Law Commons^™

North Korea And The Madonna Of Czestochowa, Michael Donald Kirby The Honourable

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standard Setting In Human Rights: Critique And Prognosis, Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

This article interrogates the processes and politics of standard setting in human rights. It traces the history of the human rights project and critically explores how the norms of the human rights movement have been created. This article looks at how those norms are made, who makes them, and why. It focuses attention on the deficits of the international order, and how that order - which is defined by multiple asymmetries - determines the norms and the purposes they serve. It identifies areas for further norm development and concludes that norm-creating processes must be inclusive and participatory to garner legitimacy …

Just Back From The Human Rights Council, Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

The piece critically looks at the transition from the UN Commission on Human Rights to the UN Human Rights Council in 2006 and questions whether the change is one of substance or form. It argues that the same paralysis that dogged the Commission will continue to afflict the Council because power politics and regional blocs - fueled by the global asymmetries of power - will not go away. The piece also contends that the charge by the West that the Commission was utterly compromised by the Third World was without merit because it was the one forum where developing could …

Critical Race Theory And International Law: The View Of An Insider-Outsider, Makau Mutua

Makau Mutua

This article contends that international law, like national law, is captive to the racial biases and hierarchies that hide injustice under the pretext of legal neutrality and universality. It argues that international law is tormented by racist and hegemonic asymmetries that govern the international order. The piece posits that international law could benefit greatly from the method of critical race theory in unpacking the pathologies of power and race that define it. It focuses on the use of international law to conceive and buttress the exploitation and marginalization of the North by the South. It calls for a reconstruction of …

Beyond Westphalia: Competitive Legalization In Emerging Transnational Regulatory Systems, Errol E. Meidinger

Errol Meidinger

Published as Chapter 7 in Law and Legalization in Transnational Relations, Christian Brütsch & Dirk Lehmkuhl, eds.

This paper analyzes several emerging transnational regulatory systems that engage, but are not centered on state legal systems. Driven primarily by civil society organizations, the new regulatory systems use conventional technical standard setting and certification techniques to establish market-leveraged, social and environmental regulatory programs. These programs resemble state regulatory programs in many important respects, and are increasingly legalized. Individual sectors generally have multiple regulatory programs that compete with, but also mimic and reinforce each other. While forestry is the most developed example, similar …

Concerning French International Law Manuels: A Critical Review Of The Principal French Textbooks In Public International Law, Alix Toublanc

Maine Law Review

The perspectives of French lawyers concerning international law and international institutions are formed largely by the basic course in public international law that they took as law students. Students in the course attend formal lectures by the professor (cours magistraux) and often supplementary section meetings, or tutorials, with instructors (travaux diriges), as well as read all or part of a basic textbook (manuel) in public international law and other assigned materials. One way to gain insight into the fundamental ways of thinking about international law of French lawyers and law-trained officials is to take a close look at the manuels …

Contrasting Perspectives And Preemptive Strike: The United States, France, And The War On Terror, Sophie Clavier

Maine Law Review

A few years ago, Samuel P. Huntington's article in Foreign Affairs, "The Clash of Civilizations?" described a "West vs. the Rest" conflict leading to the assumption of an essentially unified Western civilization settling "[g]lobal political and security issues ... effectively ... by a directorate of the United States, Britain and France" and centered around common core values "using international institutions, military power and economic resources to run the world in ways that will . . . protect Western interests . . . .” Against the West, the specter of disorder and fundamentalism was looming and would precipitate conflicts. This widely …

Collective Security And The International Enforcement Of International Law: French And American Perspectives, Ana Peyró Llopis

Maine Law Review

Is the American perspective on the enforcement of international law compatible with the French perspective? For American legal scholars, the term enforcement is sometimes used as the equivalent of the following French notions: mise en oeuvre, application, and also coercition. The American term enforcement appears to be used in situations where the French prefer legal terms that are closer to the connotation of implementation rather than that of enforcement. What are the consequences of the use of such different terms? Is there, behind the use of different language, with different meanings and approaches, a different perspective on the enforcement of …

Unilateral And Multilateral Preventive Self-Defense, Stéphanie Bellier

Maine Law Review

The governing principle of the collective security system created by the United Nations Charter in 19451 is the rule prohibiting the use of force in Article 2(4), which provides that "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purpose of the United Nations." This rule prohibiting the use of force was considered revolutionary at the time because it transformed into international law ideas which had for centuries, if not millennia, preoccupied the minds of people …

Application Of Treaties And Decisions Of International Tribunals In The United States And France: Reflections On Recent Practice, Martin A. Rogoff

Maine Law Review

In recent years, with the growth of international treaty law and the increasing role of international tribunals, questions involving the application of conventional international law and the decisions of international tribunals by national courts have assumed great practical importance. This is not only because such questions are arising with increasing frequency, but also because the way in which they are handled by domestic courts has a lot do with the efficacy of international law. As a practical matter, the rules of conventional international law and the decisions of international tribunals, if applied or effectuated by domestic courts, may very well …

Commentary: Convergences And Divergences: The United States And France In Multilateral Diplomacy, André Lewin

Maine Law Review

Despite the divergences that have regularly separated the United States and France, or at the very least their officials-who unfortunately influence public opinion as well-there are, in my opinion, more similarities than differences than one would believe between these two countries' approaches to international relations. They both feel that they have a calling to defend the advancement of universal values in the world in order to further humanity along the road of peace, democracy, happiness, and justice. The United States, which can be considered a relatively new country, values respect for human rights, free enterprise, equal opportunity for everyone, individual …

France, Europe, The United States, Abdelkhaleq Berramdane

Maine Law Review

Fascination and rejection have always characterized Franco-American relations, like an old couple who are not able to forgive: for France, the battle of Yorktown where Lafayette and Rochambeau contributed to the independence of the former British colonies; for the United States, American participation, twice, in the liberation of France. Neither one willing to credit its salvation to the other. A tumultuous relationship very much resembling the rocky history of the Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World"), offered by a still fragile Republic to a distant sister, who only begrudgingly offered it a pedestal. For centuries French literature has been …

Thought Versus Action: The Influence Of Legal Tradition On French And American Approaches To International Law, Dana Zartner Falstrom

Maine Law Review

In the months leading up to the U.S. intervention in Iraq in March 2003, the dialogue between the United States and France on the appropriate course of action to take in response to Iraq's report on its weapons of mass destruction revealed differences between these traditional allies as to the options available under international law. These differences did not center on the goals of any proposed action-both sides in fact agreed upon the goals, which were to ensure there were no weapons of mass destruction; to prevent an increase in terrorist activity; and to address the continuing violations of international …

French And American Perspectives On International Law: Legal Cultures And International Law, Emmanuelle Jouannet

Maine Law Review

I want to begin my consideration of French and American perspectives on international law by addressing more generally the question of the relationship between legal culture and international law in order to broadly contextualize the descriptions of French and American perspectives on international law that are the subject of this Article. I would like to stress at the outset that it seems to me that there does not exist any global or cosmopolitan vision of international law, but, on the contrary, an inevitable multiplicity of particular national, regional, individual, and institutional visions. This is so because the actors in the …

Balancing Security And Liberty In Germany, Russell A. Miller

Russell A. Miller

Scholarly discourse over America’s national security policy frequently invites comparison with Germany’s policy. Interest in Germany’s national security jurisprudence arises because, like the United States, Germany is a constitutional democracy. Yet, in contrast to the United States, Germany’s historical encounters with violent authoritarian, anti-democratic, and terrorist movements have endowed it with a wealth of constitutional experience in balancing security and liberty. The first of these historical encounters – with National Socialism – provided the legacy against which Germany’s post-World War II constitutional order is fundamentally defined. The second encounter – with leftist domestic radicalism in the 1970s and 1980s – …

A North-South Struggle: Political And Economic Obstacles To Sustainable Development, Imrana Iqbal, Charles Pierson

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

African Lawyers Harness Human Rights To Face Down Global Poverty, Lucie E. White

Maine Law Review

This is an exciting time in Africa. Yes, of course it is true that the rise of fundamentalist political movements, armed conflict, epidemic diseases, and extreme poverty will challenge the continent for decades to come. I don’t need to tell you that. Yet at the same time, we are witness to what many call an “African Renaissance.” In many domains, including the arts, civil society, social provision, and democratic governance, African nations are beginning to take their place in a newly configured globe. One of these domains of energy, innovation, and hope is a new human rights movement. This movement …

The Corporation As Sovereign, Allison D. Garrett

Maine Law Review

In the past two hundred years, sovereignty devolved from the monarch to the people in many countries; in our lifetimes, it has devolved in several significant ways from the people to the corporation. We are witnesses to the erosion of traditional Westphalian concepts of sovereignty, where the chess game of international politics is played out by nation-states, each governing a certain geographic area and group of people. Eulogies for the nation-state often cite globalization as the cause of death. The causa mortis is characterized by the increase in the power and normative influence of supranational organizations, such as the United …

Legal Formalism Meets Policy-Oriented Jurisprudence: A More European Approach To Frame The War On Terror, Julien Cantegreil

Maine Law Review

Myres S. McDougal, the leader of the New Haven School of International Law (NHSIL), advanced a comprehensive and iconoclastic conception of international law and its goals, one whose continuing influence is well-known today: a visceral rule-skepticism that even his least fervent disciples would never renounce. McDougal’s conception of international law and its goals is fundamentally different from the normativist view of Hans Kelsen, which has been and continues to be enormously influential throughout continental Europe, particularly in France. In the portion of his 1953 course at The Hague Academy of International Law devoted to Kelsen’s canonical Legal Technique in International …

Refugees And Internally Displaced: A Challenge To Nation-Building, Rebecca M.M. Wallace, Diego Quiroz

Maine Law Review

Recent statistics published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicate that there are at least 32.9 million people who are “persons of concern to UNHCR.” This growing population includes “refugees, returnees, [and] stateless and internally displaced persons (IDPs).” Furthermore, it is estimated that there are some “[thirty] states in the world . . . that are at some stage or another along the road to possible failure.” These are weak states beset by invasion, civil war, ethnic rivalry and tribal warfare, or struggling in the wake of any of these catastrophes. Given that 2006 saw a fifty-six …

The Legal Architecture Of Nation-Building: An Introduction, Charles H. Norchi

Maine Law Review

In the future, a historian studying the early twenty-first century will observe a trend: numerous lawyers applying their skill sets to the problems of pathological states. Our future historian will note that the topography of the post-Cold War international system was marked by weakly-governed states failing. Fragile states eroded, frayed, and disintegrated under stress, and their internal social processes became highly susceptible to external forces. Powerful non-state actors, including private armies, operated within the porous boundaries of entities that were once functioning polities. Legal authority became divorced from political control as non-state actors wielded naked power, challenging formal state structures …

Can Self-Defense Serve As An Appropriate Tool Against International Terrorism?, Jan Kittrich

Maine Law Review

The phenomenon of terrorism represents one of the gravest challenges to international order, peace, and security. The unpredictable nature of terrorist attacks threatens the public safety of each member of the international community. At the same time, member states’ responses to terrorism appear to threaten the homogeneity of modern international law and disrupt the uniform system of legal rules. In some aspects, it also seems to divide the community of international scholars. Simply put, terrorism deviates from the rule of law and so might the responsive action that it necessitates. This is the potential danger that terrorism intentionally aims to …

A Century Of French International Law Scholarship, Emmanuelle Jouannet

Maine Law Review

In this study of contemporary French scholarship in the field of international law, I aimed to reveal its reality at the dawn of the 21st century, but I quickly discovered that it is difficult to understand the current trends in this area of scholarship without first placing French international legal thought in the broader context of the evolution of international law itself. It seems that the increased stature of international law and its considerable expansion since 1945 are both accepted and problematic. This evolution is not problematic in and of itself; the problem lies in the increased interest it arouses …

Prosecuting Those Bearing 'Greatest Responsibility': The Lessons Of The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Charles Chernor Jalloh

Charles C. Jalloh

This Article examines the controversial article 1(1) of the Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) giving that tribunal the competence “to prosecute those who bear the greatest responsibility” for serious international and domestic crimes committed during the latter part of the notoriously brutal Sierra Leonean conflict. The debate that arose during the SCSL trials was whether this bare statement constituted a jurisdictional requirement that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt or merely a type of guideline for the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. The judges of the court split on the issue. This paper is the …

Ending Impunity The Case For War Crimes Trials In Liberia, Charles Chernor Jalloh, Alhagi Marong

Charles C. Jalloh

This paper argues that Liberia owes a duty under international law to investigate and prosecute the heinous crimes, including torture, rape and extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians, committed in that country by the various warring parties in the course of 14 years of brutal conflict. The authors evaluate the options for prosecution, starting with the possible use of Liberian courts. They argue that even if willing, the national courts are unable to render credible justice that protects the due process rights of the accused given the collapse of legal institutions and the paucity of financial, human and material resources in …

Difficulties With The Interordinal Laws Of Cultural Property As Applied In The United States, And Proposed Solutions, Jeffrey John Miles

Jeffrey John Miles

This paper evaluates the interordinal web of international cultural property law as applied in the United States. The work explores problematic areas where law fails to adequately protect against illicit trade in cultural property from art to artifacts. The complexity in this area stems from the often opaque movements of cultural property and the overlapping legal regimes of foreign nation states and domestic federal and state laws. After evaluating the structure of these laws as applied in the United States, I propose solutions to improve coverage where lacunas exist.

Migrant Workers In The United States: Connecting Domestic Law With International Labor Standards, Lance Compa

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Industry and trade associations say that the United States needs more immigrant workers to meet labor shortages and keep the economy growing. Labor advocates counter that the alleged labor shortage is a myth, and that employers’ real goal is to replace American workers and put downward pressure on wages of U.S. workers. The United States needs a new immigration policy that balances the needs of companies and the overall economy with needs for high labor standards and protection of workers’ rights. International labor and human rights instruments address several migrant labor issues, but U.S. law and practice fall short of …

Blood Antiquities: Preserving Syria’S Heritage, Claire Stephens

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The recent large-scale looting of archaeological sites across Syria at the hands of ISIS has brought the devastating effects of the illegal international antiquities market into stark relief. Not only are these illicit excavations irreparably destroying human history, they also enable ISIS to sell Syria’s cultural property to fund their jihad. This note examines the international and domestic laws that regulate this illicit antiquities trade. This note further identifies that, while these laws provide a meaningful legal framework, their ineffective implementation prevents them from effectively regulating the illicit antiquities market. Without effective market regulation, buyers in art market countries will …

A Race Approach To International Law (Rail): Is There A Need For Yet Another Critique Of International Law, Ediberto Román

Ediberto Roman

This work reviews an important shortcoming of the dominant public international paradigm and the recent methodical responses to that edifice. Specifically, this article argues that issues of race have not been significantly addressed in international law discourse. In particular, this Article notes that in the theoretical discourse some writers have discussed race, but the thrust of the discourse marginalizes the importance of race. In the practice of international law, people of color are affected but rarely recognized in policy debates. Additionally, this work attempts to explain how a discourse that positions race at the center of the discourse increases the …

Great Expectations: The Treatment Of Expectations In Wto And International Investment Law, Chios Carmody, Chios Carmody

Law Publications

A continuing issue in many areas of law is the treatment of “reasonable” or “legitimate” expectations. This contribution posits that a doctrine of expectations is vital to both the law’s stability and flexibility, functioning as a kind of ‘shock absorber’ that accommodates divergent pressures within a legal system. Expectations may arise subjectively, but what the law protects in most instances is determined objectively. This contribution goes on to examine the treatment of expectations in WTO and international investment law. Their treatment in WTO law has been to read them out as a matter of pleading in WTO dispute settlement, apart …