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2003

Comparative and Foreign Law

Washington International Law Journal

Articles 1 - 30 of 31

Full-Text Articles in Law

Rural Women's Land Rights In Java, Indonesia: Strengthened By Family Law, But Weakened By Land Registration, Jennifer Brown May 2003

Rural Women's Land Rights In Java, Indonesia: Strengthened By Family Law, But Weakened By Land Registration, Jennifer Brown

Washington International Law Journal

In Java, Indonesia, only about one-third of land title certificates reflect ownership by women. This lack of registered land ownership can potentially harm women by depriving them of influence within the household and leaving them vulnerable in cases of divorce or a spouse's death. This Article argues that effective land registration mechanisms and legal and social recognition of women's property rights all play a critical role in protecting women's ownership interests. Interviews with landowners and government officials in Java reveal that Indonesia's land registration processes do not effectively advance ownership rights granted under the nation's family law. Despite the government's …


Recent Intensification Of Investor Protection In The Korean Securities Market: The Mandatory And Fair Disclosure Systems, Kwang-Rok Kim May 2003

Recent Intensification Of Investor Protection In The Korean Securities Market: The Mandatory And Fair Disclosure Systems, Kwang-Rok Kim

Washington International Law Journal

This Article analyzes the Korean fair disclosure system and the Korean mandatory disclosure system under the Korean Securities and Exchange Act ("KSEA"). After the turbulence in the financial markets resulting from the economic crises of late 1997, the South Korean government realized that the Korean economy had failed to keep pace with the world economy. The Korean economy underwent many changes after being offered financial relief from the International Monetary Fund. As part of these changes, the government adopted a series of structural reform measures to improve the standard of corporate governance and enhance corporate management. The KSEA now provides …


The Good, Bad, And Unintended: American Lessons For Cambodia's Effort Against Domestic Violence, Sonja K. Hardenbrook May 2003

The Good, Bad, And Unintended: American Lessons For Cambodia's Effort Against Domestic Violence, Sonja K. Hardenbrook

Washington International Law Journal

Despite numerous laws that guarantee women equal rights and prohibit violence, the current Cambodian legal system has proven inadequate to combat spousal abuse. In response, the Royal Government of Cambodia has proposed a draft-law specifically aimed at domestic violence. However, if enforcement of current Cambodian law in domestic violence situations is any indication, the proposed law has little hope of implementation. Current cultural paradigms make the Cambodian police and the public at large view domestic violence as a private matter rather than a crime. Thus, Cambodia is in need of new strategies to reduce domestic violence. Cambodia is not alone …


Private Enforcement Of Securities Fraud Law In China: A Critique Of The Supreme People's Court 2003 Provisions Concerning Private Securities Litigation, Guiping Lu May 2003

Private Enforcement Of Securities Fraud Law In China: A Critique Of The Supreme People's Court 2003 Provisions Concerning Private Securities Litigation, Guiping Lu

Washington International Law Journal

On January 9, 2003, China's Supreme People's Court issued a new ruling with detailed provisions governing private securities litigation involving disclosure of false or misleading information. The new ruling is expected to play an important role in regulating and developing China's securities markets by providing a necessary judicial safeguard against infringement upon investors' interests. The new ruling, however, is unlikely to achieve its expected effect due to various procedural and substantive hurdles to investor access to judicial recourse. The built-in procedural hurdles either make it very difficult for securities investors to bring private actions, or, in some circumstances, deprive them …


Alternative Dispute Resolution As A Means Of Access To Justice In The Russian Federation, Elena Nosyreva, Douglas Carman, Dana Tumenova May 2003

Alternative Dispute Resolution As A Means Of Access To Justice In The Russian Federation, Elena Nosyreva, Douglas Carman, Dana Tumenova

Washington International Law Journal

This Article represents recent scholarship in Russian jurisprudence concerning the use of alternative dispute resolution procedures. It was written by a professor who is an active participant in law reform projects addressing the problems of elaborating legislation to articulate the rights and duties of parties involved in economic and other disputes. This Article covers three forms of dispute resolution—negotiations, claims-based dispute resolution, and mediation—and identifies characteristics of these procedures that are peculiar to the Russian context. By reviewing the forms of conflict resolution employed in Soviet-era command economy and exploring the contours of contemporary Russian "legal culture," the Article attempts …


China's New Foreign Law Firm Regulations: A Step In The Wrong Direction, Jane J. Heller May 2003

China's New Foreign Law Firm Regulations: A Step In The Wrong Direction, Jane J. Heller

Washington International Law Journal

Following China's accession to the World Trade Organization ("WTO"), the Chinese government issued new regulations governing foreign law firms in China. A number of commentators have analyzed these regulations to evaluate whether China is "'on track" to fulfilling the commitments it undertook to gain entry to the WTO. However, a more basic question that should be addressed is whether the new regulations meet China's goals in joining the WTO: to foster trade and economic development and to accelerate the growth of China's legal profession. Although China appeared willing to engage in significant liberalization of the legal services sector when it …


The Pain Of Love: Spousal Immigration And Domestic Violence In Australia—A Regime In Chaos?, E. Odhiambo-Abuya May 2003

The Pain Of Love: Spousal Immigration And Domestic Violence In Australia—A Regime In Chaos?, E. Odhiambo-Abuya

Washington International Law Journal

A fundamental step that the 1994 Australian Migration Regulations developed into the immigration framework was to grant certain concessions to non-Australian spouses and interdependent partners who suffer domestic violence at the hands of their Australian counterparts. Victims of domestic violence are eligible to apply for permanent residence notwithstanding the otherwise applicable two-year waiting period. To understand the domestic violence exception, this Article explores the jurisprudence that has emerged from courts and other immigration tribunals. The Article proposes that further legislative and policy changes should be made in order to seal identified "gaps," and to provide clear guidance to interested parties, …


Facing The Aging Wave: Proposed Social Security Reform In The Philippines, Les Coughran Mar 2003

Facing The Aging Wave: Proposed Social Security Reform In The Philippines, Les Coughran

Washington International Law Journal

The Philippines's Social Security System is eroding because of demographic changes. These changes have tipped the financial balance, which incremental design changes have failed to restore. The system contains weaknesses that are exacerbated by limited financial transparency and poor asset management. International social security systems, designed to include public defined benefit programs, public hypothetical account programs, publicly mandated defined contribution programs, and/or private sphere components, provide the Philippines with examples of alternate national systems. While each of these components alleviates certain risks, no single component is comprehensive in safeguarding against demographic, economic, or inflationary risks. This Comment asserts that the …


The Cultural Property Laws Of Japan: Social, Political, And Legal Influences, Geoffrey R. Scott Mar 2003

The Cultural Property Laws Of Japan: Social, Political, And Legal Influences, Geoffrey R. Scott

Washington International Law Journal

Japan's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties has been heralded as one of the most sophisticated and complete statutes of its kind and has been viewed as a model for other countries considering means to protect their ethnographic and cultural treasures. This Article examines the social, cultural, political, and legal influences antecedent to the promulgation of the statute and discusses the complexities inherent in composing legislation of this sort. The specific Japanese legislative and administrative efforts undertaken to protect national treasures prior to promulgation of the statute, and the political environment contemporaneous with its passage, are compiled, analyzed, and …


Facing The Aging Wave: Proposed Social Security Reform In The Philippines, Les Coughran Mar 2003

Facing The Aging Wave: Proposed Social Security Reform In The Philippines, Les Coughran

Washington International Law Journal

The Philippines's Social Security System is eroding because of demographic changes. These changes have tipped the financial balance, which incremental design changes have failed to restore. The system contains weaknesses that are exacerbated by limited financial transparency and poor asset management. International social security systems, designed to include public defined benefit programs, public hypothetical account programs, publicly mandated defined contribution programs, and/or private sphere components, provide the Philippines with examples of alternate national systems. While each of these components alleviates certain risks, no single component is comprehensive in safeguarding against demographic, economic, or inflationary risks. This Comment asserts that the …


The Experimental Use Exception In Japan: A Model For U.S. Patent Law?, Jennifer A. Johnson Mar 2003

The Experimental Use Exception In Japan: A Model For U.S. Patent Law?, Jennifer A. Johnson

Washington International Law Journal

The patent laws of the United States and Japan contain provisions that permit the experimental use of patented inventions. In the United States, the common law experimental use exception has been utilized to permit the use of a patented invention to satisfy intellectual curiosity, as long as the use is not commercial. In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Act provided a statutory experimental use exception in 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1). It amended the Patent Act to allow a generic drug company to experiment with a pioneer drug during the pioneer drug's patent term to generate data for obtaining regulatory approval. In contrast, …


The Faint Shadow Of The Sixth Amendment: Substantial Imbalance In Evidence-Gathering Capacity Abroad Under The U.S.-P.R.C. Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement In Criminal Matters, David Whedbee Mar 2003

The Faint Shadow Of The Sixth Amendment: Substantial Imbalance In Evidence-Gathering Capacity Abroad Under The U.S.-P.R.C. Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement In Criminal Matters, David Whedbee

Washington International Law Journal

Transnational organized crime has an adverse impact on the United States and the People's Republic of China. In the last thirty years, the mutual legal assistance agreement has emerged as an effective mechanism to streamline international judicial assistance in combating borderless crime. The accretion of these agreements has created a growing web of bilateral obligations that links sovereign jurisdictions. The U.S.-P.R.C. mutual legal assistance agreement (the "U.S.-P.R.C. MLAA") furthers U.S. interests by facilitating U.S. Attomeys' access to physical evidence and witnesses in the People's Republic of China. Significantly, the political offense exception in the U.S.-P.R.C. agreement permits U.S. authorities to …


The Cultural Property Laws Of Japan: Social, Political, And Legal Influences, Geoffrey R. Scott Mar 2003

The Cultural Property Laws Of Japan: Social, Political, And Legal Influences, Geoffrey R. Scott

Washington International Law Journal

Japan's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties has been heralded as one of the most sophisticated and complete statutes of its kind and has been viewed as a model for other countries considering means to protect their ethnographic and cultural treasures. This Article examines the social, cultural, political, and legal influences antecedent to the promulgation of the statute and discusses the complexities inherent in composing legislation of this sort. The specific Japanese legislative and administrative efforts undertaken to protect national treasures prior to promulgation of the statute, and the political environment contemporaneous with its passage, are compiled, analyzed, and …


Reforming The Japanese Commercial Code: A Step Towards An American-Style Executive Officer System In Japan?, Matthew Senechal Mar 2003

Reforming The Japanese Commercial Code: A Step Towards An American-Style Executive Officer System In Japan?, Matthew Senechal

Washington International Law Journal

After more than a decade of attempting to remedy failing banks, rising unemployment, and a shrinking economy, Japan has taken a new approach to economic reform. With the hope of improving corporate profits and international competitiveness, the Japanese Diet passed legislation in May 2002 amending the Commercial Code to allow corporations to adopt an American-style executive officer system. The amendment establishes a workable new framework for more effective corporate governance in Japan and serves as an important early step in what promises to be a long road to reform. These benefits notwithstanding, its impact will be limited by the Amendment's …


From Techical Fix To Regulatory Mix: Japan's New Environmental Law, Lara Fowler Mar 2003

From Techical Fix To Regulatory Mix: Japan's New Environmental Law, Lara Fowler

Washington International Law Journal

In post-industrial countries like Japan, modem environmental problems defy easy clean up solutions. Thus, effective clean up depends on diverse regulation. Historically, the Japanese government has relied on statutes that mandated technical "fixes" to clean up highly publicized pollution problems. Although such regulations have been successful in areas like air pollution, recent newspaper headlines highlight the extent to which environmental issues continue to affect densely populated Japan. Beginning with the passage of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law in 1997, however, Japan has significantly diversified its environmental policy. Along with strict new regulatory standards, new national laws now allow public access …


Reforming The Japanese Commercial Code: A Step Towards An American-Style Executive Officer System In Japan?, Matthew Senechal Mar 2003

Reforming The Japanese Commercial Code: A Step Towards An American-Style Executive Officer System In Japan?, Matthew Senechal

Washington International Law Journal

After more than a decade of attempting to remedy failing banks, rising unemployment, and a shrinking economy, Japan has taken a new approach to economic reform. With the hope of improving corporate profits and international competitiveness, the Japanese Diet passed legislation in May 2002 amending the Commercial Code to allow corporations to adopt an American-style executive officer system. The amendment establishes a workable new framework for more effective corporate governance in Japan and serves as an important early step in what promises to be a long road to reform. These benefits notwithstanding, its impact will be limited by the Amendment's …


From Techical Fix To Regulatory Mix: Japan's New Environmental Law, Lara Fowler Mar 2003

From Techical Fix To Regulatory Mix: Japan's New Environmental Law, Lara Fowler

Washington International Law Journal

In post-industrial countries like Japan, modem environmental problems defy easy clean up solutions. Thus, effective clean up depends on diverse regulation. Historically, the Japanese government has relied on statutes that mandated technical "fixes" to clean up highly publicized pollution problems. Although such regulations have been successful in areas like air pollution, recent newspaper headlines highlight the extent to which environmental issues continue to affect densely populated Japan. Beginning with the passage of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law in 1997, however, Japan has significantly diversified its environmental policy. Along with strict new regulatory standards, new national laws now allow public access …


Curbing Child-Trafficking In Intercountry Adoptions: Will International Treaties And Adoption Moratoriums Accomplish The Job In Cambodia?, Kelly M. Wittner Mar 2003

Curbing Child-Trafficking In Intercountry Adoptions: Will International Treaties And Adoption Moratoriums Accomplish The Job In Cambodia?, Kelly M. Wittner

Washington International Law Journal

Over the past two decades an enormous increase in intercountry adoptions has prompted international concern over the victimization of children, birth parents, and adoptive families. Recently, the United States has closely scrutinized babytrafficking in Cambodia. Reports of widespread buying, selling, and stealing of Cambodian infants for international adoption prompted the United States to place a moratorium on adoptions from Cambodia on December 21, 2001. In addition, the international community has drafted treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ("CRC") and the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption ("Hague Convention") to normalize and systematize the process …


A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt Mar 2003

A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt

Washington International Law Journal

On December 21, 2001, China's Supreme People's Court promulgated landmark rules concerning the production and use of evidence in civil cases. These rules became effective on April 1, 2002 and apply to legal actions initiated after that date. The rules apply in all Chinese courts, from the high and intermediate level courts found at the provincial and prefecture level, down to the basic level courts found in rural counties and in urban districts. Of the eighty-three newly promulgated rules, more than half concern procedures for exchanging, confronting, investigating, or discovering evidence. Eleven are strict rules of evidence. The remainder is …


Curbing Child-Trafficking In Intercountry Adoptions: Will International Treaties And Adoption Moratoriums Accomplish The Job In Cambodia?, Kelly M. Wittner Mar 2003

Curbing Child-Trafficking In Intercountry Adoptions: Will International Treaties And Adoption Moratoriums Accomplish The Job In Cambodia?, Kelly M. Wittner

Washington International Law Journal

Over the past two decades an enormous increase in intercountry adoptions has prompted international concern over the victimization of children, birth parents, and adoptive families. Recently, the United States has closely scrutinized babytrafficking in Cambodia. Reports of widespread buying, selling, and stealing of Cambodian infants for international adoption prompted the United States to place a moratorium on adoptions from Cambodia on December 21, 2001. In addition, the international community has drafted treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ("CRC") and the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption ("Hague Convention") to normalize and systematize the process …


A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt Mar 2003

A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt

Washington International Law Journal

On December 21, 2001, China's Supreme People's Court promulgated landmark rules concerning the production and use of evidence in civil cases. These rules became effective on April 1, 2002 and apply to legal actions initiated after that date. The rules apply in all Chinese courts, from the high and intermediate level courts found at the provincial and prefecture level, down to the basic level courts found in rural counties and in urban districts. Of the eighty-three newly promulgated rules, more than half concern procedures for exchanging, confronting, investigating, or discovering evidence. Eleven are strict rules of evidence. The remainder is …


The Faint Shadow Of The Sixth Amendment: Substantial Imbalance In Evidence-Gathering Capacity Abroad Under The U.S.-P.R.C. Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement In Criminal Matters, David Whedbee Mar 2003

The Faint Shadow Of The Sixth Amendment: Substantial Imbalance In Evidence-Gathering Capacity Abroad Under The U.S.-P.R.C. Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement In Criminal Matters, David Whedbee

Washington International Law Journal

Transnational organized crime has an adverse impact on the United States and the People's Republic of China. In the last thirty years, the mutual legal assistance agreement has emerged as an effective mechanism to streamline international judicial assistance in combating borderless crime. The accretion of these agreements has created a growing web of bilateral obligations that links sovereign jurisdictions. The U.S.-P.R.C. mutual legal assistance agreement (the "U.S.-P.R.C. MLAA") furthers U.S. interests by facilitating U.S. Attomeys' access to physical evidence and witnesses in the People's Republic of China. Significantly, the political offense exception in the U.S.-P.R.C. agreement permits U.S. authorities to …


The Experimental Use Exception In Japan: A Model For U.S. Patent Law?, Jennifer A. Johnson Mar 2003

The Experimental Use Exception In Japan: A Model For U.S. Patent Law?, Jennifer A. Johnson

Washington International Law Journal

The patent laws of the United States and Japan contain provisions that permit the experimental use of patented inventions. In the United States, the common law experimental use exception has been utilized to permit the use of a patented invention to satisfy intellectual curiosity, as long as the use is not commercial. In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Act provided a statutory experimental use exception in 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1). It amended the Patent Act to allow a generic drug company to experiment with a pioneer drug during the pioneer drug's patent term to generate data for obtaining regulatory approval. In contrast, …


Introduction To The Maritime Law Forum, Craig H. Allen Jan 2003

Introduction To The Maritime Law Forum, Craig H. Allen

Washington International Law Journal

The members of the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal are to be congratulated for their initiative, compassion, and insight in calling attention to the August 26, 2001 M/V Tampa incident and subjecting the actions of the involved principals and the governing legal regime to close and thoughtful scrutiny. Planning for the April 22, 2002 symposium in Seattle began in the fall of 2001, shortly after the Tampa's week-long crisis involving 438 migrants garnered international attention. Speakers for the Symposium conference, recruited under the leadership of the Journal's 2001-2002 Editor-in-Chief, Kelly Thomas, hailed from Australia, Europe and throughout the …


Is It The Beginning Of The Era Of The Rule Of The Constitution? Reinterpreting China's "First Constitutional Case, Shen Kui, Yuping Liu Jan 2003

Is It The Beginning Of The Era Of The Rule Of The Constitution? Reinterpreting China's "First Constitutional Case, Shen Kui, Yuping Liu

Washington International Law Journal

The subject of this article is the so-called "first constitutional case" in China. The Qi Yuling case is, in a sense, the very first time since the foundation of the People's Republic of China that constitutional provisions have been directly invoked by the Supreme People's Court in a civil lawsuit to protect a citizen's right to receive education, one of the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution. The Qi Yuling case, therefore, has given rise to much discussion on issues of judicial interpretation of the Constitution and the Constitution's application in the private domain, as well as the institution of …


Trading In Human Misery: A Human Rights Perspective On The Tampa Incident, Irene Khan Jan 2003

Trading In Human Misery: A Human Rights Perspective On The Tampa Incident, Irene Khan

Washington International Law Journal

The Tampa case does not stand in isolation. It is part of a wider pattern of restrictive asylum policies. To fully understand the significance of the Tampa case, one should go back more than two decades to the exodus of the Vietnamese boat people. Then, as now, boatloads of asylum seekers were pushed away, and refugees were detained on small islands, including, for example, Galang Island in Indonesia. Then, as now, many asylum seekers drowned as their calls of distress went unnoticed or unheeded. In response to this exodus, asylum, as a permanent solution to refugee problems, was diminished with …


Refugees And Responsibility In The Twenty-First Century: More Lessons Learned From The South Pacific, Guy S. Goodwin-Gill Jan 2003

Refugees And Responsibility In The Twenty-First Century: More Lessons Learned From The South Pacific, Guy S. Goodwin-Gill

Washington International Law Journal

[G]overnments throughout the world have tried to avoid dealing with the difficult questions raised by refugee and related movements. One method is to seek to redefine the problem as one not involving obligation or responsibility. Some governments also use the law in an attempt to limit the scope of their obligations. Another technique . . . is to engage in an exercise of extra-territorial jurisdiction . . . and to seek to justify that practice on the ground that somehow obligations towards refugees need not be observed. States have also tried detention, discriminatory treatment, and denial of other human rights …


Protection Of Artists' Rights Under The Korean Copyright Law, Chung Hwan Choi, Minsu Kyeong Jan 2003

Protection Of Artists' Rights Under The Korean Copyright Law, Chung Hwan Choi, Minsu Kyeong

Washington International Law Journal

The term "artists" includes film, television ("TV"), stage, and musical actors and actresses ("actors"), pop singers and musicians, dancers, fashion models, and classical musicians. Although the same analysis can be applied to all of the categories above mentioned, this article solely focuses on pop singers and actors. The Copyright Act of Korea ("Copyright Act") defines Siryun ("public performance") as the entertainment activities of artists, and uses Siryunja ("performer") instead of "entertainer" as a legal term for artists.


In The Wake Of The Tampa: Conflicting Visions Of International Refugee Law In The Management Of Refugee Flows, Mary Crock Jan 2003

In The Wake Of The Tampa: Conflicting Visions Of International Refugee Law In The Management Of Refugee Flows, Mary Crock

Washington International Law Journal

The Australian Government's decision in August 2001 to close its doors to a maritime Good Samaritan, Norwegian Captain Rinnan, his crew, and 433 Afghan and Iraqi rescuees, provided a curious contrast to the image of humanity, generosity, and openness that Australia tried so hard to foster during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Victims or villains according to how the facts and the law are characterized, the MI/V Tampa rescuers represented for lawyers the intersection of a variety of areas of law and a clash of legal principles. The ambiguities in both international and state law pertaining to asylum seekers …


Introduction To The Refugee Law Forum, Joan Fitzpatrick Jan 2003

Introduction To The Refugee Law Forum, Joan Fitzpatrick

Washington International Law Journal

The ripple effects on refugee protection from the events of August and September 2001, arising out of the rescue at sea of 433 asylum seekers by the M/V Tampa, have been substantial. It is too early to determine whether they will be as profound and as corrosive as the impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on other intemational legal norms, including those relating to preventive detention and to "securitizing international migration."' Australia's actions with respect to the Tampa and subsequent intercepted vessels, and its September 2001 legislation, establish a framework in which asylum seekers who arrive …