Law Commons^™

The Recognition Of Indigenous Peoples' And Community Traditional Knowledge In International Law, Rosemary J. Coombe

St. Thomas Law Review

Today I want to explore some of the international law-making efforts with respect to indigenous and traditional environmental knowledge. My work over the past three years has involved the study of the ongoing efforts underway to implement state obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity ("CBD"), and the related efforts of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to recognize, protect, and compensate for the contributions of indigenous and traditional communities' knowledge, innovations, and practices to the preservation and maintenance of biological diversity. This is a fascinating process of international lawmaking and an increasingly important field of global politics, which may …

Sovereignty Versus Space - Public Law And Private Launch In The Asian Context, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

In the more than forty years which have gone by since the birth of space law, there has not been a more revolutionary development than the rapidly increasing involvement of private entities in space activities. International space law in the narrow sense—essentially five space treaties and five United Nations Resolutions on space constituting the core of the corpus juris spatialis internationalis— developed for its most fundamental part when only states (and a few international organisations) were undertaking space activities in any meaningful sense of the word. Its exclusively public character, for example in terms of rights and obligations provided …

International Law Clients: The Wisdom Of Natural Law, Robert John Araujo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article discusses natural law, the foundation of many international law principles. First, it describes the natural law and its bearing on the practice of international law. Second. it describes the concept of "the common good," a foundation of natural law. Third, it introduces the term "solidarity" and its relation to achieving the common good. Fourth, it describes the concept of "subsidiarity," a form of decision-making necessary for natural law to inform international law. Finally, it explains the suum cuique, a critical precept in natural law as it applies to international law. The Article concludes that natural law principles that …

Transnational Civil Society Dialogues, Steve Charnovitz, Francesca Bignami

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Among the most interesting features of the New Transatlantic Agenda are the initiatives that are designed to link private actors and enable them to influence official policy making. Called "building bridges across the Atlantic" or "people-to-people links," these initiatives are intended to generate broad-based support for intergovernmental cooperation in trade liberalization, deregulation, immigration, justice, and a host of other areas (Wayne 1998; Krenzler 1998). This chapter surveys the efforts to institutionalize transatlantic civil society dialogue and offers suggestions on how the undertaking can be improved.

Law And International Relations: Introductory Remarks And Panel Discussion, Julian Knowles, Christopher J. Borgen, Arthur Rovine, William Paul, Carlos Manuel Vazquez

Faculty Publications

This panel was cosponsored by the American Society of International Law (ASIL). The ASIL was founded in 1906 by Secretary of State Elihu Root to inform and engage the public on issues of international law. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership association and research institute dedicated to providing both information about international law in all its forms and a forum for debate and discussion. This panel was one such forum. It was organized under the auspices of the ASIL Judicial Outreach Program, chaired by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The Judicial Outreach Program provides information resources for federal and state judiciaries. …

Presidents, Secretaries Of State, And Other Visible International Lawyers, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

I invite you to join me on a journey back ninety years, to the 1911 Annual Meeting as recorded in the 1911 Proceedings (pp. 340-41). President Rovine's predecessor, the then-president of the Society, was Elihu Root, a former secretary of war and secretary of state who was at the time senator for New York (Senator Clinton, please take note!). Root would win the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. President Root proposed a toast to the honorary president of the Society, who then gave the banquet address.

Review Of Human Rights In Global Politics, Christine M. Chinkin

Reviews

The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998, coming in the decade after the resurgence of Western-style liberal democracies, has generated much writing and activity over the current status and future development of international human rights law, practice, and discourse. International lawyers tend to take for granted the canon of rights that, in the wake of the Universal Declaration, have been enshrined within the body of international instruments that have been adopted within regional and global arenas. In the 1990s, these lawyers largely turned their attention away from standard setting and to issues of effectiveness. Considerable …

Conflict Prevention, Management, And Resolution: Africa--Regional Strategies For The Prevention Of Displacement And Protection Of Displaced Persons: The Cases Of The Oau, Ecowas, Sadc, And Igad, Jeremy Levitt

Journal Publications

This Article seeks to examine the preparedness of certain African regional actors to protect displaced persons in times of armed conflict, and to prescribe formulas to strengthen the capabilities of such actors. The objective is to assess the conflict maintenance capacities of African regional actors and their partners to provide physical and legal protection to displaced persons in times of armed conflict, and likewise to recommend strategies to increase protection.

Book Review. Gostin On Public Health Law, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Universal Jurisdiction And U.S. Law, Curtis A. Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Does International Human Rights Law Make A Difference?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Does international human rights law make a difference? Does it protect rights in practice? The importance of these questions for rights protection is obvious: the institutions of international human rights law deserve our energetic support only to the extent they contribute meaningfully to protection of rights, or at least promise eventually to do so. Moreover, at the moment these questions have added urgency. They underlie an ongoing debate, fomented in part by this Journal, on the extent to which the United States should be prepared to cede degrees of its national sovereignty to international human rights institutions, in return for …

The International Criminal Court: Current Issues And Perspectives, Philippe Kirsch Q.C.

Law and Contemporary Problems

The creation of a permanent international criminal court (ICC) has been seen as a desirable objective for a long time, but its implementation is hampered by controversy. Proponents of the court believe that the ICC has great potential to render justice in cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and to deter the future perpetration of those crimes. Skeptics question the wisdom of placing the power to adjudicate highly politically charged cases into the hands of an international tribunal.

High Crimes And Misconceptions: The Icc And Non-Party States, Madeline Morris

Law and Contemporary Problems

The dilemma underlying the debate about the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over non-party nationals stems primarily from the conflicting needs for the ICC to have sufficient jurisdictional powers to bring to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and simultaneously, for states to retain appropriate discretion regarding methods of dispute settlement when the lawfulness of their official acts is in dispute.

The Icc’S Jurisdiction Over The Nationals Of Non-Party States: A Critique Of The U.S. Position, Michael P. Scharf

Law and Contemporary Problems

Scharf analyzes the validity of the US argument against the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over the national of non-party states in the context of historic precedent and the principles underlying international criminal jurisdiction, and demonstrates that it is not the jurisdiction of the ICC over the nationals of nonparty states, but the US government's legal argument, which rests on shaky foundations. He also highlights the potential unintended repercussions of the current US legal position.

International Criminal Law After Rome: Concerns From A U.S. Military Perspective, William K. Lietzau

Law and Contemporary Problems

Lietzau argues that the US cannot support the International Criminal Court because it fails to recognize its unique responsibilities in the world when issues of international peace and security are involved. The changes sought by the US in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court should be implemented not just because US participation is key to an effective, functioning court, but because enacting them promotes the rule of law and is therefore the right thing to do.

The International Criminal Court: Possibilities For Prosecutorial Abuse, Alfred P. Rubin

Law and Contemporary Problems

The attempt to create an international criminal court assumes that in all important ways the international legal order is similar to the municipal legal orders with which US citizens are familiar, but with regard to the criminal law, that assumption is simply not true. Rubin discusses two potential fundamental discrepancies between the international legal order and an hypothesized "typical" municipal legal order as would exist under the current statute for the International Criminal Court.

The Risks And Weaknesses Of The International Criminal Court From America’S Perspective, John R. Bolton

Law and Contemporary Problems

Bolton argues the US should raise its objections to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on every appropriate occasion, as part of its larger campaign to assert American interests against stifling, illegitimate, and unacceptable international agreements. The US has many alternative foreign policy instruments to utilize that are fully consistent with US interests, leaving the ICC to the obscurity it richly deserves.

The Irresolution Of Rome, Ruth Wedgwood

Law and Contemporary Problems

Wedgwood argues that it would be a pity to allow international misjudgment of the long-term security environment to generate a disregard for the constructive tasks of American military power, and fatally hobble shared support for an effective criminal tribunal. American Senators and military leaders--and the American public--will want to see how the International Criminal Court works in practice before considering the possibility of full ratification and formal membership. If this "look-over" period is not safe, the advocates seeking a "war on the court" may win the day.

International Law And The Problem Of Evil, A. Mark Weisburd

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In response to recent violations of human rights, some within the international legal community have called not only for intervention but for the establishment of an international court with jurisdiction to hear claims against persons alleged to have committed those violations. This Article questions the premise that it is necessary, or even desirable, for the international legal community to mandate intervention in such circumstances.

First, the Article examines the authority for international intervention to forestall massive human rights violations. Using the recent examples including Kosovo and East Timor, the Author compares scholarly responses with respect to both the human rights …

Self-Determination: Chechnya, Kosovo, And East Timor, Jonathan I. Charney

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Hindsight always appears better than foresight. Hopefully, the reexamination of past events will provide lessons for the future. Recent media reports have analyzed the genocide in Rwanda and blamed France, the United States, and the UN Security Council for their failures to take steps that might have prevented or stopped the atrocities. Academic studies also argue how the atrocities in Chechnya, Kosovo, and East Timor may have been prevented or stopped by the United Nations or others in the international community. Such analyses are for international relations authorities and military experts. As an international lawyer, I am reluctant to tread …

The Wto And The Rights Of The Individual, Steve Charnovitz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) is silent regarding its relationship to the individual. One might presume that an international organization set up to emancipate trade could have no purpose other than upholding trading rights of private actors. But the WTO was not established to achieve "free trade". That goal is absent from the Marrakesh Agreement. Instead, the goals of the Agreement are "reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade" and the "elimination of discriminatory treatment in international trade relations". The term "reciprocal arrangements" makes clear that …

A Predictive Framework For The Effectiveness Of International Criminal Tribunals, James B. Griffin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note examines international criminal tribunals and analyzes the factors that can govern the level of their effectiveness. The historical background in this area is essential, for one of the main points of the Note is that international criminal tribunals cannot be detached from the political circumstances that create them and enforce their verdicts if those verdicts are to be enforceable at all.

The Note begins with an analysis of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and compares it to its contemporary counterpart, the International Military Tribunal at Tokyo. The Note then makes a similar analysis of the recent International …

Innocents Abroad: Opportunities And Challenges For The International Legal Adviser, Wayne J. Carroll

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article argues that some regulatory authorities have not successfully adapted to the internationalization of the practice of law. First, the Author attempts to define the terms "international legal adviser" and "international legal advice." Next, the Author compares the existing barriers to practice in the United States and the European Union. The Author goes on to outline recent challenges and changes to these barriers to practice, including international efforts such as the WTO and the IBA and local rules in the United States and the European Union. The Author then analyzes the adequacy of existing regulatory regimes with regard to …

Symposium Address: The Role Of Lawyers In The Wto, James Bacchus

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A final point I would make to students who are here today and about to go out into the legal world would be this: I have noticed that what I do is a bit controversial in some places. Why is that so?

It is because the world is changing and because, understandably, people have apprehensions about change. It is also because there is very little understanding of what it is that we are doing in Geneva. Consciously, and intentionally, I have spent my first years on the Appellate Body in silence. Vanderbilt is one of the few places where I …

Uni-State Lawyers And Multinational Practice: Dealing With International, Transnational, And Foreign Law, Ronald A. Brand

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article addresses how a lawyer may ethically engage in a transnational practice given the current structure of state-by-state bar admission. Part I examines the ethical pitfalls of a transnational practice, including an examination of applicable APA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. This section also addresses different tests for determining whether a lawyer has committed the unauthorized practice of law. Part III makes use of examples to illustrate the legal framework for determining whether a lawyer has committed the unauthorized practice of law. In Part IV, the author concludes by making suggestions for how to better address the ethical dilemma …

Rethinking Wto Trade Sanctions, Steve Charnovitz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The paper presents an outline of the issues and a preliminary appraisal of the use of trade sanctions by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a means of promoting compliance by parties. The WTO is unique among intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) in using trade sanctions to enforce independent adjudications. Many commentators have suggested using trade sanctions analogously in other IGOs, or alternatively broadening trade rules so that the sanctions can be used for other purposes, such as enforcing basic human rights. The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of the use of such compliance sanctions by the WTO and concludes that …

The Return Of The Standard Of Civilization, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

"Geographical Morality" Revisited: International Relations, International Law, And The Controversy Over Placebo-Controlled Hiv Clinical Trials In Developing Countries, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Right Of Self-Determination: Is East Timor A Viable Model For Kashmir?, Amardeep Singh

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Peoples. By John Rawls. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press, 1999. (Book Review), Patrick O. Gudridge

Articles

No abstract provided.