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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Fog Of Certainty, Robert B. Ahdieh
The Fog Of Certainty, Robert B. Ahdieh
Faculty Scholarship
In a recent essay in the Yale Law Journal, constitutional law scholar Michael Stokes Paulsen argues that “[t]he force of international law, as a body of law, upon the United States is . . . largely an illusion.” Rather than law, he suggests, international law is mere “policy and politics.”
For all the certainty with which this argument is advanced, it cannot survive close scrutiny. At its foundation, Professor Paulsen’s essay rests on a pair of fundamental misconceptions of the nature of law. Law is not reduced to mere policy, to begin, simply because it can be undone. Were that …
Book Review: The Iraq War And International Law, Maxwell O. Chibundu
Book Review: The Iraq War And International Law, Maxwell O. Chibundu
Faculty Scholarship
A review of The Iraq War and International Law edited by Phil Shiner and Andrew Williams. Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2008.
International Law, Human Rights And The Transformative Occupation Of Iraq, Peter G. Danchin
International Law, Human Rights And The Transformative Occupation Of Iraq, Peter G. Danchin
Faculty Scholarship
This chapter examines the project of transformative occupation undertaken by the United States and its allies following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. More specifically, it considers the Iraqi occupation in light of two competing sensibilities in international legal argument. On one view, which I term “legal formalism”, the purpose of international law is eclectic, intersubjective and value-pluralist: to create the conditions for peaceful coexistence between different political orders and ways of life. This view is commonly associated with the liberalism of the United Nations Charter which posits both the subject of international law and its liberty in formal terms …
Indigenous Peoples And The Law - Ancient Customs: Modern Dilemmas, David S. Bogen
Indigenous Peoples And The Law - Ancient Customs: Modern Dilemmas, David S. Bogen
Faculty Scholarship
Indigenous people have a variety of complex relationships to law in nations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States where non-indigenous people constitute the majority of the population. Customary law has been recognised in each of these nations as a source of domestic law, but this recognition has created various tensions. For instance, Native Title looks to customary law for its definition, but non-indigenous society demands that Native Title be managed by modern Indigenous institutions created under non-indigenous law. Issues of federalism and international law influence the interaction of Indigenous and non-indigenous law against a background of …
The 60th Anniversary Of The Prc: A Retrospective On The Chinese Legal System – Introduction, Benjamin L. Liebman
The 60th Anniversary Of The Prc: A Retrospective On The Chinese Legal System – Introduction, Benjamin L. Liebman
Faculty Scholarship
Since its establishment in 1987, the Columbia Journal of Chinese Law and its successor, the Columbia Journal of Asian Law, have played an important role in publishing English language scholarship about the law of China and Asia. An important part of this mission has been the publication of scholarship not only by scholars in the United States and Europe, but also by scholars from China and elsewhere in Asia. I am delighted that this special edition of the Journal, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China and thirty years of legal reforms in China, …
American Law And Transnational Corruption: Is There A Need For Lincoln’S Law Abroad?, Paul D. Carrington
American Law And Transnational Corruption: Is There A Need For Lincoln’S Law Abroad?, Paul D. Carrington
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Treaties As "Part Of Our Law", Ernest A. Young
Treaties As "Part Of Our Law", Ernest A. Young
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Breaking The Genuine Link: The Contemporary International Legal Regulation Of Nationality, Robert D. Sloane
Breaking The Genuine Link: The Contemporary International Legal Regulation Of Nationality, Robert D. Sloane
Faculty Scholarship
The concept of nationality traditionally mediated the relationship between the individual and the state in a bygone era in which international law regarded only the latter as a genuine subject of the law; today, its international legal functions have expanded. Yet, as in the past, it remains unclear whether and how international law limits the otherwise almost plenary competence of states to confer their nationality by their internal laws in a way entitled to international recognition. After the International Court of Justice's ("ICJ") 1955 judgment in Nottebohm, however, lawyers began to express this limit with a kind of doctrinal mantra: …
United States Detention Operations In Afghanistan And The Law Of Armed Conflict, Matthew C. Waxman
United States Detention Operations In Afghanistan And The Law Of Armed Conflict, Matthew C. Waxman
Faculty Scholarship
Looking back on US and coalition detention operations in Afghanistan to date, three key issues stand out: one substantive, one procedural and one policy. The substantive matter – what are the minimum baseline treatment standards required as a matter of international law? – has clarified significantly during the course of operations there, largely as a result of the US Supreme Court’s holding in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The procedural matter – what adjudicative processes does international law require for determining who may be detained? – eludes consensus and has become more controversial the longer the Afghan conflict continues. And the …
Intervention To Stop Genocide And Mass Atrocities: International Norms And U.S. Policy, Matthew C. Waxman
Intervention To Stop Genocide And Mass Atrocities: International Norms And U.S. Policy, Matthew C. Waxman
Faculty Scholarship
The collective international failure to stop genocidal violence and resulting humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan prompts the familiar question of whether the United States or, more broadly, the international community has the political will and capabilities necessary to deter or stop mass atrocities. It is well understood that mobilizing domestic and international political support as well as leveraging diplomatic, economic, and maybe even military tools are necessary to stop mass atrocities, though they may not always be enough. Other studies have focused, therefore, on what steps the United States and its international partners could take to build capabilities of the sort …