Law Commons^™

Linking International Investment Agreements And Corporate Social Responsibility: Challenges And Opportunities In The Grounds Of Corporate Governance, Marco A. Velásquez-Ruiz

Marco A. Velásquez-Ruiz

Considering the intention of introducing a dialogue on the possible interconnections between Foreign Investment Law and Corporate Governance, the purpose of this paper is to present some ideas on the International Investment Agreements likelihood to make Corporate Social Responsibility compromises more robust by including specific provisions on the matter. More specifically, it is intended to understand the ways on which Investment Law –and more specifically International Investment Agreements– influences the structure and dynamics of Corporate Governance, so as to assess whether the inclusion of Corporate Social Responsibility on the abovementioned legal instruments might influence the conduct of Multinational Corporations.

Freedom From Food: On The Need To Restore Fdr’S Vision Of Economic Rights In America, And How It Can Be Done, Evgeny Krasnov

Evgeny Krasnov

Within the U.S. policy discourse, it has long been taken for granted that the body of human rights law does not—and should not—include economic rights, which include the right to adequate food, shelter, and health care. This is an irony of history, since the origins of modern-day economic rights law lie in the policies advocated by the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

This Article argues that (1) the common justifications for neglecting economic rights are not sound; (2) there is a pressing need to recognize economic rights in the United States; and (3) the best way to do so is …

Ending Judgment Arbitrage: Jurisdictional Competition And The Enforcement Of Foreign Money Judgments In The United States, Gregory Shill

Gregory Shill

Recent multi-billion-dollar damage awards issued by foreign courts against large American companies have focused attention on the once-obscure, patchwork system of enforcing foreign-country judgments in the United States. That system’s structural problems are even more serious than its critics have charged. However, the leading proposals for reform overlook the positive potential embedded in its design.

In the United States, no treaty or federal law controls the domestication of foreign judgments; the process is instead governed by state law. Although they are often conflated in practice, the procedure consists of two formally and conceptually distinct stages: foreign judgments must first be …

What Is The Primary Right?, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

This essay develops a new human right derived from both domestic substantive due process and international political exit right doctrines, called the primary right, which is best described as a general human claim-right of reasonable access to wilderness. It is a first generation human rights approach to environmental protection, positing a “nonhuman” baseline environment which is a necessary condition for persons to a) be “let alone” by others, and b) withdraw consent to political association and exit any, and therefore all, polities.

Intellectual Property And Public Health – A White Paper, Ryan G. Vacca, Jim Chen, Jay Dratler Jr., Tom Folsom, Timothy Hall, Yaniv Heled, Frank Pasquale, Elizabeth Reilly, Jeff Samuels, Kathy Strandburg, Kara Swanson, Andrew Torrance, Katharine Van Tassel

Ryan G. Vacca

On October 26, 2012, the University of Akron School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property and Technology hosted its Sixth Annual IP Scholars Forum. In attendance were thirteen legal scholars with expertise and an interest in IP and public health who met to discuss problems and potential solutions at the intersection of these fields. This report summarizes this discussion by describing the problems raised, areas of agreement and disagreement between the participants, suggestions and solutions made by participants and the subsequent evaluations of these suggestions and solutions.

Led by the moderator, participants at the Forum focused generally on three broad …

Fair Trial Guarantees Before The Court Of Arbitration For Sport, Jernej Letnar Cernic

Jernej Letnar Černič

The right to a fair trial is one of the backbones of the rule of law and a conditio sine qua non for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. This article examines whether fair trial guarantees also exist before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It attempts to identify whether the Court of Arbitration for Sport follows the fair trial guarantees developed in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. This article thereafter tries to draw out an understanding of fair trial guarantees in sports arbitration.

The Romantic Corporation: Trademark, Trust, And Tyranny, Malla Pollack

Malla Pollack

Humans in the United States, and many other market-centric nations, live in a world extensively populated by friendly, helpful, honest, charitable, patriotic beings worthy of our respect and support – none of whom exist. Yet these fellow-beings speak to us humans so often that they must be part of our ingrained perception of the world. Who are they? They are the marketing personas created by totally self-interested businesses. They harm humans not only by misdirection in specific instances, but by providing cover for our government’s improper prioritization of corporate interests over human interests. This systemic distortion of public perception is …

The European Social Charter And Its Implementation In The Republic Of Azerbaijan, Zaka Mirzayev

Zaka Mirzayev Zaka

In the article the European Social Charter, the core of the European social model is studied from the perspective of its potential implementation challenges in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's efforts for the due fulfillment of the Charter obligations are analyzed in light of its legislation and legal practice, as well as in the context of the government’s relevant national reports that have been submitted to the Council of Europe up to day. Further, theoretical and practical problems impeding the treaty’s full implementation in the country are identified. The article also deals with issues relating to the Charter’s international and …

A Ripening Obligation: The Responsibility To Protect International Human Rights In States Of Recent Occupation, Benjamin K. Grimes

Benjamin K Grimes

The United Nations has described State unwillingness to address extra-territorial human rights abuses as a failure of “civic courage … at the highest level.” That view is consistent with a trend in international jurisprudence on the issue of State responsibility for respecting and protecting human rights. In line with these opinions, this article examines the arc of international understanding of human rights responsibilities to identify the proper path for U.S. military operations. It proposes specific practical solutions to guide the United States in recognizing not only its joint legal responsibility for protecting human rights in post-occupation situations (as in Afghanistan), …

Does Justice Always Require Prosecution? The International Criminal Court And Transitional Justice Measures, Elizabeth B. Ludwin King

Elizabeth B Ludwin King

Two provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), those regarding complementarity and discretion to decline “in the interests of justice,” give the ICC Prosecutor the ability to yield to a state that wants to undertake its own transitional justice program. Given the global preference for the imposition of individual criminal liability for serious international crimes, as evidenced by the creation of the ICC, it is highly likely that most such programs will involve prosecution. This Article asks whether the ICC Prosecutor might step aside when faced with a state that favors other mechanisms of accountability and …

Christianity In China: Maintaining Social Order Trumps Religious Freedom, Tina M. Trunzo-Lute

Tina M Trunzo-Lute

China is a powerful country with a population of 1.3 billion and the world’s second largest economy. While China excels in many areas, it lacks in providing religious freedom to its citizens. China has a few safeguards in place for religious believers, including the ratification of the ICESCR and provisions in its constitution. However, the inconsistent application of the safeguards and the government’s ultimate goals of furthering socialism and maintaining social order inhibit Christians in China from having the ability to freely and openly practice their religion without fear of persecution. This fear has thrust millions of Christians into illegal …

The Human Rights Council And The Convergence Of Humanitarian Law And Human Rights Law, Daphne Richemond-Barak

Daphne Richemond-Barak

This Article examines and challenges the assumption that the Human Rights Council can and ought to address violations of international humanitarian law. Though envisaged as the main guardian of human rights within the United Nations system, the Human Rights Council views its mandate as encompassing both human rights and international humanitarian law. This extension of its mandate to humanitarian law is not entirely surprising, given the close relationship between IHL and human rights law. Yet, a comparison with other human rights bodies shows that the Council has gone further and with less caution than any other human right body called …

Babies Without Borders: Human Rights, Human Dignity And The Regulation Of International Commercial Surrogacy, Yasmine Ergas

Yasmine Ergas

In recent decades, a robust international market in commercial reproductive surrogacy has emerged. But, as German citizens Jan Balaz and Susan Lohle discovered when they struggled to engineer the last-minute diplomatic compromise that saved their commissioned twins from becoming wards of the Indian state, conflicts among legal frameworks have placed the children born at risk of being “marooned, stateless and parentless.” States have tried to address the individual dramas through ad hoc solutions – issuing emergency entry documents for children caught at borders or compelling administrative authorities to recognize birth certificates related to surrogacy arrangements that run counter to domestic …

Babies Without Borders: Human Rights, Human Dignity And The Regulation Of International Commercial Surrogacy, Yasmine Ergas

Yasmine Ergas

In recent decades, a robust international market in commercial reproductive surrogacy has emerged. But, as German citizens Jan Balaz and Susan Lohle discovered when they struggled to engineer the last-minute diplomatic compromise that saved their commissioned twins from becoming wards of the Indian state, conflicts among legal frameworks have placed the children born at risk of being “marooned, stateless and parentless.” States have tried to address the individual dramas through ad hoc solutions – issuing emergency entry documents for children caught at borders or compelling administrative authorities to recognize birth certificates related to surrogacy arrangements that run counter to domestic …

Remarks At The Launching Of The Anti-Trafficking Review, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

Remarks delivered by Dr Anne Gallagher, Guest Editor, at the launch of the new journal: Anti-Trafficking Review.

There Is But One Sword That Defends The Rights Of Man- Bringing Lgbt Rights Out Of The Closet, Jonathan M. Bhagan

Jonathan m Bhagan

Introduction. International norms of human rights are a powerful force for interpreting, protecting and growing rights on the domestic plane. Courts throughout the Commonwealth already look to international norms to flesh out rights, whether they are found in the constitutional jurisprudence of other common law states in Treaties or Treaty based case law. While some schools of jurisprudence claim that International and Domestic law are two separate spheres , throughout the paper it will be shown that judges have consistently looked to foreign and International Law as inspiration and support for their decisions in key human rights cases. This trend …

Transparency Between Norm, Technique And Property In International Law And Governance—The Example Of Corporate Disclosure Regimes And Environmental Impacts, Larry Cata Backer

Larry Cata Backer

This article considers the role of transparency in corporate governance, focusing on the regulatory forms in international environmental law and policy. It is divided into five sections. After this Introduction, Section II considers conventional sources of international environmental law for its transparency effects on the environmental impacts of business activity, looking at both hard law and soft law frameworks. While there is a substantial and growing body of public international hard and soft law frameworks in environmental governance, much of that is focused on the role of states and the information and participation rights of affected communities in the political …

Incorporating Social Justice Concerns Into The New Law And Development Movement: The Importance Of Insolvency Law, Julia M. Davis Ms.

Julia M Davis Ms.

This paper focuses on insolvency law as an underutilized area for incorporating social justice concerns into legal reform projects in developing countries. Insolvency is an area of law that already plays a large role in legal development projects and is especially suited for incorporating social justice concerns because of its ability to redistribute wealth and safeguard vulnerable interests. In arguing that insolvency law should be better exploited by social justice advocates this paper briefly reviews the history and literature surrounding the “Legal Development Movement” (LDM) and discusses the responsibilities of development agencies to incorporate social justice concerns into economically-focused legal …

Overcoming The Unfortunate Legacy Of Haditha, The Stryker Brigade “Kill Team”, And Pantano: Establishing More Effective War Crimes Accountability By The United States, Alan F. Williams

Alan F. Williams

In the years since September 11, 2001 U.S. personnel have been implicated in many incidents involving possible war crimes as defined by the Geneva Conventions. The author critically examines the current U.S approach to handling war crimes and concludes that the process is fundamentally flawed and has repeatedly produced unjust outcomes, particularly in a series of high profile cases that have greatly damaged the position of the U.S. in the international community. The author concludes that not only has the U.S. lost the respect of the international community, but has also simultaneously increased the likelihood that U.S. personnel who serve …

Intimate Matters: Discovery Avenues Towards Straight Women's Human Rights, Alice Bullard Ph.D.

Alice Bullard Ph.D.

“Intimate Matters: Discovering Avenues toward Straight Women’s Human Rights” © Alice Bullard, Ph.D., J.D. expected May 2012 email: ab654@law.georgetown.edu Abstract: This paper demonstrates the need, and the legal right under international human rights law to support, for developing and teaching intimate strategies for women’s emancipation. The international human rights agenda largely overlooks heterosexual sex is a facet of women’s subjugation; we argue here to correct that oversight, to integrate an understanding of the potential of heterosexual sex to (re)produce women’s subordination, and to sketch a program to combat this tendency. At issue is not overt sexual violence or sexual acts …

Rape Trauma, The State, And The Art Of Tracey Emin, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

Prosecutors use “rape trauma syndrome” evidence at rape trials to explain victims’ “counterintuitive” behaviors and demeanors, such as late reporting, denying their rapes, returning to the scenes of their attacks, and lack of emotional affect. Courts and experts, in instructions and testimony, usually describe victim reticence as a product of “shame” or “trauma.” Feminist critics of R.T.S. evidence posit that it is based on incomplete evidence, because most rapes are unreported. Furthermore, they object to its condescending, sexist, and colonial construction of rape victims and their emotions. In this Article, I respond to feminist critics by studying the work of …

Update: Organization Of American States, Jillian Blake

Jillian Blake

No abstract provided.

The Primary Right, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

As climate change materializes, legal theorists face the urgent need to develop a normative baseline for environmental regulation. Meanwhile, in the seemingly unrelated field of political exit theory, theorists have presumed that while one ought to be able to exit any polity one cannot exit all polities. This essay challenges that presumption, and simultaneously addresses the baseline problem in environmental law, by combining the analyses to develop a new human right derived from exit right theory called the primary right: a general claim-right of reasonable access to wilderness. The derivation is simple: If consent is necessary to justify political association, …

Immigration Detention & Human Rights In The Lone Star State, Liane N. Noble

Liane N Noble

Every year, almost 400,000 individuals are held in immigration detention in the United States. These individuals—men, women, and even children—are held in a patchwork of federal, local, and private contract facilities. Surprisingly, one-third of all U.S. immigration detention beds are located in the state of Texas. Given the concentration of detention space in Texas and thus the unique issues facing that state, this report seeks to elucidate the key human rights issues surrounding immigration detention with a focus on the situation in Texas.

The information contained in this report was gathered using a variety of research methods, including: (1) review …

Human Rights Adjudication In Contemporary Democracies: Courts’ Specific Moral Insight As A Decisive Advantage Over Legislatures (A Modest And Partial Response To Jeremy Waldron’S Core Case Against Judicial Review), Francisco Verbic

Francisco Verbic

No abstract provided.

Vietnam, China, And The United States: The Regulatory Framework Of Mining Pollution And Water Quality, Heather Whitney

Heather Whitney

This paper compares the environmental, mining, and water quality policy and regulatory framework of three countries: Vietnam, China, and the United States. There are many similarities between China and Vietnam’s legal framework and environmental protection mechanisms, by virtue of the fact that they are both socialist countries, both authoritarian governments, and both in the midst of an industrial revolution. The United States intersects in some areas of water quality standards and technological controls of effluents with both countries, as well as certain enforcement measures. This is true especially in China, where the EPA has actively consulted the Chinese government in …

Suicide Killing Of Human Life As Human Right - The Continuing Devolution Of Assisted Suicide Law In The United Kingdom, William Wagner

William Wagner

SUICIDE KILLING OF HUMAN LIFE AS A HUMAN RIGHT

The Continuing Devolution of Assisted Suicide Law

in the United Kingdom

PROF. WILLIAM WAGNER, PROF. JOHN KANE, AND STEPHEN P. KALLMAN

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of time, divine, natural, and positive law traditions of the United Kingdom reflected an inviolable standard that people should not assist in the killing of human life. This article reviews and analyzes the ancient inviolable benchmark, explaining why the common and statutory law of Britain historically reflected its moral reference point to prohibit assisted suicide. We then proceed to analyze a contemporary jurisprudential shift in Britain’s …

The Ballot As A Bulwark: The Impact Of Felony Disenfranchisement On Recidivism, Guy P. Hamilton-Smith, Matt Vogel

Guy P Hamilton-Smith

Felony disenfranchisement – the exclusion of individuals convicted of felonies from the voting rolls – is a practice that is commonplace in the United States. In 2010, approximately 5.3 million Americans were ineligible to vote because of a prior felony conviction. Despite the fact that the justifications for disenfranchisement in a democratic society could be characterized as dubious, disenfranchisement has withstood various legal challenges and remains a widespread practice in almost every state. One argument which has never been examined empirically is the notion that disenfranchisement hampers efforts to rehabilitate offenders, which is what this article does. First, this article …

Rape In Conflict: Battling The Impunity That Stifles Its Recognition As A Jus Cogens Human Right, Michelle Marie Seyler

Michelle Marie Seyler

Jus cogens is defined as “peremptory norms of general international law from which no derogation is permissible.” Among the human rights issues that fall into this category, such as slavery and genocide, there is one that has yet to be elevated to this level of importance that unequivocally should be: rape in conflict areas.

This paper first overviews the history of rape in conflict, the reasons for its prevalence, and the affects it has on women and communities. Second, it discusses the legal tools currently available in the international legal field. Third, it establishes genocide as a jus cogens human …

Education, Labor Rights, And Incentives: Contract Teacher Cases In The Indian Courts, Varun Gauri, Nick Robinson

Varun Gauri

Since the liberalization of India\'s economy beginning in the early 1990\'s, the government has increasingly employed contract workers to perform various state functions, including in the education sector. Yet, little research has been done to examine how courts have reacted to this shift in government labor policy. This paper looks at all reported cases involving contract teachers in the Indian Supreme Court and four High Courts over the last thirty years. It finds that although almost never explicitly overturning precedent, the judiciary in India has increasingly become less sympathetic to contract teachers demands, particularly at the Supreme Court level. The …