Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

The Flaws Of Foreign Affairs Legalism, Daniel Abebe, Eric A. Posner

Faculty Scholarship

Foreign affairs legalism, the dominant approach in academic scholarship on foreign relations law, holds that courts should abandon their traditional deference to the executive in foreign relations, and that courts and Congress should take a more activist ole in foreign relations than they have in the past. Foreign affairs legalists believe that greater judicial involvement in foreign relations would curb executive abuses and promote adherence to international law. This Article argues that foreign affairs legalism rests on implausible assumptions about the incentives and capacities of courts. In U.S. history, the executive has given more support to international law than the …

Comparative Law: Problems And Prospects, George A. Bermann, Patrick Glenn, Kim Lane Scheppele, Amr Shalakany, David V. Snyder, Elizabeth Zoller

Faculty Scholarship

The following is an edited transcript of the closing plenary session of the XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law. The session took place on Saturday, July 31, 2010, in Washington, D.C., at the conclusion of the week-long congress, which is held quadrennially by the International Academy of Comparative Law (Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé). The remarks were given in a mix of French and English, but for ease of reading the transcript below is almost entirely in English.

Withdrawing From International Custom: Terrible Food, Small Portions, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Curtis A. Bradley and Mitu Gulati’s Withdrawing from International Custom brings to mind the old joke recounted by Woody Allen in Annie Hall: “Two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of ’em says, ‘Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.’ The other one says, ‘Yeah, I know; and such small portions.’” Similarly, while Bradley and Gulati attack international law’s current prohibition of unilateral withdrawal from custom, they propose an alternative that differs only modestly from it (small portions). At the same time, the doctrinal change they propose would take customary international law in the …

Protecting Indigenous Identity And Culture In The Modern Nation-State: A Case Study Of The Sami In Norway, Claire Lockerby

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The plight of indigenous peoples around the world is a serious one, and without significant international action, many valuable cultural and linguistic traditions are in grave danger of disappearing altogether. Many of these indigenous groups have experienced detrimental consequences from the history of slavery, colonialism and imperialism, and the emergence of nation-states that stripped them of their autonomy and greatly threatened their way of life. Today, there are some positive examples of international and national efforts to protect indigenous peoples, but unfortunately, most indigenous populations remain dispossessed and underrepresented. Although the international community has established principles of unalienable human rights, …

International & Comparative Law Perspectives: Fall 2010, Int'l & Comp. Law Program

International & Comparative Law Perspectives

No abstract provided.

Mauritius: An Example Of The Role Of Constitutions In Development, Adam Aft, Daniel Sacks

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Managed Engagement: The Case Of Castro's Cuba, Daniel Fisk, Courtney R. Perez

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Big Cola V. Coca-Cola: How A Convenient Store Owner's Complaint Resulted In One Of Mexico's Largest Antitrust Fines, Travis Bennion Olsen

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Are They Smoking?! Mexico's Decriminalization Of Small-Scale Drug Possession In The Wake Of A Law Enforcement Failure, Justin B. Shapiro

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comity: Another Nail In The Coffin Of Institutional Homophobia, Nanci Schanerman

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

El Arbitraje De Inversional En America Del Sur: Propuesta De Creacion De Un Centro Alternativo De Arbitraje De La Estructura Internacional De La Union De Naciones Suramericanas, Euyelit Adriana Moreno-Paredes

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Private And Public Construction In Modern China, Gregory M. Stein

San Diego International Law Journal

During the past three decades, real estate development in China has proceeded at an astonishing pace, with much development occurring before China's 2007 adoption of its first modern law of property. Investors thus spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the real estate market of a nation that, during most of this period, had not formal property law. How can a huge nation modernize so rapidly and dramatically when its legal system furnishes such uncertainty? And how can this happen in a nation that still purports to subscribe to socialist ideology? I set out to answer these questions by interviewing …

The Lion Awakens: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - 1977 To 2010, Michael B. Bixby

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article discusses the history, purposes and provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and traces its use and enforcement activity from 1977 to the present. This once little-used law has in recent years become the focus of aggressive activity by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The manuscript also includes numerous charts reporting on key cases and enforcement activities over the last thirty-three years by the DOJ and SEC, as well as other information and statistics regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Two Paths To Judicial Power: The Basic Structure Doctrine And Public Interest Litigation In Comparative Perspective, Manoj Mate

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article analyzes two key critical moments in the empowerment of the Supreme Court of India--the assertion of the basic structure doctrine, in which the Court asserted that constitutional amendments may be held unconstitutional on substantive grounds, and the development of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regime, through which the Court sought to protect and promote the rule of law and assume an expanded role in governance. I argue, in this article, that these two moments are exemplars of two types of moments that capture distinct aspects of the role of courts in different polities--"constitutional entrenchment" and "judicialization of governance" …

Conflicts In International Tort Litigation Between U.S. And Latin American Courts, John Baker, Agustín Parise

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reinforcing The Hague Convention On Taking Evidence Abroad After Blocking Statutes, Data Privacy Directives, And Aerospatiale, Brian Friederich

San Diego International Law Journal

There has always been tension between European countries and the United States on the topic of evidence gathering. Much of that tension stems from the inherent differences between common and civil policies and methods. Until the Hague Convention, the process for obtaining evidence abroad was cumbersome and unreliable. The Hague Convention sought to change that by providing signatory countries more effective methods of cooperating with each other in international litigation. However, the Hague Convention has not been able to achieve its purpose, at least not in the United States. U.S. courts have interpreted the Hague Convention as optional, meaning it …

Migrant Domestic Workers In Egypt: A Case Study Of The Economic Family In Global Context, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Essay links a particular legal case study with a broader set of questions about the "family" in a global political and economic context. Part I clarifies the analytic links between the household, the market, and globalization. By studying Egypt, the Essay focuses on one part of this global sociolegal continuum and draws out the special significance of transnational background rules and conditions for the "developmental state." Part II presents the legal framework affecting labor conditions of sub-Saharan African asylum-seekers who are migrant domestic workers in Egypt, and particularly the legal framework that affects their ability to bargain in securing …

After The Fall: Financial Crisis And The International Order, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have challenged the international order to a degree not seen since World War II — and perhaps the Great Depression. As the U.S. housing crisis metastasized into a financial and economic crisis of grave proportions, and spread to nearly every corner of the globe, the strength of our international institutions — the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Group of Twenty, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and others — was tested as never before. Likewise tested, were the limits of our national commitment to those institutions, to our international obligations, and to global engagement more …

South/North Exchange Of 2009 - The Challenges Of Climate Change Regulation For Governments On The Political Left: A Comparison Of Brazilian And United States Promises And Actions, Colin Crawford, Solange Teles Da Silva, Kevin Morris

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

South/North Exchange Of 2009 - The Constitutional Recognition Of Indigenous Peoples In Latin America, Gonzalo Aguilar, Sandra Lafosse, Hugo Rojas, Rebecca Steward

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

Trading Debts Across Borders: A European Solution (Snyder Lecture), Richard Fentiman

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

On April 7, 2009, Richard Fentiman delivered the tenth annual Snyder Lecture at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Introduction: Transatlantic Perspectives On Law, Security And Power: A German/American Dialogue On Nato’S 60th Anniversary

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Transatlantic Perspectives on Law, Security and Power: A German/American Dialogue on NATO’s 60^th Anniversary, Symposium.

Nato At Sixty: American Between Law And War, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

NATO was founded to counter the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty Organization. Both have been gone for over twenty years. So why is NATO still here? Part of the explanation may lie in Americans' strong belief in the efficacy of military force. NATO remains associated in Americans' minds with the greatest time of U.S. military power. Yet, the United States also has a strong commitment to the rule of law. The country appears overdue for a return to this other commitment. We should not be surprised to soon see the United States promoting international law again-and that could mean …

Germany's Basic Law And The Use Of Force, Russell A. Miller

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The German Basic Law's Regime for the use of force is evidence of and an explanation for the deep difference between Germany and the United States on security matters. It also might say something more grand about the power of law to constrain force.

Transatlantic Perspectives on Law, Security and Power: A German/American Dialogue on NATO’s 60^th Anniversary, Symposium.

Seeking Civilian Control: Rule Of Law, Democracy, And Civil-Military Relations In Zimbabwe, Jeremiah I. Williamson

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Rule of law and democratic reform projects often concern lofty questions of constitutional law. But in many countries desperate for reform, deeply entrenched social and political problems present preconditions to any discussion of constitutional reforms aimed at democracy and the rule of law. Zimbabwe is one such nation, which like many others faces the problem of military intervention into domestic politics. This Note examines structural and historical aspects of Zimbabwe's military problem and utilizes the theory of objective civilian control to demonstrate the plausibility of meaningful reforms. In so doing, this Note provides a demonstrative model for reforming civilmilitary relations …

Two Concluding Remarks, European Union Countries, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, National Security, Elisabeth Zoller

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Professor Zoller offers several closing thoughts, focusing on the rationales for maintaining NATO in the twenty-first century and the theme of peace through law. She concludes that NATO is vital for European security, and that NATO is here to stay for both legal and factual reasons.

Transatlantic Perspectives on Law, Security and Power: A German/American Dialogue on NATO’s 60^th Anniversary, Symposium.

Holding The World Bank Accountable For The Leakage Of Funds From Africa’S Health Sector, Fatma E. Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the accountability of international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, for human rights violations related to the massive leakage of funds from sub-Saharan Africa’s health sector. The article begins by summarizing the quantitative results of Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys performed in six African countries, all showing disturbingly high levels of leakage in the health sector. It then addresses the inadequacy of good governance and anticorruption programs in remedying this problem. After explaining how the World Bank’s Inspection Panel may serve as an accountability mechanism for addressing the leakage of funds, discussing violations of specific Bank …

Laying To Rest An Ancien Régime: Antiquated Institutions In Louisiana Civil Law And Their Incompatibility With Modern Public Policies, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Man faces unprecedented challenges as he barrels through the twenty-first century. The world is now approaching a population of seven billion people, concentrated largely in crowded, overdeveloped urban centers. Global climate change is predicted to cause massive population displacement related to the disappearance of coastal lands and to create dire food shortages within the coming decade. Increasingly, societies are forced to make systemic adaptations to handle the strain of these modern-day crises. Governments must be innovative and adaptive in their efforts to protect the public. When the fundamental goals and objectives of society alter, the law should be modified to …

International & Comparative Law Perspectives: Spring 2010, Int'l & Comp. Law Program

International & Comparative Law Perspectives

No abstract provided.