International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Reparations For Civilian Victims In Ukraine And Gaza: Legal Frameworks, Normative Debates, And Implementation, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

Reparations for the victims of armed conflict and mass human rights violations are a cornerstone of international law. Yet, as recent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza illustrate well, reparations remain a difficult subject and raise important questions regarding the scope of State responsibility, the rights of individual victims, and the availability of appropriate mechanisms for adjudicating claims. [...]

International Claims Commissions As Reparations, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

Breaches of international law have consequences. Under the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, the international responsibility of a state triggered by its internationally wrongful acts entails specific legal consequences, including the obligation to provide“full reparation” for the injury caused. However, obtaining reparations in the current international legal system often proves difficult. Existing international courts and tribunals often lack the jurisdiction to provide full reparations, especially when there are multiple and complex violations that caused injuries to numerous and diverse parties. International claims commissions can be effective instruments to provide reparations in such circumstances, including in …

Book Review, Rumyana Van Ark Et Al., Children’S Rights, ‘Foreign Fighters’, Counter-Terrorism: Children Of Nowhere (2024), Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

The focus of Children’s Rights, ‘Foreign Fighters’, Counter-Terrorism: Children of Nowhere is on foreign fighters who join terrorist groups, ISIS, and other entities engaged in armed conflict in Syria and Iraq. Counterterrorism measures, and the threats of terrorist attacks, have triggered a degradation and distortion of law. I have noted this following the 9/11 attacks and the concomitant refusal to treat children associated with terrorist groups as protected child soldiers. Whereas child soldiers in distant African conflicts are largely seen in the centers of global power as ‘faultless, passive victims’ of a pathological society, child terrorists taken as disruptive of …

Crafting An Exception To The Principle Of Non-Intervention To End Military Coups, Ronnie R. Gipson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Oftentimes, when a foreign state refuses to get involved when another country is subjected to a military coup, the foreign state uses the principle of non-intervention as the reason for inaction. The principle of non-intervention in those instances takes on the role of becoming a shield against preserving or protecting human rights. Specifically, in Myanmar, the principle of non-intervention is being used as a weapon by the military junta, allowing it to strengthen its grip on the levers of power and crush any fledgling opposition to its rule with unimaginable cruelty and violence. This article advances the premise that a …

The Transnationalisation Of Civil Society In East Asia’S War Redress Movement, Timothy Webster

Faculty Scholarship

Transnational human rights litigation is commonly associated with developments in Europe and the Americas during the 1990s. But Asian actors have used legal mobilisation to hold corporate actors to account since at least the 1970s. This chapter charts the first usages of transnational litigation in East Asia’s Word War II redress movement, akin to the Holocaust Restitution movement of the West. Korean and Chinese forced labourers liaised with Japanese attorneys, activists and academics to press compensation claims against Japanese corporations for wartime human rights abuses in Tokyo. Legal mobilisation did not succeed in the traditional sense. Yet, the formation of …

But For Borders: The Protection Gap For Internally Displaced Persons, Anita Sinha

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Internal displacement, the phenomenon of people who are dislocated from their homes but remain within the border of their countries of origin, was once a forced migratory occurrence interchangeable with cross-border migration. This changed after the Second World War with the promulgation of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was premised on an insistence on drawing a legal line in the sand based on which side of a border displacement transpires upon. Internally displaced persons (IDPs)-both in recent history and in the projected future-far outnumber people displaced across borders. Both rhetorical maneuverings and traditional international legal …

Synthetic Media As A Risk Factor For Genocide, Fatemah Albader

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning has introduced synthetic media—AI-generated images and videos—as a transformative tool in international law. While these technologies can enhance documentation, advocacy, and awareness in conflict zones, they also pose serious risks when misused to incite violence or genocide. This Article explores the dual nature of synthetic media, focusing on its capacity to inflame ethnic tensions, spread disinformation, and manipulate public perception in ways that can catalyze mass atrocities. Drawing on historical examples and recent events, it highlights how synthetic media can function as a risk factor for genocide, especially in volatile environments, and …

But For Borders: The Protection Gap For Internally Displaced Persons, Anita Sinha

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Internal displacement, encapsulating the phenomenon of people who are dislocated from their homes but remain within the border of their countries of origin, was once a forced migratory occurrence interchangeable with cross-border migration. This changed after the Second World War with the promulgation of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was premised on an insistence of making a legal line in the sand based on which side of a border displacement ultimately transpires. Internally displaced persons (IDPs)—in recent history, presently, and in the projected future—far outpace the number of people displaced outside the border of their …

It’S Not Too Late For States Parties To Fulfill The Promise Of The International Criminal Court: Three Actions They Should Take Now, Leila Nadya Sadat

Scholarship@WashULaw

What to do about a world in which atrocity crimes appear to be occurring with increasing and alarming frequency? Wars are prosecuted using scorched earth tactics that involve the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, credible allegations of genocide have been leveled at States in several corners of the globe, and acts and wars of aggression, which will be the subject of discussion at the upcoming International Criminal Court (ICC) Review in July, are on the rise.

The United Nations and other international institutions seem powerless to prevent or contain the violence, and the ICC, which was created …

The Click-And-Commit World Order, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay explores the rise of a new model of global governance: the “click-and-commit world order,” characterized by digitally mediated pledging platforms through which a wide array of actors—states, corporations, cities, NGOs, and individuals—publicly commit to addressing global problems through non-binding promises. In contrast to traditional treaty-making, these pledging platforms offer a decentralized, voluntary framework for international cooperation that relies on public declarations rather than negotiated obligations.

Within the U.N. system, this mode of governance developed within the United Nations Global Compact and the Paris Climate Agreement, where bottom-up pledges were institutionalized within formal and informal international structures. The internet …

Worker Protection Or Commercial Facilitation: The British Empire, Labor Governance And The Gradual Invisibilization Of Labor Coercion During The Age Of High Imperialism, Christopher Roberts, Michelle Ong

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

This article considers labor governance and coercive labor practices in the British Empire between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, it focuses its attention on several major commissions of inquiry undertaken around the British Empire in the period, as well as reforms that took place alongside those inquiries. In part, the article concludes these reforms were motivated by protective purposes, demonstrating some degree of genuine concern with workers’ well-being. More significantly, however, it finds these reforms were motivated by British imperial desire to ensure stable labor supplies, enhance the legitimacy of the British Empire, and establish more …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

The Dangerous Rise Of Dual-Use Objects In War, Oona A. Hathaway, Azmat Khan, Mara R. Revkin

Faculty Scholarship

Each day, the news brings stories of military attacks on schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, electrical facilities, and other critical civilian infrastructure. The militaries attacking these objects often seek to justify the attacks by claiming that the civilian objects are being used by militants. Objects that are believed to have both military and civilian use are often referred to as “dual-use” objects. Even though the term has become common, international law does not recognize a “dual-use” object as a legally meaningful category. Rather, the postwar Geneva Conventions that lie at the core of modern international humanitarian law establish a bright line …

The Geopolitics Of Group Referrals To The International Criminal Court And Its Implications On The Court's Legitimacy And Credibility, Dr. Destaw A. Yigzaw

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Under the Rome Statute, situations are referred to the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “Court”) either by a state party or the Security Council. In recent years, however, referrals from both sources have become difficult to come by. Instead, there is an evolving practice of referrals by a coalition of third states parties (“group referrals”). Yet, a group referral as a trigger mechanism does not have an explicit textual basis under the Rome Statute (“Statute” or “ICC Statute”). There is no rationale for it either, since a referral by a single state party is all that is needed to trigger …

Sliding Into Safety: Why Formal United Nations Or United States Sanctions Or Action Would Help Major League Baseball Curb Human Smuggling And Trafficking Issues, Maxwell Russ

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Every year when the baseball season ends and the offseason begins, professional teams’ front offices go searching for the best available players. Often, incredibly talented baseball players can be found across the world and today, Major League Baseball (MLB) players come from across the globe. Yet, despite the global outreach of MLB, the process by which teams are allowed to search for, recruit, and sign foreign-born players remains largely unregulated by the league itself. For years, stories of players from foreign countries being subjected to shady and unethical practices have begun to surface. This dark side of baseball was even …

How Sovereign Wealth Investment May Fail To Enter The United States Sports Market: Investigating The Governance Restricting Sportswashing, Zachary J. Braverman

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In recent years, the world of sports has been disrupted by foreign nations engaging in human rights violations, masking their wrongdoings through sport-related investments. This practice, referred to as “sportswashing,” has negative impacts on both the sports industry at large and the individual victims whose suffering is perpetuated. Currently, there is no direct legislation preventing foreign investors from taking over sports franchises in the United States. However, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the United Nations, and sports leagues’ private regulations, each provide means to resist sportswashing. This Note analyzes the problem of sportswashing, the existing framework …

Violations Of Human Rights And Available Remedies Under International Law: The Case Of The United Arab Emirates (Uae), Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr), Cardozo International Law Society (Cils)

2024–2025 Flyers

No abstract provided.

Empowering Ukraine’S First Legal Responders: Ukrainian-Us Collaboration And Clinics, Susan Felstiner, Davida Finger, Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin, Maria Tsypiashchuck

Articles

At the onset of the full-scale Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, U.S. law clinic professors worked alongside the leadership of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine. The mutual objective was to support Ukrainian law professors and facilitate the continued legal education of their students, particularly the acquisition of skills typically taught in law clinics. Ultimately, the online partnership that developed focused on skills training and included seven Ukrainian law schools, faculty from over six U.S. law schools and one private law firm, and USAID Justice for All Activity in Ukraine. The overall goals of this collaboration were to …

Financial Footprint Of Human Trafficking, Cardozo International Law Society (Cils), Business Law Society, Barry Koch

2024–2025 Flyers

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Geospatial Imagery In Myanmar For Mass Atrocity Prevention, Elisenda Calvet-Martínez

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper aims to explore to what extent the usage of geospatial imagery can serve as a tool for atrocity prevention in a context of armed conflict and post-conflict. While most attention has been paid to the use of geospatial imagery to document mass atrocities for advocacy and accountability purposes, less attention has attracted the potential of this technology as a preventive tool. In the case of Myanmar, a special interest is on how to advance in the use of geospatial imagery to guarantee the safe return of the Rohingya refugees and how to prevent acts of genocide after the …

Does Black-Letter Law Matter In Labor Rights Protection In China? - A Tale Of Two Cities, Peter Chi Hin Chan

Washington International Law Journal

This article discusses the role of black-letter law in labor protection in China in cases where employers dismiss employees on the grounds of serious breaches of internal regulations. This article presents an empirical analysis of the judicial practice of two of China’s economically developed cities, Suzhou and Wuxi. Suzhou employers have to give employees the opportunity to be heard prior to dismissal, while Wuxi does not provide that opportunity. First, this article introduces the Chinese labor legislation system, the dismissal system, and the two cities’ local labor regulations. Second, the article will analyze and discuss 140 cases from Suzhou and …