Law Commons^™

After Action: The U.S. Drone Program's Expansion Of International Law Justification For Use Of Force Against Imminent Threats, Elodie O. Currier

Vanderbilt Law Review

Until the 2000s, the United States' attempts to shift international legal norms on imminence to allow for greater use of armed force abroad were largely unsuccessful. In the past two decades, however, drone use and careful legal gamesmanship by U.S. officials have opened an unprecedentedly broad allowance for use of force in imminent self-defense. As drones become increasingly available to state and non-state actors, this permissive regime poses a threat to national and international security. This Note analyzes two decades of international customary law formation around drone use outside of armed conflict through a new lens post U.S.-withdrawal of Afghanistan. …

Evisceration Of The Right To Appeal: Denial Of Individual Responsibility As Actionable Genocide Denial, Jennifer E. King

Vanderbilt Law Review

Tensions arise during litigation in the international criminal justice system between the practice of the international criminal tribunals, domestic laws, and policy decisions of United Nation (“UN”) Member States. One such tension arises between domestic genocide denial laws, which typically criminalize denial of genocide as a strict liability offense, and the preservation of due process for persons convicted of genocide seeking appeal. In theory, denying individual responsibility during the appeal of a conviction by an international tribunal could constitute punishable genocide denial under some domestic laws. This criminalization of the appeal process would violate the due process rights of international …

Artistic Justice: How The Executive Branch Can Facilitate Nazi-Looted Art Restitution, Paige Tenkhoff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Eight decades after the Holocaust, many pieces of art stolen from Jewish families still sit in the state-owned museums of former Nazi-aligned regimes. In an effort to right old wrongs, plaintiffs are bringing suit in the United States against the foreign governments who retain the art under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act’s expropriation exception, which permits aggrieved plaintiffs to sue foreign countries for property that was illegally taken in violation of international law. But circuit courts are split as to whether these suits against foreign sovereigns should be allowed to go forward. This Note analyzes the divergent interpretations of the …

An Ocean Between Us: The Implications Of Inconsistencies Between The Navigational Laws Of Coastal Arctic Council Nations And The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea For Arctic Navigation, Laura C. Williams

Vanderbilt Law Review

Appraisal rights are codified by section 262 of the Delaware General Corporation Law ("DGCL"), which grants dissenting target shareholders in a merger the right to seek judicially determined fair value for their shares.' Appraisal rights therefore aim to protect dissenting shareholders from majority expropriation. 2 However, a new class of shareholders has emerged, testing the bounds of this remedy. "Appraisal arbitrageurs" are hedge funds who seek to exploit the once seldom- used appraisal remedy by buying target company stock after the announcement of the merger solely to pursue appraisal. These appraisal arbitrageurs have fueled the ongoing resurgence of appraisal litigation, …

Immunity Games: How The State Department Has Provided Courts With A Post-Samantar Framework For Determining Foreign Official Immunity, Erica E. Smith

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Samantar v. Yousuf that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA") does not govern the application or determination of foreign official immunity.' Instead, the Court found that the immunity of foreign officials was "properly governed by the common law."2 While the Court failed to explicitly define these common-law principles, it did note that the State Department would play a role in individual official immunity determinations.3 In the years since, the State Department has done just that. Through officially submitted Suggestions of Immunity and Statements of Interest, the State Department has rejuvenated its standards for …

Judicial Review For Enemy Fighters: The Court's Fateful Turn In "Ex Parte Quirin", The Nazi Saboteur Case, Andrew Kent

Vanderbilt Law Review

The last decade has seen intense disputes about whether alleged terrorists captured during the nontraditional post- 9/11 conflict with al Qaeda and affiliated groups may use habeas corpus to challenge their military detention or military trials. It is time to take a step back from 9/11 and begin to evaluate the enemy combatant legal regime on a broader, more systemic basis, and to understand its application to future conflicts. A leading precedent ripe for reconsideration is Ex parte Quirin, a World War II-era case in which the Supreme Court held that saboteurs admittedly employed by an enemy nation's military had …

Outsourcing And Insourcing Crime: The Political Economy Of Globalized Criminal Activity, Tomer Broude, Doron Teichman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Globalization is on the rise. The last few decades have been marked by dramatic reductions in transaction costs that have helped bring together local markets. Technological advances such as wireless telecommunications and the Internet have connected buyers and sellers of goods and services across the planet through transactions that were not even feasible, let alone cost-effective, as little as a decade ago. No less importantly, the systematic removal of regulatory barriers to international trade has facilitated economic globalization. At the forefront of international economic liberalization, the creation of the World Trade Organization ("WTO") in 1995 extended multilateral trading rules beyond …

Why Ratify? Lessons From Treaty Ratification Campaigns, Uta Oberdorster

Vanderbilt Law Review

n December 18, 1990, the United Nations ("UN") General Assembly approved the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families ("Migrant Convention"). Several years later, international non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") initiated a global campaign to encourage states to ratify the Migrant Convention. Thirteen member organizations continue this campaign today, including Human Rights Watch, International Labour Office, and Amnesty International. The Mexican government and the UN generously funded the campaign for many years, and campaign members worked hard to produce campaign materials, organize awareness raising events, and release press statements. Despite these efforts, the …

Increasing The Effectiveness Of The Security Council's Chapter Vii Authority In The Current Situations Before The International Criminal Court, Elizabeth C. Minogue

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 2003, the world was shocked and horrified to hear of the widespread killing, torture, forced displacement, and other atrocities visited upon the people of Darfur in the Sudan by the Sudanese Armed Forces ("SAF") and Arab Janjaweed militias. The SAF and Janjaweed allegedly were fighting organized rebel groups, but instead of targeting the rebels, they attacked civilian towns and villages based on the rationale that the civilians supported rebel forces. The United States defined the killings as genocide and pushed the United Nations to develop a court to try and punish those who committed these terrible crimes. However, instead …

Procuring Guilty Pleas For International Crimes: The Limited Influence Of Sentence Discounts, Nancy A. Combs

Vanderbilt Law Review

Approximately 90 percent of all American criminal cases are disposed of by means of guilty pleas, and a large percentage of defendants brought before courts in England, Australia, and other countries that use common-law procedures likewise plead guilty. Why do substantial numbers of defendants in national criminal justice systems choose to convict themselves when they are entitled to have their guilt formally adjudicated? The widely accepted primary reason is that they receive sentencing discounts when they choose to selfconvict. Most defendants charged with domestic crimes plead guilty following a process of plea bargaining between defense counsel and prosecutors. Although plea …

When Courts Make Law: How The International Criminal Tribunals Recast The Laws Of War, Allison M. Danner

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article argues that states often tacitly delegate lawmaking authority and that the Security Council did so in the case of the Tribunals. Although the historical record cannot definitely prove its validity, this hypothesis is supported by evidence from other international courts that lawmaking by international judiciaries is widespread and accepted by states, even if formally proscribed. The Article suggests that states do not acknowledge this delegation, however, in order both to perpetuate the fiction of state hegemony over international norm generation and to provide a shield behind which international courts can make law without suffering paralyzing political pressure that …

"Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church Of Cyprus V. Goldberg & Feldman Fine Arts, Inc".: Entrenchment Of The Due Diligence Requirement In Replevin Actions For Stolen Art, Stephen L. Foutty

Vanderbilt Law Review

Art prices are reaching spectacular heights. Current estimates place annual worldwide retail sales between ten billion and forty billion dollars;' each auction season, bidders smash previous price records. For example, at a May 9, 1989 Sotheby's auction, a buyer paid 47.9 million dollars for Picasso's self-portrait "Yo-Picasso"; Gaugin's "Mata Mau (In Olden Times)" sold for 24.2 million dollars. The next day at Christie's, an investor purchased a Monet for 14.3 million dollars, twice it's estimated value.' The inflated prices have inspired people without a prior interest in art to conceive a sudden passion for collecting by any available means. As …

The Role Of International Law As A Canon Of Domestic Statutory Construction, Ralph G. Steinhardt

Vanderbilt Law Review

From the beginning of our constitutional life, the Supreme Court has articulated principles that structure the juridical relationship between international law and domestic law. These principles purportedly offer rules of decision for resolving in domestic courts the potential in-consistencies between external and internal sources of law, and they do so with the surface simplicity of axioms. Treaties, for example, cannot trump constitutional norms.' Customary international law can provide a rule of decision at least in the absence of controlling legislative or executive acts. In the case of an irreconcilable conflict between a treaty and a statute, the latter-in-time prevails. When …

The Status Of The Law Of Nations In Early American Law, Stewart Jay

Vanderbilt Law Review

A perennial issue is the relationship of international law to the domestic law of the United States. The question appears in various con-texts, but in each the central problem is determining whether the body of customary international law is binding on the national and state governments. Discussions about this subject inevitably lead to consideration of separation of powers at the national level. If the United States may depart from international law, which branch of government has the power to do so? If one branch transgresses international law, is this action binding on the others?' For example, a recent case examined …

The Executive Branch And International Law, Arthur M. Weisburd

Vanderbilt Law Review

Public international law, through its rules regulating the dealings between independent nations, purports to impose limits on the actions of all governments, including those of the United States. In this context American lawyers interested in foreign relations may reasonably wonder whether American courts would enforce rules of public international law purporting to bind the United States against the United States government, particularly the executive branch. A fair number of Supreme Court cases have dealt with the enforce ability of treaties in American courts.' Treaties, however, are only one source of international law. The other important source, customary international law, is …

American Trends In Private International Law: Academic And Judicial Manipulation Of Choice Of Law Rules In Tort Cases, Willis L.M. Reese

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Restatement attempts to provide as much guidance as it is believed the current state of the authorities will permit. Hard-and-fast rules of choice of law are stated in the few situations in which this was deemed possible . Elsewhere formulations of varying degrees of specificity are employed." Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the principal weakness of the Restatement is the relatively little guidance that it affords. Properly viewed, it is a transitional document. It was written during a time of change and chaos when there was little indication of the direction that would betaken by future developments in …

The Extraterritorial Reach Of The Federal Securities Code: An Analysis Of Section 1905, John M. Liftin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Section 1905 of the proposed Federal Securities Code' sets forth the applicability of the Code to transnational securities transactions. The drafters could have stated in each provision of the Code whether and to what extent it was to apply extraterritorially. Instead, they placed in one section a set of general principles that cuts across all other sections of the Code and indicates which sections are to have extraterritorial application. The result is a descriptive guide that relies on a classification of transactions rather than a section-by-section enumeration...

This Article will not analyze the existing cases, except to the extent they …

Political Hijacking: What Law Applies In Peace And War, William H. Reeves

Vanderbilt Law Review

A new breed of hijackers has evolved as a product of international political strife of recent years. In attempts to escape an actual or self-styled oppressive environment, these political hijackers cause irreparable injury and serious danger to travelers, and complicate the operation of many transportation companies. After sketching the problems involved in providing adequate reparations to the injured passengers and corporations, and in implementing adequate punishment of the offenders, Mr. Reeves examines the question of whether a hijacked ship or plane might be retained by the arrival country rather than returned to its foreign owner. The author concludes that such …

Book Note, Daniel C. Turack

Vanderbilt Law Review

The volume contains 28 essays, representing only one-third of Professor Cooper's aerospace articles, but as the editor concedes,they represent areas in which his contribution was most significant.These spheres are: the history of air law; the fundamental principles of air law (notably airspace sovereignty and nationality of aircraft); and space law. In the first part, four essays serve to introduce the reader to the problems of terminology and the scope of air and space law,the economic and political basis of air power, and certain specific problems to be examined subsequently in depth. Part two, entitled "Rights In Airspace: From Antiquity To …

Private International Law And Its Sources, Elliott E. Cheatham, Harold G. Maier

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professors Cheatham and Maier raise the question, "What are the sources of the law applied in private international cases?" The authors consider this question under two main headings. The first deals with the "authoritative sources" of private international law applied in United States courts. It considers the question, Where, within the complex governmental structure of the United States, does power over private international matters rest?" Several possible sources are considered: public international law, state law, and federal law, and within federal law, the major components: international agreements, legislation, federal common law and executive law. The second part of the article …

Elliott Evans Cheatham, Willis L.M. Reese

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cheatham has made a marked imprint through his teaching and his writing on five areas of the law: international law, property, legal education, the legal profession, and conflict of laws. Of these, the legal profession is probably the field where his influence has been most deeply felt. Indeed, it is largely because of his ground-breaking casebook that the subject figures so prominently today in law school curriculums. Likewise, his Carpentier Lectures of a few years ago on "A Lawyer When Needed" provided the entering wedge into a subject that is of great contemporary significance. What Cheatham has done in the …

Elliot E. Cheatham, Phillip C. Jessup

Vanderbilt Law Review

A man of great courage and a fighter for principle, he would never surrender, but if conscience and conviction permitted, he would have great pleasure in giving. As one of our other colleagues has suggested to me, Elliott Cheatham's greatness as a teacher' is due to the fact that he is always eager to give. I have witnessed many examples of Elliott's modesty, which should not be mistaken for any wobbly lack of self-confidence. When he pleads that he has limitations which suggest the desirability of seeking someone else for an honor or place of distinction or a juridical contribution, …

International Law, National Tribunals And The Rights Of Aliens:, Richard B. Lillich

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is growing concern everywhere these days with the application of substantive international law rules to individuals as well as to nations. Indeed, after years of relative neglect, the procedural side of international law is coming into its own, a development that is as welcome as it is overdue. To readers who recall Morris R. Cohen's observation that "students of legal history know the truth of the statement that 'the substantive law is secreted in the interstices of procedure,' nor need practitioners be reminded how frequently changes in procedure affect the substantive right of parties,"' this trend is a particularly …

The Alien's Access To Local Remedies: The African Commonwealth Countries' Experience, Ivan L. Head

Vanderbilt Law Review

Of the 27 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, 11 are located on the continent of Africa. They range in size from Nigeria, with an area of 356,000 square miles and a population of 60 million, to The Gambia, with an area of 4,000 square miles and a population of 350,000 persons. Prior to 1957 all of the 11 States were colonies of the British crown. In little more than a decade they have all gained political independence-one hundred and six million people residing in autonomous communities which are, in the words of the 1926 Balfour Declaration, "equal in status, …

International Law, National Tribunals And The Rights Of Aliens: The Latin American Experience, Frank G. Dawson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Latin America is today undergoing a profound technological revolution for which the United States is largely responsible, and which is transforming the continent in a manner and at a pace never envisioned by nineteenth century alien entrepreneurs. Communication and transportation media developed within the last fifty years have created new demands for, and dependencies upon, the commercial products and luxuries of the mechanized world and have precipitated demands for radical change in outmoded economic and political patterns. This has inspired programs for economic integration on the international level, and, within individual nations, for industrialization and product diversification to limit dependence …

International Law, National Tribunals And The Rights Of Aliens: The West European Experience, Peter E. Herzog

Vanderbilt Law Review

The local remedies rule is usually considered a device to accommodate the legitimate desire of states to preserve their own sovereignty with the equally legitimate desire of states to protect their nationals who have suffered injury abroad. It is obvious that the adequacy of the rule in serving the second of these ends will depend on the nature and quality of the local remedies available. In turn, the effectiveness of local remedies in protecting the rights of aliens will depend on a variety of factors. Most importantly, there is the adequacy of the substantive legal rights in the fields of …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust--Unincorporated Divisions of a Corporation May Be Separate Entities for Purposes of Antitrust Laws

===============================

Constitutional Law--One-Year Residence Requirement as Condition of Eligibility for State Welfare Aid Held Unconstitutional

===============================

International Law--Sovereign Immunity and Act of State--Hickenlooper Amendment Precludes Assertion of Act of State Where Act Is Violative of International Law

===============================

Products Liability--Lender Held Liable for Gross Defects in Housing Development It Had Financed

================================

Taxation--Constructive Ownership Rules Automatically Applied to Section 302(b) (1)Dividend Equivalency Test

================================

Taxation--IRS Rules Organization Which Discriminates on Basis of Race Not Charitable

================================

antitrust, constitutional law, international law, products liability, taxation

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Civil Rights--Exclusion of Wage Earners as a Class from Jury Service in State Courts Violates

============================

International Law and Trademark Infringement--Rights of Former Owners of Confiscated Cuban Businesses Under Hickenlooper Amendment

============================

Jurisdiction--Minimum" Contacts--First Amendment Requires a Greater Showing of Contact in a Libel Action To Satisfy Due Process Than Is Necessary in Other Types of Actions

============================

Labor Law--Attorney Undertaking Persuader Activity on Behalf of Employer Must Report Such Activity Under LMRDA

============================

Labor Law--Employer Must Bargain About an Economically Motivated Decision To Close a Portion of Its Operations

============================

Labor Law--Employer's Duty To Bargain When Authorization Cards Are …

Book Reviews, Harold G. Maier

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Enforcement of International Judicial Decisions Arbitral Awards in Public International Law By E.K. Nantwi Leyden, Netherlands: A.W. Sijthoff, N.V., 1966. Pp. xv 209.

Harold G. Maier

=================================

Legal Papers of John Adams Edited by L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965. Vol. 1, pp. cxliv, 334. Vol. 2, pp. x, 441. Vol.3, pp. viii, 434. $30.00 the set

Frederick Bernays Wiener

The Sabbatino Case And The Sabbatino Amendment: Comedy--Or Tragedy--Of Errors, William H. Reeves

Vanderbilt Law Review

The issues and decisions in the Sabbatino litigation and the significant concepts of the Sabbatino legislation are here reviewed and considered in five parts. Part I discusses the mistaken beliefs of the Congress as to the reasons for proposing and enacting the Sabbatino Amendment. Part II then examines the relations between Cuba and the United States, explaining how Cuba's insult made possible the judicial errors in the Sabbatino decisions, which were reversed by the Supreme Court, and also prompted the subsequent Sabbatino legislation. In Part III, proof will be given of congressional misinterpretations of foreign law and foreign court decisions …