Law Commons^™

Criminally Disproportionate Warfare: Aggression As A Contextual War Crime, Rachel E. Vanlandingham

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

International law has long recognized the general principle that an illegal act cannot produce legal rights. Yet, this principle of ex injuria jus non oritur is seemingly ignored in the uneasy relationship between the two international legal regimes most associated with war. A head of State can, for example, violate international law regulating the resort to armed force by ordering his military forces to illegally invade another country, yet he, through his military forces, simultaneously and subsequently benefits on the battlefield from the application of the separate body of international law regulating the actual conduct of war. The paradoxical benefit …

Zero-Tolerance Comes To International Law, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

White Paper: Options For A Treaty On Business And Human Rights, Douglass Cassel, Anita Ramasastry

Journal Articles

The United Nations Human Rights Council decided in June 2014 to establish an Intergovernmental Working Group to “elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.” The first meeting of the Working Group will take place in Geneva in July 2015.

The Council did not further specify what sort of instrument should be drafted. The Center for Human Rights of the American Bar Association and the Law Society of England and Wales have asked the present authors to prepare a “White Paper” on possible options for a …

The Problematic Applicability Of Subsidiarity To International Law, Paolo G. Carozza

Journal Articles

This article seeks to explore some of the reasons why the principle of subsidiarity, although applicable in some sectors of international law and particularly in the field of international human rights law, has difficulty in serving as a general principle of public international law more broadly. The obstacles to advancing a more robust understanding of subsidiarity's place in the current structure of global norms and institutions include: the normative and institutional fragmentation of international law; the continuing centrality of state sovereignty in the international legal system; and the endemic weaknesses and incapacity of states and sub-state communities with respect to …

The Transformative Influence Of International Law And Practice On The Death Penalty In The United States, Richard Wilson

Contributions to Books

No region of the world has been more vocal and persistent in its opposition to U.S. death penalty practice than Europe, which has itself become a death penalty-free zone. The chapter will examine the actions taken by European legislative and judicial bodies against U.S. practice of the death penalty, as well as those of the other regional treaty bodies, with particular attention to the Inter-American human rights system, in which the U.S. reluctantly participates. It then will examine U.S. interactions with its treaty partners in the area of extradition, where death penalty policy is acted out in the exchanges of …

International Legal Structuralism: A Primer, Justin Deystone

Publications

International legal structuralism arrived on the shores of international thought in the 1980s. The arrival was not well-received, perhaps in part, because it was not well-understood. This essay aims to reintroduce legal structuralism and hopefully pave the way for new, and more positive, receptions and understandings. This reintroduction is organized around two claims regarding the broader encounter between international lawyers and critical theory in the ‘80s. The first was a jurisprudential claim about how the critics sought to show how international law was nothing more than a continuation of international politics by other means. The second was a historical claim …

An Introduction To Foreign And International Legal Research Tools, Nick Harrell

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Human Right To Clean Air: A Case Study Of The Inter-American System, Varun K. Aery

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Combatting environmental damage has become a primary goal of the international community. Unfortunately, international human rights law has not taken this aim seriously. Although the Inter-American regional human rights system, one of three regional human rights institutions, empathizes with protecting the environment, it enervates such goals by barring victims of air pollution and climate change from access to judicial remedies. Seeking to bridge the gap between human rights law and environmental protection, this article explains why clean air is a human right, develops the positive content for such a right, and evaluates the practical reasons that justify the right’s importance. …

Cultural Rights V. Species Protection: A Case Study Of Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles, Mohit Khubchandani, Mehul Parti

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle, is the largest of all living turtles. It is the fourth- heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. These species are categorized as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. These turtles avail pro- tection under the Convention on Illicit Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); a treaty enacted to protect wildlife against over-exploita- tion and with an aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. The said treaty is applicable to species in general …

From Rio To Paris: What Is Left Of The 1992 Declaration On Environment And Development, Francesca Francioni

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

This paper has a dubitative title. And this is for a good reason. It is meant to introduce the critical perspective in which I propose to assess the legacy of the 1992 Rio Declaration after almost a quarter of a century from its adoption. This retrospective outlook, it is hoped, may help assess the progress, if any, that international law has made in this field, at a time when we are facing the challenge of implementing the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.

Harmonizing European Tort Law And The Comparative Method A Review Of Basic Questions Of Tort Law From A Comparative Perspective (Helmut Koziol Ed., Sramek 2015), Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

This is a book review of Basic Questions of Tort Law from a Comparative Perspective, edited by Professor Helmut Koziol. This book is the second of two volumes on “basic questions of tort law.” In the first volume, Professor Helmut Koziol examined German, Austrian, and Swiss tort law. In this volume Professor Koziol has assembled essays by distinguished scholars from several European legal systems as well as the United States and Japan, each of whom follows the structure of Koziol’s earlier book and explains how those basic questions are handled in their own systems.

This review focuses on Professor Koziol’s …

Achieving Sex-Representative International Court Benches, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

Twenty-five years ago, in this Journal, Hilary Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin, and Shelley Wright argued that the structures of international law “privilege men.”1 As shown in Table 1, which summarizes data from a forthcoming article, on nine of twelve international courts of varied size, subject-matter jurisdiction, and global and regional membership, women made up 20 percent or less of the bench in mid 2015.2 On many of these courts, the percentage of women on the bench has stayed constant, vacillated, or even declined over time.3 Women made up a lower percentage of the bench in mid 2015 than in previous years …

Rerum Novarum: New Things And Recent Paradigms Of Property Law, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

The two most recent paradigmatic moments in the development of property law were the construction of "social property" about a hundred years ago and of "international property" quite recently. This study analyses two important texts as illustrations of these changes: Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) and John Sprankling's book The International Law of Property (2014). Each text signals a paradigm shift in our understanding of property.

Customary International Law: An Instrument Choice Perspective, Laurence R. Helfer, Ingrid B. Wuerth

Faculty Scholarship

Contemporary international lawmaking is characterized by a rapid growth of “soft law” instruments. Interdisciplinary studies have followed suit, purporting to frame the key question states face as a choice between soft and “hard” law. But this literature focuses on only one form of hard law—treaties—and cooperation through formal institutions. Customary international law (CIL) is barely mentioned. Other scholars dismiss CIL as increasingly irrelevant or even obsolete. Entirely missing from these debates is any consideration of whether and when states might prefer custom over treaties or soft law.

The Sad, Quiet Death Of Missouri V. Holland: How Bond Hobbled The Treaty Power, Michael J. Glennon, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

Many anticipated that Bond v. United States (2014) would confirm or overrule Justice Holmes’s canonical decision in Missouri v. Holland (1920). Bond is now considered to have done neither; rather, it purportedly elided the constitutional issue by applying the canon of constitutional avoidance to the treaty’s implementing legislation, thus resolving Bond on statutory grounds alone and leaving Holland’s validity for another day. We argue to the contrary that Bond eviscerated Holland. Chief Justice Roberts proceeded from the premise that “the statute — unlike the [treaty] — must be read consistent with principles of federalism inherent in our constitutional structure.” This …

Divided We Fall: How The International Criminal Court Can Promote Compliance With International Law By Working With Regional Courts, Tatiana E. Sainati

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Kenya's 2007 presidential elections inflamed deep-seeded ethnic tensions in the country, sparking violence that left thousands dead and more than half-a-million civilians displaced. After the bloodshed, Kenya failed to investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible for the atrocities. The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation into the Kenyan situation, acting under his statutory authority, and eventually brought charges against six high-ranking Kenyans, including President Kenyatta. After years of investigations, the Prosecutor ultimately withdrew the case against the Kenyan President--a potentially fatal failure heralded by some as the death knell of the ICC.

During the course of …

Response: "Quid," Not "Quantum": A Comment On "How The International Criminal Court Threatens Treaty Norms", Roger O'Keefe

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Mike Newton's article performs a considerable service in reminding the reader of some incontrovertible tenets of the law of international organizations (loosely so called in the case of an organ like the ICC) and of the law of treaties. First, the ICC is competent to exercise only that power vested in it by the States Parties to its Statute. In turn, the States Parties are not competent to transfer to the Court a power that they do not possess. "Nemo plus iuris transferre potest quam ipse habet," as Cicero may or may not have put it. Secondly, a treaty may …

An International Commission Of Inquiry For The South China Sea?, Ryan Mitchell

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The multilateral territorial dispute over the South China Sea has intensified in recent years. In response, some observers endorse the apparent turn to "lawfare" on display in the ongoing Philippines v. China arbitration, conducted under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Yet the limited subject matter of this arbitration means that it can contribute only modestly to any ultimate resolution between claimants. Indeed, the Chinese side has argued against tribunal jurisdiction precisely on the basis of the primacy of questions over territorial sovereignty--which are barred from UNCLOS proceedings--to the determination of all other …

A Post-Millennial Inquiry Into The United Nations Law Of Self-Determination: A Right To Unilateral Non-Colonial Secession?, Dr. Glen Anderson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The present Article inquires whether a right to unilateral non-colonial (UNC) secession is grounded in the United Nations (UN) law of self-determination. The Article argues that peoples subjected to deliberate, sustained, and systematic human rights abuses in extremis (e.g., ethnic cleansing, mass killings, or genocide) by the existing state have an international customary law right to UNC secessionist self-determination. This right is coextensive with the "remedial-rights-only" philosophical approach to UNC secession. The Article further argues that in the post-millennial era two developments are likely for the law of UNC secessionist self-determination: first, the right will become available in response to …

International Law Constraints As Executive Power, Rebecca Ingber

Faculty Scholarship

The use of international law to understand domestic authority has a long pedigree. It is also the subject of heated debate, which focuses predominantly on the extent to which international law can or should serve as a limit on political actors, in particular the President, and the extent to which it can be invoked to expand our understanding of domestic individual rights. Yet there is another significant dynamic at work in this interplay between international and domestic law. This is the invocation of international law not as a constraining force on government actors, but as an enabling force within the …

Geoblocking, Technical Standards And The Law, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

The idea that geoblocking could be used as a compliance tool is one part of the development of the relationship between geoblocking and legal compliance. This chapter outlines the three stages through which this development will proceed. In the first stage, geoblocking will be accepted as a tool of regulation and enforcement. While acceptance has already occurred in some countries in some contexts, this acceptance is certainly not yet general or widespread. In the second stage, minimum standards for geoblocking will be promulgated because the use of geoblocking for purposes of legal compliance necessarily calls for minimum technological standards that …

Supranationalism And Foreign Law At The Court Of Justice Of The Eu Symposium: Foreign Law In Constitutional Courts: Introduction, Fernanda Nicola

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

By virtue of its peculiar position as the world’s first supranational court, the comparative legal method and the use of foreign law hold a particular significance for the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU, or “the Court”). This supranational characteristic, however, places the Court under an intense and unique set of judicial and political pressures. The Court must ensure the autonomy, exclusivity, and functioning of the EU’s legal order, while remaining sensitive to the fact that it is positioned as a central node in a network of national, international, and foreign courts that are profoundly affected by its …

Can Parallel Lines Ever Meet? The Strange Case Of The International Standards On Sovereign Debt And Business And Human Rights, Daniel D. Bradlow

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This special issue is a cooperation of the Yale Journal of International Law and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It emerged from UNCTAD’s work on sovereign debt workouts, specifically from its Working Group on a Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism (2013 to 2015). The working group developed a Roadmap and Guide for Sovereign Debt Workouts, published in 2015. It proposes an incremental approach to sovereign debt workouts that relies on the continuous, progressive development of sovereign debt restructuring practice. This work has inspired the adoption of Basic Principles for Sovereign Debt Restructuring by the United Nations General …

#Lawyeringpeace: The Role Of Lawyers In Peacebuilding, Paul Williams, Christin Coster

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Based on the Public International Law & Policy Group’s (“PILPG”) two decades of experience assisting countries and clients in conflict situations, it is clear there are a number of ways for lawyers and international law to promote peacebuilding. This article condenses information shared during the International Law Weekend panel, “International Law and States in Emergency: Responses and Challenges.” The focus of the presentation was how lawyers can and should make a difference in peacebuilding and post-conflict constitution drafting. The world needs more lawyers to “lawyer peace” by assisting countries and clients involved in ongoing conflicts or in peace negotiations. In …

The Frankenstein’S Monster Of Extraterritoriality Law, Anthony J. Colangelo

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The judge-made presumption against extraterritoriality has recently become a motley patchwork of eccentric and sometimes contradictory doctrines seemingly stitched together for one, and only one, mission: to deprive plaintiffs the right to sue in U.S. courts for harms suffered abroad. It lumbers along, blithely squashing precedent, principle, statutory text, and legislative intent — all to heed its abiding and single-minded obsession. The Supreme Court has so far mangled the scope of the Securities Exchange Act1 and the Alien Tort Statute (ATS),2 and, in RJR Nabisco v. European Community, has placed another statute — The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act …

Submarine Cables, Cybersecurity And International Law: An Intersectional Analysis, Tara Davenport

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Right To Act: United States Legal Basis Under The Law Of Armed Conflict To Pursue The Islamic State In Syria, Samantha Arrington Sliney

University of Miami National Security & Armed Conflict Law Review

Shortly after the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, the Islamic terror group ISIS captured the world’s attention with their rapid advance through Iraq and acts of severe brutality. In short order, the group captured large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared the formation of an Islamic State. With the integrity of Iraq in the balance, the United States committed to taking military action against ISIS but quickly discovered that as pressure was put on ISIS in Iraq they retreated into Syrian lands, where U.S. warplanes could not go.

This article explores the legal justifications for the …

The “Demand Side” Of Transnational Bribery And Corruption: Why Leveling The Playing Field On The Supply Side Isn’T Enough, Lucinda A. Low, Sarah R. Lamoree, John London

Fordham Law Review

   The domestic and international legal framework for combating bribery and corruption (“ABC laws”), including both private and public corrupt practices that are transnational (cross border) in character, has dramatically expanded over the last twenty years. Despite these developments, major gaps remain. This Article examines one of the largest systemic gaps: the absence of effective tools to control the demand side of transnational bribery and corruption—the corrupt solicitation of a benefit—especially when it involves a public official.

Cross-Border Corruption Enforcement: A Case For Measured Coordination Among Multiple Enforcement Authorities, Jay Holtmeier

Fordham Law Review

    The steady increase in cooperation and information sharing among governments is a trend commonly noted in discussions of current anticorruption enforcement. There is no shortage of evidence to support this observation. In 2013 and 2014 alone, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recognized the cooperation and assistance of foreign law enforcement authorities in at least twenty-three actions brought under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA or “the Act”). U.S. enforcement authorities—once the world’s primary anticorruption enforcers—increasingly can and do rely on the help of their international counterparts and are pursuing more investigations that run …

Felonious, Erroneous, It’S All Odious: A Story Of Debt Gone Wrong, Virginia M. Brown

Fordham Law Review

    Iraq is paying off debt from Saddam Hussein’s rule. South Africa is paying off debt obligations incurred under apartheid rule. Argentina is renegotiating debts that can be traced back to a de facto military-civilian regime that was ousted in 1976. There are numerous examples in which sovereigns are paying off debts that previous governing regimes incurred while oppressing their citizens. Should sovereigns be obligated to pay these debts? Were the debts really incurred by the sovereign or were they incurred by the governing regime in question? What if the lender knew in advance what the proceeds would be used for? …