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Full-Text Articles in Law
International Decisions–Guatemala Genocide Case, Naomi Roht-Arriaza
International Decisions–Guatemala Genocide Case, Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Agreeing To Disagree: Cultural Relativism And The Difficulty Of Defining Terrorism In A Post-9/11 World, Sami Zeidan
Agreeing To Disagree: Cultural Relativism And The Difficulty Of Defining Terrorism In A Post-9/11 World, Sami Zeidan
UC Law SF International Law Review
Paradoxically, in a post-9/11 world where there is an unprecedented international joint response to counter-terrorism, there is still no universal, permanent and comprehensive definition of terrorism. This essay exposes the legal and political issues arising from the tension created between the universal agreement to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts on the one hand, and the proliferation of culturally relativistic definitions of terrorism on the other.
France: Banning Legal Pluralism By Passing A Law, Jessica Fourneret
France: Banning Legal Pluralism By Passing A Law, Jessica Fourneret
UC Law SF International Law Review
On March 15, 2004, French president Jacques Chirac enacted a law prohibiting public school students from wearing clothing and insignia that manifests a religious affiliation. The clear aim of the law was to prohibit female Muslim students from wearing headscarves to public schools. Critics of the ban state that wearing the headscarf is a Muslim woman's religious duty, akin to a law she must follow. This article explores the Western system of laws and the conflict between that system and religious belief systems which impose differing sets of laws. The author examines the impossible choice imposed on school-aged children as …
Farmers In The Ip Wrench - How Patents On Gene-Modified Crops Violate The Right To Food In Developing Countries, Peter Straub
Farmers In The Ip Wrench - How Patents On Gene-Modified Crops Violate The Right To Food In Developing Countries, Peter Straub
UC Law SF International Law Review
Patented gene-modified crop seeds have a growing impact on how farming is done in the countries where they are sold and used. Modem patent regimes make all plants and plant material containing modified gene-material subject to the intellectual property rights of transnational corporations. Farmers are then faced with the choice of either entering into licensing agreements, or becoming patent infringers-with all the legal consequences-by marketing the fruits of their labor. This article examines how socioeconomic rights-especially the right to food as defined by Article 11.2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)-of small-hold subsistence farmers in …
A Comparative Look At The Right To Refuse Treatment For Involuntary Hospitalized Persons With A Mental Illness, Jennifer Fischer
A Comparative Look At The Right To Refuse Treatment For Involuntary Hospitalized Persons With A Mental Illness, Jennifer Fischer
UC Law SF International Law Review
The issues surrounding the legal responsibility of caring for and maintaining a person with a mental illness go back almost 2500 years. There has been considerable debate about the questions of involuntary hospitalization and the right to refuse treatment in the past few decades, especially in North America and Western Europe. As the importance of mental health and rights of persons with mental disabilities take on greater significance internationally, however, the debate is moving to the rest of the world. The objective of this article is to look at the various perspectives in the current debate and at how different …
Russian Web Sites Jeopardize U.S. Users: The Dangers Of Importing Copyrighted Material Over The Internet, James Chapman
Russian Web Sites Jeopardize U.S. Users: The Dangers Of Importing Copyrighted Material Over The Internet, James Chapman
UC Law SF International Law Review
Russian web sites offer electronic versions of copyrighted music over the Internet for pennies a song. Protected by international borders and favorable domestic legal constraints, these Russian music distributors sell songs at much lower prices and without anti-piracy protections. The web sites claim the right to sell the music under Russian law, and unknowing purchasers are buying music believing they have finally found a cheap, legal, and moral alternative to domestic vendors and P2P networks. However, common misunderstandings of the copyright law may be placing purchasers of music from these Internet sites in danger of criminal and civil sanctions. This …
Queer Refuge: A Review Of The Role Of Country Condition Analysis In Asylum Adjudications For Members Of Sexual Minorities, Arwen Swink
UC Law SF International Law Review
More than 80 countries around the world have laws criminalizing sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex. Physical and sexual abuse, harassment, detention, and extortion by police are common means of enforcing these laws. For many LGBT people who have been subjected to or who rightly fear persecution, political asylum may offer hope of protection, but the asylum process is not without its pitfalls. This article seeks to explore some of the difficulties the asylum adjudication process may pose for LGBT people seeking refuge from persecution. Specifically, this article addresses the various ways in which asylum adjudicators in …
Lawless World - The Bush Administration And Iraq: Issues Of International Legality And Criminality, Philippe Sands
Lawless World - The Bush Administration And Iraq: Issues Of International Legality And Criminality, Philippe Sands
UC Law SF International Law Review
Sixty years ago, the United States and Great Britain spearheaded efforts to create a new world order based on international rules. Today these same two nations are leading the charge to abandon many of the global safeguards they once fought to establish. The Bush Administration has decided to turn its back on international agreements governing basic human rights, war, torture, and the environment. In this transcript from the Schlesinger Lecture held in November 2005, Professor Sands discusses how international rules are arbitrarily applied as human rights prove to be inconvenient in the face of globalizing economic forces.
Headscarf Stories, Ian Ward
Headscarf Stories, Ian Ward
UC Law SF International Law Review
The seemingly intractable issue of headscarves - when they can be worn, and when they cannot - is currently contested in much of Europe. The apparent intractability is a common experience. The purpose of this article is to present three headscarf 'stories,' and in so doing, stress the narrative nature of this intensely moral and political, as well as legal, controversy. Narrativity, it will be suggested, offers a far more effective means of approaching this kind of issue and its inevitable indeterminacies than the simple recourse to blunt legal instrumentation. While the law must, it seems, play a role in …
Majority And Dissent In Intel: Approaches To Limiting International Judicial Assistance, E. Morgan Boeing
Majority And Dissent In Intel: Approaches To Limiting International Judicial Assistance, E. Morgan Boeing
UC Law SF International Law Review
No abstract provided.
Beyond Good Intentions: Can Hybrid Tribunals Work After Unilateral Intervention, John Dermody
Beyond Good Intentions: Can Hybrid Tribunals Work After Unilateral Intervention, John Dermody
UC Law SF International Law Review
The use of a hybrid tribunal - a tribunal comprised of both international and domestic elements - was advocated in the wake of the Iraq war and the capture of Saddam Hussein. The hybrid model is considered to offer significant advantages over purely international and purely domestic tribunals. Although hybrid tribunals have been used in Kosovo, East Timor, and Sierra Leone, the hybrid model has yet to be implemented after unilateral intervention. This note examines whether the hybrid model is feasible and whether the advantages of the hybrid model can be maintained in the wake of unilateral intervention.
The Emergence Of The Hellenic Deliberative Ideal: The Classical Humanist Conception Of Comparative Law, Richard Brooks
The Emergence Of The Hellenic Deliberative Ideal: The Classical Humanist Conception Of Comparative Law, Richard Brooks
UC Law SF International Law Review
Modern comparative law is based upon the failed Enlightenment premise of comparative law as legal science. Awareness of the earlier writings of Hellenic historians, philosophers, rhetoricians, and dramatists suggest that comparative law should be conceived as a process of political deliberation. Herodotus, Thucydides, and Polybius suggest how history frames the choices which comparativists must make. Aristotle and Plato demonstrate how to deliberate about conflicting laws and legal regimes. The rhetorician, Isocrates, argues for rhetoric to be brought to bear on the debates about different legal regimes. The Greek dramatists portray the anguish and regret which necessarily follows the final choice …
Looking Over A Crowd And Picking Your Friends: Civil Rights And The Debate Over The Influence Of Foreign And International Human Rights Law On The Interpretation Of The U.S. Constitution, Stanley A. Halpin
UC Law SF International Law Review
Since the 1940s Civil Rights advocates have attempted, with little success, to use International Human Rights law to protect the rights of African Americans in the United States. However, in recent terms, the United States Supreme Court has seemingly opened the door, at least a crack, to some limited recognition of international human rights norms as a legitimate influence upon their interpretation of the Constitution. This article examines the efforts of Civil Rights Advocates to utilize human rights law and develops from this history four models of enforcement of human rights law in the United States. It details the Court's …
A Golden State Solution To The Israeli-Palestinian Water Conflict, Brandon Hollinder
A Golden State Solution To The Israeli-Palestinian Water Conflict, Brandon Hollinder
UC Law SF International Law Review
Israel and the Palestinian territories face a shortage of water resources that have created tensions at the center of the current political conflict between the two parties. Many of these resources are subject to dual control and authority as well as continuing degradation and overuse, all of which exacerbate the situation. This paper offers a solution to that problem: the adoption of a Water Board with authority over the combined region of Israel and the Palestinian territories. This Board would employ and enforce laws based upon current California Water Law with a few minor, yet critical, changes. This solution offers …
Misconceptions, Miscalculations, And Mistakes: P2p, China, And Copyright, Tao Leung
Misconceptions, Miscalculations, And Mistakes: P2p, China, And Copyright, Tao Leung
UC Law SF International Law Review
The entertainment industry initially treated the advent of peer-to-peer ("P2P") technologies as a death-knell for copyright protections and attempted to fix the perceived problem with solutions that were misguided, litigious, ineffective, and costly. By viewing P2P technology as a threat, the industry failed to capitalize on a new technology that might have provided limitless opportunity. Moreover, the recording industry's narrow-minded attempt to curtail illegal file sharing mirrored the U.S. government's attempt to enforce intellectual property protection in China. Both the entertainment industry and the United States failed to understand the economic, social, and cultural realities in the areas in which …
International Criminal Law: Towards New Solutions In The Fight Against Illegal Arms Brokers, Katharine Orlovsky
International Criminal Law: Towards New Solutions In The Fight Against Illegal Arms Brokers, Katharine Orlovsky
UC Law SF International Law Review
In many recent and ongoing civil and international armed conflicts, arms brokers have violated United Nations embargos to deliver arms to known human rights violators in conflict zones. This illegal arms traffic significantly contributes to the commission of atrocities. However, arms brokers, who are uniquely difficult to both regulate and prosecute, continue to enjoy broad impunity under existing international and domestic law. International criminal law has developed legal theories and institutions to address impunity in situations of mass conflict. This note examines the feasibility of prosecuting arms brokers under international criminal law, and whether this growing area of law may …
Recent Developments In The Debate Concerning The Use Of Foreign Law In Constitution Interpretation, Lisa Sofio
Recent Developments In The Debate Concerning The Use Of Foreign Law In Constitution Interpretation, Lisa Sofio
UC Law SF International Law Review
Comparative analysis, the interpretive technique of using foreign and international law to better understand the United States Constitution, may be a valuable tool for modern judges. Legislative proposals and statements made by various members of Congress reveal that Congress is opposed to the judiciary's use of comparative analysis and appears prepared to take drastic measures to prevent judges from looking to foreign law to answer difficult questions. This note explores the propriety and reasons for this response and explores whether comparative analysis has merit as an interpretive tool.