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 …

The Life Of International Law Is Not Logic But Experience, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously maintained that ‘the life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.’ Holmes’ statement suggests an antecedent question: what is the life of the law? This article construes this question ontologically. What gives law life? What animates it, and in so doing warrants the claim that law contributes to the production of social order in a particular community? The answer, I contend, is that law lives, or exists, only in those societies where law rules, and law rules only when the exercise of political power is conducted under the supervision of …

Intellectual Property And Human Rights 2.0, Peter K. Yu

University of Richmond Law Review

Written in celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this article calls for greater methodological engagement to refine existing human rights approaches to intellectual property and to devise new approaches to advance the promotion and protection of human rights in the intellectual property area. This article begins by briefly recapturing the past two decades of scholarship on intellectual property and human rights. It documents the progress scholars have made in this intersectional area. The article then draws on the latest research on human rights methods and methodology to explore whether and how we can take …

"During War, The Law Is Silent," Or Is It?: Examining The Legal Status Of Guantanamo Bay, Kate Frisch

Law Student Publications

The use of Guantanamo Bay as an extraterritorial detention center intended to house what the United States deems as "unlawful enemy combatants" has been problematic for several reasons. First, the United States government has argued that Guantanamo exists outside of its immediate territorial sovereignty, and therefore the detainees do not have to be afforded any significant procedural and substantive legal protections under the Constitution. Second, it is unclear how and to what extent United States activities in Guantanamo Bay conform to international human rights standards. Significantly, it has been questioned whether or to what extent public international and human rights …

Remarks: Syria And The Arab Spring Symposium, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

Remarks on Syria and the Arab Spring given at the 2012 University of Baltimore Journal of International Law Symposium on the Arab Spring.

Which Law Governs During Armed Conflict? The Relationship Between International Humanitarian Law And Human Rights Law, Rebecca Crootof, Oona A. Hathaway, Philip Levitz, Haley Nix, William Perdue, Chelsea Purvis, Julia Spiegel

Law Faculty Publications

On May 31, 2010, in the early hours of the morning, Israeli Defense Forces boarded and occupied a flotilla of six vessels seventy-two nautical miles from the coast of Gaza. The flotilla carried food and other supplies to Gaza, which was under a naval blockade. During the incident, nine passengers were killed and several others wounded. In the aftermath, a key question that emerged was what body of law applied to the incident? Was it subject to human rights law, international humanitarian law, or some mix of the two?

This same question has been at the heart of ongoing debates …

International Myopia: Hamdan's Shortcut To "Victory", Michael W. Lewis

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Profitability Versus The Public Interest: Is International Patent Law Hindering Third World Countries Access To Hiv/Aids Medications, Karen Godnick

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Strong patent protection limits access to HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries where over five million people are in immediate need of these drugs. This comment summarizes the history of HIV/AIDS drugs and international patent law, how laws affect distribution of the drugs, and concludes by discussing public and private partnerships which could afford more access in developing countries.

Profitability Versus The Public Interest: Is International Patent Law Hindering Third World Countries Access To Hiv/Aids Medications, Karen Godnick

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Patent law has been described as "the Price of Life". This can most strikingly be seen when applied to developing countries' access to HIV/AIDS drugs. Since the explosion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980's, the disease referred to as the "Modern Black Death" has devastated large parts of populations in several developing countries. Because of several reasons, including strong patent protection advocated and implemented by developed countries through TRIPS and the resulting high price of medicines, these developing countries cannot afford the price of the HIV/AIDS drugs. The majority of medicines used to treat this disease are patented. As …

Coining Children's Blood Into Capital: Can Precepts Of International Law End Economic Exploitation Of Children, Valerie L 'Herrou

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ("UN Convention") states that parties to the convention must "recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development." Despite this well-intentioned document and several other treaties, conventions and protocols, millions of children around the world are subjected to varying degrees of economic exploitation, some in conditions that are akin to …

Coining Children's Blood Into Capital: Can Precepts Of International Law End Economic Exploitation Of Children, Valerie L 'Herrou

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ("UN Convention") states that parties to the convention must "recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development." Despite this well-intentioned document and several other treaties, conventions and protocols, millions of children around the world are subjected to varying degrees of economic exploitation, some in conditions that are akin to …

The Extradition Proceedings Against General Pinochet: A Case Study In The Emerging International System Of Criminal Justice, Lee _

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The ruling of the House of Lords that General Pinochet can be extradited to Spain to stand trial for crimes against humanity lends support to the emerging theory of universal jurisdiction for certain crimes under international law. The following discussion of the elements of General Pinochet's case will show that the international community, by and large, is willing to sacrifice some national sovereignty in order to eradicate torture and other human rights violations. It will do so through an elucidation of the concepts of jus cogens, international ethics, head of state immunity, human rights crimes, universal jurisdiction, and extradition.

The Extradition Proceedings Against General Pinochet: A Case Study In The Emerging International System Of Criminal Justice, Lee _

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The ruling of the House of Lords that General Pinochet can be extradited to Spain to stand trial for crimes against humanity lends support to the emerging theory of universal jurisdiction for certain crimes under international law. The following discussion of the elements of General Pinochet's case will show that the international community, by and large, is willing to sacrifice some national sovereignty in order to eradicate torture and other human rights violations. It will do so through an elucidation of the concepts of jus cogens, international ethics, head of state immunity, human rights crimes, universal jurisdiction, and extradition.

A Typology Of Transjudicial Communication, Anne-Marie Slaughter

University of Richmond Law Review

Courts are talking to one another all over the world. Mary Ann Glendon describes a "brisk international traffic in ideas about rights," conducted by judges. "In Europe generally," she adds, "and in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, national law is increasingly caught up in a process of cross-fertilization among legal systems."

Command Responsibility In The Former Yugoslavia: The Chances For Successful Prosecution, Christopher N. Crowe

University of Richmond Law Review

On 22 February 1993, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 808 calling for the establishment of an international tribunal for the prosecution of persons responsible for "serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of former Yugoslavia." The resolution also asked the Secretary-General to submit to the Security Council for consideration a report on aspects of the tribunal considering "suggestions put forward in this regard by Member states." In May, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali issued his report and proposed the Statute of the International Tribunal ("Statute"), designed to govern the tribunals establishment and operation.