given that concerns involving foreign relations inherently arise when a foreign state is sued in U.S. courts, the courts …


A Keystroke Causes A Tornado: Applying Chaos Theory To International Cyber Warfare Law, Daniel Garrie, Masha Simonova Jun 2020

A Keystroke Causes A Tornado: Applying Chaos Theory To International Cyber Warfare Law, Daniel Garrie, Masha Simonova

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Cyber warfare today finds itself on the front page of the news daily. It is increasingly apparent that the cyber domain demands more guidance, with leaders opting for the deployment of cyber capabilities to bypass kinetic warfare norms. Proposed solutions abound, but none adequately address the specific features of cyber warfare that set it apart from traditional kinetic warfare. This Article argues that a new legal framework is necessary to properly address this problem, and such a doctrine should incorporate principles of chaos theory. Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics dealing with complex systems, with the most well-known example …


China's Belt And Road Initiative: An Examination Of Project Financing Issues And Alternatives, August Nelson Dinwiddie Jun 2020

China's Belt And Road Initiative: An Examination Of Project Financing Issues And Alternatives, August Nelson Dinwiddie

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2013, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to realize the vision of revitalizing the ancient Silk Road. The BRI can be characterized as a vast infrastructure development initiative spanning over sixty-five countries that total almost half of the world's GDP. Since its launch, BRI projects have primarily been financed through commercial loans provided by Chinese banks, creating concerns over debt sustainability. At the top of these concerns are fears over whether participation in the BRI will lead to a "debt-trap scenaro." Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide an alternative financing option. In project development under a PPP, particularly the …


Multi-Jurisdictional Anti-Corruption Enforcement: Time For A Global Approach, Sharon Oded May 2020

Multi-Jurisdictional Anti-Corruption Enforcement: Time For A Global Approach, Sharon Oded

Journal of Law and Policy

With the rise of globalization, foreign corruption has become a prominent enemy of the world’s economy. Over time, numerous international initiatives―such as the OECD and United Nations conventions against foreign corruption―have enlisted a growing number of sovereign states to join in the global war against that enemy. As a consequence, global enhancement of anti-foreign corruption enforcement often results in duplicative, multi-jurisdictional enforcement, such that multiple enforcement actions are initiated against the same corporation by several authorities, in one or more jurisdictions, in relation to the same misconduct. This phenomenon, which was recently addressed by the US Department of Justice in …