International Law Commons^™

Debating The Law Of Sanctions, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

After years of United Nations-mandated sanctions against Iraq, human rights advocates began charging the UN Security Council with genocide in its use of 'sanctions of mass destruction'. Following the charges, a full debate began on the law of sanctions. The article recounts this debate, setting it in the context of two earlier rounds of discussion on the lawful use of sanctions. Those earlier debates resulted in general consensus that the Security Council was both free to use sanctions whenever it wanted and that sanctions should be comprehensive, air-tight and subject to enforcement. Sanctions of this description were imposed on Haiti …

Elihu Root And Crisis Prevention, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Elihu Root pursued two themes relevant to international law and crisis. He believed firmly in the value of arbitration and adjudication to prevent crisis. He also worked toward the codification and greater specificity of international law so that judges and arbitrators would have more law available to apply in aid of crisis prevention. When crisis had not been prevented, as in the case of World War I, Root did not in fact believe international law-either process or substance-had much to offer. In his view, the Kaiser started World War I because he was bent on hegemony. Arbitration would not stop …

The Virtual World And The Arbitration World, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

The author addresses the question, "what impact will the Internet have on the international arbitration world as we know it – the Old World of arbitration?"

International Legal Developments In Review: 2000, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Contents

• Editor's Preface
• Introduction

Humanitarian Assistance In Non-International Armed Conflict: The Fourth Wave Of Rights, Duties And Remedies, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The international community is in the midst of a fourth wave of legal development with regard to the rights, duties and remedies associated with humanitarian assistance to victims of non-international armed conflict. This wave is part of a larger development affecting most aspects of international law at the beginning of the 21st century. International actors, in particular, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have challenged the accepted categories of international law in almost all fields, including international humanitarian law. In international humanitarian law, NGOs are primarily challenging the traditional requirements of neutrality and consent in the distribution of emergency aid to victims of …

Chasing Bits Across Borders, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

As computer crime becomes more widespread, countries increasingly confront difficulties in securing evidence stored in electronic form outside of their borders. These difficulties have prompted two related responses. Some states have asserted a broad power to conduct remote cross-border searches - that is, to use computers within their territory to access and examine data physically stored outside of their territory. Other states have pressed for recognition of a remote cross-border search power in international fora, arguing that such a power is an essential weapon in efforts to combat computer crime. This Article explores these state responses and develops a framework …

Empowering United States Courts To Hear Crimes Within The Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

United States courts have only incomplete and uneven jurisdiction, most acquired piecemeal and only in recent years, to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed outside our borders. Recent developments in international law and practice-especially the heightened commitment of democracies including the United States to end impunity for atrocities, and the imminent prospect of a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) with worldwide jurisdiction-suggest the need to expand and rationalize the jurisdiction of U.S. courts to make it coextensive with that of the ICC.

It now appears all but certain that the ICC will come into being in the …

Foreign Law Year In Review: 2000, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Contents

• Introduction

Foreign Law Year In Review: 2001, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Contents

• Introduction

Does International Human Rights Law Make A Difference?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Does international human rights law make a difference? Does it protect rights in practice? The importance of these questions for rights protection is obvious: the institutions of international human rights law deserve our energetic support only to the extent they contribute meaningfully to protection of rights, or at least promise eventually to do so. Moreover, at the moment these questions have added urgency. They underlie an ongoing debate, fomented in part by this Journal, on the extent to which the United States should be prepared to cede degrees of its national sovereignty to international human rights institutions, in return for …

A Framework Of Norms: International Human-Rights Law And Sovereignty, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

The international legal boundary between states; rights and human rights is not fixed. Long ago, the Permanent Court of International Justice - the judicial arm of the League of Nations and the precursor to the present International Court of Justice - recognized that "the question whether a certain matter is or is not solely within the jurisdiction of a State is an essentially relative question; it depends on the development of international relations." In recent decades international relations concerning both sovereignty and rights have developed quickly. An examination of those rights and the evolving realities of sovereignty are examined.

The International Criminal Court: Complementarity With National Criminal Jurisdiction, Jimmy Gurule

Journal Articles

The 1998 Rome Statute established an International Criminal Court. Is its jurisdiction truly complementary to the national criminal jurisdictions?

The Proliferation Of International Courts And Tribunals: International Adjudication In Ascendance, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

While there has been a significant focus on a few international tribunals, there have been insufficient efforts to compare and contrast the various courts and tribunals. Even a cursory comparison of these tribunals reveals that there are many unanswered questions regarding the interrelationship of these courts and tribunals and, more disturbing, a profound lack of attention to the collective impact these international tribunals are having on the field of international law. That is changing, as is evidenced by the new Project on International Courts and Tribunals at New York University School of Law, but we as an international legal community …

The Un, Nato, And International Law After Kosovo, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Notre Dame Lawyers Connect

NATO's decision on 13 October 1998 to use force in Yugoslavia and its subsequent use of force beginning on 24 March 1999 were inconsistent with both the explicit terms of the United Nations Charter and Security Council practice. Most of NATO's member states have argued that the situation was exceptional and should have no bearing on the future need for Security Council authorization. Not so the United States; US officials have not spoken of an exception. Several high-ranking officials of the Clinton Administration have stated that they do not recognize the necessity for Security Council authorization when NATO takes enforcement …

[1999 Developments Concerning] International Courts And Tribunals, Roger P. Alford, Peter H.F. Bekker, Mark B. Rees

Journal Articles

The most significant developments in 1999 regarding international courts and tribunals are reviewed herein, particularly events relating to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Compensation Commission, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland, and the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims. Other significant developments relating to the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Mechanism are detailed in other reports in this …

The Un, Nato, And International Law After Kosovo, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

NATO's decision on 13 October 1998 to use force in Yugoslavia and its subsequent use of force beginning on 24 March 1999 were inconsistent with both the explicit terms of the United Nations Charter and Security Council practice. Most of NATO's member states have argued that the situation was exceptional and should have no bearing on the future need for Security Council authorization. Not so the United States; US officials have not spoken of an exception. Several high-ranking officials of the Clinton Administration have stated that they do not recognize the necessity for Security Council authorization when NATO takes enforcement …

New International Legal Process, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

International legal process (ILP) emphasizes understanding how international law works. It concentrates not so much on the exposition of rules and their content as on how international legal rules are actually used by the makers of foreign policy. It is a more limited methodology than some others discussed in the symposium in that it did not, as originally developed, expose the normative values of the methodology, or how the methodology could be used to achieve those values. Nevertheless, ILP, as a study of international law in its actual operation and the consideration of how international law could work better, has …

[1998 Developments Concerning] International Courts And Tribunals, Roger P. Alford, Peter H.F. Bekker

Journal Articles

The most significant developments in 1998 regarding international courts and tribunals ar reviewed herein, particularly events relating to the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the United Nations Compensation Commission (a quasi-tribunal), the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, and the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. Other significant developments relating to the establishment of the permanent International Criminal Court and to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the World Trade Organization are detailed in other reports in this issue.

The Icc's New Legal Landscape: The Need To Expand U.S. Domestic Jurisdiction To Prosecute Genocide, War Crimes And Crimes Against Humanity, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

The United States was one of only seven nations to vote against the treaty. The ensuing debate within the United States has properly focused on whether the United States can and should ratify the treaty or, if not, whether as a non-party the United States should support or oppose the new court. Largely overlooked, however, are two separate but related questions: (1) should the existing, incomplete jurisdiction of U.S. courts over crimes within the ICC Statute be expanded to ensure that such crimes may also be prosecuted in U.S. courts, under universal jurisdiction or other bases allowed by international law?; …

The Rome Treaty For An International Criminal Court: A Flawed But Essential First Step, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Last summer more than 150 UN member states met in Rome to negotiate a treaty to establish a permanent international criminal court. Following years of preparatory meetings in New York and five weeks of negotiation in Rome, they voted 120 to seven, with twenty-one abstentions, for a treaty to establish an International Criminal Court (ICC) to hear future cases of genocide, serious war crimes and crimes against humanity. Most of the world's democracies-western and central Europe together with countries like Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, South Africa and South Korea-supported the ICC. Only two democracies-the U.S. and Israel-voted against, thereby …

[1997 Developments Concerning] International Courts And Tribunals, Roger P. Alford, Peter H.F. Bekker

Journal Articles

The most significant developments in 1997 regarding international courts and tribunals are reviewed herein, particularly events relating to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Compensation Commission (a quasi-tribunal), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, and the proposed permanent International Criminal Court. Other significant developments relating to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and dispute settlement within the World Trade Organization are detailed in other reports in this issue.

International Decisions: Well Blowout Control Claim. Un Doc. S/Ac.2/Dec.40, 36 Ilm 1343 (1997). United Nations Compensation Commission, Governing Council, December 17, 1996., Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

The UN Compensation Commission Governing Council held Iraq liable for oil field damages in Kuwait, including damage caused by Allied bombing because a direct link existed between Iraqi conduct and the damage. The panel held that reasonable expenses can include extraordinary costs because Kuwait took reasonable steps in mitigating its expenses. Salaries to permanent Kuwaiti personnel are not a direct result of Iraq's conduct and cannot be reimbursed.

The 1988 U.N. Convention Against Illicit Traffic In Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances - A Ten Year Perspective: Is International Cooperation Merely Illusory?, Jimmy Gurulé

Journal Articles

On the ten-year anniversary of the adoption of the 1988 U.N. Drug Convention, this Article analyzes whether signatory- parties have complied with the duties and obligations imposed thereunder, and, in particular, whether the Convention has enhanced international cooperation in narcotics enforcement. Part I of this Article examines the legal obligations and duties imposed under the 1988 U.N. Drug Convention, with special emphasis on the provisions aimed at criminalizing money laundering and at forfeiture of illicit drug proceeds and instrumentalities of narcotics trafficking. Additionally, Part I examines the requirement that parties afford one another the "widest measure of mutual legal assistance …

[1997] Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments, Roger P. Alford, Christopher Gibson

Journal Articles

From the Article

As was the case last year, neither the Supreme Court nor Congress addressed the general area of enforcement of foreign judgments in 1997. The new cases therefore continue to reflect the well established comity principles articulated in the Supreme Court's seminal 1895 decision in Hilton v. Guyot. Several developments occurred with respect to two cases that were discussed in last year's section, and these cases are given first treatment below.

[1996 Developments Concerning] International Courts And Tribunals, Roger P. Alford, Keith Highet, Peter H.F. Bekker

Journal Articles

The most significant developments in 1996 regarding international courts and tribunals are reviewed herein, particularly events relating to the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Justice, and the proposed Permanent International Criminal Court. Other significant developments relating to the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, and the World Trade Organization are detailed in other reports in this issue.

Regulating The Use Of Force In The 21st Century: The Continuing Importance Of State Autonomy, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The most important, and certainly the most ambitious, modification of international law in this century has been the outlawing of the use of force to settle international disputes. The definitive prohibition on the use of force came with the adoption of the United Nations Charter and, in particular, Charter article 2(4).

For a short while, from 1991 until 1994, it appeared that a majority of Security Council members had re-interpreted the Charter's order of priorities. To some, it seemed that the Council had placed such values as human rights, self-determination, and even democracy above the value of peace through respect …

Un Commission To Rule On Extent Of Corporate Claims Against Iraq, Roger P. Alford, Anthony Gardner, Richard Weiner

Journal Articles

The U N Compensation Commission set up to investigate Gulf War claims must make sure that pre-invasion Iraqi debts are given the same importance as war damage, argue Anthony Gardner, Roger Alford and Richard Weiner, of Hogan & Hartson LLP, Brussels and Washington.

Lessons From The Americas: Guidelines For International Response To Amnesties For Atrocities, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Amnesty guidelines modeled on international law as defined by Latin American tribunals and treaties should be adopted and used by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and national governments involved in remedying human rights violations. The 10 guidelines are stringent and would rarely result in the granting of amnesty. They may better serve their function than treaties or customary laws be cause they are guidelines and not mandatory.

Enforcement And The Success Of International Environmental Law, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Professor O'Connell discusses the traditional methods used for international law "enforcement," and she argues that international law is generally obeyed. Its enforcement is based primarily on compliance, not enforcement. Accordingly, the author argues against using international enforcement mechanisms to enforce international environmental law. Instead, she posits that domestic courts should be used for international environmental law enforcement; however, certain obstacles, such as sovereign immunity, the doctrine of standing, and the principle of forum non conveniens, must be overcome. Professor O'Connell argues that it may be possible to overcome many of these court-made obstacles to enforcing international law through domestic courts. …

Using Trade To Enforce International Environmental Law: Implications For United States Law, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The United States has enviable domestic environmental protection laws. However, good domestic environmental protection raises two concerns: effectiveness and competitiveness. In response to these two problems of environmental protection—effectiveness and competitiveness—members of Congress introduced over thirty bills in 1990 to amend U.S. trade laws. The bills were designed to either press other states to adopt environmental protection standards similar to the United States own or to at least minimize the competitive disadvantage for U.S. business inherent in U.S. regulations. The bills took one of two approaches: either they aimed at restricting access to U.S. markets for those states failing to …