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Report Of The Working Group On The Lessons Of International Law, Norms, And Practice, Working Group On The Lessons Of International Law, Norms, And Practice

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Peace Versus Justice, Richard J. Goldstone

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Frontier Justice: Legal Aid And Unhcr Refugee Status Determination In Egypt, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

Where UNHCR conducts refugee status determination (RSD), its reactions to legal aid for asylum-seekers have been mixed. Statistical evidence collected from Egypt in 2002 indicates a correlation between receiving some form of legal aid service and an asylum-seeker's increased chances of gaining refugee protection from UNHCR. Unconventional forms of legal aid, including limited services by supervised non-lawyers (including volunteers from the refugee community) showed a positive impact on first instance cases, while traditional legal aid models showed an impact at the appeal stage. Legal aid should form an essential part of UNHCR's RSD procedures, and NGOs should work to expand …

The Beleaguered Gatekeeper: Protection Challenges Posed By Unhcr Refugee Status Determination, Michael Kagan

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The number of individual Refugee Status Determination (RSD) applications received by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices worldwide nearly doubled from 1997 to 2001, while UNHCR’s RSD operations have been criticized for failing to implement basic standards of procedural fairness. Yet, although there is some literature critiquing how UNHCR determines refugee status, there is little literature examining whether UNHCR should do so, and if it should, when, where, and under what conditions.

UNHCR performance of RSD poses protection challenges because it is founded on a basic contradiction. On the one hand, government action is essential for effective refugee …

Foreword: Confronting The Rights Deficit At Home And Abroad, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

In this foreword, the author introduces the idea of the rights deficit faced by people of color and low socioeconomic status by linking it to related debates—first on the nature of rights and second on whether there are domestic and international “democracy deficits.” Then the author describes the essays from the 2006 Western Law Professors of Color Conference in the three groups in which they appear in the issue. One group of essays focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for the domestic rights deficit. In the area of education law and policy, the issue is not just the rights …

Labor’S Fragile Freedom Of Association Post-9/11, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

The fragility of civil liberties in the United States became evident after the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11). Labor's freedom of association, which is the right to form unions, bargain collectively, and engage in concerted activities, is one of the civil liberties at risk in the post-9/11 period. This Article focuses specifically on post-9/11 limitations of labor's freedom of association conducted by the executive branch and the Congress, and the ways that the courts have adjudicated labor rights in the post-9/11 era. Domestic labor law and constitutional rights alone, however, will not stop the collision of security and …

Exploring The Link Between Domestic Conflicts And Negotiation Failure In The Middle East, Russell Korobkin

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Creating Positive Facts On The Ground: A Viable Palestinian State Overview, Byron Bland, Lee Ross, Walid Salem

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Barriers To Progress At The Negotiation Table: Internal Conflicts Among Israelis And Among Palestinians, Robert H. Mnookin, Ehud Eiran, Sreemati Mitter

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Day After Tomorrow: What Happens Once A Middle East Peace Treaty Is Signed?, Andrea Kupfer Schneider

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

There is a frequent critique of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ protection role, which goes like this: as UNHCR has grown as a humanitarian aid delivery agency, law and human rights have lost currency. In Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism, Guglielmo Verdirame and Barbara Harrell-Bond (with Zachary Lomo and Hannah Garry) take this as a starting point from which to reach a far more searing conclusion: UNHCR itself directly violates the human rights of the people it is supposed to protect. Detailed, direct and at times passionate, this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to …

Redressing Colonial Genocide: The Hereros' Cause Of Action Against Germany, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

In February 2003, the Herero People's Reparations Corporation filed a complaint against Germany in the District Court of the District of Columbia alleging violations of international law, crimes against humanity, genocide, slavery, and forced labor before, during, and after the German-Herero War (1904-07). The German government, modern scholars, and other commentators have long taken the position that genocides committed by colonial governments in the nineteenth century did not violate international law at that time. Arguments for this position rely, inter alia, on the belief that all forms of genocide were first criminalized and made punishable by the 1948 U.N. Convention …

Flores V. Southern Peru Copper Corporation: The Second Circuit Fails To Set A Threshold For Corporate Alien Tort Claim Act Liability, Lori D. Johnson

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In Flores v. Southern Peru Copper Corporation, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, re-examined its Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) jurisprudence and assumed that a private domestic company acting in its private capacity could be liable to Peruvian nationals under the ATCA for a wide range of torts under international law, including violations of rights to “life and health.” Previous cases and other Circuits held that only a handful of egregious crimes, when committed by a private individual or corporation, can justify private liability under the ATCA. Rather than abiding by these interpretations, however, the court examined in depth …

Wings For Talons: The Case For Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Over Sexual Exploitation Of Children Through Cyberspace, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

To cope more effectively with the changed landscape of child exploitation, it is necessary for laws to expand their extraterritorial reach. Some statutes in the “child exploitation arena” have already been ruled to apply extraterritorially. The prime example of this is 18 U.S.C. § 2252 (2004) (certain activities relating to the material involving the sexual exploitation of minors). Two of the more useful statutes in combating online pedophiles are 18 U.S.C. § 1470 (2003) (transfer of obscene materials to minors) and 18 U.S.C. § 2422 (2003) (coercion and enticement). These latter statutes, however, have yet to receive significant or …

Ruminations On Terrorism & Anti-Terrorism In Law And Literature, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Discussing terrorism in light of the September 11 atrocities is daunting. It requires one to wonder how to maintain an equilibrium in the face of a menace that wishes its own death as long as it flows from the slaughter of ‘the enemy.‘ How is it possible to combat this menace without falling into a trap of hatred or blind fear that leads to the use of terror to fight terrorism? The overarching issues relating to September 11, terrorism, and counter-terrorism include: whether oppression can provide any justification for that atrocity; similarly, whether that attack calls for or allows self-defense …

Anticipatory Repudiation Of Letters Of Credit, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

Letters of credit play a vital role in financing international transactions, and are becoming increasingly popular domestically as substitutes for more traditional secured financing. As such, they deserve substantially more scholarly attention than they receive outside of specialized treatises and banking trade publications. Moreover, as unilateral promises by issuers of the letters of credit to pay money to their beneficiaries, the fact that Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code and pre-UCC common law recognize the right of a beneficiary to sue for anticipatory repudiation is at odds with the prevailing rule in this country that a promisee cannot sue …

Is Truth In The Eye Of The Beholder? Objective Credibility Assessment In Refugee Status Determination, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

Credibility assessment is often the single most important step in determining whether people seeking protection as refugees can be returned to countries where they say they are in danger of serious human rights violations. Despite its importance, credibility-based decisions in refugee and asylum cases are frequently based on personal judgment that is inconsistent from one adjudicator to the next, unreviewable on appeal, and potentially influenced by cultural misunderstandings. Some of the people who need protection most are especially likely to have trouble convincing decision-makers that they should be believed.

This article sets out principles, standards, and criteria drawn from international …

Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords’ Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson

Scholarly Works

International law requires that a refugee have a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. It is not enough to be at risk of being persecuted, nor is it even enough to be a member of a particular race or religion. There must be a “nexus” between the danger and one of the five Convention-recognized reasons for persecution. In the 1998 decision in Adan v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, the House of Lords concluded that a man fleeing clan warfare in Somalia could not …

The Terrors Of Dealing With September 11th, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Autumn Of The Patriarch: The Pinochet Extradition Debacle And Beyond- Human Rights Clauses Compared To Traditional Derivative Protections Such As Double Criminality, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

This article will analyze human rights law to see whether it plays any role in the protection of the individual in the face of international extradition or other international cooperation in criminal matters. I will consider two approaches to extradition and human rights that seem to be vying for position in the world arena and the tension between them. The first is to apply the traditional statist exemptions to extradition, which sometimes have enabled a few human rights protections. This approach is based on the concept that states are the only subjects of international law. Thus, it is state's interests, …

Human Rights And Wrongs In Our Own Backyard: Incorporating International Human Rights Protections Under Domestic Civil Rights Law---A Case Study Of Women In The United States Prisons, Martin A. Geer

Scholarly Works

An urgent human rights crisis at home is under close scrutiny by diverse groups including the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, the U.S. Department of Justice, and public interest lawyers. Within the context of a prison population explosion that dwarfs that of the rest of the world, the undeveloped status of international human rights in U.S. domestic jurisprudence becomes more evident. Within prison populations, increasing numbers of women’s lives are reduced to half-lives under the tortuous effects of sexual abuse by corrections officials. This dire situation presents the question: Can women prisoners continue to be denied the protections of international human …

Globalization Or Global Subordination? Latcrit Links The Global To The Local And The Local To Global, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

Professor Lazos introduces the fifth and final cluster of this LatCrit IV Symposium, International Linkages and Domestic Engagement, which includes five important contributions to LatCrit IV's focus on global issues by Professors Timothy Canova, Gil Gott, Tayyab Mahmud, Ediberto Roman, and Chantal Thomas. The introduction below sketches out, by way of illustration only, how some of the work already presented in this symposium cultivates the linkage between local racial formation and global market dynamics. The introduction then explores LatCrit's contribution to the critique of globalism.

Association Of American Law Schools Panel On The International Criminal Court, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Professor Blakesley participates in this panel discussion on the International Criminal Court. The Association of American Law Schools sponsored the panel.

Comparativist Ruminations From The Bayou On Child Custody Jurisdiction: The Uccja, The Pkpa, And The Hague Convention On Child Abduction, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Interstate and international jurisdictional problems are often vexing. They are worse in matters of child custody. In the past, jurisdiction to obtain custody or to modify a custody decree required only presence or domicile. The United States population is transient and custody decisions are subject to modification. The volatility of child custody disputes and the tendency of parents to move to different and separate jurisdictions traditionally caused and continue to cause difficult problems for children, parents, and the legal system. Before the promulgation of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA), it was …

La Preuve Pénale Et Des Tests Génétiques: United States Report, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

A major problem for those analyzing U.S. criminal law and procedure is that it does not fit the Continental or British mold. There is no one single system, but parallel federal and 50 state systems each with its own legislature, laws, courts (including trial, appellate, and supreme courts), police, prosecutors and prisons. The authorities who enact and implement these laws are sovereign within their respective jurisdictions. Each state has police power over its people. The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution controls allocation of federal and state authority. It provides that whatever the Constitution has not designated as being within …

Foreigners In Their Own Land: Cultural Land And Transnational Corporations---Emergent International Rights And Wrongs, Martin A. Geer

Scholarly Works

Unique and vital components of human culture and the environment are struggling for survival in the Amazon River basin. The rain forest of Amazonia is shared by indigenous peoples and an immensely diverse tropical flora and fauna. This unique culture and physical ecology, however, is threatened by transnational oil corporations which are irreparably devastating Amazonia and its native cultures through oil production activities.

The failure of public international law to address the post World War II emergence of transnational corporations (TNCs) as a major international force has been the subject of significant review by scholars and policy makers. TNCs, often …

Jurisdiction, Definition Of Crimes, And Triggering Mechanisms, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

The opportunity to create an international court that provides fair, equitable, and efficient justice is rare and important. It requires expertise in comparative and international law. Problems are serious, however. Failure to address the formidable problems could cause the Court to run a risk of failure that could be disastrous for international law, for the victims of the horrors that have occurred and that will occur, and for the world. Failure could come in at least two forms: (1) the Court could merely be a conduit for retribution after a pro-forma kangaroo court or (2) it will not have sufficient …

Terrorism And Hostages In International Law: A Commentary On The Hostages Convention 1979, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

In this piece, Professor Blakesley reviews “Terrorism and Hostages in International Law: A Commentary on the Hostages Convention 1979” by Joseph J. Lambert.

Democratic Responses To International Terrorism, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

This volume provides a multidisciplinary study of terrorism. The editor notes at the outset the difficulty of definition: "Terrorism is not a one-dimensional problem; it transcends many frontiers: political, jurisdictional, institutional, disciplinary and methodological. So approaching the problem from only one perspective may lead to only partial understanding and an incomplete strategy for developing constructive responses” (p. 3). Note the tendency of even this careful statement to assume that terrorism is always committed by others, Also, although legal definition and consideration may be implied by the terms polical, jurisdictional, institutional and disciplinary, which are indicated as various dimensions of …

Prosecuting And Defending Violations Of Genocide And Humanitarian Law: The International Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

A symposium discussing the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, established by the United Nations Security Council’s . Christopher L. Blakesley discussed the procedural aspects of the War Crimes Tribunal.