Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Electronic Medical Records And The Challenge To Privacy: How The United States And Canada Are Responding, Elana Rivkin-Haas

UC Law SF International Law Review

The rapid and continual advances in electronic record keeping create new and challenging privacy concerns in a variety of contexts. This Note examines the particular privacy issues countries face as their health care systems move towards more centralized, electronic medical record keeping. Electronic medical records provide for the increased collection, availability, aggregation, and dissemination of medical data which can facilitate more effective care, but can also leave people vulnerable to having private information misused. This Note focuses on the current privacy law framework in the United States and Canada. It will then explore whether the legal standards in these countries …

Fragrant Or Foul? - Regulation Of The Global Perfume Industry And The Implications For American Sovereignty, Caroline M. Reebs

UC Law SF International Law Review

The regulation of fragranced personal care products is increasingly scrutinized in the United States. As the FDA's cosmetic product requirements are minimal, particularly when compared to those followed by food producers and drug manufacturers, consumer groups emphasize the negative health implications. Industry, on the other hand, maintains that fragrances are safe for use and are effectively monitored by international trade associations. Because the government plays a modest role in cosmetic regulation, an arbiter is needed.

This Note examines the above concerns in a comparative light. The European Union's Cosmetic Directive imposes more requirements on cosmetic manufacturers and maintains a lengthier …

Workplace Bullying As An Occupational Safety And Health Matter: A Comparative Analysis, Susan Harthill

UC Law SF International Law Review

Workers who are bullied at work suffer physically and mentally, and can even be driven to suicide. There ought to be a law against workplace bullying, and in some countries, there is. Despite a growing body of interdisciplinary work highlighting the prevalence and costs of workplace bullying in the United States, there are currently no U.S. state or federal laws expressly addressing the issue, despite the ground breaking work and legislative efforts of workplace bullying pioneers, David Yamada and Drs. Ruth and Gary Namie. The dismal fact for American workers is that the U.S. lags behind many other countries when …

Constitutional Rigidity In Kosovo: Significance, Outcomes, And Rationale, Fisnik Korenica, Dren Doli

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

This article discusses the issue of constitutional rigidity from the perspective of the Constitution of Kosovo.  At the outset, the article analyzes the amendment procedure within the Constitution and its nature in terms of the actors and procedures involved.  Next, the article questions the nature of constitutional rigidity in Kosovo and seeks to address the position of veto players.  Arguing that the Constitution of Kosovo is rather rigid, the article then questions the significance of constitutional rigidity in light of the model of separation of powers, human rights, and the Constitutional Court’s constitutional “updating” role.  The article concludes that constitutional …

Does Law Matter Online - Empirical Evidence On Privacy Law Compliance, Michael Birnhack, Niva Elkin-Koren

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Does law matter in the information environment? What can we learn from the experience of applying a particular legal regime to the online environment? Informational privacy (or to use the European term, data protection) provides an excellent illustration of the challenges faced by regulators who seek to secure user rights and shape online behavior. A comprehensive study of Israeli website compliance with information privacy regulation in 2003 and 2006 provides insights for understanding these challenges. The study examined the information privacy practices of 1360 active websites, determining the extent to which these sites comply with applicable legal requirements related to …

Judicial Independence At The Crossroads: Grappling With Ideology And History In The New Nepali Constitution, David Pimentel

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Case Of Colonel Abel, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In June 2010, journalists for the Associated Press reported the arrest of ten Russian spies, all suspected of being “deep-cover” illegal agents in the United States. Seeking to convey the magnitude of this event, the journalists wrote in the first paragraphs of their article that this “blockbuster series of arrests” might even be as significant as the FBI’s “famous capture of Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel in 1957 in New York.” Colonel Abel’s story of American justice at a time of acute anxiety about the nation’s security is one that continues to resonate today. The honor, and error, that is contained …

"Consumer Choice" Is Where We Are All Going - So Let's Go Together, Neil W. Averitt, Robert H. Lande, Paul Nihoul

All Faculty Scholarship

Globalisation of business makes it important for firms to predict how their behaviour is likely to be treated in the roughly 200 nations that have competition laws. In that context, a crucial question is: are we in a position to develop a common intellectual framework that would give coherence to policy statements made on specific competition related issues and, at the same time, be acceptable, broadly, in a variety of legal systems, not necessarily based on identical assumptions? We believe that the answer is “yes.” A concept is emerging as a possible source of unification for competition policies around the …

Comparing Regulatory Oversight Bodies Across The Atlantic: The Office Of Information And Regulatory Affairs In The Us And The Impact Assessment Board In The Eu, Jonathan B. Wiener, Alberto Alemanno

Faculty Scholarship

‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ asked the Roman poet Juvenal – ‘who will watch the watchers, who will guard the guardians?’ As legislative and regulatory processes around the globe progressively put greater emphasis on impact assessment and accountability, we ask: who oversees the regulators? Although regulation can often be necessary and beneficial, it can also impose its own costs. As a result, many governments have embraced, or are considering embracing, regulatory oversight--frequently relying on economic analysis as a tool of evaluation. We are especially interested in the emergence over the last four decades of a new set of institutional actors, the …

Harvesting Intellectual Property: Inspired Beginnings And 'Work-Makes-Work,' Two Stages In The Creative Processes Of Artists And Innovators, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is part of a larger empirical study based on face-to-face interviews with artists, scientists, engineers, their lawyers, agents, and business partners. The book-length project involves the collecting and analysis of stories from artists, scientists, and engineers about how and why they create and innovate. It also collects stories from their employers, business partners, managers, and lawyers about their role in facilitating the process of creating and innovating. The book’s aim is to make sense of the intersection between intellectual property law and creative and innovative activity, specifically to discern how intellectual property intervenes in the careers of the …

The Canadian Criminal Jury, Neil Vidmar, Regina Schuller

Faculty Scholarship

The Canadian criminal jury system has some unique characteristics. In contrast to American law, that gives precedent to free speech over fair trial, and English law, that favors fair trial over free speech, Canadian law occupies a middle ground balancing these competing values .Jury selection procedure in most trials is similar to that of England: jurors are assumed to be “impartial between the Queen and the accused” and are selected without a voir dire. However, in cases involving exceptional pretrial publicity or involving accused persons from racial or ethnic minority groups, jurors are vetted by a “challenge for cause” process …

Comparative Law, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Written for an encyclopedia on European private law, this brief
article addresses term, purposes, methods and development of
comparative law. Special attention is given to the role of comparative
law in European private law studies, European law-making and European
adjudication.

Property Rights In Land, Agricultural Capitalism, And The Relative Decline Of Pre-Industrial China, Taisu Zhang

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Post-Wto China Tax Law System Reform And The Rule Of Law: Progress And Prospects, Tianlong Hu

SJD Dissertations

A close examination of China's accession commitments reveals that effective economic reform and trade liberalization call for substantiations from a matching legal infrastructure reform. For example, taxpayers' rights protection should be viewed in terms of broader political and civil rights reform. Indeed, a number of the values featured in the WTO principles and the rule of law framework encourage China's further integration into both the global trade network and the international human rights regime. This is particularly evident in the Chinese tax law context. WTO principles and the rule of law requirements must be introduced and evaluated together in tax …

Different Cultures, Different Conflicts: Sex Discrimination Law And The United States And Japan, Reuel E. Schiller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comparative International Law, Ugo Mattei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Insular Minorities: International Law’S Challenge To Japan’S Ethnic Homogeneity, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

The Japanese state has long promoted a view of itself, and the country, as ethnically homogeneous. Borrowing on critical race theory as developed in the United States, this paper first traces the numerous laws and policies that Japan has implemented to privilege ethnically Japanese people, and prejudice ethnic others. Next, the paper examines the role of international human rights law in challenging various edifices of the ethno-state, including amendments to legislation, and individual lawsuits. I conclude that international law has played a meaningful role in diversifying the protective ambit of Japanese law, but cannot provide all of the solutions that …

Taking Stock: China's First Decade Of Free Trade, Jun Zhao, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

China has established itself as a global economic presence in the past ten years. This article explains one important but overlooked aspect of this rise, China’s newfound interest in free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper situates the FTA boom within a framework of international political economy and China’s recent regional rise. This paper probes the question of how China selects its FTA partners, referencing US trade practice and policy as a framework by which to analyze China’s own preferences. This paper then explores the main features of China’s FTAs, finding that it has adopted a flexible FTA strategy that attends …

Ambivalence & Activism: Employment Discrimination In China, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

Chinese courts do not vigorously enforce many human rights, but a recent string of employment discrimination lawsuits suggests that, given the appropriate conditions, advocacy strategies, signals from above, and rights at issue, courts can help victims vindicate their constitutional and statutory rights to equality. Since 28, carriers of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) have used the Employment Promotion Law to challenge hiring discrimination. Their high success rate suggests official support for making one potent form of discrimination illegal. Central to these lawsuits is a broad network of lawyers, activists and scholars who have advocated for protecting the rights of HBV …

Currency Of Love: Customary International Law And The Battle For Same-Sex Marriage In The United States, 14 U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change 53 (2011), Sonia Bychkov Green

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Leadership In International Criminal Law Is Shifting From The United States To Europe And Asia: An Analysis Of Spending On And Contributions To International Criminal Courts, 55 St. Louis U. L.J. 953 (2011), Stuart K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Scientific Productivity And Gender Performance Under Open And Proprietary Science Systems: The Case Of Chile In Recent Years, Bernadita Escobar Andrae

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Letting The Arbitrator Decide Unconscionability Challenges, 26 Ohio St. J. On Disp. Resol. 1 (2011), Karen H. Cross

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This article examines how courts are allocating jurisdictional questions relating to unconscionability to the arbitrator, and assesses the approach of U.S. courts to this issue from a historical and comparative perspective. The U.S. allocation rule is evolving toward one of deference to the arbitrator, allowing the arbitrator to make an initial determination of whether there is an enforceable agreement to arbitrate. As a matter of timing, the U.S. approach is becoming more similar to that of France. Such an approach, especially in the commercial sphere, has the potential to be relatively efficient and consistent. But in the context of mandatory …

Consumer Protection Initiatives In The Eu Mortgage Market: A Behavioral Economics Based Critique And Proposal, 25 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 1 (2011), Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Need For Originality: Music Infringement In India, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 169 (2011), Harini Ganesh

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

For decades, the Indian film industry has copied tunes from Western copyrighted works and created unauthorized derivatives. As the music and motion picture industries in the United States started taking notice of this copyright infringement, so too did Indian music directors as domestic infringers profited from copying. Despite the existence of an enacted copyright statute in India, and the nation’s membership with various international intellectual property treaties and conventions, enforcement continues to be poor. This lack of protection allows high-profile music directors in the Indian film industry to get away with copyright infringement. This comment proposes that India must improve …

International Arbitration Of Patent Disputes, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 384 (2011), Wei-Hua Wu

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This paper discusses the concept of using international arbitration as a method of resolving patent disputes. First, this paper examines the arbitrability of patent validity disputes from a public policy viewpoint. The question is whether, or to what extent, the subject matter of patent validity disputes may be settled by international commercial arbitration. Second, this paper provides suggestions on strategies for organizational decision-makers to consider whether it is proper to choose arbitration as a more favorable tool when confronted with a patent dispute. Finally, this paper discusses how to choose the seat of arbitral institution and the applicable law.

A Grotian Moment: Changes In The Legal Theory Of Statehood, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article examines the Grotian Moment theory and its practical application toward the legal theory of statehood. To that effect, this article describes, in Part II, the notion of a Grotian Moment. In Part III, it examines the legal theory of statehood in its traditional form. Part IV describes changes in the legal theory of statehood brought about by the forces of globalization in a Grotian Moment manner. These changes include a new notion of state sovereignty and the accompanying right to intervention, the emergence of human and minority rights that sometimes affect state territorial integrity, the existence of de …

Introduction, Robert Shawn Hogue

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Managing The Rule Of Law In The Americas: An Empirical Portrait Of The Effects Of 15 Years Of Wto, Mercosul, And Nafta Dispute Resolution On Civil Society In Latin America, Stephen Joseph Powell, Ludmilla Mendonça Lopes Ribeiro, Zachary D. Kaufman, Claudio Grossman, Patricia Camino

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Labor Rights And Environmental Protection Under Nafta And Other U.S. Free Trade Agreements, David A. Gantz, C. Ryan Reetz, Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez, Jan Paulsson

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.