Law Commons^™

Precedent And Control In Investment Treaty Arbitration, Tai-Heng Cheng

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article's thesis is that, although arbitrators in investment treaty arbitration are not formally bound by precedent in the same manner as common-law judges, there is an informal, but powerful, system of precedent that constrains arbitrators to account for prior published awards and to stabilize international investment law. This informal system, however, imperfectly supports the relevant policy goals. It is additionally being tested by an increasing diversity of arbitrators, who are themselves facing pressures from investors and host States to meet conflicting demands. This Article proposes that the structure of investment treaty arbitration can absorb such stresses if: (a) the …

Making Chinese Labor Law Work: The Prospects For Regulatory Innovation In The People's Republic Of China, Sean Cooney

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article examines the capacity of Chinese labor laws and labor institutions to combat abuses. It finds that the Chinese regulatory framework pertaining to work relationships is impeded by a failure to clarify key norms, a bureaucratic “command and control” approach to inspection and dispute resolution, and a narrow and ineffective range of tools for inducing compliance. The Article, however, also finds evidence of emerging regulatory innovation and sophistication that may lead to a much more effective legal response. The legal material relevant to China's labor abuses is vast and highly complex, so it is necessary to choose specific abuses …

Following The Path Of Oil: The Law Of The Sea Or Realpolitik - What Good Does Law Do In The South China Sea Territorial Conflicts?, Wendy N. Duong

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article describes the relevant features of United Nationas Convention on the Law of the Sea ("UNCLOS"), demonstrates how the Convention is ill-equipped to handle the complexity of the South China Sea disputes, and explores the role of the private sector behind State actors in any negotiated resolution of these disputes. This Article also surveys the development of these disputes from the last decade to the present day, using as a case study the tension between China and Vietnam in the 1990s when UNCLOS went into force. Although the case study occurred in the past decade, the pattern of behaviors …

The Policies Of State Succession: Harmonizing Self-Determination And Global Order In The Twenty-First Century Tai-Heng Cheng, State Succession And Commercial Obligations, Robert D. Sloane

Fordham International Law Journal

I differ with Cheng's appraisal of certain events and think that we need a more sophisticated analysis of the twin policy goals he identifies and embraces--self-determination and global order--before they can offer real policy guidance. But State Succession and Commercial Obligations stands out as a rigorously researched, original, and insightful effort to understand this quite confused and opaque body of international law. Cheng's work will both enable and encourage a more candid, reasoned, and constructive debate about the global policies at stake each time “a state fundamentally changes its structures of power and authority, and an authoritative international response is …

The Recognition And Enforcement Of Commercial Arbitral Awards In The People's Republic Of China, Fiona D'Souza

Fordham International Law Journal

This Perspective explores the reality behind the headlines as well as more recent efforts to improve the situation. By examining legal developments and analyzing the obstacles to enforcement, this Perspective will highlight how the issues are largely symptomatic of a developing legal system--a system struggling to translate theory into practice as it attempts to bridge the gap between traditional Chinese and Western expectations of adjudication. Part I outlines the history and background of arbitration in China, while Part II considers the current state of the law, with a particular focus on recent legislative developments. Part III examines the institutional features …

Reconciling Holocaust Scholarship And Personal Data Protection: Facilitating Access To The International Tracing Service Archive, Collin Mcdonald

Fordham International Law Journal

This Note examines whether amendment of the ITS charter is necessary to effectuate researcher access, or whether, as a matter of international law, in its capacity as an international organization (“IO”), the ITS can allow access without amendments. Addressing this question implicitly raises two collateral issues that inform the discussion. First, to what degree should an IO Member State's domestic legal framework dictate that State's position in a consensus-based IO decision-making process. Second, when changes in the global political context render an existing IO legal structure ill-suited to an IO's evolving mission, to what degree is it appropriate to re-interpret …

Targeted Sanctions, Human Rights, And The Court Of First Instance Of The European Community, Elizabeth F. Defeis

Fordham International Law Journal

In response to the increasing rise of terrorist activities throughout the European Union (“EU”) and the attacks of September 11, the Council of the European Union (“Council”) acted through its powers under the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In addition to other measures, the Council enacted regulations that froze the assets of alleged terrorist individuals and entities. In some cases, the regulations froze assets of alleged terrorists that had been placed on a list published by the U.N. Sanctions Committee, while in another, the assets of individuals were frozen after the European Council itself placed individuals on a list that …

Some Thoughts On Evidence And Procedure In European Community Competition Law, Koen Lenaerts

Fordham International Law Journal

This Article is written in honor of Bo Vesterdorf, President of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities, ("CFI") a court in which we were both sitting as founding judges. Without diminishing the input of Judge Vesterdorf as President of the CFI, I would like to take this opportunity to revisit the first big cartel case that was brought to the CFI. In the so-called Polypropylene case, I was the Judge Rapporteur, and Judge Versterdorf officiated as the Advocate General. This case raised important issues as to evidence and procedure in European Community competition law. Therefore, the aim …

Transparency As An Element Of Good Governance In The Practice Of The Eu And The Wto: Overview And Comparison, Friedl Weiss, Silke Steiner

Fordham International Law Journal

This article seeks to provide a comparative overview of relevant practice of the European Union ("EU") and the World Trade Organization ("WTO") with regard to the interpretation and use made of "good governance," and in particular with regard to "transparency," one of its core component elements.

Gender Equality And Customary Marriage: Bargaining In The Shadow Of Post-Apartheid Legal Pluralism, Tracy E. Higgins, Jeanmarie Fenrich, Ziona Tanzer

Fordham International Law Journal

This Report represents the culmination of a year-long project undertaken by the Crowley Program in International Human Rights at the Fordham Law School to study issues surrounding women and customary law marriages in South Africa in light of its international legal commitments. This Report presents the findings of this research effort. Following this introduction, Part I of this Report describes South Africa's international and domestic legal obligations regarding culture and gender equality, particularly with respect to marriage, divorce, and family formation. Part I then sketches two distinct approaches to the tension between customary law and gender equality, both of which …

The Abuse Of Girls In U.S. Juvenile Detention Facilities: Why The United States Should Ratify The Convention On The Rights Of The Child And Establish A National Ombudsman For Children's Rights, Christina Okereke

Fordham International Law Journal

This Note argues that, to address the abuse of detained girls, the United States should ratify the CRC. This Note further argues that establishing a national independent office or ombudsman to monitor children's conditions of confinement in the United States is a superior proposal to creating a U.N.-appointed special representative on violence against children. This Note concludes that, upon ratifying the CRC, the United States should establish a national ombudsman for children's rights. Part I of this Note presents the problem of physical and sexual abuse of detained girls in the United States and reviews the applicable international human rights …

Objections In Conscience To Medical Procedures: Does Religion Make A Difference Lecture?, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

How should the government res pond if people refuse standard medical treatment? What should the government do if people refuse medical treatment for their children, and what autonomy should teenagers be given in making such choices? Is religion a proper basis for refusing such medical treatment? Furthermore, should medical practitioners have a privilege not to render services that they object to in conscience? This article analyzes such questions and proposes that the most sensible answers depend on context. Legislatures should sometimes create no exemptions, should sometimes create exemptions based on nonreligious criteria, and should sometimes use criteria framed in terms …

The Past, Present, And Future Of Violent Crime Federalism, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The history of the federal involvement in violent crime frequently is told as one of entrepreneurial or opportunistic action by presidential administrations and Congress. The problem with this story, however, is that it treats state and local governments as objects of federal initiatives, not as independent agents. Appreciating that state and local governments courted and benefited from the federal interest is important for understanding the past two decades, but also for understanding the institutional strains created by the absolute priority the feds have given to counterterrorism since September 11, 2001. Intergovernmental relations are at a crossroads. For two decades, the …

Forum, Donald J. Herzog

Reviews

Psst: here’s my secret wry suspicion. Political theorists are allergic to facts. They feel entitled to firm beliefs—about state-building, modernization, the rise of the bourgeoisie, you name it—because they’ve read some fancy theory books. So a lot of theory reads like a conceptual shell game, with various intoxicating abstractions shuffled about. I’m enough of a vulgar pragmatist to think that theory isn’t what you get when you leave out the facts. So I found Wahrman’s Making of the Modern Self sheer joy, from start to finish. The bottom line first: this is a mustread across the humanities and humanistic social …

How Strong Collaboration Between Legal And Social Service Professionals Will Improve Outcomes For Trafficking Survivors And The Anti-Trafficking Movement, Heather C. Moore

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

This article will discuss and demonstrate how attorneys can protect and yield better legal outcomes for their clients by collaborating with social service professionals specifically, and by reconsidering their own roles in serving trafficking survivors--not only as legal advocates, but as informal mental health advocates. This article also presents one model of comprehensive service delivery, that of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery ("CAST"), in which legal and social services complement and support each other within one agency to better serve clients.

Prosecuting Peacekeepers In The Icc For Human Trafficking, Melanie O'Brien

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

This article hopes to examine the issue of whether a crime committed by a peacekeeper satisfies the elements required under Article 5 of the Rome Statute for valid subject-matter jurisdiction, which would lead to the possibility of prosecuting peacekeepers in the ICC, pending satisfaction of the requirements of Article 12 of the Rome Statute. Would the crimes of trafficking, enforced prostitution, sexual slavery, or rape fall within the definitions of crimes against humanity or war crimes? To determine these issues, the elements of the individual crimes enumerated in the Rome Statute must first be analyzed.

Assessing Human Trafficking In Canada: Flawed Strategies And The Rhetoric Of Human Rights, Constance Macintosh

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

This paper will present the argument that Canada's rhetoric of protecting the human rights of trafficking victims is at odds with its practice. Trafficking victims are treated essentially the same as any other irregular migrant, and the specter of trafficking is invoked to justify acts which arguably violate Canada's international human rights obligations. This paper will offer an overview of what little information is available regarding the extent of trafficking in Canada, and then will conduct a close examination of the Canadian approach to trafficking and its victims. In addition to considering the logic and consequences of the Canadian strategy …

Rights Myopia In Child Welfare, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

For decades, legal scholars have debated the proper balance of parents' rights and children's rights in the child welfare system. This Article argues that the debate mistakenly privileges rights. Neither parents' rights nor children's rights serve families well because, as implemented, a solely rights-based model of child welfare does not protect the interests of parents or children. Additionally, even if well-implemented, the model still would not serve parents or children because it obscures the important role of poverty in child abuse and neglect and fosters conflict, rather than collaboration, between the state and families. In lieu of a solely rights-based …

Protecting Children From The Dark Side Of The Internet, Anne Dupre, John Dayton, Christine Kiracofe

Scholarly Works

This article examines the history of judicial and legislative responses to the issue of consumption of pornography and other harmful materials over the Internet by children. The article begins by giving a brief overview of free speech law in the US. Next, summaries of relevant U.S. legislation and corresponding litigation on Internet free speech are given. Highlighted are: 1) the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s response in Reno v. ACLU; 2) The Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) and Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition; 3) the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and United States v. American …

Good Faith, State Of Mind, And The Outer Boundaries Of Director Liability In Corporate Law, Christopher M. Bruner

Scholarly Works

The Delaware General Corporation Law was amended in 1986 to permit shareholder-approved exculpatory charter provisions shielding corporate directors from monetary liability for certain fiduciary duty breaches not including (among other things) breaches of the duty of loyalty and acts not in good faith. This article examines the development of corporate fiduciary duty doctrine in Delaware leading up to and following this statutory amendment, focusing particularly on the Delaware courts' evolving conception of the meaning anddoctrinal status of the good faith concept employed in recent cases to permit a non-exculpable cause ofaction for conscious nonfeasance.

The article argues that Delaware's good …

The Effect Of Forum Selection Clauses On District Courts’ Authority To Compel Arbitration, Thomas V. Burch, John W. Hinchey

Scholarly Works

This is a short piece written for the AAA's Dispute Resolution Journal on two competing provisions in Section 4 of the FAA. One provision tells district courts to compel arbitration in accordance with the parties' agreement, including any forum selection clause. The other says that the court can compel arbitration only within its own territory. This, of course, creates a problem when the forum selection clause calls for arbitration in another jurisdiction. This short article addresses the conflict, showing how courts tend to rule on the issue (as of 2006).

Of Offers Not (Frequently) Made And (Rarely) Accepted: The Mystery Of Federal Rule 68, Harold S. Lewis Jr., Thomas A. Eaton

Scholarly Works

This Symposium brings together, from around the nation, eight civil rights and employment discrimination lawyers, four legal academics, and an eminent federal judge, all with deep experience and interest in the promise and pitfalls of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68. We gather to unravel a mystery. In an oversimplified nutshell, Rule 68, as construed, enables the defendants to say to the plaintiffs in employment discrimination and civil rights cases: "If you don't beat my offer at trial, you forfeit your right to any future statutory attorney fees." Rule 68 would, therefore, appear to give the defendants a significant incentive …

Lord Mansfield; Judicial Integrity Or Its Lack; Somerset's Case, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

I write this after re-reading Steven M Wise's Though the Heavens May Fall. My argument, if convincing, undermines the basis of the book. Probably the most famous decision in English law is that of Lord Mansfield in Somerset v. Stewart in 1772. It is very short and very dramatic; indeed, it is so rhetorical that much of what is vital is overlooked -- as it was meant to be. Somerset was Stewart's slave in Virginia and was brought to England by his owner. Somerset travelled extensively in the service of his master, to Bristol and Edinburgh, for example. But two …

A Monk's Musings: A Coda, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

I have set out this coda by my close relative and colleague with some reluctance. My reluctance has nothing to do with the quality of the peace. But Sandy is insistent. He is keen on advancement within his law school. Publications are needed. But no law review would be interested in this; it is too short, and has not enough footnotes.

My reluctance to deal with Sandy's coda increased because it contains no law. Yet, it is precisely that which brings out the importance of the episode of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John. For the …

Justinian's Corpus Iuris Civilis: Oddities Of Legal Development, And Human Civilisation, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

The most momentous event in secular legal history is also perhaps the weirdest: Justinian's compilation, now known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis. Unsurprisingly, scholars have avoided stressing how odd the Corpus Iuris is. The most likely explanation is that it is so highly regarded that they have not noticed. They accept its high reputation, hence for them high quality is a given. This is a theme to which I return and no doubt will continue to return. The Corpus Iuris is so central in history, for understanding how law develops, and is so important today.

Cuno And Congress: An Analysis Of Proposed Federal Legislation Authorizing State Economic Development Incentives, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

If anything is clear about Cuno and the controversy the opinion has spawned, it is that Congress has the last word on the matter. Whether Congress will speak to the issues Cuno has raised is currently an open question, although in one narrow respect Congress already has. Broader legislation, however, has been introduced into Congress as the "Economic Development Act of 2005," and debate over the efficacy and wisdom of this proposal is as intense as the debate over the defensibility of Cuno itself. My purpose here is not to join that debate, although I am already on record as …

Does One Need To Be An International Lawyer To Be An International Environmental Lawyer?, Daniel M. Bodansky

Scholarly Works

The question I want to address is whether one can now say that IEL [International Environmental Law] represents a distinct field. Of course, it is a distinct field in the sense that it addresses a distinct set of problems and has developed a wide body of primary rules in response. However, is it a distinct field in the stronger sense of having its own characteristic methodologies and techniques?

The Law Of Yards, James C. Smith

Scholarly Works

Property law regimes have a significant impact on the ability of individuals to engage in freedom of expression. Some property rules advance freedom of expression, and other rules retard freedom of expression. This Article examines the inhibiting effects on expression of public land use regulations. The focus is on two types of aesthetic regulations: (1) landscape regulations, including weed ordinances, that regulate yards; and (2) architectural regulations that regulate the exterior appearance of houses. Such regulations sometimes go too far in curtailing a homeowner's freedom of expression. Property owners' expressive conduct should be recognized as “symbolic speech” under the First …

Federal Constitutional Restraints On Tax Competition Among The American States, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This article examines the judicially developed rules limiting interstate tax competition in the United States and the constitutional framework out of which they arise.

Repraesentatio In Classical Latin, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

The Romans knew well the twin concepts of representation and representatives in law suits and in the relationships between father and son, and owner and slave. But for these concepts they did not use the terms repraesentare or any cognate.

To Tertullian, it seems, goes the credit of first using repraesentare and repraesentator in their modern senses of <> and <>. That his context is theological probably should not surprise since he is, above all, a theologian.

Thus he uses repraesentare to mean that the one larger and more important may represent the many and less important. This usage had a …