Law Commons^™

Democracy Clauses In The Americas: The Challenge Of Venezuela’S Withdrawal From The Oas, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

In light of Venezuela’s unprecedented notice of its intention to withdraw from the Organization of American States, this essay by a former member of the Juridical Committee of the OAS explores the range of discretion available to the OAS and its Member States in interpreting and applying the OAS’s unique provision for withdrawal. Presenting the first extensive analysis of this provision of the OAS Charter, the essay argues that the withdrawal clause can plausibly be interpreted to require Venezuela to fulfill all its obligations under the OAS Charter, including its obligations to respect democracy, before its unprecedented withdrawal can take …

The Kosovo Crisis: A Dostoievskian Dialogue On International Law, Statecraft, And Soulcraft, Antonio F. Perez, Robert J. Delahunty

Scholarly Articles

The secession of Kosovo from Serbia in February 2008 represents a stage in the unfolding of a revolution of "constitutional" dimensions in International Law that began with NATO's 1999 intervention in Kosovo against Serbia. NATO's intervention called into question the authority and viability of U.N. Charter system for maintaining international peace. Likewise, the West's decision in 2008 to support Kosovo's secession from Serbia dealt a further blow to the central post-War legal rules and institutions for controlling and mitigating Great power rivalry. Russia's later support for South Ossetia's secession from Georgia demonstrated the potential that the Kosovo precedent has for …

Separating State From Church: Researching The Legal System Of The Vatican City State, Stephen E. Young, Alison Shea

Scholarly Articles

Mr. Young and Ms. Shea discuss the unique situation of the Vatican City State in legal research. They provide an overview of the founding documents and the constitutional structure of the world's smallest sovereign nation, a discussion of the complex nature of the Vatican's international status, and a bibliographic essay covering the materials most likely to be available in law libraries in the United States.

The International Legal Environment For Serious Political Reporting Has Fundamentally Changed: Understanding The Revolutionary New Era Of English Defamation Law, Marin Roger Scordato

Scholarly Articles

On October 11, 2006, Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, issued a blockbuster ruling that completely changed the landscape of libel law and press freedoms in the United Kingdom. The Times of London described the case, Jameel v. Wall Street Journal, as, "a judgment that lawyers predict will usher in a new era of journalism." Given England's reputation as an attractive jurisdiction for defamation plaintiffs and a frequent destination for "libel tourism," this case is likely to alter the environment for serious political journalism throughout Europe and North America.

This article carefully describes the case, including its key holdings …

Mara’Abe V. Prime Minister Of Israel, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Aiding Clinical Education Abroad: What Can Be Gained And The Learning Curve On How To Do So Effectively, Leah Wortham

Scholarly Articles

The author advocates donor support for clinical education projects abroad and outlines the minimal requisites that she would have for such projects - direct experience with disadvantaged clients, faculty involvement, and sincerity and integrity of organizers. She cautions against funders and consultants pressing new clinics to fit American clinical models. She provides sample reporting questions that would require projects to reflect on goals sought and results achieved. She draws lessons for efforts to assist clinics abroad from critiques of the law and development movement (LDM), the last major international initiative in legal education reform; more recent efforts termed the New …

Bank Insolvency Regimes In The United States And The United Kingdom, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

Bank insolvency regimes vary widely. First, many countries maintain separate bank insolvency rules from those that govern insolvency of other firms or individuals. Other countries have no special regime and rely on their general insolvency law for bank closure. Second, some countries rely on an administrative process for bank closure in which the bank supervisor, bank insurer, or other agency has the power to appoint the conservator or receiver, and, in some instances, may appoint itself to the job. Other countries rely on a judicial process in which the bank supervisor (or bank managers or creditors) must apply to the …

Legal Frameworks For Economic Transition In Iraq – Occupation Under The Law Of War Vs. Global Governance Under The Law Of Peace, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

After over a decade as the ruling conventional wisdom under the rubric of the so-called Washington Consensus, the prospect of reconstruction and development through fiscal austerity, privatization and liberalization of markets is under considerable attack today from many quarters. One common theme of these challenges-to what has been received wisdom-focuses not on the technical characteristics of development, but rather its connection to political development.

The ‘Wall’ Decisions In Legal And Political Context, Geoffrey R. Watson

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalization Of Human Rights In Post-Soviet States And Latin America: A Comparative Analysis, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

This Article consists of four parts. The first, which is more general, addresses the question to what extent the system of governance adopted by the countries of the two regions affected the record of the states' protection of human rights. For instance, this Article considers whether democratization of the political system necessarily results in better protection of human rights. The second part analyzes the placement of human rights in the framework of the Latin American and post-Soviet constitutions. The third part identifies and discusses the problem of individual and group rights, an issue crucial for both regions. The fourth part …

Researching English Case Law, Stephen E. Young

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Central Banks’ Role In Bank Supervision In The United States And United Kingdom, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

Driven in part by the question of bank supervision in euro-area countries, a growing body of literature addresses whether central banking and bank supervision should be combined. This paper address this debate in light of recent legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States. Recent legislation in the United Kingdom stripped the Bank of England of its responsibility for bank supervision and established the Financial Services Authority as an integrated supervisor of financial services. In the United States, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 expanded the regulatory authority of the Federal Reserve. In light of international trends, I consider how …

Latin American Hybrid Constitutionalism: The United States Presidentialism In The Civil Law Melting Pot, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

Commentators have often suggested that Latin American countries incorporate more features of parliamentary systems or experiment with "mixed" models of governance. This article presents arguments that such a recommendation should be carefully analyzed. First, the article demonstrates that, since the early stages of post-colonial history, the Latin American states modified U.S. presidentialism. The states have already experimented with many features of a parliamentary system, adopted a model of judicial review which was an amalgam of several well-known models, and wrestled with their own ethnic, cultural and legal problems not linked to the U.S. system of governance. Second, the article examines …

United Kingdom And United States Responses To The Regulatory Challenges Of Modern Financial Markets, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

The modernization of world financial markets over the last 20 years has raised profound regulatory challenges. Our article considers whether the United States' Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLB) and the United Kingdom's Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) meet those challenges. We posit that the most compelling regulatory issue is not whether the financial industry should be allowed to consolidate. Rather, we believe that the organization and practices of the regulators, i.e., the question of which agencies regulate which firms and under what set of laws, should be the focal point. We call this an issue of regulatory modernization. …

Politicization And Judicialization Of The U.S. Chief Executive’S Political And Criminal Responsibility: A Threat To Constitutional Integrity Or A Natural Result Of The Constitution’S Flexibility?, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

This article attempts to analyze to what extent the scope of executive privilege, constitutionally committed to the executive branch, is determined by judicial process or by purely political factors. It opens with a brief report on the process of formation of the Presidential model of government and the system of checks and balances in the United States. Focusing on the checks imposed on the Executive, this article distinguishes those restraints that are clearly constitutionalized, or stemming from judicial determination of their constitutionality, and those which are the result of judicial interpretation of the beneficial aspects of public policy or political …

Constitutional Values And The Ethics Of Health Care: A Comparison Of The United States And Germany, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

In the first section, this essay will consider questions the new era in health care poses for a health-care ethics of ends. The second section will address the question this emerging era raises for a health-care ethics of duty. Under the rubric of an ethics of ends, the essay examines, more particularly, the ends of health and efficiency. Under that of duty, it addresses the duties of respect for the dignity of the human person; respect for the covenant of treatment; and respect for justice in distribution. In each case, it seeks to identify the basis for an adequate response …

Supreme Law Or Basic Law? The Decline Of The Concept Of Constitutional Supremacy, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Saving Rosencrantz And Guildenstern In A Virtual World? A Comparative Look At Recent Global Electronic Signature Legislation, Susanna Frederick Fischer

Scholarly Articles

This piece focuses on recent global legislative initiatives designed to establish a legal framework supporting electronic signatures. As many governments worldwide increasingly seek to encourage the growth of e-commerce, the enactment of such legislation has become a priority.

U.S. Federalism And Spanish Autonomy – Lessons From U.S. Federalism For The External Activities Of Substate Entities, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

This article will focus on a narrow aspect of the larger question of the effect of international economic integration and increased international security on the national legal order of complex states, such as the United States and Spain. At first glance, the United States and Spain have rather different systems of constitutional law concerning the relationship between the center and periphery. Nonetheless, as this article will argue, it is revealing to explore the recent responses of theories as different as U.S. federalism and Spain's system of autonomous communities to the new international environment in the crucial area of the external …

Teaching Professional Responsibility In Legal Clinics Around The World, Leah Wortham

Scholarly Articles

At a March 1999 Colloquium on Clinical Legal Education,1 a group of about 20 people, including a number of law faculty already teaching or planning to teach legal clinics in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union , were asked, "What are the goals that you think are most important for a legal clinic?" The most common answers were teaching about ethics and improving the ethical standards of law practice in participants' respective countries through this focus in legal education.

Constitutional Culture Of The New East-Central European Democracies, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

By Command Of Her Majesty: An Introduction To The Command Papers Of The United Kingdom, Stephen E. Young

Scholarly Articles

Mr Young explores the history, format, and arrangement of the Command Papers. He provides a brief description of their availability in hard copy and electronic formats, and also describes the availability and use of various indexing tools for this series of parliamentary papers.

The Perils Of Pinochet: Problems For Transnational Justice And A Supranational Governance Solution, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Convergence And Competition: The Case Of Bank Regulation In Britain And The United States, Heidi Mandanis Schooner, Michael Taylor

Scholarly Articles

Our article considers whether the existence of a global banking market has resulted in the convergence of bank supervisory policy among different nationally-based regulatory regimes. In particular, we consider whether regulatory authorities in the United States and Great Britain, as providers of regulatory services, compete on the basis of the "net regulatory benefit" (NRB) that they provide to their respective regulatees, i.e., banks. After a detailed examination of the history of bank regulation in the US and UK, we observe that there is no clear trend towards convergence by competition. We find that, while regulatory competition may play an important …

‘Mixed’ Constitutions: Product Of An East-Central European Constitutional Melting Pot, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

Part I of this Article discusses the difficulties involved in attempting to classify the new constitutions using traditional criteria. Part II examines the processes involved in the adoption of the various components of existing constitutional models into the constitutions of the East-Central European states, including separate analysis of the distributions of power, the structures of the legislatures, the electoral systems, the systems of governance and mechanisms of judicial enforcement provided by these instruments. Finally, Part III makes observations and draws conclusions regarding the processes examined in Part II.

Supremacy And Integrity: Member-State Law As A Limiting Principle In The United States And The European Union, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Sovereignty, Freedom, And Civil Society: Toward A New Jerusalem, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

Jerusalem has become a symbol of the world's past. In one sense, of course, it is holy ground to three of the world's great historical religions. The very identity of Muslims, Christians, and Jews are bound up in stories in which the city of Jerusalem plays a large, and sometimes central, role. But Jerusalem is also a symbol of the past in a much different way. Much like today's system of states, the debate concerning sovereignty over Jerusalem is a prisoner of the history of international law-a history that has been told in the language of absolute and undivided sovereignty …

The Role Of Basic Values In The Contemporary Constitutional Hermeneutics Of Germany And The United States, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Fundamental Constitutional Rights In The New Constitutions Of Eastern And Central Europe, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

The goal of this article is to review the efforts of the drafters. This study analyzes the process of drafting the new bills of rights against the background of the Western experience. The paper consists of two parts. The first examines the genesis of American and European constitutional protection of human rights, including the socialist concept of the bill of rights. The second is an analysis of basic constitutional rights as provided in several new constitutions and constitutional drafts of the countries of former Soviet dominance.

The article also examines the actual records of these countries in human rights protection. …

Tort Claims In Counterinsurgency Operations: The British Experience In Ireland, 1919–21, Michael F. Noone Jr.

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.