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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Intent-To-Benefit: Individually Enforceable Rights Under International Treaties, Sital Kalantry
The Intent-To-Benefit: Individually Enforceable Rights Under International Treaties, Sital Kalantry
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Citizens of foreign countries are increasingly using international treaties to assert claims against Federal and state governments. As a result, U.S. courts are being asked to determine whether treaties provide litigants with individually enforceable rights. Although courts have no consistent approach to determining whether a treaty gives rise to individually enforceable rights, they often apply the textualist methodology derived from statutory interpretation. However, instead of using textual theories of statutory interpretation, I argue that courts should use intentionalist theories developed from contract interpretation in determining individually enforceable rights under treaties. Two positive arguments and one negative argument support my approach. …
The Human Rights Quagmire Of 'Human Trafficking', James C. Hathaway
The Human Rights Quagmire Of 'Human Trafficking', James C. Hathaway
Articles
Support for the international fight against "human trafficking" evolved quickly and comprehensively. The campaign launched by the UN General Assembly in December 19981 led to adoption just two years later of the Trafficking Protocol to the UN Convention against Organized Crime.2 U.S. President George W. Bush was among those particularly committed to the cause, calling for collective effort to eradicate the "special evil" of human trafficking, said by him to have become a "humanitarian crisis."3 One hundred and twenty-two countries have now ratified the Trafficking Protocol, agreeing in particular to criminalize trafficking and to cooperate in investigating and prosecuting allegations …
Indian Nations And The Federal Government: What Will Justice Require In The Future? Claims Against The Sovereign 20th Jusicial Conference Of The United States Court Of Federal Claims, Charles Wilkinson
Publications
No abstract provided.
Self-Execution And Treaty Duality, Curtis A. Bradley
Self-Execution And Treaty Duality, Curtis A. Bradley
Faculty Scholarship
The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution states that, along with the Constitution and laws of the United States, treaties made by the United States are part of the "supreme Law of the Land." At least since the Supreme Court's 1829 decision in Foster v. Neilson, however, it has been understood that treaty provisions are enforceable in U.S. courts only if they are "self-executing." The legitimacy and implications of this self-execution requirement have generated substantial controversy and uncertainty among both courts and commentators. This Article attempts to clear up some of the conceptual confusion relating to the self-execution doctrine and, …
Unratified Treaties, Domestic Politics, And The U.S. Constitution, Curtis A. Bradley
Unratified Treaties, Domestic Politics, And The U.S. Constitution, Curtis A. Bradley
Faculty Scholarship
Under contemporary treaty practice, a nation's signature of a treaty typically does not make the nation a party to the treaty. Rather, nations become parties to treaties through an act of ratification or accession, which sometimes occurs long after signature. Nevertheless, Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which many commentators regard as reflecting customary international law, provides that when a nation signs a treaty it is obligated to refrain from actions that would defeat the object and purpose of the treaty until such time as it makes clear its intent not to become a party …
Intent, Presumptions, And Non-Self-Executing Treaties, Curtis A. Bradley
Intent, Presumptions, And Non-Self-Executing Treaties, Curtis A. Bradley
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Treaties As Law Of The Land: The Supremacy Clause And The Judicial Enforcement Of Treaties, Carlos Manuel Vázquez
Treaties As Law Of The Land: The Supremacy Clause And The Judicial Enforcement Of Treaties, Carlos Manuel Vázquez
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Courts in recent years have perceived threshold obstacles to the enforcement of treaties deriving from their nature as contracts between nations that generally depend for their efficacy on the interest and honor of the parties, rather than on domestic adjudication. This approach to treaty enforcement is in tension with the Constitution’s declaration that treaties are part of the law of the land and its instruction to judges to give them effect. The Founders understood that treaties depended on interest and honor on the international plane, but they made treaties enforceable in our courts anyway in order to avoid the international …
Soft Law, Dinah L. Shelton
Soft Law, Dinah L. Shelton
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
International law is a largely consensual system, consisting of norms that states in sovereign equality freely accept to govern themselves and other subjects of law. International law is thus created by states, using procedures that they have agreed are legislative, that is, through procedures identified by them as the appropriate means to create legally-binding obligations. In contrast to the agreed sources listed in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Statute, state practice in recent years, inside and outside international organizations, increasingly has placed normative statements in non binding political instruments such as declarations, resolutions, and programs of action, and has …
The Value Of Year Books Of International Law, James C. Hathaway
The Value Of Year Books Of International Law, James C. Hathaway
Articles
Is there still a place for a 'Yearbook' of International Law? Viewed as no more than an annually published volume of scholarship, one would surely answer in the negative. There is no shortage of excellent law journals, including journals focused on international and comparative law. It is thus doubtful that any quality article published in a yearbook would have failed to find a good home elsewhere. With even relatively obscure law journals readily available in electronic form at minimal cost and with maximum ease, the case for a yearbook is surely weak if predicated simply on the importance of disseminating …
Putting Missouri V. Holland On The Map, Edward T. Swaine
Putting Missouri V. Holland On The Map, Edward T. Swaine
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This paper, published as part of symposium on Missouri v. Holland, explores how the circumstances of that case relate to modern criticisms of Congress' Necessary and Proper power and the doctrine of non-self-executing treaties. Focusing on some of the original concerns - for example, the need for further domestic implementation by Canada (and not, to the same degree, by the United States), the need for spending legislation, and the provision of criminal penalties - unsettles not only the understanding of the Supreme Court's decision, but also more recent critiques of the doctrines with which it has long been associated.
Rethinking Subsidiarity In International Human Rights Adjudication, William M. Carter Jr.
Rethinking Subsidiarity In International Human Rights Adjudication, William M. Carter Jr.
Articles
This article suggests that a re-evaluation of the principle of subsidiarity is in order. While I make no sweeping claims that the principle of subsidiarity is always preferable or always undesirable, I do suggest that a close look at the myriad ways in which subsidiarity applies reveals that it may sometimes impede, rather than advance, the cause it purports to serve: namely, achieving universality of human rights. This article identifies situations where subsidiarity is more likely to diminish human rights protections that it is to advance them and suggests that subsidiarity should be abandoned or minimized in such areas.