Law Commons^™

Debra L. Delaet On War Crimes And Genocide, Debra L. Delaet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder by Daniel Chirot and Clark McCauley. Princeton University Press, 2006. 288 pp.

and

The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda by Scott Straus. Cornell University Press, 2006. 273 pp.

and

The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in the Hague by Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 252 pp.

Public International Law And The Wto: A Reckoning Of Legal Positivism And Neoliberalism, S. G. Sreejith

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article proceeds in five parts. In part one, I review the scholarly skepticism as to how far international law is law in the "hard" sense and show that this skepticism has always permeated the discipline. In part two, I go on to examine what has prompted contemporary scholarship to credit the WTO with helping international law grow out of the "thin" normativity often attributed to it. The analysis suggests that certain features of legal positivism customarily associated with law in its strict sense, which were alleged to be lacking in international law, are found in the institutional apparatus of …

Seeking The Final Court Of Justice: The European Court Of Human Rights And Accountability For State Violence In Northern Ireland, Christopher K. Connolly

San Diego International Law Journal

This article examines the impact of the European Court's right to life jurisprudence on the issue of accountability for state violence in Northern Ireland. To date, the initiatives undertaken by the United Kingdom to comply with the European Court's rulings are largely unsatisfactory. Piecemeal institutional reforms aimed at preventing future breaches of Article 2 have failed to fully address the underlying concerns identified by the Court, and domestic right to life jurisprudence has placed significant limitations on the extent to which past violations of the right to life can be dealt with effectively in British courts. The United Kingdom's response …

Japanese Prefectural Scapegoats In The Constitutional Landscape: Protecting Children From Violent Video Games In The Name Of Public Welfare, Susan Minamizono

San Diego International Law Journal

Part I of this comment will examine the history and application of freedom of expression in Japanese case law and the evolution of the public welfare concept and its circumscribing effect on individual freedoms. Part II will explore the recent local regulatory efforts and the historical underpinnings for these laws that place restrictions on materials to children. Part III will compare the Japanese legislative endeavors with their American counterparts and highlight the reasons why United States laws will continue to be struck down by courts. Part IV will analyze the response of the video game industry to the onslaught of …

Net Neutrality: An International Policy For The United States, Frederick W. Pfister

San Diego International Law Journal

Consider this scenario: Alex and John still are avid video game players and play hours a day, each connecting from the same town through different ISPs. However, since it is a peak Internet traffic time, it may be difficult for them to play. While Alex has the "Diamond" package from his ISP that ensures he has guaranteed high-bandwidth connection, John's ISP does not offer anything other than regular residential service. John must compete with everyone else in his local area for bandwidth, including a few who constantly watch high-definition video-on-demand and subsequently constrain bandwidth for other users. Would it not …

V.44-4, 2007 Masthead

San Diego Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The 2007 Editors’ Symposium: Informational Privacy: Philosophical Foundations And Legal Implications, Larry Alexander

San Diego Law Review

The outstanding collection of articles and comments thereon that follows this Introduction constitutes the 2007 Editors' Symposium of the San Diego Law Review. This year's theme is: "Informational Privacy: Philosophical Foundations and Legal Implications."

Does Warrantless Wiretapping Violate Moral Rights?, Evan Tsen Lee

San Diego Law Review

The controversy over the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program will not disappear any time soon. Legislators, policymakers, and academics should be thinking about whether and under what circumstances such surveillance should be illegal. A major factor in that decision is the moral status of such wiretapping. This essay, written for a symposium on moral rights to informational privacy, argues that two key determinants in the morality of warrantless wiretapping are (1) whether the subjects of the surveillance are known terrorists; and (2) whether the wiretapping is part of a pre-emptive surveillance program, or instead whether government operatives actually know of …

The Right To Privacy Unveiled, Samuel C. Rickless

San Diego Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to bring order to this theoretical chaos. In my view, none of these accounts of the right to privacy is accurate. As I will argue, we are better served by a completely different theoretical description of the relevant right. It is my hope that greater philosophical clarity in this area of ethics will lead to a more careful appreciation of the value of the right to privacy, as well as legislation and judicial reasoning that is more carefully crafted to protect against violations of the right. This Article is organized as follows: In Part …

Some Questions For The Barrier Theory, Alan Rubel

San Diego Law Review

Having set out the basics, Rickless considers several questions one might pose for the Barrier Theory. For example, must the barrier be solid? No. Must the barrier be erected by, rather than merely used by, the rightholder? No. Must the barrier be morally permissible in the first instance? No. While Rickless's answers seem correct, I think that they raise some concerns about the Barrier Theory.

Toward Informational Privacy Rights, Adam D. Moore

San Diego Law Review

In this paper I will offer several arguments in support of the view that individuals have moral claims to control personal information. Coupled with rights to control access to one's body, capacities, and powers, or physical privacy rights, we will have taken important steps toward a general right to privacy. In Part I, a definition of privacy is offered along with an account of the value of privacy. Simply put, privacy - defined as control over access to locations and information - is necessary for human well-being. In Part II, an attempt to move beyond claims of value to claims …

Separation, Risk, And The Necessity Of Privacy To Well-Being: A Comment On Adam Moore's Toward Informational Privacy Rights, Kenneth Einar Himma

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, I want to raise doubts about certain of Moore's premises in his argument defending information privacy rights. As always and I say this as a continuing admirer of his skill as a philosopher, information theorist, and legal theorist his argument is well thought out and persuasively written. But, as we will see, there are serious problems with each major plank of his schema for justifying privacy rights.

Privacy Versus Security: Why Privacy Is Not An Absolute Value Or Right, Kenneth Einar Himma

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, I consider the scope of this right to informational privacy relative to our interests in security and argue, in particular, that the right to privacy must yield to these interests in the case of a direct conflict. I offer arguments from a number of different perspectives. I will, for example, begin with a case directly rooted in what I take to be ordinary case intuitions and then continue with an argument grounded in the distinction between intrinsic and instrumental value, which is thought to serve as a rough mark between what is important from a moral point …

Claims To Privacy And The Distributed Value View, Alan Rubel

San Diego Law Review

This Article is organized as follows. In Part II, I briefly explain my view of what privacy is - the particularized judgment account. I then turn to the question of privacy - value in Part III, where I examine several views prominent in the literature. In Part IV, I outline my view of privacy's value. I argue that, at its strongest, privacy has constitutive value, which is to say that privacy is a constituent part of intrinsically valuable states of affairs. However, in many cases, privacy's value is not morally weighty. Unlike other goods to which privacy is compared, I …

How To Understand Legislatures: A Comment On Boudreau, Lupia, Mccubbins, And Rodriguez, Larry Alexander

San Diego Law Review

Much has been written about legal interpretation, and I have serious disagreements with most of it. So it is quite refreshing to read an article on the topic that, from my perspective, gets the topic right from start to finish. As an added bonus, two of the authors are my former colleagues. My enthusiasm for the approach taken by Boudreau, Lupia, McCubbins, and Rodriguez (hereinafter BLMR) has not proven fatal to my task of commenting on the article. I am not reduced to saying "Right on" and then signing off. There are issues to be flagged. Nonetheless, so much of …

Intentionalism's Revival, James J. Brudney

San Diego Law Review

The Article situates BLMRod's article in the context of recent efforts by a number of scholars to reclaim foundational legitimacy for intentionalism as an approach to construing statutes. The essay first applauds BLMRod's use of insights from communication theory to conceptualize statutes as compressed substantive or procedural commands that cannot be adequately understood without an appreciation for the compression process that generated them. The essay explores certain implications of this thematic focus. It discusses how the authors' approach may help clarify the status of legislative history as evidence of ascribed or imputed intent. It also suggests how that approach may …

What Statutes Mean: Interpretive Lessons From Positive Theories Of Communication And Legislation, Cheryl Boudreau, Arthur Lupia, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Daniel B. Rodrigues

San Diego Law Review

How should judges interpret statutes? For some scholars and judges, interpreting statutes requires little more than a close examination of statutory language, with perhaps a dictionary and a few interpretive canons nearby. For others, statutory interpretation must be based upon an assessment of a statute's underlying purpose, an evaluation of society's current norms and values, or a normative objective, such as the "law's integrity." With such differences squarely framed in the literature, it is reasonable to ask whether anything of value can be added. We contend that there is.

What Is Extreme Cruelty? Judicial Review Of Deportation Cancellation Decisions For Victims Of Domestic Abuse, Anna Byrne

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the 1990s, Congress began to devote increased attention to the problem of domestic violence, a rampant national problem with social and economic costs. At the same time, concerns about immigrants draining the social welfare service system and taking jobs away from U.S. citizens gave rise to an interest in more stringently monitoring and eradicating the illegal alien population in the United States. As part of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA"), Congress passed the battered spouse provision, attempting to reconcile its desires to address domestic violence and tighten immigration laws. Illegal immigrants are subject to removal procedures. However, …

Barring Too Much: An Argument In Favor Of Interpreting The Immigration And Nationality Act Section 101(A)(42) To Include A Duress Exception, Nicole Lerescu

Vanderbilt Law Review

The asylum system is in disarray. The United States is unable to guarantee that every asylum seeker will receive a fair and impartial hearing. Although media attention recently has focused on the asylum system's procedural flaws, unjust statutory interpretations also work against those seeking refuge in the United States. This Note focuses on one particular example within this commonly criticized area of the law: the prevailing interpretation of section 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar those who have persecuted others under duress from attaining refugee status.

It is intuitively appealing that a system of laws should hold …

Created Facts And The Flawed Ontology Of Copyright Law, Justin Hughes

Articles

It is black letter doctrine that facts are not copyrightable: facts are discovered, not created—so they will always lack the originality needed for copyright protection. As straightforward as this reasoning seems, it is fundamentally flawed. Using the “social facts” theory of philosopher John Searle, this Article explores a variety of “created facts” cases—designation systems, systematic evaluations, and privately written laws—in which original expression from private individuals is adopted by social convention and generates facts in our social reality. In the course of this discussion, the paper places facts in their historical and philosophical context, explores how courts conflate facts with …

Integrating Investment Treaty Conflict And Dispute Systems Design, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

With the debate on the renewal of the Trade Promotion Authority Act, the proper terms of investment treaties - including dispute resolution provisions - have become an issue of public scrutiny. In a so-called litigation explosion, investors resolve disputes against host governments through international arbitration mechanisms in investment treaties; and there is little evidence of reliance on other processes like mediation. This escalation has lead to a teething period where parties and non-parties have expressed divergent views as to the efficacy, efficiency and fairness of the dispute resolution process. With billions of dollars and sovereignty at stake, the dispute resolution …

Friends With Benefits?, Laura A. Rosenbury

Michigan Law Review

Family law has long been intensely interested in certain adult intimate relationships, namely marriage and marriage-like relationships, and silent about other adult intimate relationships, namely friendship. This Article examines the effects of that focus, illustrating how it frustrates one of the goals embraced by most family law scholars over the past forty years: the achievement of gender equality, within the family and without. Part I examines the current scope of family law doctrine and scholarship, highlighting the ways in which the home is still the organizing structure for family. Despite calls for increased legal recognition of diverse families, few scholars …

Offsetting Risks, Ariel Porat

Michigan Law Review

Under prevailing tort law, an injurer who must choose between Course of Action A, which creates a risk of 500 (there is a probability of .1 that a harm of 5000 will result), and Course of Action B, which creates a risk of 400 (there is a probability of.] that a harm of 4000 will result), and who negligently opts for the former will be held liable for the entire harm of 5000 that materializes. This full liability forces the injurer to pay damages that are five times higher than would be necessary to internalize the risk of 100 that …

Suburbs As Exit, Suburbs As Entrance, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Michigan Law Review

Most academics assume that suburbanites are "exiters " who have abandoned central cities. The exit story is a foundational one in the fields of land-use and local-government law: exiters' historical, social, and economic connections with "their" center cities are frequently used to justify both growth controls and regional government. The exit story, however no longer captures the American suburban experience. For a majority of Americans, suburbs have become points of entrance to, not exit from, urban life. Most suburbanites are "enterers "-people who were born in, or migrated directly to, suburbs and who have not spent time living in any …

Trolling For Trolls: The Pitfalls Of The Emerging Market Competition Requirement For Permanent Injunctions In Patent Cases Post-Ebay, Benjamin H. Diessel

Michigan Law Review

In eBay v. MercExchange, a unanimous Supreme Court announced that a new four-factor test should be employed by district courts in determining whether to award an injunction or damages to an aggrieved party whose intellectual property has been infringed. In the context of permanent injunctions in patent cases, district courts have distorted the four-factor test resulting in a "market competition requirement." Under the new market competition requirement, success at obtaining an injunction is contingent upon a party demonstrating that it is a market competitor After consistent application in the first twenty-five district court cases post-eBay, the market competition requirement …

Exclusion Confusion? A Defense Of The Federal Circuit's Specific Exclusion Jurisprudence, Peter Curtis Magic

Michigan Law Review

Specific exclusion has become a controversial limitation on the doctrine of equivalents, which is itself an essential and controversial area of patent law. The doctrine of equivalents allows a patentee to successfully claim infringement against devices that are outside of the literal reach of the language used by the patentee in her patent to describe what she claims as her invention. The Supreme Court has prescribed some of the outer limits of the doctrine of equivalents and articulated the underlying policy concerns that inform its analysis-noting that courts should balance protection of the patentee's intellectual property with the public's reasonable …

Silenced: The Search For A Legally Accountable Censor And Why Sanitization Of The Broadcast Airwaves Is Monopolization, Matthew S. Schneider

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sustainability Meets Profitability: The Convenient Truth Of How The Business Judgment Rule Protects A Board's Decision To Engage In Social Entrepreneurship, Janet E. Kerr

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

It's Just Not Cricket: Is The Principle Of Reciprocity Being Honored In The U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty?, Richard Goldberger

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Antigone Dilemma: When The Paths Of Law And Morality Diverge, J. C. Oleson

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.