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Full-Text Articles in Law

The European Union's Human Rights Obligations Towards Distant Strangers, Aravind Ganesh Apr 2016

The European Union's Human Rights Obligations Towards Distant Strangers, Aravind Ganesh

Michigan Journal of International Law

Section I begins by setting out certain provisions added by the Lisbon Treaty requiring the European Union to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in all its “relations with the wider world.” Section II then recounts a recent interpretation of these provisions, which understands them primarily as mandating compliance with international law, and thus largely denies extraterritorial human rights obligations to protect. While the fundamentals of this “compliance” reading are correct, Section III demonstrates that the notion of international law involved here entertains an expansive view of prescriptive jurisdiction, that is, a political institution’s authority to prescribe …


Dialogic Labor Regulation In The Global Supply Chain, Kevin Kolben Oct 2015

Dialogic Labor Regulation In The Global Supply Chain, Kevin Kolben

Michigan Journal of International Law

In May 2006, the government of Jordan was facing a crisis. A small U.S. labor-rights activist group had just released a damning report documenting extensive labor abuses in Jordan’s fledgling garment industry. Adding fuel to the fire, the New York Times published a front-page story about the report with its own field work that corroborated some of the allegations, such as long and abusive working hours, the confiscation of passports of foreign workers, horrendous living conditions, and sexual harassment. Although garment manufacturing was new to Jordan, after just several years of existence it already constituted an important part of Jordan’s …


Trying Terrorism: Joint Criminal Enterprise, Material Support, And The Paradox Of International Criminal Law, Alexandra Link Jan 2013

Trying Terrorism: Joint Criminal Enterprise, Material Support, And The Paradox Of International Criminal Law, Alexandra Link

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will examine theoretical problems in ICL and public international law by evaluating the practical implications of applying ICL sources to find criminal liability outside the narrow confines of the international tribunals. It will examine the problems posed by the conflicting standards of the Rome Statute and ICTY jurisprudence as a matter of customary international law, the failure of U.S. courts to effectively confront the contextual and doctrinal analysis necessary to determine the limitations of these sources, and the proper application of these sources to the issues raised in Hamdan II and Al Bahlul. Viewing ICL through the lens …


International Law's Erie Moment, Harlan Grant Cohen Jan 2013

International Law's Erie Moment, Harlan Grant Cohen

Michigan Journal of International Law

The episode put the question starkly: Who fills the gaps in international law and how? A series of tribunals operating under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had adopted broader interpretations of vague treaty language than those recommended by the state parties. In response, government ministers from the three state parties, Mexico, Canada, and the United States, operating through the Free Trade Commission (FTC) established by the treaty, adopted "Notes of Interpretation" clarifying their view of the treaty's meaning. International tribunals are generally tasked with examining state practice, either to recognize rules of customary international law …


Public International Law And Its Territorial Imperative, Dino Kritsiotis Jan 2009

Public International Law And Its Territorial Imperative, Dino Kritsiotis

Michigan Journal of International Law

Territory, or the concept of territory, thus asserts itself throughout the discipline of public international law, and its influences can be felt either through direct means or discrete.


Canada-United States Cooperative Approaches To Shared Marine Fishery Resources: Territorial Subversion?, Ted L. Mcdorman Jan 2009

Canada-United States Cooperative Approaches To Shared Marine Fishery Resources: Territorial Subversion?, Ted L. Mcdorman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay will focus on how Canada and the United States have both succeeded and failed in adopting cooperative approaches to managing ocean fishery resources. A critical factor that has influenced these efforts is the introduction of an international legal construct dictating that States have exclusive sovereign rights respecting all marine living resources within 200 nautical miles of their shores. Cooperative approaches to managing transboundary marine living resources between Canada and the United States are necessary for two reasons. First, in the case of marine living resources, the resource pays scant attention to human-constructed national boundaries. Put another way, marine …


Bordering Capabilities Versus Borders: Implications For National Borders, Saskia Sassen Jan 2009

Bordering Capabilities Versus Borders: Implications For National Borders, Saskia Sassen

Michigan Journal of International Law

A core argument of this Essay is that the capability to make borderings has itself switched organizing logics: from institutionalizing the perimeter of a territory to multiplying transversal borderings cutting across that perimeter. This switch is partly linked to the types of scalar shifts in the operational space of a growing number of systems. To the more economic systems already mentioned above, let me add such diverse instances as the policing of the illegal drug trade, the war on terror, the judicial and political struggle to protect human rights, and the environmental effort to reorganize transnational economic sectors, including the …


Assemblage-Oriented Ocean Resource Management: How The Marine Environment Washes Over Traditional Territorial Lines, John A. Duff Jan 2009

Assemblage-Oriented Ocean Resource Management: How The Marine Environment Washes Over Traditional Territorial Lines, John A. Duff

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay assesses challenges that arise when marine territorial boundaries do not encompass the appropriate assemblage of resources and relationships necessary for effective authority and management. It reviews the manner in which certain offshore resource uses have been "quasi-territorialized" by the application of other forms of jurisdiction. It also highlights regime-jurisdiction-private interest-oriented responses to territory-oriented challenges in the form of assemblages of authority, interests, space, and time. Given the scalar progression of the links in the discussion, the assessment moves from international principles to exercises of national sovereignty to domestic administration of space and resources to private legal interests.


Illegal Peace?: An Inquiry Into The Legality Of Power-Sharing With Warlords And Rebels In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 2006

Illegal Peace?: An Inquiry Into The Legality Of Power-Sharing With Warlords And Rebels In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article represents the first conscientious attempt to address these questions, present a conceptual framework for examining the legal and political efficacy of coercing democratically constituted governments into sharing power, and define a lawful basis or approach to sharing power when governments are confronted with the aforementioned scenario. The Article is polemical and questions the dominant logic that political power-sharing is lawful, legitimate, and unequivocally serves the public good, arguing that power-sharing deals that ignore controlling rules are unlawful and not viable.


Procedural Issues In Wto Dispute Resolution, Peter Lichtenbaum Jan 1998

Procedural Issues In Wto Dispute Resolution, Peter Lichtenbaum

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article identifies particularly significant procedural issues that are arising in WTO dispute resolution and comments on the possible evolutionary paths of the law. This task requires that the article strike a balance between breadth of coverage and depth of coverage. As a result, the article does not aim to provide a complete discussion of all aspects of the WTO dispute resolution system and generally does not discuss issues that have not been addressed by WTO panels. The article does not seek to provide an exhaustive analysis of each issue discussed, and therefore deals briefly with the background under the …


"Green Helmets": A Conceptual Framework For Security Council Authority In Environmental Emergencies, Linda A. Malone Jan 1996

"Green Helmets": A Conceptual Framework For Security Council Authority In Environmental Emergencies, Linda A. Malone

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although 1995 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the United Nations, the year also marks the fifth anniversary of a newly revitalized Security Council. In this period of five years, scholarly debate on the Security Council has shifted from what it might do if it could act to what substantive limits, if any, exist on the Security Council's authority to act under the Charter. The legitimacy of the Security Council's authority under the Charter arises both in its initial determination of when it can act and in its determination of the appropriate scope of its actions once it …


Intellectual Property And The External Power Of The European Community: The New Extension, A. David Demiray Jan 1994

Intellectual Property And The External Power Of The European Community: The New Extension, A. David Demiray

Michigan Journal of International Law

"[T]heory is somewhat lagging behind the facts and developing only in reaction to these facts," argues C.W.A. Timmermans regarding the European Community's (the EC or the Community) legal basis for extending its external power. The Community tends to extend its external competence before having a clear authority for doing so and only later provides a post hoc rationale. This observation suggests that the justification, not the propriety, of a newly acquired external competence is the question. Nowhere is this modus operandi better illustrated, or more sorely tested, than by the Community's growing involvement with and pursuit of international intellectual property …


Irreconcilable Differences? Divorcing Regugee Protections From Human Rights Norms, Karen Musalo Jan 1994

Irreconcilable Differences? Divorcing Regugee Protections From Human Rights Norms, Karen Musalo

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will discuss in greater detail the profound defects of the Court's Zacarias decision. Section I will discuss the interpretation of key provisions of the 1980 Refugee Act, and describe the case of Jairo Elias Zacarias. Section II will review the plain language and legislative intent of the Act, including the congressional purpose of conforming to the 1967 Protocol. Section III will consider issues of burden of proof, and will examine the substantive impact which Zacarias has had on refugee cases. Section IV will focus on religious persecution as a paradigm of the inadequacy of an intent-based requirement and …


Presidential Systems In Stress: Emergency Powers In Argentina And The United States, William C. Banks, Alejandro D. Carrió Jan 1993

Presidential Systems In Stress: Emergency Powers In Argentina And The United States, William C. Banks, Alejandro D. Carrió

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article offers three comparative insights. First, it concludes that comparative inquiries into presidential systems may be useful for those interested in constitutional government, regardless of historical, cultural, or other contextual differences among nations. Thus, nations with presidentialist constitutional systems may have common problems because of the institutional presidency. The article maintains that our presidential systems are in such states of disrepair that a fundamental reinvigoration of the legislative and judicial branches is required, so that government may better serve important constitutional values in our nations.


Explorations At The Edge Of Time: The Prospects For World Order, Catherine Tinker Jan 1993

Explorations At The Edge Of Time: The Prospects For World Order, Catherine Tinker

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of the book by Richard A. Falk.


Cause For Cautious Celebration: Hungarian Post-Communist Environmental Reform, Karen S. Libertiny Jan 1993

Cause For Cautious Celebration: Hungarian Post-Communist Environmental Reform, Karen S. Libertiny

Michigan Journal of International Law

In October 1989, the Hungarian Communist regime collapsed and was replaced by a democratic government. This new government was confronted with a visible and grave concern: environmental degradation. In just three years, the new Hungarian government, sometimes of its own impetus, sometimes at the prodding of environmentalists and foreign governments, has taken tremendous steps toward establishing palpable environmental legislation. More importantly, it has created an administrative and information-gathering infrastructure capable of sustaining a cohesive system of environmental protection initiatives. Although the path to further progress is littered with obstacles, this East European country has proven itself a worthy warrior in …


The New East European Constitutional Courts, Herman Schwartz Jan 1992

The New East European Constitutional Courts, Herman Schwartz

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will describe some aspects of the different tribunals in Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, and will compare them with each other and with the U.S. Supreme Court. The first part will begin by explaining a few basic differences between the American and Continental systems of judicial review, and will then describe the functions of the new East European constitutional courts. The second part will use the decisions of the new Russian Constitutional Court to illustrate the new courts' exercise of authority, and will summarize the recent activities of a few other new constitutional courts.


Treaty Interpretation: The Authority Of Interpretive Communities, Ian Johnstone Jan 1990

Treaty Interpretation: The Authority Of Interpretive Communities, Ian Johnstone

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this paper sets out a theory of interpretation (drawing on Stanley Fish's idea of interpretive communities) relevant to all interpretive techniques. In Part II, a conception of the purposes and conventions of treaty practice is offered with the aim of shedding light on the interpretive constraints structuring that enterprise. Part III identifies two interpretive communities associated with treaty practice (one narrow, the other broad) and describes their operation in the interpretive process. Special attention is paid to the government legal advisor, who plays a key role within the relevant interpretive communities. Part IV is a case study …


The Authoritative Sources Of Customary International Law In The United States, Harold G. Maier Jan 1989

The Authoritative Sources Of Customary International Law In The United States, Harold G. Maier

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this discussion, the author distinguishes the authoritative source of law from the substantial source of law. The authoritative source of law is the political body that confers authority on the decision maker to select and interpret the rule. By doing this that body politic creates the authority that gives the rule status as a rule of law in the forum of decision. The substantial source of a legal rule is that body of law in which the rule's original policy bases and the verbal form that describes the effect to be given to that policy are found. The substantial …


Political Questions In International Trade: Judicial Review Of Section 301?, Erwin P. Eichmann, Gary N. Horlick Jan 1989

Political Questions In International Trade: Judicial Review Of Section 301?, Erwin P. Eichmann, Gary N. Horlick

Michigan Journal of International Law

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 ("Section 301") has become an increasingly potent and widely-used tool in the U.S. arsenal of trade policy measures. The past few years have seen a proliferation of Section 301 cases, affecting the trade of goods and services in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Even so, in the debate over the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 ("Omnibus Trade Act"), Congress expressed impatience with the President's discretion in not undertaking more Section 301 retaliations. But while much attention has focused on the politics and policy aspects of Section 301, little has been …