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Full-Text Articles in Law
Understanding What The Vienna Convention Says About Identifying And Using 'Sources For Treaty Interpretation', Donald H. Regan
Understanding What The Vienna Convention Says About Identifying And Using 'Sources For Treaty Interpretation', Donald H. Regan
Book Chapters
International trade law is overwhelmingly treaty-based. In the traditional sense of ‘sources of law’, the World Trade Organization (WTO) treaty is the unique source of WTO law, for practical purposes. Customary law and general principles play (p. 1048) virtually no role as independent sources of substantive law. But the WTO treaty, like any treaty, requires interpretation, and there are vexed questions about what we might call the ‘sources for treaty interpretation’. What materials other than the treaty text may be used in interpreting the treaty? And how are they to be used? These questions arise both for materials internal to …
Toward A New Framework For Understanding Political Opinion, Catherine Dauvergne
Toward A New Framework For Understanding Political Opinion, Catherine Dauvergne
Michigan Journal of International Law
This paper was written to frame the work of the Seventh Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law, held at the University of Michigan Faculty of Law, on March 27–29, 2015. To some extent, therefore, it has already served its purpose. It is somewhat tempting in the wake of the Colloquium to completely reconstruct the paper in light of the conversations and conclusions of that event. Such reconstruction, however, would be misleading. Instead, I have chosen to publish the paper in a form that is very similar to its earlier iteration, with a few corrections, clarifications, and explanatory notes about …
On Territoriality And International Investment Law: Applying China's Investment Treaties To Hong Kong And Macao, Odysseas G. Repousis
On Territoriality And International Investment Law: Applying China's Investment Treaties To Hong Kong And Macao, Odysseas G. Repousis
Michigan Journal of International Law
To date, investor-state tribunals have been preoccupied with a range of issues revolving around the territorial application (territoriality) of international investment agreements (IIAs). The importance, as well as the various forms such issues take, has recently been highlighted in the decision of the Singapore High Court (SGHC) in Laos v. Sanum. In this case, the SGHC was asked by Laos to set aside an earlier arbitral award (in Sanum v. Laos), filed by a Macanese legal entity and rendered under the China-Laos bilateral investment treaty (BIT). In approaching the matter, the SGHC set aside the award on the grounds that …
All Other Breaches: State Practice And The Geneva Conventions’ Nebulous Class Of Less Discussed Prohibitions, Jesse Medlong
All Other Breaches: State Practice And The Geneva Conventions’ Nebulous Class Of Less Discussed Prohibitions, Jesse Medlong
Michigan Journal of International Law
With respect to the protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions, a great deal of ink has been spilled in recent years over the two-tiered system of tribunals employed by the United States in its prosecution of enemy combatants in the “war on terror.” Less discussed, though, is the wholly separate two-tiered system for sorting violators of the Geneva Conventions that emerges from the very text of those agreements. This stratification is a function of the Conventions’ distinction between those who commit “grave breaches” and those who merely commit “acts contrary to the provisions of the present convention” or “all other …
The Use Of Article 31(3)(C) Of The Vclt In The Case Law Of The Ecthr: An Effective Anti-Fragmentation Tool Or A Selective Loophole For The Reinforcement Of Human Rights Teleology?, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos
The Use Of Article 31(3)(C) Of The Vclt In The Case Law Of The Ecthr: An Effective Anti-Fragmentation Tool Or A Selective Loophole For The Reinforcement Of Human Rights Teleology?, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos
Michigan Journal of International Law
In Part I the Article will briefly introduce the question of the fragmentation of international law, and will more extensively delineate the role that the ILC attributed to Article 31(3)(c) and the ILC's expectations regarding its success in this role. Next, Part II will give an overview of the special elements of the ECHR socio-normative environment, which gave rise to the case law into which Article 31(3)(c) came into force. The Article will argue that, in addition to benefiting from the very special nature of the ECHR, the Strasbourg Court also has a significant number of interpretative tools that allow …
The Gender Of Jus Cogens, Christine M. Chinkin, Hilary Charlesworth
The Gender Of Jus Cogens, Christine M. Chinkin, Hilary Charlesworth
Book Chapters
Defenders of the notion of jus cogens often explain its basis as the collective international, rather than the individual national, good. On this analysis, principles of jus cogens play a similar role in the international legal system to that played by constitutional guarantees of rights in domestic legal systems. Thus states, as national political majorities, accept the limitation of their freedom of choice "in order to reap the rewards of acting in ways that would elude them under pressures of the moment." Among those jurists who accept the category of jus cogens, however, continuing controversy remains over what norms …
International Tax Law As International Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
International Tax Law As International Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Articles
Is international tax law part of international law? To an international lawyer, the question posed probably seems ridiculous. Of course international tax law is part of international law, just like tax treaties are treaties. But to an international tax lawyer, the question probably seems less obvious, because most international tax lawyers do not think of themselves primarily as international lawyers (public or private), but rather as tax lawyers who happen to deal with crossborder transactions. And indeed, once one delves into the details, it becomes clear that in some ways international tax law is different from "regular" international law. For …
The Varied Policies Of International Juridical Bodies- Reflections On Theory And Practice, John H. Jackson
The Varied Policies Of International Juridical Bodies- Reflections On Theory And Practice, John H. Jackson
Michigan Journal of International Law
It can be seen that "fragmentation" can have several dimensions, and that the difference between juridical approaches as well as legislative approaches to treaty or other norm stating documents can result not only from different institutional settings, but also from different policy goals assumed for differing dispute settlement systems.
Bridging Fragmentation And Unity: International Law As A Universe Of Inter-Connected Islands, Joost Pauwelyn
Bridging Fragmentation And Unity: International Law As A Universe Of Inter-Connected Islands, Joost Pauwelyn
Michigan Journal of International Law
The fragmentation of the international legal system is not new. The consent-based nature of international law inevitably led to the creation of almost as many treaty regimes, composed of different constellations of states, as there are problems to be dealt with. Traditionally, these different regimes operated in virtual isolation from each other. Most importantly, the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank, IMF, and GATT, now WTO) focused on the world's economic problems, while the UN institutions tackled the world's political problems. Both the IMF and World Bank articles of agreement, for example, explicitly state that political factors cannot be taken into …
Interpreting The Wto Agreements- A Commentary On Professor Pauwelyn's Approach, Joshua Meltzer
Interpreting The Wto Agreements- A Commentary On Professor Pauwelyn's Approach, Joshua Meltzer
Michigan Journal of International Law
In his paper, Professor Pauwelyn argues that pursuant to Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention), the Appellate Body should consider other rules of international law in the interpretation of the WTO Agreements, when that law reflects the "common intentions" of the parties to the WTO. He argues that this does not mean that "all the parties to the WTO treaty must have formally and explicitly agreed, one after the other, to the new non-WTO rule; nor even that this rule must be otherwise legally bind all WTO members; but rather, that this new …
Vital Interests And The Law Of Gatt: An Analysis Of Gatt's Security Exception, Michael J. Hahn
Vital Interests And The Law Of Gatt: An Analysis Of Gatt's Security Exception, Michael J. Hahn
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article will ask to what extent article XXI allows Contracting Parties to escape obligations of GATT and to what extent it should.