Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Reducing Malapportionment In Japan's Electoral Districts: The Supreme Court Must Act, William Somers Bailey

Washington International Law Journal

Japan's Constitution does not expressly mandate periodic census and reapportionment of electoral districts. The Election Law only suggests reapportionment. Consequently, rapid population shifts in postwar Japan created endemic voter imbalances. The Japanese Supreme Court has made some attempts to prod the national parliament to take ameliorative action, but the result has always been "too little, too late." Nevertheless, the evidence shows that the parliament does heed the Court's decisions. This Comment urges the Court to tighten the three to one ratio it has developed for allowable voter imbalances to two to one or better, and to abandon doctrines like the …

What Price Peace: From Nuremberg To Bosnia To The Nobel Peace Prize, Malvina Halberstam

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

In the fifty years that have elapsed since the Nuremberg Trials, we have made tremendous progress in the development of human rights.

Low-Intensity Conflict And The Law, L. C. Green

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The term low-intensity conflict is relatively new in military and political language and is employed more or less synonymously with noninternational conflict, especially when such a conflict becomes of international concern.

Asil International Law Weekend: Panel On Internal Conflicts, Michael J. Matheson

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

As John Crook has pointed out, most of the armed conflicts of recent years have been internal rather than international, and most of the suffering of the civilian population has occurred in these internal conflicts

Who's Afraid Of The Croc: Objections To The Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Alison Dundes Rentein

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The painfully slow process of securing the United States ratification of human rights treaties is a well established part of American history.

The Role Of N.G.O.S In U.S. Ratification Of Human Rights Treaties, Jeffery Huffines

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The United States has been ambivalent in its attitude toward the United Nations and toward human rights in particular. On the one hand United States legal experts have been instrumental in helping to craft the United Nations Covenants and Conventions.

The New Dynamics Of Self-Determination, Valerie Epps

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The term self-determination still teeters on the borders of evolving legal precept, expression of political will, and universal human aspiration. The concept never quite settles down into a black letter law pronouncement or a clearly understood political dynamic.

Universality Of Human Rights: The Case Of The Death Penalty, Christina M. Cerna

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

THE ISSUE OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Forty-five years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the international community met in Vienna to elaborate the human rights agenda for the next twenty-five years.

International Humanitarian Law After Bosnia, Jean-Philippe Lavoyer

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

To start, I would like to thank Professor Paust for inviting the International Committee of the Red Cross (I.C.R.C.) to participate in this panel. Its subject is indeed closely linked to the I.C.R.C.

Protection Of Internally Displaced Persons In Internal Conflicts, Luke T. Lee

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

There are some thirty million internally displaced persons (IDPs) today as compared to fifteen million refugees. The root causes generating refugees and IDPs are essentially the same: armed conflicts and human rights abuses. While refugees are protected by a number of international treaties and organizations, and are enjoying comparative safety in countries of asylum or resettlement, IDPs are not - supposedly on the ground that since IDPs are within their own country, their government should be responsible for their protection.

International Criminal Law And The Cambodian Killing Fields, Diane F. Orentlicher

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

I have been asked to discuss various models that might be available to address crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge during its murderous reign in the 1970s.

Must Russia Return The Artwork Stolen From Germany During World War Ii?, Steven Costello

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

In February 1995, the Pushkin museum in Moscow exhibited sixty three paintings, including paintings from German private and museum collections prior to World War II.1 One month later, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg exhibited seventy-four paintings, of which almost all were owned by the German government or its citizens before the war.

Why Are U.S. Lawyers Not Learning From Comparative Law?, Ernst C. Stiefel, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Address the problem of comparative law in the United States. Explains why comparative law matters. Gives reasons why U.S. lawyers are not learning from comparative law. These include lack of skills, lack of institutional supports, and legal structures that resist comparative law and an attitude that comparative law has little to teach.

American And Australian Constitutions: Continuing Adventures In Comparative Constitutional Law, 30 J. Marshall L. Rev. 627 (1997), James A. Thomson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Establishing A Distribution System In The European Union: Selected Sources, 23 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 927 (1997), Anne Abramson

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Helms-Burton Act And Transnational Legal Process, William S. Dodge

UC Law SF International Law Review

Since its April 1996 passage, the Helms-Burton Act has raised the controversial issue of prescriptive jurisdiction over foreign companies through domestic legislation. The Act has two stated purposes: first, to speed the replacement of the Castro regime with a democratic government in Cuba; and second, to protect the rights of U.S. nationals whose property was expropriated by the Cuban government. Titles I and II address the first stated goal by implementing certain restrictions on the executive office in its relations with and regarding Cuba. Titles IMI and IV address the second stated goal. Title III, in particular, garners the most …

Language Of Lullabies: The Russification And De-Russification Of The Baltic States, 19 Mich. J. Int'l L. 219 (1997), Sonia Bychkov Green

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Hearsay Evidence: A Comparison Of Two Jurisdictions: United States And Nigeria, Lawrence Okechukwu Azubuike

LLM Theses and Essays

Many jurisdictions have detailed rules of evidence which regulate the facts that are admissible in court. The hearsay rule is one such rule which excludes certain evidence. The hearsay rule has roots in an old common law principle and is featured in many jurisdictions today, but has endured heavy criticisms over time. This paper examines the application of the hearsay rule in the United States and in Nigeria. Both are common law countries, however, the United States’ legal system is more advanced than that of Nigeria. This comparison aims to inform and assist current reform efforts in Nigeria.

International Human Rights Standards On Sexual Violence Against Women As They Apply To Pornography, Claudia Giunta

LLM Theses and Essays

The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing in September 1995, and represented an important step towards the achievement of equality for women. At the Conference, the progress made towards equality was acknowledged, but it was also acknowledged that many goals have not been achieved yet, and that cultural changes of fundamental importance remain to be made. Indeed, in many countries the cultural approach to violence and discrimination against women is quite fatalistic; they believe violence against women cannot be solved by laws. However, this approach overlooks the role played by societies in tolerating practices of …

Double Taxation - Treatment Of Corporate Earnings Under American And German Law, Roland Schmidt

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis is going to describe the different ways the United States and Germany deal with the problem of double taxation in the legal context of corporate distributions to its shareholders in the form of dividends. Tax law is particularly one of the areas of laws that are subject to frequent and often substantial changes. This is true for the German as well as for the U.S. tax laws. Since some of the issues being discussed in the United States today in connection with the corporate tax law are similar if not identical to the issues discussed in Germany before …

Developing A National Coastal Zone Management Program For Venezuela, Marisol Salazar

LLM Theses and Essays

The primary focus of this study is to develop a National Coastal Zone Management Program for Venezuela, a moderate, comprehensive, and an effective long-term program which allows the development and protection of the Venezuelan Coastal Zone now and in the future. This program must comply with the actual Venezuelan environmental laws and its administrative mechanisms. Also, it must help to control ecological, economic, commercial, social, and human pressures on the Venezuelan coastal area. The design of this project will be based on an analysis of the extensive experience of the U.S.A. coastal states under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA); …

Legal Aspect And Problems In International American Franchise Transaction In Indonesia, Veronika

LLM Theses and Essays

The Republic of Indonesia, a country in Southeast Asia, faced serious economic problems in 1966, the total debt was (U.S.) $2.3 billion and exceeded export earnings. The government encourages the private sector to take part in this economic development since the government itself faced a scarcity of fund. The government has tried to attract private investment either domestic or foreign investor by launching the deregulation program. The purpose of this thesis is to make an argument that Indonesian franchises need protection and that it is time now for the legislative body in Indonesia to enact a franchise law. The study …

An American Lawyer's Reflections On Pepper V. Hart, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Pepper v. Hart gave American lawyers a number of insights into the English law of statutory interpretation. For example, English law as described by the case was not as tidy as had been thought. To be sure, the case does state what Americans had believed was true about English law: “[u]nder present law, there is a general rule that references to parliamentary material as an aid to statutory construction is not permissible (the exclusionary rule).” Notwithstanding that rule, however, Pepper recognized that the rule of exclusion had an important and long-standing exception. This exception applies when the legislative materials identify …

Protection Of Famous Trademarks In Japan And The United States, Kenneth L. Port

Faculty Scholarship

The concepts of trademark jurisprudence in Japan and the United States differ drastically. This difference is apparent in many aspects of trademark protection in both countries and is most evident in the treatment of famous marks. Although Japan and the United States share elements of trademark law that cause some observers to claim that Japan is legally the fifty-first State, the conceptual differences at the foundation of trademark law in each country are so significant that such a claim seems inaccurate and misleading.

A Country Within A Country: Redrawing Borders On The Post-Colonial Sovereign State, Suzan Dionne Balz

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Essay seeks to identify the conflict that exists between the demands for self-governance by Canada's First Nations and the interests of the Canadian state. The author elucidates this conflict by identifying two major differences between the perspectives of Canada's First Nations' demands for self-governance and the interests of the Canadian state: the privileging of the collective versus the privileging of the individual, and the two very different notions of "territory." The author concludes that the doctrine of sovereign statehood as developed out of European Nationalism stands as an obstacle to the self-determination of non-western peoples such as the First …

Cultivating A Seedling Charter: South Africa's Court Grows Its Constitution, Margaret A. Burnham

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

As South Africa emerges from the vestiges of apartheid, its Constitutional Court struggles to develop a jurisprudence that reflects the lasting ideals of a constitutional democracy. This Article examines the Court's use of international and foreign law in developing a unique form of constitutional jurisprudence. It argues that the Constitutional Court is in the process of developing an innovative form of decision-making that effectively combines domestically derived principles of justice with those developed in the international forum. This Article concludes that reliable methods of adjudication are firmly entrenched in the South African legal system and that its constitutional jurisprudence should …

Watching The Watchdog: Security Oversight Law In The New South Africa, Christopher A. Ford

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article attempts to assess the experiences of post-apartheid South Africa in the realm of national security law by examining key issues from constitutional, statutory, and policy perspectives. It observes that South Africans now have a great "window of opportunity" that allows them to establish the habits and mores necessary to a working security oversight regime, and argues that the way in which South Africa strikes a balance between the requirements of national security and the preservation of personal liberties is of enormous importance to the Republic's future. It further contends that South Africa's choices in this arena could have …

The Fallacy Of Neutrality: Diary Of An Election Observer, Jeanne M. Woods

Michigan Journal of International Law

Neutrality is one of many conceptual fictions of liberal discourse. A legal fiction is "contrived by the law" to facilitate adjudication of issues. Such fictions may serve as symbols, to make abstract concepts tangible or, they may be myths designed to promote some normative principle or goal. The problem arises when these fictions cease to be recognized as inventions, or as "presumptions about reality," and are believed to have an independent existence in reality. Then, they "purport to provide us with an objective and impersonal criterion, but they do not." According to the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, a fiction is "a …

Language Of Lullabies: The Russification And De-Russification Of The Baltic States, Sonia Bychkov Green

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article argues that the laws for promotion of the national languages are a legitimate means for the Baltic states to establish their cultural independence from Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Don't Ride Buses In Honduras, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The first indication my trip to Honduras might be eventful came when our airplane divebombed the mountain-top runway in a landing that left the passengers looking at each other with relief. We stumbled from the American Airlines flights to the customs windows. That was just the beginning of a fascinating week.