Law Commons^™

The Vienna Convention On The Law Of Treaties In U.S. Treaty Interpretation, Evan J. Criddle

Evan J. Criddle

No abstract provided.

Chevron Deference And Treaty Interpretation, Evan J. Criddle

Evan J. Criddle

No abstract provided.

A Memorial For Bosnia: Framework Of Legal Arguments Concerning The Lawfulness Of The Maintenance Of The United Nations Security Council's Arms Embargo On Bosnia And Herzegovina, Craig Scott, Abid Qureshi, Jasminka Kalajdzic, Francis Chang, Paul Michell, Peter Copeland

Craig M. Scott

This Memorial seeks to present a framework of legal arguments with respect to the validity and legal effects of an arms embargo imposed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 713 in September 1991 on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), before its dissolution, and since treated as being in force with respect to the new states that have succeeded Yugoslavia. More particularly, the Memorial addresses the legality of maintaining (or, at least, having maintained during the crucial time period) the arms embargo in force, either de jure or de facto, against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) …

What The Boomerang Misses: Pursuing International Film Co-Production Treaties And Strategies, Brian Yecies

Dr Brian Yecies

This paper illustrates some of the dynamic ways that members of the Korean, Australian, New Zealand and Chinese creative and cultural industries have engaged with international instruments such as co-production treaties. Strategies, benefits returned and lost costs, that is, sacrifices that are made in the process of producing a film or digital media program in more than one country, and/or with an international team are investigated to reveal how creators are engaging with the demands of different governments' policies. It is hoped that this paper and the larger research project to which it is attached will assist scholars, creative and …

Encountering Settler Colonialism Through Legal Objects: A Painted Drum And Handwritten Treaty From Manitoulin Island, Ruth Buchanan, Jeffery G. Hewitt

Ruth Buchanan

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries generated a trove of objects documenting the encounter between the Anishinaabe of the Great Lakes region and the British. Two such objects, a drum painted with Anishinaabe imagery and a treaty, handwritten by a British treaty commissioner, were created in close proximity in both time and location. This paper explores the encounter between the Anishinaabe and the British through a parallel engagement with both drum and treaty; placing them in conversation with each other. We consider the divergent paths taken by these objects by comparing the material, legal and sensory landscapes in which they were …

The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu

Locknie HSU

Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have been greeted with bothenthusiasm and suspicion. In one respect, they have been called "white knights," where they step in to inject financing to troubledentities.' In others, they have been called "Trojan horses" and"chameleons."

An Eye Toward Effective Enforcement: A Technical-Comparative Approach To The Drafting Negotiations, Tara J. Melish

Tara Melish

Published as Chapter 5 in Human Rights and Disability Advocacy, Maya Sabatello & Marianne Schulze, eds.

The unprecedented level of civil society participation that took place in the drafting of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) constitutes a major key to its success -- laying a solid foundation for the much longer and harder process of implementation ahead. This piece addresses how one civil society organization -- Disability Rights International (DRI) -- approached the negotiation process. Part I explains the strategic approach DRI adopted, highlighting its methodology, the guiding principles it embraced, and the resulting …

The Role Of Physical Presence In The Taxation Of Cross-Border Personal Services, Michael Kirsch

Michael Kirsch

This Article addresses the role of physical presence in the taxation of cross-border personal services. For much of the last century, both U.S. internal law and bilateral treaties have used the service provider’s physical location as the touchstone for determining international taxing jurisdiction. Modern developments - in particular, the significant advances in global communication technology and the increasing mobility of individuals - raise important questions regarding the continued viability of this physical presence standard. These modern developments have already facilitated the offshoring of numerous types of personal services, such as radiology, accounting, and legal services. As communication technology improves, the …

Climate Justice, Daniel A. Farber

Daniel A Farber

Eric Posner and David Weisbach take the threat of climate change seriously. Their book Climate Change Justice offers policy prescriptions that deserve serious attention. While the authors adopt the framework of conventional welfare economics, they show a willingness to engage with noneconomic perspectives, which softens their conclusions. Although they are right to see a risk that overly aggressive ethical claims could derail international agreement on restricting greenhouse gases, their analysis makes climate justice too marginal to climate policy. The developed world does have a special responsibility for the current climate problem, and we should be willing both to agree to …

The Intent-To-Benefit: Individually Enforceable Rights Under International Treaties, Sital Kalantry

Sital Kalantry

Citizens of foreign countries are increasingly using international treaties to assert claims against Federal and state governments. As a result, U.S. courts are being asked to determine whether treaties provide litigants with individually enforceable rights. Although courts have no consistent approach to determining whether a treaty gives rise to individually enforceable rights, they often apply the textualist methodology derived from statutory interpretation. However, instead of using textual theories of statutory interpretation, I argue that courts should use intentionalist theories developed from contract interpretation in determining individually enforceable rights under treaties. Two positive arguments and one negative argument support my approach. …

The International Law Of Game Of Thrones, Perry S. Bechky

Perry S. Bechky

Game of Thrones depicts a violent and, some might say, lawless world. Few would think that world evidences much international law. Yet, this article identifies several rules of international law observable on the show and relates them to real-world international law. Observable rules include some fundaments of the law of treaties, customary norms, and (most surprisingly) at least one humanitarian peremptory norm. These rules cover a range of subjects, including sovereignty, state responsibility, jurisdiction, immunities, and human rights. The article also discusses the special legal status of the Night’s Watch, which is governed by the most important legal “text” in …

Widening Our Lens: Incorporating Essential Perspectives In The Fight Against Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

In 2000, the international community formally launched the modern movement to combat human trafficking with the United Nations' adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol). With the Trafficking Protocol, the international community created a new cornerstone upon which to build a global initiative to combat this modem form of slavery. As the first major international treaty on human trafficking in half a century, the Trafficking Protocol represented a significant step forward. One hundred forty-seven countries are now party to the …

The Tax Code As Nationality Law, Michael S. Kirsch

Michael Kirsch

This article questions the frequently-asserted axiom that Congress's taxing power knows no bounds. It does so in the context of recently-enacted legislation that creates a special definition of citizenship that applies only for tax purposes. Historically, a person was treated as a citizen for tax purposes (and therefore taxed on her worldwide income and estate) if, and only if, she was a citizen under the nationality law. As a result of the new statute, in certain circumstances a person might be treated as a citizen for tax purposes (and therefore taxed on her worldwide income and estate) for years or …

The Limits Of Administrative Guidance In The Interpretation Of Tax Treaties, Michael Kirsch

Michael Kirsch

This Article addresses the increasingly important role of administrative guidance in interpreting the United States' international treaty obligations. The relationship between administrative guidance and treaties raises important issues at the intersection of international law, constitutional law, and administrative law. These issues are explored in the context of the United States' extensive tax treaty network. Tax treaties play an important role in a global economy, attempting to reconcile the complex and ever-changing internal tax laws of different countries. The Treasury Department is considering the increased use of administrative guidance to interpret the meaning and application of tax treaties, particularly in response …

The Alien Tort Statute And The Law Of Nations, Bradford R. Clark, Anthony J. Bellia Jr.

Anthony J. Bellia

Courts and scholars have struggled to identify the original meaning of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). As enacted in 1789, the ATS provided "[t]hat the district courts... shall... have cognizance... of all causes where an alien sues for a tort only in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." The statute was rarely invoked for almost two centuries until, in the 1980s, lower federal courts began reading the statute expansively to allow foreign citizens to sue other foreign citizens for violations of modern customary international law that occurred outside the United States. In 2004 …

Regional Treaties, G. L. Rose

Professor Gregory Rose

An investigation of trends in Australian treaty-making with countries in the region of South East Asia and the South West Pacific, projected forwards from the middle of 2006.

The Death Of Good Faith In Treaty Jurisprudence And A Call For Resurrection, Michael P. Van Alstine

Michael P. Van Alstine

This article addresses the absence of the venerable doctrine of good faith interpretation, as well as its companion “liberal interpretation canon,” from modern Supreme Court treaty jurisprudence. Although scholarly accounts suggest that the spirit is still alive, the article demonstrates that the doctrine was silently interred by the Supreme Court early in the last century. From all appearances, the disappearance of good faith from treaty jurisprudence was not by design. Nonetheless, the article demonstrates that even such an unintended drift can have serious negative consequences. In the context of treaty jurisprudence, the consequence of the departure of good faith interpretation …

Federal Common Law In An Age Of Treaties, Michael P. Van Alstine

Michael P. Van Alstine

In this article Professor Van Alstine explores the interaction between the limitations on the doctrine of federal common law and the power of federal courts to interpret the law within the scope of treaties. The article first reviews the constitutional foundation for the operation of treaties as directly applicable ("self-executing") federal law. It then explains that, notwithstanding the Erie doctrine, federal courts may obtain lawmaking powers from either a delegation by Congress or in certain areas of "uniquely federal interest." Professor Van Alstine then argues that the judicial relationship with self-executing treaty law in principle proceeds from the same source …

Rational Treaties: Article Ii, Congressional-Executive Agreements, And International Bargaining, John C. Yoo

John C Yoo

This paper examines the continuing difference between the Constitution’s Article II treaty, and the congressional-executive agreement’s statutory process, to make international agreements. Rather than approach the problem from a textual or historical perspective, it employs a rational choice model of dispute resolution between nation-states in conditions of weak to little enforcement by supranational institutions. It argues that the choice of a treaty or congressional-executive agreement can make an important difference in overcoming various difficulties in bargaining that arise from imperfect information and commitment problems.

International Treaties On Human Rights, Saumya Uma

Dr. Saumya Uma

Hamdan V. Rumsfeld: The Functional Case For Foreign Affairs Deference To The Executive Branch, John C. Yoo, Julian Ku

John C Yoo

The Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld represents a radical new judicial approach to the interpretation of laws relating to foreign affairs. Not only did the Hamdan Court fail to defer to the executive's reasonable interpretations of the relevant statutes, treaties, and customary international law of war relating to military commissions, but it did not even justify its failure to depart from longstanding formal doctrines requiring such deference. In this Essay, we offer a functional defense of the doctrines requiring judicial deference to executive interpretations of laws affecting foreign affairs in wartime; doctrines that the Hamdan Court largely ignored. …

The Role Of International Treaties In The Interpretation Of Canadian Intellectual Property Statutes, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

The relationship between domestic intellectual property statutes and international law in growing in scope and depth. This paper is a chapter in a book that emphasizes that international law is not only used to interpret domestic law but in fact may itself become a guide for international tribunals, such as the World Trade Organization Dispute-Settlement Body. The Paper considers mostly the role that international norms have played in recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court.

Sovereignty And The American Courts At The Cocktail Party Of International Law: The Dangers Of Domestic Invocations Of Foreign And International Law, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

With increasing frequency and heightened debate, United States courts have been citing foreign and “international” law as authority for domestic decisions. This trend is inappropriate, undemocratic, and dangerous. The trend touches on fundamental concepts of sovereignty, democracy, the judicial role, and overall issues of effective governance. There are multiple problems with the judiciary’s reliance on extraterritorial and extra-constitutional foreign or international sources to guide their decisions. Perhaps the most fundamental flaw is its interference with rule of law values. To borrow from Judge Harold Levanthal, the use of international sources in judicial decision-making might be described as “the equivalent of …

The Design Of International Agreements, Andrew T. Guzman

Andrew T Guzman

States entering into international agreements have at their disposal several tools to enhance the strength and credibility of their commitments, including the ability to make the agreement a formal treaty rather than soft law, provide for mandatory dispute resolution procedures, and establish monitoring mechanisms. Each of these strategies – referred to as ‘design elements’ – increases the costs associated with the violation of an agreement and, therefore, the probability of compliance. Yet even a passing familiarity with international agreements makes it clear that states routinely fail to include these design elements in their agreements. This article explains why rational states …

Rhetoric Or Rights?: When Culture And Religion Bar Girls' Right To Education, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Women account for almost two-thirds of the world's illiterates. In the year 2000, the World Education Forum met in Dakar, Senegal and set goals to (1) eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and (2) achieve gender equality in education by 2015. Two months before 2004, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that sixty percent of the 128 countries that attended the Dakar Conference would not meet these goals. The report attributed the failure to sharp discrimination against girls in social and cultural practices. The report failed to mention that social and cultural …

The Political Economy Of The Production Of Customary International Law: The Role Of Non-Governmental Organizations, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Increasingly, United States courts are recognizing various treaties, as well as declarations, proclamations, conventions, resolutions, programmes, protocols, and similar forms of inter- or multi-national “legislation” as evidence of a body of “customary international law” enforceable in domestic courts, particularly in the area of tort liability. These “legislative” documents, which this Article refers to as customary international law outputs, are seen by some courts as evidence of jus cogens norms that bind not only nations and state actors, but also private individuals. The most obvious evidence of this trend is in the proliferation of lawsuits against corporations with ties to the …

Treaty Law: A Primer For Human Rights Lawyers, Perry S. Bechky

Perry S. Bechky

This short article introduces the law of treaties to domestic lawyers handling civil liberties cases.