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Refugees And The Right To Freedom Of Movement: From Flight To Return, Marjoleine Zieck Jan 2018

Refugees And The Right To Freedom Of Movement: From Flight To Return, Marjoleine Zieck

Michigan Journal of International Law

This background study focuses on the right to freedom of movement of refugees. It reviews the law pertaining to this freedom from the perspective of the spatial journey of refugees. This focus on the law means that extralegal considerations will not be taken into consideration. The analysis will not proceed from any perceived need for limits that should be accepted as “a product of realism about the strains that migration, especially high-volume migration or sudden influxes, can bring to a society.”


United Nations Against Slavery: Unravelling Concepts, Institutions And Obligations, Vladislava Stoyanova Nov 2017

United Nations Against Slavery: Unravelling Concepts, Institutions And Obligations, Vladislava Stoyanova

Michigan Journal of International Law

The article starts with a section containing a historical description (Part I). The turn to broader historical accounts is apposite since the engagement of international law with slavery, servitude, and forced labor predates the emergence of international human rights law. It is also important to clarify whether there is any continuity between these earlier engagements of international law and Article 8 of the ICCPR. When it comes to slavery, it is important to consider the practices to which this label was attached and how this still influences the contemporary understanding of the term. Notably, the terminological fragmentation between slavery and …


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 …


Toward A Unified Theory Of Professional Ethics And Human Rights, Jonathan H. Marks Feb 2012

Toward A Unified Theory Of Professional Ethics And Human Rights, Jonathan H. Marks

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article offers a novel account of the relationship between the ethical obligations of professionals and international human rights law and practice. The account is motivated by the role that professionals played in the Bush administration's "war on terror"-in particular, the global detention and interrogation regimes that incarcerated tens of thousands of detainees, and abused many of them. In the most extreme cases, professionals may have committed serious international crimes rendering them liable to criminal prosecution in foreign courts. Serious concerns have also been raised about the ethics of professionals' conduct. Psychologists were the principal architects of the aggressive detention …


A Global Panopticon - The Changing Role Of International Organizations In The Information Age, Jennifer Shkabatur Oct 2011

A Global Panopticon - The Changing Role Of International Organizations In The Information Age, Jennifer Shkabatur

Michigan Journal of International Law

The outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 and Swine Flu (H1N1) in 2009 captured a great deal of global attention. The swift spread of these diseases wreaked havoc, generated public hysteria, disrupted global trade and travel, and inflicted severe economic losses to countries, corporations, and individuals. Although affected states were required to report to the World Health Organization (WHO) events that may have constituted a public health emergency, many failed to do so. The WHO and the rest of the international community were therefore desperate for accurate, up-to-date information as to the nature of the pandemics, their …


An Emerging Norm - Determining The Meaning And Legal Status Of The Responsibility To Protect, Jonah Eaton Jan 2011

An Emerging Norm - Determining The Meaning And Legal Status Of The Responsibility To Protect, Jonah Eaton

Michigan Journal of International Law

The responsibility to protect, from its recent nativity in the 2001 report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), is the latest round in an old debate pitting the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of states against allowing such intervention to prevent gross and systematic violations of human rights. Advocates for the concept see it as an important new commitment by the international community, injecting new meaning into the tragically threadbare promise to never again allow mass atrocities to occur unchallenged. ICISS offered the concept of responsibility to protect as a new way to confront …


Fifth Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law. The Michigan Guidelines On The Right To Work., Penelope Mathew Jan 2010

Fifth Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law. The Michigan Guidelines On The Right To Work., Penelope Mathew

Michigan Journal of International Law

An Explanatory Note covering the Fifth Michigan Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law and the Right to Work.


The Michigan Guidelines On The Right To Work Jan 2010

The Michigan Guidelines On The Right To Work

Michigan Journal of International Law

The right to work is fundamental to human dignity. It is central to survival and development of the human personality. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), decent work "sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives-for opportunity and income; rights, voice and recognition ..." Work is interrelated, interdependent with, and indivisible from the rights to life, equality, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, an adequate standard of living, the right to social security and/or social assistance, freedom of movement, freedom of association, and the rights to privacy and family life, among others.


The New International Law-Makers? Conferences Of The Parties To Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Annecoos Wiersema Jan 2009

The New International Law-Makers? Conferences Of The Parties To Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Annecoos Wiersema

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article adds to a nascent and still limited awareness that something important is afoot in international law: the activity of Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Some of this activity-such as formal amendments to a treaty or protocol- requires a state party's consent before it will be binding on that state. This activity fits easily within traditional categories of the sources of international law and gives rise to new obligations for states that are identifiable as hard law. However, other activity by COPs does not require the consent of every state party to the treaty …


Jurisdiction Without Territory: From The Holy Roman Empire To The Responsibility To Protect, Anne Orford Jan 2009

Jurisdiction Without Territory: From The Holy Roman Empire To The Responsibility To Protect, Anne Orford

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay focuses upon one contemporary manifestation of that ongoing battle over the relationship between jurisdiction and control over territory-the emergence and institutionalization of the "responsibility to protect" concept. The idea that States and the international community have a responsibility to protect populations has shaped internationalist debates about conflict prevention, the use of force, and international administration since its development by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) in 2001. The responsibility to protect concept is premised on the notion, to quote former Secretary- General Kofi Annan, that "the primary raison d'être and duty" of every State is …


International Responsibility And The Admission Of States To The United Nations, Thomas D. Grant Jan 2009

International Responsibility And The Admission Of States To The United Nations, Thomas D. Grant

Michigan Journal of International Law

The present Article considers what identifiable substantive obligations might be relevant to admission; whether admission as practiced has resulted in a breach of obligation; and whether any such breach might impose international responsibility on the international actors involved in the decision to admit new States. The Article further considers what future reparative obligations such responsibility might entail.


Indigenous Recognition In International Law: Theoretical Observations, Patrick Macklem Jan 2008

Indigenous Recognition In International Law: Theoretical Observations, Patrick Macklem

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay addresses this question in the context of the evolving status of indigenous peoples in international law. International instruments vest rights in indigenous peoples, and establish indigenous peoples as international legal actors to whom States and other international legal actors owe legal duties and obligations. These developments began between the First and Second World Wars, when the International Labour Organization (ILO) began to supervise indigenous working conditions in colonies. They continued after the Second World War with ILO Conventions No. 107 and 169, which vested rights in indigenous populations located in States that are a party to their terms. …


Protection Elsewhere: The Legal Implications Of Requiring Refugees To Seek Protection In Another State, Michelle Foster Jan 2007

Protection Elsewhere: The Legal Implications Of Requiring Refugees To Seek Protection In Another State, Michelle Foster

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article first questions the legitimacy of protection elsewhere practices. It then considers the circumstances in which the transfer of refugees might take place. It should be emphasized that the Michigan Guidelines set out the minimum requirements and constraints imposed by international law when a state wishes to implement a protection elsewhere policy. In addition, in some instances the Michigan Guidelines engage in "progressive development" of the law by suggesting safeguards that, while not strictly required by international law, should be respected in order to ensure the implementation of such policies in a way that protects and ensures the rights …


Privatization And The Human Right To Water: Challenges For The New Century, Melina Williams Jan 2007

Privatization And The Human Right To Water: Challenges For The New Century, Melina Williams

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note considers implications for the human fight to water in the context of the trend toward privatization of water supplies. Part II examines the legal bases of the right to water, and Part III discusses the potential obligations that arise from it. Part IV then looks at the interaction between the fight to water and arrangements to privatize water supplies. This Note posits that human rights law does not simply support or oppose privatization of water supplies and services. Rather, bringing a human rights perspective to the problem of providing water to the world's population both clarifies the minimum …


Transparency: An Analysis Of An Evolving Fundamental Principle In International Economic Law, Carl-Sebastian Zoellner Jan 2006

Transparency: An Analysis Of An Evolving Fundamental Principle In International Economic Law, Carl-Sebastian Zoellner

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will first sketch the theoretical underpinnings of transparency in an interdisciplinary overview of its possible meanings and advantages in the present context. It will then survey documents and instruments of international economic law in which language embracing the transparency principle is already present. The Note's main section proceeds to ask whether, in the actual application of those agreements, the transparency principle has had any notable impact on the interpretation of state obligations. Finally, in addressing transparency's future role in international economic law, this Note briefly discusses additional problems which might be resolved through a transparency-based approach.


Paper Dragon: Inadequate Protection Of Intellectual Property Rights In China, Omario Kanji Jan 2006

Paper Dragon: Inadequate Protection Of Intellectual Property Rights In China, Omario Kanji

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will explore the extent to which China is in violation of its obligations under TRIPs. Section I surveys the current state of IPR infringement in China. Section II analyzes relevant TRIPs provisions, case law, and treaties that supplement TRIPs provisions. Section III analyzes Chinese criminal law, the December 2004 Judicial Interpretation of Chinese criminal law, and Chinese IP law as they pertain to IPR infringement. Section IV outlines enforcement efforts in China against the backdrop of the law analyzed in the previous section. Section V evaluates these enforcement efforts given China's capabilities and obligations, and Section VI concludes …


What's Your Sign? -- International Norms, Signals, And Compliance, Charles K. Whitehead Jan 2006

What's Your Sign? -- International Norms, Signals, And Compliance, Charles K. Whitehead

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article proposes a new approach to understanding state compliance with international obligations, positing that increased interaction among the world's regulators has reinforced network norms, as evidenced in part by a greater reliance among states on legally nonbinding instruments. This Article also begins to fill a gap in the growing scholarship on state compliance by proposing a better framework for understanding how international norms influence senior regulators and how they affect both state decisions to comply as well as levels of compliance.


An Analysis Of Potential Conflicts Between The Stockholm Convention And Its Parties' Wto Obligations, D. Dean Batchelder Jan 2006

An Analysis Of Potential Conflicts Between The Stockholm Convention And Its Parties' Wto Obligations, D. Dean Batchelder

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Comment examines the compatibility of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants with parties' WTO obligations under the GATT Agreement. The Stockholm Convention represents a broad-based attempt to regulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs), some of the most damaging chemicals to the environment and human health. The commitments that parties to the Stockholm Convention have undertaken to control POPs may implicate international trade commitments. Hopefully the discussion in this Comment may also be relevant to other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), especially those involving trade measures.


Pros And Cons Ensuing From Fragmentation Of International Law, Gerhard Hafner Jan 2004

Pros And Cons Ensuing From Fragmentation Of International Law, Gerhard Hafner

Michigan Journal of International Law

The system of international law has become increasingly fragmented, particularly since the end of the Cold War. This paper intends to present the main features of this development and its implications.


The Responsibility To Protect: A Beaver Without A Dam?, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 2003

The Responsibility To Protect: A Beaver Without A Dam?, Jeremy I. Levitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect and The Responsibility to Protect: Research, Bibliography, Background (Supp. Vol. to the Responsibility to Portect by Thomas G. Weiss & Don Hubert


Prosecuting Human Rights Violations In Europe And America: How Legal System Structure Affects Compliance With International Obligations, Micah S. Myers Jan 2003

Prosecuting Human Rights Violations In Europe And America: How Legal System Structure Affects Compliance With International Obligations, Micah S. Myers

Michigan Journal of International Law

Will states really live up to these obligations? Are some states, and some legal systems, better equipped to do so than others? After all, it is one thing to commit to prosecuting horrendous offenses, or to recognize that there is an obligation under customary international law to do so, yet it is quite another to actually prosecute the perpetrators of such an offense; this is particularly the case when the government has a strong desire not to prosecute, because the accused are members of the government, because they are strong supporters of it, because they are foreign allies of the …


Extraditing Israeli Citizens To The United States- Extradition And Citizenship Dilemmas, Yaffa Zilbershats Jan 2000

Extraditing Israeli Citizens To The United States- Extradition And Citizenship Dilemmas, Yaffa Zilbershats

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will address the problems of extraditing Israeli citizens to the United States from both a normative and substantive perspective. The analysis will lead to a conclusion that the United States and Israel should adopt an amendment to the United States-Israel extradition treaty based on the new provision of the Israeli law regarding the extradition of its citizens. This analysis will also support general conclusions regarding the definitions of extradition and citizenship.


The New Chemical Weapons Convention And Export Controls: Towards Greater Multilateralism, Urs A. Cipolat Jan 2000

The New Chemical Weapons Convention And Export Controls: Towards Greater Multilateralism, Urs A. Cipolat

Michigan Journal of International Law

The article is structured in five parts. Section I gives an overview of the history of the CWC. Section II focuses on the CWC' s material scope. This discussion is important in order to determine the items that will fall under an eventual export control obligation. Section III presents the main obligations under the CWC, while Section IV deals exclusively with the specific obligations pertaining to export controls. The implementation of these specific obligations-which, for the purposes of this article, are referred to as transfer rules-is the focus of Section V.


Racing The Rising Tide: Legal Options For The Marshall Islands, J. Chris Larson Jan 2000

Racing The Rising Tide: Legal Options For The Marshall Islands, J. Chris Larson

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note first describes the threat posed by accelerated sea-level rise. A review of scientific data shows that global warming causes ocean levels to rise and that RMI may need to be evacuated. The current diplomatic efforts to decrease global warming offer few assurances to RMI. In fact, the countries that have obligated themselves to reduce global warming are actually increasing emissions of gases that cause global warming.


Recommended Measures Under The Antarctic Treaty: Hardening Compliance With Soft International Law, Christopher C. Joyner Jan 1998

Recommended Measures Under The Antarctic Treaty: Hardening Compliance With Soft International Law, Christopher C. Joyner

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines the process by which ATCM recommended measures are created, the status of these instruments under international law, and the implementation record by Antarctic Treaty governments for these instruments since 1961.


State Successions And Statelessness: The Emerging Right To An Effective Nationality Under International Law, Jeffrey L. Blackman Jan 1998

State Successions And Statelessness: The Emerging Right To An Effective Nationality Under International Law, Jeffrey L. Blackman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper surveys some of the recent developments in international law relating to nationality and state succession, and suggests a growing convergence among several legal principles-specifically the principle of effective nationality, the individual right to a nationality and the corresponding duty of states to prevent statelessness, and the norm of nondiscrimination. At some point this convergence of such diverse areas of law as nationality, diplomatic protection, and human rights will impose positive duties on successor states with respect to their inherited populations: namely the duty to secure effective nationality for persons affected by state succession.


Why Nations Behave, Jose E. Alvarez Jan 1998

Why Nations Behave, Jose E. Alvarez

Michigan Journal of International Law

The idea for this symposium on "implementation, compliance and effectiveness" grew out of the 1997 annual meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), devoted to that theme. As one of the co-chairs of that meeting, I suggested to the student editors of this journal that they solicit articles on a topic that has seized the attention of researchers within international law as well as in seemingly unrelated fields. As Professor Thomas Franck has indicated in a recent well-received book, an ever increasing number of scholars are going beyond well-worn debates about whether international law is truly "law" to …


Advancing The Law Of Weapons Control - Comparative Approaches To Strengthen Nuclear Non-Proliferation, David S. Gualtieri, Barry Kellman, Kenneth E. Apt, Edward A. Tanzman Jan 1995

Advancing The Law Of Weapons Control - Comparative Approaches To Strengthen Nuclear Non-Proliferation, David S. Gualtieri, Barry Kellman, Kenneth E. Apt, Edward A. Tanzman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article analyzes in-depth the SAGSI recommendation that more effective safeguards draw upon "the elements (including the managed access provisions) contained in Part X of the Verification Annex to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.” SAGSI found that the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) offers approaches for verification and investigation that may be adaptable to the NPT.


Lip Service To The Laws Of War: Humanitarian Law And United Nations Armed Forces, Richard D. Glick Jan 1995

Lip Service To The Laws Of War: Humanitarian Law And United Nations Armed Forces, Richard D. Glick

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article concludes that the United Nations is bound by the rules of customary international humanitarian law, and occupies a horizontal relationship with the other subjects of IHL that it engages in armed conflict. When U.N. armed forces engage in armed conflict, the Organization qualifies as a "party to armed conflict" within the meaning of IHL, and U.N. troops also fall within the IHL definition of "combatants," rendering the Organization subject to IHL obligations. Continuing U.N. arguments to the contrary either deprive IHL definitions of their determinacy or regress to a claim of undeserved special status for Charter norms and …


A Memorial For Bosnia: Framework Of Legal Arguments Concerning The Lawfulness Of The Maintenance Of The United Nations Security Council's Arms Embargo On Bosnia And Herzegovina, Craig Scott, Abid Qureshi, Jasminka Kalajdzic, Francis Chang, Paul Michell, Peter Copeland Jan 1994

A Memorial For Bosnia: Framework Of Legal Arguments Concerning The Lawfulness Of The Maintenance Of The United Nations Security Council's Arms Embargo On Bosnia And Herzegovina, Craig Scott, Abid Qureshi, Jasminka Kalajdzic, Francis Chang, Paul Michell, Peter Copeland

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Memorial seeks to present a framework of legal arguments with respect to the validity and legal effects of an arms embargo imposed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 713 in September 1991 on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), before its dissolution, and since treated as being in force with respect to the new states that have succeeded Yugoslavia. More particularly, the Memorial addresses the legality of maintaining (or, at least, having maintained during the crucial time period) the arms embargo in force, either de jure or de facto, against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) …