Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Early Prerogative And Administrative Power: A Response To Paul Craig, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

What does English experience imply about American constitutional law? My book, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, argues that federal administrative power generally is unconstitutional. In supporting this conclusion, the book observes that eighteenth-century Americans adopted their constitutions not only with their eyes on the future, but also looking over their shoulder at the past – especially the English past. This much should not be controversial. There remain, however, all sorts of questions about how to understand the English history and its relevance for early Americans.

In opposition to my claims about American law, Paul Craig lobs three critiques from across the …

Magna Carta In The Late Middle Ages: Over-Mighty Subjects, Under-Mighty Kings, And A Turn Away From Trial By Jury, David J. Seipp

Faculty Scholarship

What did English lawyers know about Magna Carta in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries? How did they talk about it? Did they regard the king as above the law or subordinate to it? What did they make of the guarantees that we now think were most important in Magna Carta, the guarantee of judgment of peers or the law of the land, and of speedy justice? The evidence of the Year Books is that Magna Carta was treated as a minor statute, that the king was or ought to be above the law in many respects, and that trial by …

The United States, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

The United States is an example of how three branches of government can stall and derail reform initiatives. The judiciary in particular is central to the US experience with political finance reform, repeatedly striking down legislation on party finance, despite consensus from executive and legislative branches. The most recent Supreme Court ruling, in April 2014, struck down one of the last remaining federal regulations, on the overall campaign contribution limits for individuals. At a subnational level, the United States does, however, see significant variations in terms of regulations on the flow of money into politics at a state level. In …

Reflections On Obergefell And The Family-Recognition Framework's Continuing Value, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Unlike a typical law review essay, I offer reflections here based largely on my own past work in LGBT rights advocacy. Together with related scholarship, I rely on these experiences to argue that the 'family recognition" framework underlying earlier advocacy has value going forward, even after the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of nationwide marriage equality.

The European Union: A Comparative Perspective, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter, to be included in the Oxford Principles of EU Law volume, compares the federalisms of Europe and the United States. It argues that Europe can be sensibly viewed from both federal and intergovernmental perspectives, and that particular aspects of the European Union’s structure fit each model. In particular, the EU is federal—that is, integrated to a comparable degree to the U.S.—with respect to its distribution of competences and the sovereignty attributed to EU law and institutions. But it is intergovernmental—that is, it preserves a center of gravity within the individual member states—with respect to the allocation of governmental …

Cultural Paradigms In Property Institutions, Taisu Zhang

Faculty Scholarship

Do “cultural factors” substantively influence the creation and evolution of property institutions? For the past several decades, few legal scholars have answered affirmatively. Those inclined towards a law and economics methodology tend to see property institutions as the outcome of self-interested and utilitarian bargaining, and therefore often question the analytical usefulness of “culture.” The major emerging alternative, a progressive literature that emphasizes the social embeddedness of property institutions and individuals, is theoretically more accommodating of cultural analysis but has done very little of it.

This Article develops a “cultural” theory of how property institutions are created and demonstrates that such …

Accessory Disloyalty: Comparative Perspectives On Substantial Assistance To Fiduciary Breach, Deborah A. Demott

Faculty Scholarship

Culpable participation in a fiduciary's breach of duty is independently wrongful. Much about this contingent form of liability is open to dispute. In the United States, well-established general doctrine defines the elements requisite to establishing accessory liability, which is categorized as a tort and often referred to as "aiding-and abetting" liability. What's controversial is how the tort applies to particular categories of actors, most recently investment banks that advise boards of target companies in M&A transactions. In the United Kingdom, in contrast, accessory liability in connection with a breach of trust or fiduciary duty is controversial because the law is …

The Conflicts Restatement And The World, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comparative Law And Private International Law, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Jurisdiction, Foundations, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dealing With Illegal Housing: What Can New York City Learn From Shenzhen?, Shitong Qiao

Faculty Scholarship

In New York City, owners violated zoning regulations and opened up their basements, garages, and other floors to rent to people (particularly low-income immigrants) priced out of the formal market. The more than 100,000 illegal dwelling units in New York City (NYC) were referred to as “granny units,” “illegal twos or threes,” or “accessory units.” Due to the safety and habitability considerations of “alter[ing] or modif[ying] of an existing building to create an additional housing unit without first obtaining approval from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB),” the City government devoted a lot of resources to detecting and …

The Women Of The Wall: A Metaphor For National And Religious Identity, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

The Women of the Wall wish to participate in communal prayer in the women’s section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Their practice is to pray as a group, wrap themselves in a tallit, and read from the Torah scroll. They represent Jewish pluralism in that their group includes Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular women. They represent openness to change in that they base their claims on Halakhic interpretation, thereby embracing the capacity of Jewish law to evolve. This article reviews the resistance of the religious and political establishment in Israel to their claim and their struggle, unsuccessful so far, …

Time To Say Local Cheese And Smile At Geographical Indications Of Origin? International Trade And Local Development In The United States, Irene Calboli

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I offer some considerations on a possible compromising solution for the controversy between the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) on the regulation of geographical indications of origin (GIs) as part of the negotiations in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Notably, I advocate that the EU and the U.S. consider adopting a solution similar to that adopted in the Canada and European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). In particular, I note that, even though CETA accepted several of the EU's requests to claw-back names that were not previously protected in Canada, …

Coordination And Conflict: The Persistent Relevance Of Networks In International Financial Regulation, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last two decades, scholarly enthusiasm about transnational regulatory networks has seen something of a boom-and-bust cycle. Such networks – informal groupings of mid-level national officials, convened to develop nonbinding “soft law” norms of behavior in specialized fields of regulation – were identified as an important new phenomenon, were studied widely, and came to be seen as central pillars of the international legal order, especially in financial regulation. Yet today, regulatory networks go largely unmentioned in polite academic conversation: a kind of “he-who-must-not-be-named” of international law.

Among the many critiques of transnational networks that have contributed to this decline …

The Suez Crisis Of 1956 And Its Aftermath: A Comparative Study Of Constitutions, Use Of Force, Diplomacy And International Relations, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

This article compares and juxtaposes constitutional war powers (deployed by the belligerents) and diplomacy (deployed by the US) as means of pursuing foreign policy during the 1956 Suez crisis.

In the fall of 1956 the United Kingdom, France and Israel launched a war against Egypt. It soon became clear that this was a coordinated effort. The war started a few days before the US presidential elections but the parties did not share their plans with President Eisenhower. The Hungarian rebellion and the Soviet invasion of Hungary occurred at the same time. Within weeks, the United States, in cooperation with the …

Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophes In America, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

Flooding is the most common natural catastrophe Americans face, accounting for 90% of all damage caused by natural catastrophes. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, for example, collectively caused over $160 billion in damage, but only approximately 10% of the Hurricane Katrina victims and 50% of the Hurricane Sandy victims had insurance to cover their flood losses. Consequently, both their homes and lives were left in ruins in the wake of the storms. Nationwide, only approximately 7% of homeowners have insurance that covers flood losses even though the risk of flooding is only increasing as coastal areas continue to be developed and …

Adopting An International Convention On Surrogacy—A Lesson From Intercountry Adoption, Seema Mohapatra

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Adopting An International Convention On Surrogacy—A Lesson From Intercountry Adoption, Seema Mohapatra

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Relational Property Rights: A Case Of Chinese Rural Land Reform, Shitong Qiao, Frank Upham

Faculty Scholarship

The most notable, or at least the most noted, form of property evolution has been the transfer of exclusive rights from collectives to individuals and vice versa, such as the farm collectivization in Soviet Union and the establishment of the People’s Communes in Mao’s China and their reversals. Such radical moments, however, constitute only a small part of history. For the most part, property rights evolve quietly and incrementally, which is hard to explain if we take exclusive rights as the core of property, or, to put it more generally, if we are focusing solely on the question of who …

Unstable Constitutionalism, Mark Tushnet, Madhav Khosla

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most significant developments in the study of constitutional law in recent years has been the comparative turn in the field. Although debates continue over whether and how domestic courts should rely on (or even refer to) foreign law in domestic legal disputes, the appropriate methodology for comparative analyses, and the potential and limits of comparative constitutional studies, many scholars and practitioners – including well-known judges – no longer believe that the task of constitutional law is solely domestic in nature. Yet, despite the enthusiasm for comparative constitutional law and the emerging systematization of comparative work, the field …

A War For Liberty: On The Law Of Conscientious Objection, Jeremy K. Kessler

Faculty Scholarship

One common understanding of the Second World War is that it was a contest between liberty and tyranny. For many at the time – and for still more today – ‘liberty’ meant the rule of law: government constrained by principle, procedure, and most of all, individual rights. For those states that claimed to represent this rule-of-law tradition, total war presented enormous challenges, even outright contradictions. How would these states manage to square the governmental imperatives of military emergency with the legal protections and procedures essential to preserving the ancient ‘liberty of the subject’? This question could be and was asked …

Brief For Foreign And Comparative Law Experts Harold Hongju Koh Et Al. As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Harold Hongju Koh, Thomas Buergenthal, Sarah H. Cleveland, Laurence R. Helfer, Ryan Goodman, Sujit Choudhry

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The United States, In Comparative Counter-Terrorism, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

The United States, like all other democratic nations that have suffered terrorist attacks, continues to struggle with questions of how to keep its population safe while maintaining the principles of democracy and the rule of law. This Book Chapter discusses the United States' counterterrorism policies, particularly since the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the resulting changes in societal viewpoints, political agendas, and the legal authority to combat terrorism and threats of terrorism.

The government’s aggressive counterterrorism stance has influenced actions and policies outside the United States. The Author’s exploration of counterterrorism policies in the United States include: criminal law and …

Comparative Jury Procedures, Kenneth S. Klein

Faculty Scholarship

The literature considering various possible procedural reforms to United States jury trial practice suffers from a high dose of American Exceptionalism. The experience of other nations rarely is acknowledged, much less considered as possibly informative. This Article argues that as a British-derived system of roughly identical vintage as the United States, the jury practices of Malta can inform American practice in three respects: (1) the desirability of increased juror interaction – in particular allowing oral juror questions to witnesses and allowing deliberation during the trial, (2) the utility of eliminating voir dire in jury selection, and (3) the possibility of …

Innovation And The Role Of Public-Private Collaboration In Contract Governance: Governing Global Finance: Towards Contractual Governance, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

The global financial crisis demonstrated the vulnerability, if not failure, of existing governance structures for financial markets. Even if it is true that financial crises cannot be avoided, there may be room for improving existing structures. This chapter suggests that such an improvement might lie in switching from exclusive, hierarchical, and coercive forms of governance to inclusive, horizontal, cooperative ones—and uses the shorthand ‘contractual governance’ for the latter. Starting from the presumption that new forms of governance are frequently born in crisis, the chapter analyses several responses to the crisis and asks whether they display features of alternative forms of …

Introduction: Constitutional Conflict And Development: Perspectives From South Asia And Africa, Sudha Setty, Matthew H. Charity

Faculty Scholarship

This Introduction was written for an eponymous joint program held on January 4, 2014 and hosted by the Section on Africa and the Section of Law & South Asian Studies, both of the Association of American Law Schools.

Surveillance, Secrecy, And The Search For Meaningful Accountability, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most intractable problems in the debate around maintaining the rule of law while combating the threat of terrorism is the question of secrecy and transparency. In peacetime, important tenets to the rule of law include transparency of the law, limits on government power, and consistency of the law as applied to individuals in the policy. Yet the post-9/11 decision-making by the Bush and Obama administrations is characterized with excessive secrecy that stymies most efforts to hold the government accountable for its abuses. Executive branch policy with regard to detention, interrogation, targeted killing and surveillance are kept secret, …

Intellectual Property, Asian Philosophy And The Yin-Yang School, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

As an introduction to a special issue on intellectual property philosophy, this article focuses on insights from Asian thought. Such a focus is needed not only to provide balance within this special issue, which includes articles focusing primarily on Western philosophy, but also to highlight the compatibility between Asian philosophy and the notion of intellectual property rights. More importantly, this article aims to demonstrate that Asian philosophy may suggest new ways to address the ongoing and highly complex intellectual property challenges confronting emerging economies and the digital environment.

This article begins by providing a brief discussion of the many different …

All Over The Map: The Diversity Of Western Water Plans, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Bruce E. Cain, Iris Hui, Coral Abbott, Kaley Dodson, Shane Lebow

Faculty Scholarship

Water presents a complex challenge to western state governments. Water is scarcer in the West than in the East and western states face challenges unknown to eastern ones. The textual analysis of their state water planning summaries produced by the US Army Corps of Engineers between late 2008 and 2009 confirms the differences in their policy priorities. However, there is also a wide variance among western states’ policies as the diversity in their water plans show.

Water planning is a challenge not only because of the variability of the resource but also because water basins do not map our local, …

Transnationalizing Comparative Law, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Comparative law will not die in the 21st century, but nor can it remain unchanged. Comparative law as we have it today still retains its roots in 1900: it is focused on states, on positive law, and on a scientific approach. Comparative law in the age of transnationalism will have to transnationalize: it must move beyond the state, it must move beyond positive law, and it must endorse cultural approaches. We must retain our critique of legal nationalism, but we must add our critique of uncritical legal universalism.