Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

The European Constitution And Its Implications For China, Xingzhong Yu

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The European Constitution is significant not only for the European Union, but also for a developing constitutional system like that of China. The EU constitutional practice may have positive implications on China's constitutional theory and practice. In the wake of the European constitutional achievement, Chinese constitutional scholars need to re-examine their long-held conviction in the indispensable role of the state in constitutional formation and imagination. The EU experience may have provided China with valuable insights and ways to deal with its inherited ethnic problems and improve its institutions on regional autonomy for ethnic minorities. China's own constitutional experiment in Hong …

Economic Emergency And The Rule Of Law, Bernadette Meyler

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Academic work extolling the merits of the "rule of law" both domestically and internationally abounds today, yet the meanings of the phrase itself seem to proliferate. Two of the most prominent contexts in which rule of law rhetoric appears are those of economic development and states of emergency. In the area of private law, dissemination of the rule of law across the globe and, in particular, among emerging market countries is often deemed a prerequisite for enhancing economic development, partly because it ensures that foreign investments will not be summarily expropriated and that contractual rights will not be frustrated by …

Taking The Right To Abortion In Croatia Seriously - One Of The Basic Constitutional Rights Or A Rudiment Of The Right To Reproduction?, Dalida Rittossa

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Imports Or Made-In-China: Comparison Of Two Constitutional Cases In China And The United States, Xiao Li

LLM Theses and Essays

When its economic increase attracts the global attention, China is also looking for a break-through in its judicial reform. The Qi v. Chen case (2001) was considered to be the Chinese version of Marbury v. Madison and gave rise to a heated discussion of the judicial review power in China. This article will analyze the doubts on the Qi case and the prospects of judicial review it indicates through comparison with Marbury v. Madison. Although Qi v. Chen opened the door for constitutional litigation, its dramatic facts and strained application of the Constitution threw it into question. Nevertheless, its effect …

Marbury In Mexico: Judicial Review’S Precocious Southern Migration, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

In attempting to construct United States-style judicial review for the Mexican Supreme Court in the 1880s, Ignacio Vallarta, president of the court, read Marbury in a way that preceded this use of the case in the United States. Using this surprising fact as a central example, this article makes several important contributions to the field of comparative constitutional law. The work demonstrates that through constitutional migration, novel readings of constitutional sources can arise in foreign fora. In an era when the United States Supreme Court may be accused of parochialism in its constitutional analysis, the article addresses the current controversy …

Foreign Authority, American Exceptionalism, And The Dred Scott Case, Sarah H. Cleveland

Faculty Scholarship

At least since Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1831, the idea that America is distinctive from other nations has permeated much political and social commentary. The United States has been variously perceived as unique in its history, its culture, its national values, its social movements, and its social and political institutions. While the term technically refers only to distinctiveness or difference, "exceptionalism" may have positive or negative aspects – what Harold Koh has called "America's Jekyll-and-Hyde exceptionalism." In the legal realm, claims of exceptionalism have been offered to support what Michael Ingnatieff identifies as "legal isolationism" – or refusal by …

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, And ?: The Correlation Between Policy Areas, Signing, And Legal Ratification Of Organization Of American States’ Treaties By Member States., Alexandra R. Harrington

ExpressO

Abstract: Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and ?: The Correlation Between Policy areas, Signing, and Legal Ratification of Organization of American States’ Treaties by Member States.

Like any organization, the Organization of American States’ ability to affect lasting policy changes through treaties is only as strong as the will of the federal legislative bodies of its member states. No matter how lofty or well-meaning the OAS’s goals in any area or matter addressed by a treaty, or the number of OAS member states which sign onto a treaty reflecting these goals, under the OAS Charter, and the federal constitutions of most member …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

From Origin To Delta: Changing Landscape Of Modern Constitutionalism, Jiunn-Rong Yeh, Wen-Chen Chang

ExpressO

This article deals with the question of whether and to what extent the two forces of democratization and globalization have altered our understandings of constitutionalism. We attempt to theorize a changing landscape of constitutionalism that includes transitional and transnational perspectives and examine respectively their features, functions and characteristics. First, we analyze respective developments of transitional and transnational constitutionalism by identifying their features, perspectives, functions, and characteristics. Then we examine to what extent and in what ways the developments in transitional and transnational constitutionalism pose challenges to our traditional understanding of modern constitutional laws. Finally, we shall picture a new constitutional …

Theories Of Supranationalism In The Eu, Rafael Leal-Arcas

ExpressO

Supranationalism has been a topic of analysis from various points of view when trying to understand the process of European integration. This article aims at presenting the major theories of supranationalism when discussing the ongoing process of European integration. Three main theories are examined: 1) normative versus decisional supranationalism; 2) theories of partial integration, and 3) legal theories of economic integration (such as the neo-liberal economic policy, the European Community (EC) as a special-purpose association of functional integration, as well as the theory of the supranational and intergovernmental dual structure of the EC).

Polycephalous Anatomy Of The Ec In The Wto: An Analysis Of Law And Practice, Rafael Leal-Arcas

ExpressO

This article analyzes the unique legal position of the European Community (EC) in the world trading system. Its polycephalous anatomy derives from the fact that all 25 Member States of the EC are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) along with the EC itself. This means that when referring to the EC, the whole as well as its parts are independent Members of the WTO. This has legal and political consequences related to the allocation of powers between the national and supranational levels that will be analyzed. The article explains what is meant by a “mixed agreement” and analyzes …

How To Sue Without Standing: The Constitutionality Of Citizen Suits In Non-Article Iii Tribunals, David Krinsky

ExpressO

In recent years, the “injury-in-fact” standing requirement of Article III has frequently impeded attempts by concerned citizens and public interest groups to challenge government actions in federal court.

This article proposes a way in which “citizen suits”—lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who wish to challenge perceived illegalities that affect the public as a whole—can be given a federal forum. It argues that, with some limitations, Congress has authority to authorize pure citizen suits in Article I tribunals, and discusses the (surmountable) obstacles that such fora pose.

After discussing the constitutionality of citizen suits in Article I tribunals, the article then turns …

Constitutional Adjudication In Post-1997 Hong Kong, Albert H.Y. Chen

Washington International Law Journal

In July 1997, the British colony of Hong Kong was returned to the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). It became a Special Administrative Region (“SAR”) of the PRC in accordance with the concept of “one country, two systems” embodied by the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984. The constitutional instrument of Hong Kong’s new legal and political system is the Basic Law of the SAR of Hong Kong, enacted by the National People’s Congress of the PRC and effective as of July 1997. Under colonial rule, Hong Kong inherited a British-style legal system. English common law formed the foundation, and the …

Light From The Trees: The Story Of Minors Oposa And The Russian Forest Cases , Oliver Austin Houck

ExpressO

This article describes two lawsuits in the late twentieth century that changed their countries in ways from which there will be no return. One took place in the Philippines, emerging from the reign of Fernando Marcos, and the other in Russia, following a near century of communist rule. They have two things in common. They declared the rights of their citizens to challenge, and reverse, government decisions. And they were about the environment, more particularly, trees. What we learn is that notions of environmental protection, citizen enforcement and judicial review have traveled the world and that, in differing legal systems, …

Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativst . . . Sometimes, David C. Gray

ExpressO

The burgeoning literature on transjudicialism and constitutional comparativism generally reaffirms the familiar lines of contest between textualists and those more inclined to read the Constitution as a living document. As a consequence, it tends to be politicized, if not polemic. This essay begins to shift the debate toward a more rigorous focus on first principles. In particular, it argues that full faith to the basic commitments of originalism, as advanced in Justice Scalia’s writings, opinions, and speeches, requires domestic courts to consult contemporary foreign sources when interpreting universalist language found in the Constitution. While the essay does not propose a …

Is Ec Trade Policy Up To Par?: A Legal Analysis Over Time - Rome, Marrakesh, Amsterdam, Nice, And The Constitutional Treaty, Rafael Leal-Arcas

ExpressO

This article is an attempt to a thorough chronological analysis of the European Community’s (EC) existing law and policy in the field of international trade law since the beginning of the European Economic Community. It deals with the evolution of the EC’s common commercial policy competence through the years, starting with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), moving on to the necessary changes brought by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, signed in Marrakesh in 1994, until the days of the European Union (EU) Constitutional Treaty, with a view to enabling the EC with a coherent trade policy in …

Redefining The Right To Be Let Alone: Privacy Rights And The Constitutionality Of Technical Surveillance Measures In Germany And The United States, Nicole E. Jacoby

ExpressO

U.S. and German courts alike long have struggled to find the proper balance between protecting the privacy rights of criminal suspects and granting law enforcement officials the adequate tools to fight crime. The highest courts in each country have produced different paradigms for determining where the public sphere ends and the private sphere begins. In a series of cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has inquired whether a criminal defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy when the state conducted a warrantless search of the suspect’s person, premises, or belongings. Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, in contrast, has asked whether an investigative …

Our Sovereign Body: Narrating The Fiction Of Sovereign Immunity In The Supreme Court: Part I-A English Stories, Marc L. Roark

ExpressO

This is part I-A of a Book I am working towards on the narratives and fictions of sovereign immunity. The goal in this part is to look before the American republic and towards the background in which American Sovereignty came to be shaped by -- the feudal notion of the sovereign; the Lockean response, and the Blackstonean doctrine. The first part looks at the legal fictions surrounding the kingship, their sources and their effects. The Second part looks to the specific ways of treating the sovereign in law, namely viewing King as Property owner or patriarch, Trustee, and Constitution.

Our Sovereign Body: Narrating The Fiction Of Sovereign Immunity In The Supreme Court, Marc L. Roark

ExpressO

This is the introduction to a book I am preparing on the Normative and Narrative aspects of the U.S. Sovereign Immunity Doctrine. The introduction sets up the problem of a doctrine that is not exactly coherent with the national narrative.

The Headscarf As Threat? A Comparison Of German And American Legal Discourses, Robert A. Kahn

ExpressO

In this article I compare how American and German judges conceptualize the harm the headscarf poses to society. My examples are the 2003 Ludin case, in which the German Federal Constitutional Court held that the civil service, in the absence of state regulation, could not reject a woman from a civil service teaching position solely because she would not remove her headscarf while teaching; and State v. Freeman, in which a Florida court held that a woman could not pose for a drivers license wearing a garment (the niqab) that covered all of her face except her eyes. While judges …

Religious Expression And Symbolism In The American Constitutional Tradition: Government Neutrality, But Not Indifference, Daniel O. Conkle

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In this article, I describe and analyze three principles of First Amendment doctrine. First, the Establishment Clause generally forbids governmental expression that has the purpose or effect of promoting or endorsing religion. Second, and conversely, private religious expression is broadly defined and is strongly protected by the Free Speech Clause. Third, as an implicit exception to the first principle, the government itself is sometimes permitted to engage in expression that seemingly does promote and endorse religion, but only when the expression is noncoercive, nonsectarian, and embedded within (or at least in harmony with) longstanding historical tradition. Comparing these three principles …

Laïcité In The United States Or The Separation Of Church And State In Pluralist Society, Elisabeth Zoller

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Some Modest Uses Of Transnational Legal Perspectives In First-Year Constitutional Law, Neil S. Siegel

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Squaring The Circle: Democratizing Judicial Review And The Counter-Constitutional Difficulty, Miguel Schor

ExpressO

The Article argues that the polarization in the appointments process for the United States Supreme Court creates a problem that I call the counter-constitutional difficulty. A constitution is designed to put certain decisions off limits to the workings of ordinary politics. Laws can be made and changed by majoritarian mechanisms whereas a constitution can be made and changed only by supermajoritarian mechanisms. The United States Constitution, however, has an Achilles heel. The easiest way to amend the Constitution is by changing the membership of the Supreme Court given the rigors of Article V. A number of decisions by the Court …

A Modern Disaster: Agricultural Land, Urban Growth, And The Need For A Federally Organized Comprehensive Land Use Planning Model, Jess M. Krannich

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The President Refuses To Cohabit: Semi-Presidentialism In Taiwan, Thomas Weishing Huang

Washington International Law Journal

French constitutional practices suggest that cohabitation between the president and the prime minister, where the latter is the leader of the opposition majority in parliament, creates a workable governmental relationship. Taiwan’s constitutional practice indicates, however, that a minority government, although it does not command the majority in parliament, may nevertheless survive if the system of semipresidentialism is flawed. Instead of having the flexibility to change the government whenever it loses the confidence of parliament, minority governments under semipresidentialism in Taiwan exhibit all the rigidity created by gridlock between the executive and the legislature. This gridlock is caused by fixed terms …

The Clear And Present Danger Test In Anglo-American And European Law, David G. Barnum

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will examine the role that the danger test has played in the decisions of American courts and, more recently, in the decisions of British courts and the enforcement organs of the European Convention. Part I will briefly trace the immediate Anglo-American constitutional background from which the danger test emerged. It particular, it will examine the way in which the common law offense of seditious libel was defined by British judges and judicial commentators in the late nineteenth century. Part II will focus on the evolution in American law of judicial attempts to articulate both a "content-based" and an …

Public Trust And Political Legitimacy: Conflict Of Interests And The Role Of The Parliament's Speaker In Israel And Europe, Lior Zemer, Eyal Kimel, Sharon Pardo

San Diego International Law Journal

In its six sections, this Article examines the role of Speakers, the nexus between their many duties and powers, possible points of conflict among their different duties, as well as the connection between their official duties and personal interests. This Article takes the role of the Speaker of the Israeli Parliament as its organizing principle. Sections Two and Three discuss the constitutional underpinnings of conflicts of interest and the way in which these apply to Members of the Knesset. Section Four takes the Israeli Speaker as a test case and explores in greater details the many flaws and conflicts inherent …

Justice & Foreign Affairs: Taking The European Neighbourhood Partner Countries To The European Court Of Justice, Lior Zemer, Sharon Pardo

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article argues that the European Union (EU) should extend the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to cover disputes arising from agreements with Neighborhood Partner Countries (NPC) under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This extension is essential for upholding the EU's constitutional principles, ensuring judicial review, and maintaining the coherence of EU external relations. The authors advocate for the ECJ as the most suitable judicial forum to address these disputes, emphasizing its role in reinforcing the EU's legal identity and capacity building.