Law Commons^™

Conditions In U.S. Treaty Practice: New Data And Insights Into A Growing Phenomenon, Cindy G. Buys

Cindy G. Buys

The U.S. Senate often adds various types of conditions, also known as reservations, understandings, and declarations, to its advice and consent to multilateral treaties. The ability to add conditions to a treaty likely increases the number of States willing to join a treaty because it allows States to modify their treaty obligations to address domestic concerns. However, the use of conditions also has the potential to undermine the integrity of the treaty by allowing States to opt out of important legal obligations and to create legal uncertainty regarding treaty obligations and relationships. This article examines U.S. treaty practice with respect …

Movsesian V. Victoria Versicherung And The Scope Of The President's Foreign Affairs Power To Preempt Words, Cindy G. Buys, Grant Gorman

Cindy G. Buys

The federal courts continue to struggle with the scope of the federal government’s foreign affairs power to preempt state law. Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did an about face in Movsesian v.Victoria Versicherung, which involved a claim that a California statute using the phrase “Armenian Genocide” is preempted by a few informal nonbinding statements of executive policy made to Congress objecting to the use of those words in Congressional resolutions. In Movsesian I, the Ninth Circuit found the California statute preempted in a decision that would have expanded the federal government’s foreign affairs power to preempt state law …

Nottebohm's Nightmare: Have We Exorcised The Ghosts Of Wwii Detention Programs Or Do They Still Haunt Guantanamo?, Cindy G. Buys

Cindy G. Buys

Frederich Nottebohm was the subject of a famous 1956 International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision that still has resonance today. The story of how Mr. Nottebohm, a wealthy German-born businessman living in Guatemala, came to be the subject of a case before the world court exposes a little known program run by the United States during World War II in which the United States pressured Latin American countries like Guatemala to identify persons of German nationality or ancestry and turn them over to the United States for internment for the duration of the war. Many of these persons were assumed …

Towards Better Implementation Of The United States' International Obligations, Cindy G. Buys

Cindy G. Buys

Abstract:

Towards Better Implementation of the United States’ International Obligations

Cindy G. Buys

The United States is a party to hundreds of treaties that create a vast array of international obligations for the country. Many of these treaty obligations require some action by the government to become effective in the U.S. legal system. Domestic implementation of these international obligations has created structural tensions, both between the branches of the federal government and between the states and the federal government. This article uses President Bush’s efforts to implement the recent judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Case …

Burying Our Constitution In The Sand? Evaluating The Ostrich Response To The Use Of International And Foreign Law In U.S. Constitutional Interpretation, Cindy G. Buys

Cindy G. Buys

No abstract provided.