Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

It’S Time To Turn On The Lights: The Necessary Steps For The Rural Electrification Of Sub-Saharan Africa, John Morris

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

While each country in Africa is in a different state of electrification, this Note focuses on the nations of Tanzania and Kenya. Comparatively, in the First World, power generation was a gradual and non-linear process that was slow to perfect. This Note argues that the lack of rural electrification in sub-Saharan Africa will continue without a confluence of investment, support, and regulation. Renewable energy sources (such as solar, wind, and geothermal) seem promising, but none are without their own limitations. The use of mini-grids will play an important role in electricity access for sub-Saharan Africa. This Note advocates that the …

Domestic Law Responses To Transnational Cyberattacks And Other Online Harms: Internet Dreams Turned To Internet Nightmares And Back Again, Clive Walker, Ummi Hani Binti Masood

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Since its utilization has become widespread, the potential of the Internet has often been overshadowed by the harms it’s capable of bringing upon society. Regulation has not yet properly addressed the harms presented to individuals’ cybersecurity and the U.K. has focused and set objectives at a national security level, while ignoring the effects of attacks on individual citizens. This Article considers whether it is possible to create a domestic legal response to transnational cyberattacks and the appropriateness of law to address the threats, as they exist. The law must be efficient, effective, and fair, which are all aims it may …

Neutrality In The Modern World: Internet Regulation's Impact On Economics And Society, Sarah Deagostino

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

In the United States, net neutrality laws prevented service providers from restricting open access to the Internet. In 2017, these laws were repealed and consumers became concerned that Internet providers would take advantage of them through blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. The trend in the United States, from the rise of the telephone and wire transfer to the rise of the Internet, was toward facilitating access to the Internet for all citizens. This is intended to result in economic advantages for the country, and aid in the development of broadband Internet. Open access to the Internet was regarded as providing …

The Necessity Of Human Rights Legal Protections In Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Reform, Christine Galvagna

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) reform is a transnational legal movement aimed at facilitating more rapid law enforcement access to cross-border data, while also preventing violations of state sovereignty through the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction over data. Efforts primarily focus on the United States (U.S.) mutual legal assistance (MLA) process, as it is exceedingly slow and convoluted, but also unavoidable, given that most major tech companies have their bases in the U.S. Recently proposed or enacted legal instruments include the U.S. CLOUD Act, the European Union’s (EU) e-Evidence proposal, Council of Europe’s forthcoming Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, …

Family Leave: Comparing The United States' Family And Medical Leave Act With Sweden's Parental Leave Policy, Mallory Campbell

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This Article focuses on parental leave in the United States, which mostly relies on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and compares it to parental leave policies in other countries, particularly Sweden. While the FMLA has many drawbacks, Sweden and other countries have robust and progressive leave plans that the United States should look to in amending the FMLA or adopting a new parental leave policy.

Letter From The Editor, Lara Thiele

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Opportunities And Challenges Seeking Accountability For War Crimes In Palestine Under The International Criminal Court's Complementarity Regime, Thomas Obel Hansen

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently conducting a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine, involving allegations against Israeli authorities and military personnel as well as what the Prosecutor refers to as “Palestinian armed groups.” The preliminary examination creates a framework for advancing accountability norms in the Palestinian context and globally for international crimes committed by States with significant resources. However, the road to accountability is anything but straightforward. Indeed, several challenges relating both to the applicable legal framework and broader policy issues, could delay—or potentially even undermine—the accountability process, if not properly understood and managed. One particularly important …

Protecting Internally Displaced Children In Armed Conflicts: Nigeria In Focus, Olaitan O. Olusegun Dr. (Mrs.), Adedokun Ogunfolu Dr.

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Internal displacement, especially of children, is a common consequence of armed conflict. Children who become internally displaced as a result of armed conflict face significant trauma due to their vulnerability, in addition to the fact that many of them lose their parents before being moved to internal displacement camps. Moreover, the conditions of some of these camps are not favorable and may affect children’s health and wellbeing. Internally displaced children therefore need protection and care by the national governments of affected countries, with support from the international community. However, Nigeria has not effectively protected children who have been displaced by …

Funding Mental Healthcare In The Wake Of Deinstitutionalization: How The United States And The United Kingdom Diverged In Mental Health Policy After Deinstitutionalization, And What We Can Learn From Their Differing Approaches To Funding Mental Healthcare, Catherine Ryan Gawron

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Deinstitutionalization was a mass movement away from institutional-focused mental healthcare in the mid-to-late twentieth century, which changed the dynamic of mental healthcare service provision in both the United States and United Kingdom. This Note analyzes the history and effects of deinstitutionalization on subsequent mental healthcare policy in those two nations, highlighting the key role of funding in shaping the success of mental health policy and programming.

The focus on mental healthcare funding structures provides a lens to analyze the differences in financial funding, resource allocation, infrastructure development of community-based or alternative care services, and government and social support of mental …

Masthead Volume 9

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

18 U.S.C. § 3553(A)’S Undervalued Sentencing Command: Providing A Federal Criminal Defendant With Rehabilitation, Training, And Treatment In “The Most Effective Manner”, Erica Zunkel

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The vast majority of federal criminal defendants are sentenced to prison, and non-incarceration sentences have become vanishingly small. During the sentencing process, federal district court judges are required to consider what sentence will provide the defendant with necessary rehabilitation and treatment in the most effective manner pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(d). Courts regularly undervalue, ignore, or even violate this statutory command. Some courts seem to believe that the Bureau of Prisons can provide adequate rehabilitation and treatment and do not explain how this squares with what the statute requires. Other courts barely engage with the issue. Only a minority …

A Catholic Response To Global Climate Change Migration, Michael S. Talbot

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This Article examines Catholic Social Teaching’s approach to the challenges of human migration and environmental refugees. By juxtaposing the inadequacies of current international frameworks for protecting environmental migrants with previous sources of Catholic Social Teaching, this Article speculates on the possible moral argument to be made by the Church in support of efforts to fill a gap in the international legal framework around climate change induced migration. Ultimately, the Paper speculates that such an argument would include three components: (1) a broadening of the definition of refugee, (2) a recognition of our interconnected and interdependent lives, and (3) the expectation …

The Right-To-Work For Rohingya In Thailand, Lara Thiele

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The world finds itself currently in the biggest refugee crisis in history. Many individuals have to leave their home country and escape to a new home, hoping to remain there and begin a productive and dignified life. The stateless Rohingya are a group that has been part of this migratory movement due to the group’s maltreatment in Myanmar. Many Rohingya have gone to Thailand, where they have remained for over twenty years, without the permission to work or remain in the country lawfully. In fact, the current Thai laws neglect to allow for the Rohingya to remain lawfully in Thailand …

Masthead Volume 9

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Employee Right To Disconnect, Paul M. Secunda

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

U.S. workers are increasingly finding it difficult to escape from work. Through their smartphones, e-mail, and social media, work tethers them to their workstations well after the work day has ended. Whether at home or in transit, employers are asking or requiring employees to complete assignments, tasks, and projects outside of working hours. This practice has a profound detrimental impact on employee privacy and autonomy, safety and health, productivity and compensation, and rest and leisure. France and Germany have responded to this emerging workplace issue by taking different legal approaches to providing their employees a right to disconnect from the …

Remedies For Victims Of Human Trafficking Under The Palermo Protocol And United Nations Basic Principles: A Case Study Analysis, Josephine A. Suchecki

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Human trafficking is a phenomenon that is happening right under our noses, yet does not receive the recognition nor publicity necessary to combat this human rights crisis. The Palermo Protocol and the United Nations Basic Principles have been implemented on an international level to solve these issues, but with varied success. The Palermo Protocol was created to apply to the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of the offenses established in article 5 of the Protocol. The Basic Principles from A/HRC/26/18 highlight the fact that effective remedies are not often accessible to victims of trafficking, as there are gaps between enactment and …

Right To A Healthy Prison Environment: Health Care In Custody Under The Prism Of Torture, Juan E. Méndez

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Deprivation of adequate health care — including preventive and remedial therapies — violates State obligations under domestic and international law. Because it deprived inmates of a fundamental right it is appropriate to analyze the scope of that obligation under norms of international law that are binding as treaty law or as customary international law. Recent developments in international standards illuminate the scope of the State’s obligations to provide health care to persons deprived of liberty. Salient among those recent developments in the normative framework is the most recent version of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, …

Letter From The Editor, Lara Thiele

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editer, Annie Bach Yen Nguyen

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The Notre Dame Journal of International and Comparative Law, Volume 8, Issue 2 (2018).

Masthead Volume 8

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The European Union, The Member States, And The Lex Mercatoria, Gabriella Saputelli

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The phenomena linked to the "internationalization" and "globalization" of the economy prompt the demand for uniform legal frameworks in supranational governance and encourage forms of “self-regulation”. This spontaneous attempt at harmonizing law at the supranational level is often prepared by market forces and comes to add to the classical legal models while leading to the emergence of a new lex mercatoria.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the openings of the European system to the transnational production of law identified under the term "new lex mercatoria" by verifying all the factors that allow its sources of law to …

Increasing International Legal Protections For Freedom Of Expression, Alan Wehbé

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The international community seems to largely agree on the fundamental nature of the freedom of expression. Even countries that do not seem, in practice, to respect the freedom of expression still tend to ratify, sign, or be party to international instruments to that end. This duality tends to simplify the legal argument, but complicate the actual practice for promoting freedom of expression worldwide. For those who agree that the United States is a leader in international affairs, shift towards a more definitive State practice reinforcing the freedom of expression is an easy sell. For those who dispute whether the United …

The Blessing Of Talent And The Curse Of Poverty: Rectifying Copyright Law's Implementation Of Authors' Material Interests In International Human Rights Law, Saleh Al-Sharieh

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) grants authors the right to the protection of the material interests resulting from their intellectual works. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights interpreted these interests to comprise the ability to achieve an adequate standard of living (as a minimum). This paper argues that copyright law provides a useful yet incomplete model for the protection of authors’ material interests. Copyright creates the legal environment necessary for establishing a market for intellectual works but does not guarantee its benefits to authors. Therefore, States Parties to the ICESCR should …

Refugees In The European Union: The Harsh Reality Of The Dublin Regulation, Lana Maani

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The refugee crisis is a highly contested and controversial issue. The world, and specifically Europe, has seen a rapid increase in the number of refugees applying for asylum. In fact, the European Union (“EU”) has received well over one million refugees: the highest number of refugees since the Second World War. The crisis is testing the EU’s main building blocks, including, most importantly, its Member States’ notion of an ever-closer union. Some Member States have been more responsive to the crisis than others. For example, Germany is the highest refugee hosting country in the EU. On the other hand, Hungary …

Combating Statelessness In The Wake Of The Syrian Conflict: A Right Without A Remedy, Tim Schultz

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

In the wake of the Syrian Civil War, millions of persons have been displaced from their homes. As desperate families flee zones of conflict, they leave all but their most precious belongings behind, in search of safety in neighboring countries. The path to safety and security, however, is a dangerous one. Displaced persons must traverse national borders, military checkpoints, and journey great distances to find safe haven. Unfortunately, Syrian families often do not carry identification documents to establish a legal recognition of their nationality in foreign lands. Consequently, this population of refugees is left vulnerable to the ugly reality of …

The Need For A Supranational Organization In Foreign Investment, David M. Howard

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

While the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) does not regulate the field of foreign investment, the WTO has tried to negotiate multilateral rules on foreign investment in the past, and there are other current international agreements that contain investment provisions designed to regulate foreign investment. Even though the previous multilateral investment agreement negotiations did not come to fruition, some scholars still believe there are several practical reasons for the WTO to regulate investment. Most significantly, trade and investment are strongly linked in our globalizing world and both are complements one another, with an increase in one corresponding to an increase in …

The Paris Agreement: Its Role In International Law And American Jurisprudence, Kayla Clark

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The Paris Agreement is the most articulate and influential international legal agreement on climate change to date. However, despite record breaking levels of international participation, the future of the Agreement remains uncertain. United States President Donald Trump's decision to remain a part of the international community's efforts on climate change has the potential to affect the scope and scale of this acclaimed treaty. In this note, I discuss the development of the Paris agreement as compared to the Kyoto Protocol, and how its construction promises to facilitate successful implementation. Additionally, given the United States' prominent international role, I discuss the …

Letter From The Editor, Annie Bach Yen Nguyen

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The Notre Dame Journal of International and Comparative Law, Volume 8, Issue 1 (2018).

Amateur Vs. Professional In Cold War Hockey: A Consideration Of Relative Skill Levels And Their Implications For Professional Hockey Today, John Soares

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Americans who follow sports often consider amateur sport inferior, by definition, to the skill level of professionals. This article argues that during the 1970s and 1980s, new competitions between amateur (mainly Soviet and Czechoslovakian) and professional (mostly Canadian and American) hockey teams demonstrated that the amateur game could be as skilled –or even more so – than the professional counterpart. The article considers the problematic nature of “amateurism,” international rules changes that made possible the new amateur-vs.-professional competitions, and the results of some of these Cold War confrontations. It concludes with consideration of the relative merits of styles of play …

Masthead Volume 8

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.