Law Commons^™

Automating Fairness? Artificial Intelligence In The Chinese Court, Rachel E. Stern, Benjamin L. Liebman, Margaret Roberts, Alice Z. Wang

Faculty Scholarship

How will surging global interest in data analytics and artificial intelligence transform the day-to-day operations of courts, and what are the implications for judicial power? In the last five years, Chinese courts have come to lead the world in their efforts to deploy automated pattern analysis to monitor judges, standardize decision-making, and observe trends in society. This Article chronicles how and why Chinese courts came to embrace artificial intelligence, making public tens of millions of court judgments in the process. Although technology is certainly being used to strengthen social control and boost the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, examining …

Tribute To Richard N. Gardner, Lori F. Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

Richard Gardner was my valued mentor and colleague at Columbia University, beginning before I began teaching in 1984 and continuing well beyond his retirement in 2012. In the fall semesters from 1984 through 1989, we co-taught the survey course in International Law, using the Columbia textbook originally developed by Wolfgang Friedmann with other Columbia co-editors (which has remained the “Columbia book” over the years). Our first semester of teaching together coincided with the semester that Dick’s daughter, Nina, took the International Law class as a 2L at Columbia Law School (as his son, Tony, would also do, a few years …

Richard N. Gardner: Memories, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

Richard Gardner and I were colleagues for almost sixty years. The law faculty elevated us to its tenured ranks at the same meeting in 1959. We helped restore order after Columbia’s 1968 turmoil, he as a member of a disciplinary tribunal, I as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Faculty. We served under eight deans together; he
actually served under a ninth: me.

The Model International Mobility Convention, Michael W. Doyle

Faculty Scholarship

People are as mobile as they ever were in our globalized world. Yet the movement of people across borders lacks global regulation, leaving many people unprotected in irregular and dire situations and some States concerned that their borders have become irrelevant. And international mobility – the movement of individuals across borders for any length of time as visitors, students, tourists, labor migrants, entrepreneurs, long-term residents, family members, asylum seekers, or refugees – has no common definition or legal framework.

International Dealmaking At The White House: Toward A Viable Test Of Allowable Sole Executive Agreements, Joshua Abbuhl

National Security Law Program

The Constitution's Treaty Clause states that the President "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur." This clause represents the only instance in which the Constitution describes a process by which the United States can conclude agreements with foreign governments. However, the President regularly enters international agreements on his own authority and without the assent of a supermajority of the Senate. This Note explores when the President may lawfully enter such agreements, known as "sole executive agreements."

A Tale Of Two Kadis: Kadi Ii, Kadi V. Geithner & U.S. Counterterrorism Finance Efforts, Douglas Cantwell

National Security Law Program

The European Court of Justice's final decision in Kadi II-Yassin Abdullah Kadi's challenge in Europe to his designation as an international terrorist financier has stimulated significant discussion on the relationship between European and international law. Less attention has been paid to the Kadi II's correlate in US. courts, Kadi v. Geithner, decided in the D.C. Circuit. The varying outcomes in these cases create a "transnational split record" that has implications for reform of multilateral counterterrorism sanctions.

This Note considers the impact of Kadi's legal challenges in the United States and Europe from the perspective of U.S. counterterrorism policy. …

Ongoing Issues In Russian Corporate Governance, Merritt B. Fox

Faculty Scholarship

This Article concerns Russian corporate governance today. It starts by arguing that there are fundamental differences between the policy questions raised by SOEs and those raised by non-SOEs and that the analysis needs to separate out these two kinds of corporations. The Article then goes on to consider several ongoing issues relating to non-SOEs. To start, it suggests the need for a set of rules, backed by reliably applied stiff sanctions, requiring disclosure of all situations where a person, by himself or as a member of a coordinated group, is the beneficial owner of sufficient shares to be able to …

Hackback: Permitting Retaliatory Hacking By Non-State Actors As Proportionate Countermeasures To Transboundary Cyberharm, Jan E. Messerschmidt

National Security Law Program

Cyberespionage has received even greater attention in the wake of reports of persistent and brazen cyberexploitation of U.S. and Canadian firms by the Chinese military. But the recent disclosures about NSA surveillance programs have made clear that a national program of cyberdefense of private firms' intellectual property is politically infeasible. Following the lead

of companies like Google, private corporations may increasingly resort to the use of self-defense, hacking back against cross-border incursions on the Internet. Most scholarship, however, has surprisingly viewed such actions as outside the ambit of international law. This Note provides a novel account of how international law …

Changing Tides: An Adaptable Prosecution Approach To Piracy’S Shifting Problem, Jessica Piquet

National Security Law Program

Although piracy off the coast of Somalia has captured worldwide attention, attacks in this region are decreasing while other regions are experiencing increases in pirate activity. This Note expands upon prior research into prosecution models for combatting piracy off the coast of Somalia to determine the adaptability and sustainability of these methods as applied to piracy in other regions. In examining the three most common prosecution models currently used and proposed (prosecution by domestic courts in regional states, prosecution by the capturing state or by a state with a significant nexus to the attack, and prosecution by a specialized piracy …

The Kiobel Presumption And Extraterritoriality, Sarah H. Cleveland

Faculty Scholarship

With its modem rebirth in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) held out a potentially transformative promise. By establishing a forum in the United States for a victim of torture that had occurred at the hands of a Paraguayan police inspector in Paraguay, the ATS offered to emancipate the state-centered Westphalian system from a narrow focus on territorial sovereignty, and move toward a more globalized community focused on the protection of universal values. The ATS recognized that modem human rights perpetrators, victims, and violations move easily across borders, and that transnational accountability for such violations is in the …

Streaming The International Silver Platter Doctrine: Coordinating Transnational Law Enforcement In The Age Of Global Terrorism And Technology, Caitlin T. Street

National Security Law Program

The dramatic expansion of technology and globalization over the last thirty years has not only facilitated transnational terrorist operations, but also has transformed the countermeasures utilized by law enforcement and amplified the need for counterterrorism coordination between foreign and domestic authorities. Crucially, these changes have altered the fourth amendment calculus, set out by the international silver platter doctrine, for admitting evidence seized in U.S.-foreign cooperative searches abroad. Under the international silver platter doctrine, courts admit the evidence gathered by foreign authorities abroad unless the unreasonable search is deemed a "joint venture" between U.S. and foreign authorities. Notably, the legal framework …

Maximizing Autonomy In The Shadow Of Great Powers: The Political Economy Of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Kyle Hatton, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have received a great deal of attention since they appeared as critical investors during the global financial crisis. Reactions have ranged from fears of state intervention and mercantilism to hopes that SWFs will emerge as model long-term investors that will take on risky investments in green technology and infrastructure that few private investors are willing to touch. In this paper we argue that both of these reactions overlook the fact that SWFs are deeply embedded in the political economy of their respective sovereign sponsors. This paper focuses on four political entities that sponsor some of the …

Louis Henkin: Courage And Convictions, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

Louis Henkin was a man of courage and of convictions. His students at Columbia, who engaged with him inside and outside the classroom during the course of five decades, had many opportunities to learn of his convictions, which were manifest in his teaching, writing and activism. But Henkin would not have spoken in the classroom of his own acts of courage, exemplified by (but not limited to) his combat service in the Second World War, nor would he have drawn attention to other personal virtues. This brief tribute (complementary to others being written by colleagues at Columbia for publication here …

Secret Evidence And The Due Process Of Terrorist Detentions, Daphne Barak-Erez, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

Courts across many common law democracies have been wrestling with a shared predicament: proving cases against suspected terrorists in detention hearings requires governments to protect sensitive classified information about intelligence sources and methods, but withholding evidence from suspects threatens fairness and contradicts a basic tenet of adversarial process. This Article examines several models for resolving this problem, including the "special advocate" model employed by Britain and Canada, and the 'Judicial management" model employed in Israel. This analysis shows how the very different approaches adopted even among democracies sharing common legal foundations reflect varying understandings of 'fundamental fairness" or "due process," …

Silence Of The Laws? Conceptions Of International Relations And International Law In Hobbes, Kant, And Locke, Michael W. Doyle, Geoffrey S. Carlson

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay explains how the political theorists Hobbes, Kant, and Locke interpret the decision to go to war (us ad bellum) and the manner in which the war is conducted (just in bello). It also considers the implications of the three theories for compliance with international law more generally. It concludes that although all three can lay claim to certain key features of modern international law, it is Locke who provides the most complete support for both the laws of war, in particular, and with international law, in general.

Introduction To Sandra Day O'Connor, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

There are many, many reasons to honor Justice Sandra Day O'Connor-and during the course of her brief but rich stay with us here at Columbia Law School, we have touched on only some of those many reasons. There remains this afternoon one more occasion to honor Justice O'Connor-an honor that has a very special resonance at this law school. It is the conferral of the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award by the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, a recognition of contributions to international law that is deeply meaningful not only at Columbia Law School, but in international law circles generally.

Who Tolls The Bells For Firms? Tales From Transition Economies, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

Bankruptcy law is regarded as an important mechanism for protecting creditor rights. Much of the current debate about bankruptcy law focuses exclusively on private creditors, ignoring the role of tax authorities as creditor in insolvent firms. Based on data from several transition economies, this essay documents the important, if not dominant, role tax authorities play as initiator of bankruptcy in these countries. While improved tax enforcement is crucial for tackling the problem of tax arrears and hardening the "soft budget-constraint" in former socialist countries, this essay suggests that the presence of the tax authorities as creditor may also affect the …

Hamdan Confronts The Military Commissions Act Of 2006, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

In 2006 the law of war experienced two major shock waves. The first was the decision of the Supreme Court in Hamdan, which represented the first major defeat of the President's plan, based on an executive order of November 2001, to use military tribunals against suspected international terrorists. The majority of the Court held the procedures used in the military tribunal against Hamdan violated common article three of the Geneva Conventions. A plurality offour, with the opinion written by Justice Stevens, based their decision as well on afar-reaching interpretation of the substantive law of war. They held that conspiracy …

Medellin V. Dretke: Federalism And International Law, Curtis Bradley, Lori Fisler Damrosch, Martin Flaherty

Faculty Scholarship

This evening, we're going to have, at the very least, a discussion which may blossom into a debate-we will see as the evening progresses. However one characterizes the event, we're here to discuss the Medellin v. Dretke case and, more broadly, we are going to be discussing cutting edge issues of international law, including the operation of self-executing treaties and state legal systems, the weight to be given to judgments of international courts interpreting such treaties, and the duties of state and federal judiciaries in this process, all in the context of death penalty cases. Let me give you a …

What's So Special About Multinational Enterprises: A Comment On Avi-Yonah, Merritt B. Fox

Faculty Scholarship

My analysis of the legal challenges posed by the growth of MNEs is based on an examination of a number of the examples used by Avi-Yonah to illustrate the working of his framework: piercing the corporate veil for mass torts (as in the Bhopal toxic chemical release), bribery, bankruptcy, child labor and antitrust. My approach focuses on the ways in which MNEs are special. To what extent do particular forms of behavior occurring within MNEs raise regulatory problems similar to problems raised by the same behavior occurring within other institutional arrangements, and to what extent does it raise problems that …

Local Institutions, Foreign Investment And Alternative Strategies Of Development: Some Views From Practice, Tamara Lothian, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay summarizes the major insights gained from a panel discussion with legal practitioners about the relevance of local institutions to foreign direct investors. The Essay offers a critique of policy conclusions drawn from empirical studies that suggest a positive correlation between legal institutions and foreign investment flows. It points out that the data used in these studies are far too general to allow policy conclusions and that neither the data nor the policy conclusions are sufficiently attuned to the challenges or opportunities that foreign direct investment projects face on the ground. According to the results of the panel discussion, …

Use Of Force And Constitutionalism, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

Are constitutional democracies more inclined than other kinds of regimes to observe the international law of the United Nations Charter on use of force? Are they relatively more vulnerable to unlawful behavior by others? How can constitutional democracies ensure fidelity to their underlying constitutional principles when they engage in multinational military operations for preservation or restoration of international peace? These and related questions at the intersection of the international and national legal orders merit careful attention as political structures around the world undergo post-Cold War transformation.

Provisional Relief In Transnational Litigation, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Bermann identifies and analyzes the principal problems raised by the rapidly growing phenomenon of transnational provisional relief National courts are facing serious challenges in organizing such interventions, but as yet lack a sufficiently comprehensive framework of analysis. The author begins with the clarifying distinction that provisional relief may be transnational either because of its significant effects abroad or because it lends support to protective measures ordered by foreign courts, and draws on the experiences of U.S. and foreign courts in determining the costs of both granting and withholding provisional relief He concludes that, despite the very …

Law And Labor In The New Global Economy: Through The Lens Of United States Federalism, Mark Barenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The heightened economic globalization of the last quarter century presents a welter of new questions for legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. In many specialized fields, lawyers and academics are reskilling in comparative and international law in response to the growing importance of the transnational linkages and competition facing economic and regulatory actors in the United States. Concurrently, dramatic economic and political "transitions" in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe have created legal uncertainties and innovations that compound the challenges of transnationalization. Issues of labor and employment law are at the center of both of these epochal transformations – globalization and …

Introduction, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

As recent pages of this journal and and any other number of indicators would suggest, legal developments in the European Community (EC or Community) have sparked unprecedented interest on the part of the American legal profession. That this journal, five or ten years ago, would have devoted an entire issue to these developments, while not unimaginable, was unlikely. Today, however, changes in the world legal community's focus make the choice of topic seem quite obvious. The question now seems not to be whether or even when to address the Community, but rather what specific areas to address and how to …

The Use Of Anti-Suit Injunctions In International Litigation, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

Of the various forms of provisional relief in the context of inter-national litigation, none has sparked as much interest and controversy as the international anti-suit injunction. In many ways the international anti-suit injunction, an instrument by which a court of one jurisdiction seeks to restrain the conduct of litigation in another jurisdiction, resembles more conventional forms of international provisional relief such as the foreign attachment or preliminary injunction. Like them, the anti-suit injunction affords courts an important opportunity to affect the course and significance of litigation abroad. However, such intervention strongly implies – and often actually creates – jurisdictional conflict …

The Single European Act: A Constitution For The Community?, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

If proof were needed that the European Economic Community is still the product of a careful tempering of integrationist impulses with preoccupations of national sovereignty, the recently ratified Single European Act (Single Act or Act) amply supplies it. Although the Single Act represents the most comprehensive revision to date of the Treaty of Rome (EEC Treaty), which established the European Economic Community (European Community or Community), it also reflects the continuing vitality of the view that functional change within the Community takes priority in time over structural and institutional reform. Rather than place European integration on a new set of …

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 …

Western Scholarship On Chinese Law: Past Accomplishments And Present Challenges, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

Chinese law-making in recent years has been nothing less than remarkable and presents a new challenge for research today. The recent adoption of new codes, the revival of formal legal institutions, including courts and the bar, and the reinvigoration of legal education and research all signal the reappearance of an entire field of study.

Although a foundation for study was laid by some scholars in the 1960's, the field later declined, reflecting the low condition to which the Chinese legal system fell, both before and during the disastrous Cultural Revolution. Once again, however, study of the operation of the Chinese …

The Scope Of Judicial Review In French Administrative Law, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

The arguments that may be raised in support of a claim of abuse of discretion must go to the legality, not just the wisdom or advisability, of administrative action. Though the judge is responsible for seeing to it that the government acts in conformity with law, he may not put himself in its place or interfere in its functioning. His job is not to determine whether in a given case a certain administrative official ought to have acted and, if so, in one particular way. He has neither the means nor the materials for judgments of this sort, nor does …