Law Commons^™

Toward Peace In Northern Ireland, George J. Mitchell

Fordham International Law Journal

That is one side of the coin of liberty. When we adjourned for the Christmas holiday the prospects were bleak. It was in mid-February 1998, on the flight from Dublin back to the United States, that I began to devise a plan to establish an early deadline for an end to the talks. He stayed up all night at the White House, telephoning several of the delegates at critical times in the final hours of negotiation. Most importantly for its survival, the agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of Ireland, North and South, in a free and democratic election. …

To Cherish A Just And Lasting Peace, Gerry Adams

Fordham International Law Journal

In the opening line of the diary that he kept during the first three weeks of his hunger strike, republican prisoner Bobby Sands, who died after fifty-five days on strike, wrote: "I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world." This system has created a unionist one party state that has rejected basic principles of democracy, justice, and equality. Throughout the development of our peace strategy and the talks process, republicans pursued the peace process in the context of our republican analysis of the situation and with a solid strategy to meet all of the difficulties head on. In …

Why Decommissioning Is A Real Issue, John Bruton

Fordham International Law Journal

The Nationalist minority in Northern Ireland is protected by the Agreement. One of the principles to which both Sinn Fein and the Progressive Unionist Party agreed in 1997 was that they gave their "total and absolute commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations." It is important for a U.S. audience to understand that those of us in Ireland who are concerned to maintain certain basic norms of representative democracy have good reasons to insist on the principle of the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, regardless of who the weapons are held by, or for what motive. But if one …

Beyond The "Band-Aid" Approach: An Alliance Party Perspective Upon The Belfast Agreement, Stephen Farry, Sean Neeson

Fordham International Law Journal

In the absence of a ready-made solution that could be adopted by the people of Northern Ireland, or a magical formula from the British and Irish Governments, the only alternative lay in locally-mandated political parties negotiating a political agreement. This alternative in turn entailed a common recognition that the zero-sum politics of "winner takes all" ultimately leaves everyone a loser. An accommodation, while requiring each party to sacrifice some of its aspirations, stood to benefit Northern Ireland society as a whole.

Peace Agreement - Or Last Piece In A Sellout Agreement?, Ian Paisley

Fordham International Law Journal

Indeed, it is the distress caused by the content of the Agreement that has provoked such widespread alarm and division within Unionism. The proposals contained in the Agreement are not remarkably new in content, but they now have the endorsement of those who were previously opposed to such mechanisms that will fundamentally undermine the status of Northern Ireland within the Union and impose a system of government so alien that it is far removed from any known concept of democracy and fairness. According to the author's copy of the Mitchell draft, the UUP lost out on the number of seats …

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Stephen Livingstone

Fordham International Law Journal

The extent of these powers [...powers to scrutinize proposed legislation before the Northern Ireland Assembly for its compliance with human rights standards, to assist litigants in bringing human rights complaints before the courts, and to conduct investigations into matters that give rise to human rights concerns...advising the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as to whether any additional human rights, beyond those to be introduced for the whole of the United Kingdom by the Human Rights Act 1998, should be included in a Bill of Rights specific to Northern Ireland...], and their adequacy to the task that the Commission is …

Prisoners, The Agreement, And The Political Character Of The Northern Ireland Conflict, Kieran Mcevoy

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay first explores the historical context of prisoner release in Ireland, North and South. Second, the role of prisoners in the process of conflict resolution in the 1990s is examined in the periods before and after the breakdown of the first IRA cease- fire. The provisions within the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent legislation are then analyzed in so far as they relate to prisoner release as an incentive for peace among organizations outside the peace process, decommissioning, the victims of violence, and prisoner reintegration. Finally, this Essay argues that the "prisoner issue" represents a crucial acknowledgement by the …

Constitutionalism And Change: Representation, Governance, And Participation In The New Northern Ireland, John Morison

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay assesses the achievement of restoring representative government and also considers whether this is enough given the changes that have occurred since last there was devolved government in Northern Ireland. Finally, it examines those aspects of the Agreement that can be developed in line with a view that the constitution should now be seen much less as a structure of rule than a framework for rule within the wider task of democratizing democracy in the new Northern Ireland.

Schools: Lessons From The Agreement, Jerry Tyrrell, Brendan Hartop, Seamus Farrell

Fordham International Law Journal

This article discusses how education will help lead to the success of the Multi-Party Negotiations, which attempt to resolve the conflict in Ireland. Citizenship development can teach values such as tolerance, care, and respect for others as equals. Education can promote movement from the rhetoric to the practice of collaboration and encourage participative democracy. Education can also be a foundation for social harmony.

Does The Ec Council Directive No. 95/46/Ec Mandate The Use Of Anonymous Digital Currency?, Julia Alpert Gladstone

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay focuses on the relationship between the privacy and the retail payment systems on the Internet. Part I of this Essay reviews several payment mechanisms that are in use or that have been introduced for retail commerce on the Internet. The description is not intended to offer a thorough study of the technology, but rather to highlight the data trail that is created under each method. Part II reviews the relevant statutory and self-regulatory mechanisms that have been applied to the Internet to ensure privacy. This leads to a discussion of the European Community's data protection directive, Council Directive …

Documentary Credit Law And Practice In The Global Information Age, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Fordham International Law Journal

Documentary letters of credit have historically been an important and popular method of payment in international trading transactions. In fact, they have been described as the "lifeblood of international commerce." A number of uniform international practices have developed for their use, many of which are codified in international rules such as Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits. In the global information age, as the nature of international commerce changes, so too must the operation of such payment mechanisms. With the increase in electronic trading, the "documentary" nature of these credits may require some revision. This Essay examines ways in …

Rethinking Mcclesky V. Kemp: How U.S. Ratification Of The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination Provides A Remedy For Claims Of Racial Disparity In Death Penalty Cases, Robin H. Gise

Fordham International Law Journal

This Note addresses U.S. obligations under CERD in the context of racial disparity in the imposition of the death penalty and proposes courses of domestic and international action. Part I examines the historical racial disparity in the imposition of the death penalty in the United States. It discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in McClesky to deny relief to a death row inmate who demonstrated that race influenced whether a death sentence was imposed. Part I also explores the development of CERD and discusses CERD's standard for proving discrimination based on a showing of racially discriminatory effect. Finally, Part I …

Removing Drug Lords And Street Pushers: The Extradition Of Nationals In Colombia And The Dominican Republic, Joshua H. Warmund

Fordham International Law Journal

This Comment explores the interplay between drug trafficking and extradition policy in the U.S.-Latin American-Caribbean region by focusing upon the recent legal shift in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Part I describes the status of current international extradition law, focusing on modern extradition policy. In particular, this part details the respective extradition treaties of Colombia and the Dominican Republic with the United States. Part I also explores the roles that these two nations assume trafficking drugs into the United States and highlights the corresponding U.S. anti-drug enforcement response. Finally, Part I examines the challenges that drug trafficking and certain anti-drug …

The Amsterdam Treaty: Overview And Institutional Aspects, Jean-Claude Piris, Giorgio Maganza

Fordham International Law Journal

The overall picture presented by the media regarding the two day and two night Amsterdam meeting of the Heads of State and Government in June 1997 was largely negative. The main reason for the negativity was that the Intergovernmental Conference (“IGC”), by failing to agree on Treaty amendments concerning the size of the Commission and the weighting system for qualified majority voting in the Council, supposedly could not produce satisfactory responses as to the need to reform the institutions of the European Union with a view to its next enlargement. Is this picture justified in light of the actual outcome …

Social Policy And Employment Aspects Of The Treaty Of Amsterdam, Patrick Venturini

Fordham International Law Journal

Commenting on employment and social policy gives me the opportunity to start by pointing out how positive the outcome of the Treaty of Amsterdam (or “Treaty”) was in those fields. Indeed, the following four main fields are concerned with substantial extensions or reinforcements of European Community (“EC” or “Community”) competencies and responsibilities following the Amsterdam Summit: employment, social policy, equality between men and women, and fundamental rights and non-discrimination. Last but not least, the strengthening of the co-decision procedure, which is now the principal legislative procedure and requires a joint decision of the Council and the European Parliament, does affect …

External Relations Powers Of The European Community, Jacques H.J. Bourgeois

Fordham International Law Journal

As a result both of the way in which the external relations powers of the European Community (“EC” or “Community”) have been organized by the Treaty establishing the European Community (“EC Treaty”) and of the interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Communities (“ECJ”), an analysis of the evolution of the external relations powers requires distinguishing between powers relating to foreign trade in the strict sense of the terms, i.e., “common commercial policy” under Article 113 of the EC Treaty, and other external relations powers both express and implied. The subject of this contribution is the external relations …

Free To Choose, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Universalism, Liberal Theory, And The Problem Of Gay Marriage, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Liberalism, both contemporary and classical, rests at heart on a theory of human nature, and at the center of that theory lies one core commitment: all human beings, qua human beings, are essentially rational. There are two equally important implications. The first we might call the "universalist" assumption: all human beings, not just some, are rational -- not just white people, men, freemen, property owners, aristocrats, or citizens, but all of us. In this central, defining respect, then, we are all the same: we all share in this universal, natural, human trait. The second implication, we might call the "individualist" …

Toward Humanistic Theories Of Legal Justice, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In an oft-quoted aside, Justice Holmes once remarked that when lawyers in his courtroom make appeal to justice, he stops listening: such appeals do nothing but signal that the lawyer has neither the facts nor law on his side, or worse, that he is ignorant of whatever law might be relevant.' Holmes's remark has not gone unheeded. Holmes's legacy, in part, is precisely this lapse: we don't have, or teach, a guiding theory of legal justice, nor do we have, or teach, a family of competing theories of legal justice, that might inform our work in law, at least as …

Skeptical Scrutiny Of Plenary Power: Judicial And Executive Branch Decision Making In Miller V Albright, Cornelia T. Pillard, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 1996, just a few months after the United States successfully urged the Supreme Court in United States v. Virginia to invalidate as sex-discriminatory the male-only admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute, the District of Columbia Circuit in Miller v. Albright upheld a federal law that used an express, sex-based distinction. Section 309(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) makes it harder for male U.S. citizens than for female citizens to convey their citizenship to their children if those children were born abroad out of wedlock and the other parent was not a U.S. citizen. Notwithstanding the United …

Rights And Efficiency In American Health Law, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

During the 1960s and 1970s, the individual rights revolution that swept through American society remade much of the nation's health law in its image. Sick people acquired the right to be told of the risks and benefits of proposed treatments and then to give thumbs-up or thumbs-down to their doctors' decisions. Successful suits for medical negligence went from rare to commonplace. Elderly and poor Americans achieved statutory rights of access to publicly funded healthcare, and courts burnished these rights with myriad procedural protections. The critically ill and their families won the right to refuse aggressive, life-sustaining treatments. Psychiatric patients acquired …

Intellectual Privacy And Censorship Of The Internet, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Federal Regulation Of Tobacco Products And Products That Treat Tobacco Dependence: Are The Playing Fields Level?, Joseph A. Page

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Company A is thinking about launching a traditional tobacco product, perhaps a cigarette or a smokeless tobacco confection, with a new ingredient, ingredient level, or ingredient mix that in the past has never been sold. Company B contemplates putting on the market an innovative medication, medical device, or dietary supplement intended to help consumers to free themselves from physical dependence on tobacco products. Company C ponders the possibility of introducing a smoking product whose novelty derives from express or implied marketing claims that the product will decrease or perhaps even eliminate physical dependence on tobacco, or reduce other risks associated …

Sovereignty By Subtraction: The Multilateral Agreement On Investment, Robert Stumberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAl) represents a major step in the evolution of "sovereignty," which includes the power of a nation-state to govern without external controls. A panelist at the 1998 Cornell International Law journal Symposium introduced the MAl as an example of "multilateral sovereignty" to achieve commonly held goals of global economic integration. This perspective posits that the MAl is an exercise in sovereignty by subtraction, aiming to limit governing power rather than promote its joint exercise.

Its critics call the MAl a "slow motion coup d'etat," a "bill of rights for investors," a threat to sovereignty, …

The Summary Affirmance Proposal Of The Board Of Immigration Appeals, Philip G. Schrag

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Board of Immigration Appeals is on the verge of making a tragic mistake, trading away a key element of fair adjudication-the written opinion-for the sake of what it hopes will be greater administrative efficiency. The cost of eliminating written adjudication is too great, and the Board has given no indication that it has sufficiently canvassed less drastic alternatives.

The Board of Immigration Appeals (the "Board") is the primary appellate body for immigration law. The "staple" of its work is to decide appeals from decisions of Immigration Judges in removal proceedings, though it also hears appeals in several other categories, …

The Stories We Must Tell: Ugandan Children And The Atrocities Of The Lord's Resistance Army, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay is about stories--the stories that we are told and the stories that we, in turn, tell to others. It has become a truism that we have lost our faith in master narratives and that the "real" is composed of many competing narratives, all fragmentary, contradictory, overlapping. In this article, the author discusses the problems this view poses for those of us who see ourselves as advocates and activists rather than solely--or primarily--as scholars, but who nonetheless seek to combine social activism with intellectual rigor and honesty. In particular, she discusses the dilemmas this creates for the human rights …

Lochner In Cyberspace: The New Economic Orthodoxy Of "Rights Management", Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Part I of this Article describes the economic models now proffered as the basis for defining rights in digital works, and explores their striking resemblance to the system of social ordering described and advanced in the Supreme Court's Lochner-era decisions. The ghost of Lochner is not invoked lightly, nor with intent to belittle. Lochner represented a particular ideal of social ordering, premised on a seamless convergence of the private-law institutions of property and contract to provide a zone of legal insulation for market outcomes. In the physical world, that vision has long been compromised by evidence of market failures …

Copyright And The Jurisprudence Of Self-Help, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The proposed draft of Article 2B grants broad rights to enforce electronically contract provisions governing access to and use of digital works. Purveyors of digital works may engage in electronic self-help following breach of contract, and may also elect to foreclose unauthorized uses ex ante, via electronic “regulation of performance.” This Article examines these provisions in light of existing law authorizing self-help repossession of tangible chattels, leading academic justifications for self-help repossession, and federal copyright law and policy. It concludes that the provisions authorize an unprecedented degree of intrusion into private homes and offices, that they lack a sound theoretical …

Pretending To Upset The Balance: Old Chief V. United States And Exclusion Of Prior Felony Conviction Evidence Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 403, Donnie L. Kidd Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

The story of an event is often more interesting and informative than the mere fact that the event occurred. Aesop's morals would not be as captivating without the fables that accompany them. The fables tell the reader a story embodying a moral truth. On election night, the ballot tally proves which candidate won, but the voter is interested more in the story of the campaign trail that put the candidate in office rather than a naked statistic comparing voting percentages. The story gives not only the bare idea or fact; it mixes this bare idea or fact with the supporting …

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.