International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Something Concrete: How Labor Advocates Can Best Respond To The Ambiguity Of Glacier Northwest, Ateş Serifsoy

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court’s much-anticipated decision in Glacier North-west, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local No. 174 (Glacier) marked a critical moment for workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the longstanding practice of Garmon preemption. Yet, initial fears of a significant rollback of workers’ rights, driven by sensational headlines, were met with an unexpectedly narrow Court opinion. This Comment examines Glacier’s implications for Gar-mon preemption and the right to strike. It offers the historical background of the doctrine of labor law preemption before Glacier; presents a detailed analysis of Glacier itself, including its …

A New Exclusionary Rule To Protect Bodily Integrity And Discourage Pretext Stops, Josephine Ross

Seattle University Law Review

The author proposes a novel state-level exclusionary rule to reduce racial profiling and protect bodily autonomy during police encounters. The current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence fails to deter pretextual stops and frisks because the exclusionary rule often turns on officer fault and "good faith," allowing racially motivated practices to go unchecked. As federal rollbacks on diversity and data collection hinder efforts to track racial bias, the author argues for a statutory evidentiary rule that automatically excludes drug evidence found during (1) traffic stops, (2) pat-downs for weapons, and (3) consent searches, regardless of an officer’s intent or the legality of the …

Navahine V. HawaiʻI Dept. Of Transportation: The Keiki Will Lead Us, Catherine Smith

Seattle University Law Review

The author analyzes the landmark case Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, which culminated in the world’s first constitutional climate settlement. Catherine Smith, serving as an expert for the youth plaintiffs, situates the case within Hawaiʻi’s legal tradition of prioritizing children’s rights and intergenerational equity. She explores the evolution of children’s constitutional protections, contrasting Hawaiʻi’s progressive jurisprudence with the dominant adult-centric legal framework on the mainland. She critiques four recurring analytical missteps in U.S. courts that marginalize children’s interests and highlights Hawaiʻi’s public trust doctrine and cultural values, such as the Aloha Spirit, as models for addressing climate-related harms. …

Constitutional Futurism As Pedagogy, Jeremiah Chin

Seattle University Law Review

Constitutional Law has transformed from a course on history to a discussion of current events. Cases like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo reveal that the study of constitutional law is not a static, or even linear, discussion of constitutional text and history. Law is a shifting, changing enterprise that reflects social constructions of power, authority, and identity. How do we teach, learn, and understand constitutional law that is so laden with history, riddled with theories of consistency and adherence to precedent, but ultimately subject …

Report Of The Special Rapporteur On The Implications For Human Rights Of The Environmentally Sound Management And Disposal Of Hazardous Substances And Wastes, Marcos Orellana - Military Activities And Toxics, Marcos Orellana

PEEL Faculty Scholarship

Implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes

Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the General Assembly the report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, Marcos Orellana, in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 54/10.

An Exhibition And Protest Of Executions In Iran, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

An exhibition and protest of executions in Iran was held in Washington, D.C. in June 2025. Portraits of 2000 men and women who were killed or executed in Iran since the 1980s were displayed on the National Mall in front of the Capitol. The Iranian Resistance estimates that 30,000 activists were massacred in one period in 1988. Executions of prisoners have continued steadily, making Iran the world’s leading executioner of men and women. In recent years, there has been a sharp escalation in the number of executions of prisoners. A United Nations Special Rapporteur reported that over 800 persons were …

The Historic Advisory Opinion On Palestine: An Overview Of Indonesia's Submissions And The Way Forward, Indra Rosandry, Aloysius Selwas Taborat, Kadek Denny Baskara Adiputra

Indonesian Journal of International Law

On 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered a historic ruling which declared that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is unlawful. While this historic Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences Arising from Israel’s Policies and Practices in the OPT, including East Jerusalem (Advisory Opinion) should be celebrated, much more needs to be done in order to fully realize the decisions contained therein. This article presents an overview of the Republic of Indonesia’s legal arguments submitted to the ICJ concerning the request for an Advisory Opinion. Indonesia, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, contends …

The Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court Over The Killing Of The Reporter Of Al-Jazeera Shereen Abu Aqleh, Rezeq Salmoodi, Mahmoud Al-Qarem, Ibrahim Khalid Yahya

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

This research dealt with the issue of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over the murder of the journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh in Jenin on Wednesday morning, May 11, 2022. In this regard, the research addressed the various and possible scenarios in the issue of criminal jurisdiction in both its formal and objective aspects in terms of overlap, parallelism and separation between national and international criminal jurisdiction as well as the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction on the case in question. All of this was derived from the research problem represented by the conflict of criminal jurisdiction in the case …

The Instrumentalization Of The Unprivileged Combatants By Western Countries Aimed To Oppress National Liberation Wars, Fares Mahmoud Def-Allah Abdelhamid

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is purported to be the humanization of wars. Nonetheless, the atrocities committed in wars and the war criminals’ impunity suggest the failure of IHL. Notwithstanding, some voices call for reforming and developing IHL. In contrast, this thesis argues that IHL should be rejected entirely since the distinction between privileged and unprivileged combatants indicates that IHL is biased against anti-colonizers. It is biased in three senses. Firstly, IHL, particularly the distinction between privileged and unprivileged combatants, is dominated by Western rationality, which can be noticed in the domination of the civilization concept with its …

A Tragedy Of Incommensurability: Indigenous Rights And The Limits Of Human Rights Law, Zeina Ali

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the tragedy of incommensurability between indigenous rights and international human rights law. Despite the emergence of frameworks like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), indigenous calls for sovereignty remain fundamentally unintelligible within a liberal order structured to preserve settler-state legitimacy. Tracing the historical and theoretical evolution of indigenous advocacy, this study critiques the strategic shift from demands for self-determination to claims of cultural rights. It argues that this shift offers no real alternative: self-determination and cultural rights are functionally equivalent, as both are ultimately filtered through legal and political frameworks that cannot …

Funding Repression: How The Eu Migration Agreements With Libya And Tunisia Circumvent Non-Refoulement And Enable Human Rights Violations, Emma Soltis

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2023, the European Union and Tunisia entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, which outlined cooperation between the parties on several issues, including migration and mobility. Consistent with the European Union’s broader externalization agenda, the Memorandum of Understanding primarily allocates monetary and technical support to Tunisia and its authorities for migration management. In particular, Tunisian authorities are enabled to patrol the coast and intercept migrants and refugees attempting to irregularly migrate from North Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. The European Union sponsored a similar Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Libya in 2017. Critics have widely denounced the …

The Special International Peace Zone: From History, Through Practice, Toward An End To Armed Conflict In Ukraine, Tom W. Bell

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This paper presents the special international peace zone as both an observed and ideal institution. Such a zone quells military conflict in an area over which sovereigns make conflicting territorial claims. It operates through an interim administration, governed by its own rules, independent of any single sovereign. Past examples include the Free City of Danzig (1920-39), the Free Territory of Trieste (1947-54), and United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (1999-2008). Despite proven successes, these zones have suffered from an undue reliance on multi-national organizations—first the League of Nations and now the United Nations. Warring sovereigns seldom agree about the …

Volume 15, Issue 1 - Full Issue, Notre Dame Journal Of International & Comparative Law Volume 15

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

International Abolitionist Advocacy: The Rise Of Global Networks To Advance Human Rights And The Promise Of The Worldwide Campaign To Abolish Capital Punishment, John D. Bessler

All Faculty Scholarship

The modern international human rights movement began with the U.N. Charter and the U.N. General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although the movement to abolish the death penalty is rooted in the Enlightenment, global advocacy to halt executions and to abolish capital punishment has accelerated exponentially in recent decades. This Article discusses the origins of global networks to advance human rights and highlights the growing international advocacy, including by nation-states and nongovernmental organizations ("NGOs"), for a worldwide moratorium on executions and to abolish capital punishment altogether. The total number of countries conducting executions in the past …

Prevention Of And Response To International Crimes Against And Affecting Children, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

This submission endeavoured to aid the efforts of Parliament’s Standing Group on Atrocity Crimes to promote within the United Kingdom a comprehensive framework regarding international crimes. The submission stressed that prevention is the preferred course: ex ante prevention avoids present harms, inter-generational traumas, and future risks of retaliatory violence, while ex post responses, in the form of criminal proceedings, are likely to be random and selective, not comprehensive. It urged that when harm does occur, responses must aim not only to exact retribution, but also to repair injuries, heal societies, and foster peaceful settlements of disputes. To these ends, the …

Human Rights Denied: Forced Evictions And Housing Injustice In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Francesco Seatzu

Pace International Law Review

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) grapples with a pervasive and alarming phenomenon of forced evictions orchestrated by multinational corporations operating within its cobalt and copper mining sites. This comprehensive inquiry, undertaken collaboratively by Amnesty International and the DRC-based Initiative for Good Governance and Human Rights, meticulously scrutinizes the multifaceted human rights implications emanating from four mining projects situated in the Kolwezi region of the DRC. The investigative report documents a troubling pattern of systematic disregard for the fundamental rights and dignity of affected populations, compounded by a stark failure on the part of mining operators to adhere to extant …

Forced Adoptions Of Ukrainian Children From An International Human Rights And Humanitarian Law Perspective, Ines Gillich

Pace International Law Review

The article analyzes the legality of the Russian practice of forced adoptions of Ukrainian children from an international human rights and humanitarian law perspective. It argues that while the relocation of children from conflict zones to safe areas is generally lawful under international law, these measures must only be temporary, and persons abducted must be returned as soon as possible. This article also argues that human rights obligations must be read in the light of international humanitarian law, which is the lex specialis applicable in armed conflicts. The article concludes that any permanent measures against the will of the children …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …

Caution: Potholes In E-Scooter Data Collection, Dakota Rakestraw

Seattle University Law Review

Lime scooters keep ending up in major waterways in Washington state metro areas, a testament to the ubiquity of e-scooters in the metropolitan landscape. How they get there is unclear. Why they get there is even murkier. Perhaps the answer lies in the implications of modern geolocation data collection through e-scooters and gaps in current data collection regulation curbing individual liberties.

Since September 2020, electric scooters have run Seattle’s streets and have dramatically overtaken ridesharing bike trips. For example, from September 2020 to September 2021, there were about 1.4 million scooter and bike trips with September 2021 seeing 300,000 scooter …

Machinists Preemption In The New Administrative Law, Andrew J. Ziaja

Seattle University Law Review

This Article assesses Machinists preemption—a labor-specific form of implied field preemption—while freshly considering implications both for and of new developments in administrative law. The radical transformation of administrative law in the Supreme Court, particularly its newfound emphasis on clear-statement rules, provides opportunities to reconsider the Machinists rationale. Aligning with scholars who have called to question the doctrine’s “ossifying” influence on labor and employment policy, it argues that the modern-day version of Machinists preemption clashes with the Supreme Court’s newly constrained view of delegated power and its differing conceptions of the major questions doctrine.

On the other hand, Machinists preemption might …

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

Contracted Wars, Compromised Oversight: Private Military Companies In Iraq, Afghanistan, And The Decline Of U.S. Accountability Standards, Brianna N. Buzzell

International Studies (MA) Theses

The Global War on Terror, beginning in 2001, started U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, facilitating the expansion of Private Military Contractors (PMCs) through a combination of operational necessity, strategic policy decisions, and systemic oversight failures. Despite their growing role, PMCs operate in legal and oversight grey zones. Despite a growing body of work on PMC accountability, there remains little agreement on how U.S. military interventions created conditions for their proliferation. This paper examines how U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan facilitated the expansion of PMC influence, resulting in reduced oversight and accountability for both the U.S. government …

Reframing Genocide, Anjali Mohan

Utah Law Review

Genocide has recently taken center stage in international affairs. Both Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine have accused one another of committing genocide or having genocidal aims, and each side has denounced allegations against themselves. The legal accuracy of these accusations depends, inter alia, upon whether the allegedly genocidal acts were committed with “intent to destroy,” as required by the Genocide Convention. Courts and commentators nearly all assume that the “intent to destroy” describes an individual’s internal mental state and the mens rea of the crime of genocide.

In this Article, I argue that this individualistic interpretation of genocide …

The World Cup As A Racial Rebuilt Project, Khaled A. Beydoun

Utah Law Review

Scholars, particularly Critical Race Theorists, have written trenchantly about the law’s role in racial formation. Yet, while instrumental in this process, the law does not stand alone as a conduit of making race. Particularly for misrepresented groups, like Arabs, who struggle to find existential self-determination between imperial identity impositions, ethnic cleansing, and clashing racial ascriptions, the law fails to create racial categories that reflect their lived realities.

Beyond the asymmetrical landscape of legal ordering, sport stands as a powerful site of racial formation. Sport is where racialization can unfold indigenously, rebelliously, and “from the bottom.” Particularly soccer, a game of …

The Effectiveness Of International Courts In Contributing To Rebuilding And Resolving Conflicts In Societies Post-Genocide, Garrett Connely

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In the aftermath of mass atrocities, international courts have emerged as key mechanisms for delivering justice and fostering post-conflict reconciliation. Rooted in the precedent set by the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, these institutions aim to prosecute crimes that often go beyond national legal systems. However, their effectiveness remains contested, largely due to their dependence on state cooperation and the complexity of post-conflict environments. This project examines the societal impact of international courts in two significant cases – Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Through a comparative analysis of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal …