International Law Commons^™

The Field Of International Business Transactions Law, Kathleen Claussen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article studies the evolution of the scholarly subfield referred to as the law of “international business transactions” (IBT). It reviews data on academic articles, courses, textbooks and other signifiers of the growth of this research area. Beginning around 1960, scholars began to use the term “international business transactions” and by the 1980s, several law schools were offering a course by that title. A handful of dedicated textbooks soon followed. These data reflect a gradual increase in research on the topic of IBT, particularly in the United States, but also considerable diversity of subject matters covered by those works. The …

Kim Gyeong-Seok And The Origins Of Northeast Asia’S Corporate Accountability Movement For War And Colonialism, Timothy Webster

Seattle University Law Review

For the past three decades, a transnational reparations movement has unfolded across Northeast Asia. Hundreds of victims—assisted by attorneys, academics, and activists—seek remedies from Japan for various atrocities committed during World War II, colonialism, and other historical injustices.  They press their claims in street protests, legislative hearings, dramatic performances, and other fora.  The “comfort women” are the best known of these claimants; their global redress campaign ex-tends from noisy protests outside of Japan’s embassy in Seoul, to mute statues in raucous boroughs of Berlin.  More obscure, though larger in number, were the roughly one million Koreans who performed forced labor …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Approaches To Shaping International Outer Space Law And Norms, Ariel G. Silverman

Seattle University Law Review

This article explores convergences and divergencies in the United States and PRC’s responses to the stalemate in the United Nations over the future of outer space resource governance. I do so by systematically analyzing these leading space-faring nations’ policy-positions and tactics deployed to shape norms around three substantive areas of outer space resource governance: rights of ownership and scope of utilization of space resources, mechanization of the “benefits sharing” principle, and the rights and responsibilities of the private sector. I theorize that these leading space-faring nations have adopted divergent approaches due to their differing historical relationships with international law and …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

From Copper To Ashes: Violations Of The Right To A Healthy Environment And Health In Tsumeb, Namibia, Sarah Dávila

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The rights to a healthy environment and health are not new human rights to the African System for Human and Peoples’ Rights. In fact, they have been protected under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights since 1981. However, outside of the established normative framework, a pressing issue arises in States where the extractive industry maintains a stronghold on the economy. The people of and around Tsumeb, Namibia, have been subjected to egregious human rights abuses and an environmental crisis. Their lives and environment have been historically and continuously destroyed due to the foreign-corporate extractive industry. The mining and …

The U.S. Critical Minerals List: Between A Rock And A Hard Place, Wesley Peebles

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Critical minerals are minerals found essential to economic and national security and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Congress and presidents from both political parties have actively promoted critical mineral production, offering up billions of dollars to secure mineral supply chains. The federal government has invested to increase domestic mineral production, grow global partnerships, and reinvigorate U.S. industry in an attempt to reduce the risk of supply disruptions for these valuable minerals. To identify which minerals are critical to the United States, Congress tasked the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), to evaluate and identify a …

Laudato Si’ And The Limits Of Law: Reflections On The Vocation To Protect Integral Ecology, Lucia A. Silecchia

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Governance Of Ocean Iron Fertilization Research: A Case Study Of The Proposed Exploring Ocean Iron Solutions Field Experiments, Ashwin Murthy, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Ocean iron fertilization (OIF) has been a subject of scientific research since the 1980s. The primary international legal instruments regulating OIF are the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London Convention or LC) and the 1996 Protocol to that Convention (London Protocol or LP). To guide regulation of research activities, under the LC and LP, the Assessment Framework was developed.

To demonstrate how domestic regulators might use the Assessment Framework, this paper explores its application to recently proposed OIF field trials advanced by the Exploring Ocean Iron Solutions (ExOIS) research consortium. …

Renewed Injustice: Domestic Investors And The Energy Transition, Fernando Dias Simões

American University International Law Review

The Spanish renewable energy “saga” offers a graphic account of the structural biases of international investment law. Like other countries, Spain introduced economic incentives in support of photovoltaic energy, attracting sizable national and foreign investment. When this regime proved too burdensome on public finances, the government changed it drastically. Around 60,000 Spanish investors were affected. When these investors sought justice, they faced a different fate from their foreign counterparts. While foreign investors had the option to submit their claims to international arbitral tribunals, domestic investors were limited to national courts.

The outcome was a textbook example of unequal treatment of …

Epa And Nepa’S International Cooperation Provision, Terrence Neal

Faculty Scholarship

The goal of this Article is to analyze and highlight EPA 's authority to undertake international activities - a topic that has been more overlooked than EPA 's foreign policy role itself. In accomplishing this goal, it places particular focus on the nature and scope of Section 102(2)(I) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This Article asserts that Section 102(2)(I) is not merely a policy statement. It prescribes both an authorization and a discretionary duty to engage in international environmental cooperation. NEPA's text and legislative history, as well as persuasive judicial and administrative decisions, affirm this. After clarifying Section …

Implementing Climate Remedies, Camila Bustos

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing the climate crisis, particularly in the face of executive and legislative inaction. Across jurisdictions, courts have issued landmark decisions mandating stronger mitigation targets and recognizing rights-based claims against governments and corporations. While recent scholarship has examined the trends, legal theories, and broader effects of this relatively new phenomenon, it has primarily focused on bringing and winning legal challenges. Less attention has been paid to a crucial phase: the implementation and enforcement of judicial rulings. A deeper understanding of how climate remedies are implemented can provide valuable insights for climate …

From Property To Personhood: Reimagining Nature's Place In The Legal Order, Lan Cao

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article explores the emerging rights of nature movement as a radical departure from traditional environmental approaches, grounded in a “new consciousness” that challenges the anthropocentric world-view. The Article sets the stage for a defense of the rights of nature by providing a comprehensive critique of the current model of economic development, primarily focused on GDP, which has proven detrimental to environmental health by neglecting broader values; the Article also highlights alternative measures adopted by entities like the UN and EU that incorporate factors like happiness. Rights of nature builds upon that foundation for a broader understanding of development and …

A Corporate Accountability “Turn” In International Climate Litigation, Jacqueline Peel

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporations are among the most significant emitters of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, which are responsible for the existential threat of climate change. Yet accountability for corporate emitting activities has been difficult to secure, particularly where companies operate across nation-state borders or have global value chains. This Essay looks at recent developments in international law, found in a series of climate-related advisory opinions issued by international courts and tribunals, which may signal greater corporate accountability for climate harms. It argues that the recent advisory opinions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and …

Corporate Climate Litigation In Europe: Scaffolding From State Obligations And The Rise Of Polluter-Pays, Joana Setzer, Nina Koistinen, Catherine Higham, Lucas Biasetton

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Over the last decade, Europe has been the crucible of path-defining climate cases. Across the region, courts have been asked to define the limits of public and private responsibility. This Essay argues that corporate climate litigation in Europe has developed along two intersecting trajectories that together define an emerging framework of climate accountability. The first extends public-law standards to corporations, translating human rights and carbon-budget principles into private-law duties of care, due diligence, and disclosure that reach across entire value chains. The second trajectory sees the emergence of polluter-pays litigation, which seeks to proportionate damages and adaptation costs from major …

From Chainsaws To Courtrooms: Corporate Climate Litigation And Deforestation In Brazil, Maria Antonia Tigre, Mariana Barbosa Cirne

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporate climate litigation has emerged as one of the most dynamic and high-profile tools for addressing the private sector’s role in the climate crisis. While much of the scholarship and public debate has centered on cases in the United States and Europe, litigation targeting corporations in the Global South—particularly Brazil—has grown rapidly, both in volume and significance. Brazil now ranks among the world’s top jurisdictions for corporate climate damage claims. These suits have pioneered methods for quantifying climate damages, often from illegal deforestation, and have tested the reach of the civil liability regime in novel ways. This Article offers the …

Race, Reparative Justice, And Climate Change-Related Migration, Monica Visalam Iyer

FIU Law Review

The question of how to appropriately respond to migration linked to climate change is increasingly being debated in academia, in government and policy circles, and, crucially, in international legal and climate policy forums. These debates often center on data and on understanding the true numbers of people who might migrate in the context of climate change, and how much of this migration can accurately be linked to climate change, or on the security and logistical concerns associated with responding to this “challenge,” or on the appropriate legal box into which people migrating in this context can be shoved. Too often, …

Safeguarding Human Rights In Climate Change-Driven Territorial Loss And Creation: Small Island States, Desertification, Antarctica, And The Arctic, Diane A. Desierto

Journal Articles

From the Article

Scholarly literature on territorial loss or creation arising from sea-level rise prominently focuses on framing this phenomenon's international legal consequences on the existence and continuity of statehood under international law. While these questions are crucial, tethering the analysis of territorial loss and creation during the Charter era only to the question of statehood obscures urgent questions of human rights protection for populations affected by such territorial loss and creation. The expansive corpus and extraterritorial application of contemporary international human rights law generate obligations on all States to address territorial loss and creation from climate change, whether as …

“Fleeing The Climate: The Need For Protection Of Climate Refugees In The Light Of International Law”, Carina Dietmayer

Pace International Law Review

Climate change, which is already making itself felt, poses challenges for international law and the international community. Climate change and its consequences will lead to (involuntary) human mobility and affect many people. This forced migration is not yet specifically addressed by international law. This article addresses climate-induced migration and the protection of climate refugees through international refugee and migration law, international human rights law, international environmental law, climate change law and international disaster law. It analyzes how and, above all, why climate refugees are protected. The core thesis of the article is the justification of a need for protection of …

Tracing The Truth: The Case For The United States To Adopt Eu-Style Supply Chain Transparency In Global High-Risk Industries, Daniel Assor

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Have you ever looked in your closet and wondered where your clothing came from? Or stared into the black mirror of your phone and questioned how it was made? Certainly, you know where you bought it, but are you sure of where it was before then? Unless you sew your own clothes or communicate by carrier pigeon, these questions may not have crossed your mind. However, I urge everyone to look around their home—you will find objects with questionable origins. This shift has brought increased focus to supply chains, elevating transparency as a critical element of corporate environmental, social, and …

The Icj’S Advisory Opinion On Climate Change, Maria Antonia Tigre, Maxim Bönnemann, Antoine De Spiegeleir

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This open-access edited volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the International Court of Justice’s 2025 Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, one of the most consequential developments in international climate law since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners from across public international law, human rights law, environmental law, and global governance, the book examines how the Court reframed climate change as a matter of binding legal obligation rather than political discretion.

The contributions explore the Opinion’s articulation of state duties under treaties, customary international law, and general …

"Reeling In" The Governance Problem: How To Achieve Sustainable Fisheries On An International Scale, Louis Morais-Andrade

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2025, it was estimated that over 35% of international fish stocks were overfished, risking severe depletion of high seas fisheries. In general, countries have control over fisheries within 200 nautical miles of their coastal border. Many countries have established fishery conservation laws to help prevent overfishing. Some examples of the largest domestic fishing laws are the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the European Union’s Common Fishery Policy (MSA), which functions as an international policy that governs all of the United States’ fisheries and the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Concurrently, the United Nations has also opened …

Clihhr And Other Institutions Publish Report "Resistance: Mura Struggle Against Canadian Potash Mining In Brazil's Amazon", Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

The Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR), together with university legal clinics in Brazil, Canada, and the United States, published a report examining the impacts of a proposed Canadian potash mining project in the Brazilian Amazon and its potential risks to Indigenous communities and the environment.

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Living Property, Joseph William Singer

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court has increasingly defined property rights that are per se exempt from regulation in the absence of compensation, most recently in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021) and Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023). The Court claims that it can identify property rights that are categorically protected from regulation by reference to history, tradition, and precedent. Yet this approach is oddly ahistorical; it is inconsistent with the fact that property law changed dramatically over U.S. history, as well as varying tremendously among the states. It is also inconsistent with the historical context of the Founding era. At that time, …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Roots Of Credit Inequality, Andrea Freeman

Seattle University Law Review

Debt oppression began before the United States became a country. Settlers enslaved Africans and Indigenous people, treating them as property that they could buy and sell for their economic and personal benefit. When enslavement became illegal, new economic systems and laws that included sharecropping, Black Codes, and Jim Crow kept Black people in servitude. Laws that prohibited enslaved people from owning property or selling goods to white people evolved into restrictions on Black people’s occupations and market participation, both formal and informal. When Black entrepreneurs overcame these obstacles and built wealth within Black business enclaves, white people enforced their racist …

“A Plain Denial”: Reclaiming Equal Protection In American Juvenile Law, Addie C. Rolnick, David S. Tanenhaus, Justin Iverson, Danielle L. Silvestri

Seattle University Law Review

Juvenile courts are based on the premise that children are different from adults and should therefore be treated differently. Children may be treated more informally by courts, punished for different purposes, and brought before the court for different behaviors. Since In re Gault, the Supreme Court has been clear that there are limits to how different juvenile courts can be. Juveniles are entitled to many of the same procedural protections as adult criminal defendants, although the Court has preserved some procedural differences where it has determined that their benefit is outweighed by the need to preserve the informality, flexibility, …

Mandating Fluoride: A Constitutional Exercise Of Police Power, Anita Jahangiri

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses the ongoing debate over fluoridation: the regulation of fluoride levels in public water systems. Extensive research indicates fluoridation, when regulated at the recommended concentration, is both safe and highly effective in preventing dental caries. Better known as cavities, dental caries is a preventable yet widespread health issue that disproportionately affects low-income populations. Reducing dental health disparities among economic classes is a pressing public health issue. Fluoridation is not merely a policy option, but a critical, proven tool to address such disparities and uphold the collective welfare of Washingtonians. This Note focuses on fluoridation as a public health …