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Symposium: Transcript Of Afternoon Presentation

Connecticut Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Transcript Of Morning Presentation

Connecticut Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Preface, Phillip I. Blumberg

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Anglo-American corporation law has traditionally been bottomed upon the concept that each corporation, like each human being, is a separate juridical person with its own legal rights and duties; this is entity law. This doctrine arose centuries ago and was well suited to deal with the needs of a simpler economic society. It was a time when corporations generally could not own other corporations, and corporate groups with holding companies or parent corporations were unknown. At that time, each corporation was a separate economic enterprise as well as a separate legal entity. This is no longer the case.

Piercing The Veil Within Corporate Groups: Corporate Shareholders As Mere Investors, Robert B. Thompson

Connecticut Journal of International Law

On the cusp of a new century we struggle with two issues defined in the dying days of the last century: judicial recognition of a corporation as separate from its individual proprietor' and legislative recognition that 2 corporations could own shares in another corporation. As a result, today we have vast enterprises operating with multiple subsidiaries that often seek to claim separateness from their parent shareholders or other parts of the corporate group. Such separation creates the possibility of externalization of some costs of the enterprise with risk falling on outsiders, many of whom had little or no opportunity to …

Allocating Liability In Corporate Groups: An Australian Perspective, Ian M. Ramsay

Connecticut Journal of International Law

In this article, I provide an Australian perspective on the regulation of corporate groups.3 Australia, like many other countries, still adheres in most respects to entity principles. Some judges have acknowledged the significant difficulties created by adherence to such principles. For example, in Qintex Australia Finance Ltd. v. Schroders Australia Ltd.,4 the legal dispute involved the identification of a particular corporation within a large corporate group, which had purchased a futures exchange contract. Many of the companies in the corporate group were insolvent. The judge commented on the evidence of one of the foreign exchange dealers in the treasury operations …

Some Aspects Of The Law Relating To Corporate Groups In The United Kingdom, Daniel D. Prentice

Connecticut Journal of International Law

This article addresses some aspects of the control of corporate groups in the United Kingdom. The first part examines the phenomenon of groups and, in particular, the factors that have contributed to the widespread use of the group structure. The next section deals with the legal mechanisms whereby groups are formed. The following sections deal with the hegemony of the decision of the House of Lords in Salomon v. Salomon & Co. Ltd.,' which formulated the separate entity principle. Although the courts have been willing to pierce the corporate veil and recognise the phenomenon of groups, this is seldom done. …

Cross-Border Bank Branching Under The Nafta: Public Choice And The Law Of Corporate Groups, Eric J. Gouvin

Connecticut Journal of International Law

When representatives of the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement' (NAFTA) in 1992, they created the largest free trade zone in the world.2 On items ranging from automobile parts to water, from saw logs to beer, the negotiators crafted a workable document that represented compromises by all parties, but which was nevertheless minimally acceptable to all. As might be expected, on the specific issue of trade in financial services the NAFTA fashioned an acceptable, but incomplete compromise.

The promise of increased cross-border trade brings with it the need for cross-border financial services. In 1988, …

The Mechanisms Of Control, Deborah A. Demott

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Regardless of the form it takes, control is a central and defining feature of organizations, which are the economic and social structures that enable individuals' work to be coordinated toward ends beyond any individual's capability, however talented and industrious that individual may be.' Moreover, control is a defining feature in the legal definition of 2 agency. A principal has the right on a continuing basis to control the methods by which the agent achieves results, as opposed to the right simply to assess the results achieved against benchmarks established by contract. In an agency relationship, the agent has a duty …

The Liability Of Polycorporate Enterprises, Jose Engracia Antunes

Connecticut Journal of International Law

he enterprise ("Unternehmen," "entreprise," "empresa") represents a major economic,1 social,2 political,3 and even cultural institution4 of the last centuries, which performs, by definition, a risky activity. It may produce losses or even totally collapse, destroying with it the hopes of those who invested their wealth in it (owners), of those who extended it credit (creditors), and of those who sold their labour for monetary retribution (workers). It also generates a high variety of costly externalities, in private as well as in public areas: it often undertakes business ventures in manufacturing dangerous products, potentially harmful to individual consumers, or operates hazardous …

The Threat Or Use Of Nuclear Weapons: Discernable Legal Policies Of The Judges Of The International Court Of Justice, Kazuomi Ouchi

Connecticut Journal of International Law

By a letter dated 19 December 1994, the Secretary-General of the United Nations officially communicated to the Registrar of the International Court of Justice the decision taken by the General Assembly of the United Nations to submit the question of the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons to the Court for an advisory opinion. The General Assembly noting, inter alia, that Article 96, paragraph 1, of the United Nations Charter empowers the General Assembly to request the Court to give an advisory opinion on any legal question, decided to request the Court to urgently render its advisory …

Persistent Organic Pollutants: Regime Formation And Norm Selection, Christina S. Chen

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are hazardous and potentially life-threatening toxic chemicals. The international community recently agreed to create an international legally binding instrument to control POPs.' Although myriad questions confront the creation of a new regime, this Comment will focus on the types of norms and control strategies that should be devised in order to establish an effective POPs regime. In order to analyze the issue of norm crafting, Part I of this Comment outlines the background of the POPs problem and the current efforts of the United Nations to establish consensus on the need for a POPs regime. Part …

Law, Venture Capital, And Entrepreneurism In Japan: A Microeconomic Perspective On The Impact Of Law On The Generation And Financing Of Venture Businesses, Eric C. Sibbitt

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Part one of this article attempts to demonstrate through a microeconomic framework how the legal, economic, and cultural forces underlying the Japanese financial system impact the funding of venture businesses in Japan. In a venture finance market, the microeconomic decisions of entrepreneurs and venture investors determine how much capital is ultimately supplied to finance venture businesses. Investors, the suppliers of capital to a venture market, seek to ensure the highest possible payback on investment by maximizing expected returns. Rational entrepreneurs, on the demand side of the market for venture capital, seek the use of investor capital to pursue income-generating opportunities …

Building An International Criminal Court For The 21st Century, Bryan F. Macpherson

Connecticut Journal of International Law

This article proposes significant, yet realistic, enhancements to the proposed court's jurisdictional scheme that could vastly increase its usefulness without undermining valid national interests. The proposed court could exercise jurisdiction over certain serious international crimes provided that the affected states have filed declarations accepting the court's jurisdiction over the crime. The proposal assumes that states would file declarations prospectively accepting the court's jurisdiction. In theory, this would set up an international criminal justice system that would operate without requiring any further state consent. However, states also wish to reserve the right to try international criminals in their own courts. The …

Partial Entrenchment Of A Bill Of Rights: The Canadian Model Offers A Viable Solution To The United Kingdom's Bill Of Rights Debate, Vincent P. Pace

Connecticut Journal of International Law

For three decades the United Kingdom has debated whether or not to adopt a bill of fights.' The United Kingdom does not have a constitution that codifies fundamental rights and entrenches these rights from government encroachment. Instead, precedent, customs, conventions, and Acts of Parliament collectively safeguard basic rights.3 Parliament, by simple majority approval, maintains the power to modify or repeal rights guaranteed by any of these sources. The judiciary cannot protect fundamental fights from executive or legislative encroachment because judges in the United Kingdom do not possess the power of judicial 4 review.

This debate has generated considerable controversy because …

The Comparative And The Critical Perspective In International Agreements, Ángel Oquendo

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

An International Criminal Court?, James Crawford

Connecticut Journal of International Law

I am asked to speak on the prospects for a permanent international criminal court. That idea has been around, in some form or other, for a considerable time, and for almost the whole of that time it has had no realistic chance of success. Now that for various reasons there is some if limited chance of achieving such a court, there is a tendency on the part of some proponents to favour maximalist versions of a court. This being the only likely chance, it is said, let us take that chance and do it properly. This is not, it is …

Toward An International Civil War Claims Tribunal, Jon O. Newman

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Distinguished members of the panel and distinguished guests in the audience. Whenever people consider the relationship of law to such matters as the violation of international human rights, I think there is a tension between what can occur and what ought to occur, what the regulatory force of law is and what, if I can call it this, its aspirational effect is. The first speaker said that if these treaties, documents, and conventions are not enforced, they are not worth anything. Well, I largely agree with that, but not entirely. It seems to me that law, while it fundamentally has …

Address Given At The University Of Connecticut School Of Law, October 18, 1996, Rudolf Bernhardt

Connecticut Journal of International Law

JUDGE BERNHARDT: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, at first I would like to say that I'm very grateful to the Law School and to Dean McGill for having been invited to this conference and for having the opportunity to address this distinguished audience. Over the years I have studied many human rights texts, both national and international texts. And now we have to add the provisions in the Dayton and Paris Agreements on Bosnia and Herzegovina to our studies. And now I have also sometimes my dreams like Judge Ajibola, and my dream is if I could close my eyes …

The United Nations' War Crimes Tribunals: An Assessment, Richard Goldstone

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Dean MacGill, Professor Janis, ladies and gentlemen. I have been asked by Professor Janis to concentrate during the next thirty minutes on the utility of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (hereinafter "ICTY"). I understand that Professor Sohn, who will follow, will talk about the history of war crimes tribunals. In particular, he will concentrate on the legacy of war crimes tribunals and will discuss the differences between the International Military Tribunals, i.e., the Nuremburg and Tokyo tribunals set up after the Second World War, and the ad hoc criminal tribunals set up by the United Nations in …

The Capacity Of Judicial Institutions To Play An Affirmative Role In The International Protection Of Human Rights: Implications For And From Domestic Law, Ellen Ash Peters

Connecticut Journal of International Law

The judgments at Nuremberg, although principally significant for international law, have also cast their shadow on the evolution of developments in the law of human rights as a matter of national law. Because my only experience is that of a domestic academician and judge, it is only national law about which I have any competence to speak. Recognizing that the relationship between national and international law is far removed from the main focus of this conference, I will limit this report to three somewhat disparate observations

From Nazi Germany And Japan To Yugoslavia And Rwanda: Similarities And Differences, Louis B. Sohn

Connecticut Journal of International Law

When the Allied Powers arranged for the Nuremberg Trial of Nazi war criminals, and a little later for the Tokyo Trial of Japanese war criminals, they hoped that this would be a deterrent against any recurrence of such atrocities. In fact, in the few international conflicts involving wars between states, the atrocities committed were limited and usually punished by the state of the offenders. Unfortunately, however, internecine wars of genocidal or ethnicidal proportions had occurred inside States between factions fighting for the government of a state or for a separation from it. It happened, for instance, in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, …

Remarks Given At The Old State House, Hartford, Ct, October 18, 1996, Antonio Cassese

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Thank you very much indeed. I propose to share with you a few thoughts on acute problems and difficulties besetting the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. I must say, however, that I had a wonderful dinner, sitting between two charming ladies and I think that one of them at least got terribly depressed after chatting with me, so I hope I will not depress you as well. I'll do my best. However, I think that I should focus on some of these particular problems by contrasting the role and the way our tribunal goes about dispensing international justice …

Remarks: The Legacy Of Nuremberg October 18, 1996, Christopher J. Dodd

Connecticut Journal of International Law

President Austin, Chief Justice Callahan, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we are gathered to conclude and commemorate the Thomas J. Dodd Center's year-long symposium on human rights and the rule of law. It has been an exciting year. When we dedicated the center a year ago, we were honored by the presence of Nobel Laureates Elie Wiesel and Oscar Arias, as well as the President of the United States, Bill Clinton. Since then, we hosted the Schweitzer Environmental Youth Ward, we dedicated the Simon Konover Auditorium, and in between we held symposiums, programs, and debates on relevant human rights …

Human Rights In The Federation Of Bosnia-Herzegovenia, Bola Ajibola

Connecticut Journal of International Law

In a way, the Yugoslavian crisis started as far back as 1980, with the end of Tito's iron reign in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The animosities and mistrust between the theoretically equal republics of the federation, which had been suppressed and submerged during the strict one-party leadership of Tito, found very fertile soil in the severe economic problems: hyper-inflation, unemployment, and high debt profile. These problems rocked Yugoslavia in the second half of that decade. Another factor of the Yugoslavian crisis was the wave of political reformations and revolutions that consumed Eastern Europe. On June 25, 1991 Slovenia …

The Aggression Upon Bosnia And The Judicial Protection Of Human Rights, Omer Ibrahimagic

Connecticut Journal of International Law

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, all humanity was devalued and left senseless during the last four years of cataclysmic war. Mankind itself had been brought to an absurdity. In 1992, death was the only reality for Bosniacs. Indeed, the depths to which mankind may delve have all been realized in the Bosnian tragedy. Hugo Grotius' quotes that were outlined as the guiding motif of the symposium precisely describe the reality of the modem world.' One could say that today it is even worse than in the age of Grotius. This hypothesis is that in Grotius' time there had not been any …

The Utility Of International Criminal Courts, Mark Weston Janis

Connecticut Journal of International Law

The purpose of this brief introduction is to set the Hartford conference into an intellectual context, specifically the framework posed by Grotius. What exactly is the utility of international criminal courts? The three international criminal courts mostly considered below are Nuremberg itself, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the proposed permanent International Criminal Court. Two other international criminal tribunals, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda are not treated in depth. Although the theoretical justifications advanced at Hartford for the utility of international criminal courts are many and varied, it seems possible …

Connecticut Compendium Of International And Comparative Legal Scholarship

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Welcome to the eighth Connecticut Compendium of International and Comparative Legal Scholarship. The Compendium is a compilation of abstracts from international and comparative law journals throughout the United States. Each participating journal has supplied the Connecticut Journal of International Law with synopses of the articles and student-written materials published between Fall 1996 and Summer 1997. The issue abstracts, alphabetized by journal name, are set forth herein as they were received, without substantial editing.

Russia And The Legality Of Strasbourg Law, Mark Weston Janis

Faculty Articles and Papers

The aim of this essay is to comment on Russia's accession to the Council of Europe and its probable accession to the European Convention on Human Rights from the perspective of the legal theory concerning the nature of obligation in international law and the law-like character of international law. The facts of Russia's accession test a philosophical argument that has been made elsewhere about the nature, efficacy and 'legality' of the legal system of the European Human Rights Convention. An important premise therein is that 'sometimes a happy (or unhappy) confluence of political decisions, social attitudes, and individual actors and …

The Utility Of International Criminal Courts, Mark Weston Janis

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Abortion Counselling And The 1995 German Abortion Law, Nanette Funk

Connecticut Journal of International Law

State transformations brought on by the fall of communism have placed the revision of abortion law on the agenda in many of the affected countries. Hungary had a major constitutional court decision on abortion in 1991 and passed a new law in 1992. Romania and Poland passed new abortion laws, the latter restricting abortion severely2, the former liberalizing it extensively. The Czech Republic as well as Bulgaria modified their laws. In Germany, one of the longest lasting unresolved issues of the unification of Germany on October 3, 1990 was not military or economic, but abortion law and the relation of …