International Law Commons^™

Workplace Bullying As An Occupational Safety And Health Matter: A Comparative Analysis, Susan Harthill

UC Law SF International Law Review

Workers who are bullied at work suffer physically and mentally, and can even be driven to suicide. There ought to be a law against workplace bullying, and in some countries, there is. Despite a growing body of interdisciplinary work highlighting the prevalence and costs of workplace bullying in the United States, there are currently no U.S. state or federal laws expressly addressing the issue, despite the ground breaking work and legislative efforts of workplace bullying pioneers, David Yamada and Drs. Ruth and Gary Namie. The dismal fact for American workers is that the U.S. lags behind many other countries when …

International Civil Religion: Respecting Religious Diversity While Promoting International Cooperation, Amos Prosser Davis

UC Law SF International Law Review

International civil religion grounds moral claims that permeate and transcend traditional religious paradigms. Given the inevitability of international interactions - interactions that cross geographic, religious, and cultural boundaries - our global society is in need of a universally endorsable framework that undergirds the United Nations international human rights regime. International civil religion provides that framework.

Numerous scholars and moral theorists have incrementally discerned the parameters of civil religion including, inter alia, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Robert Bellah, Martin Marty, and Harold Berman. The tenets of international civil religion infuse the diplomatically drafted United Nations covenants and conventions on human …

Prosecuting Heads Of State: Evolving Questions Of Venue - Where, How, And Why?, Masaya Uchino

UC Law SF International Law Review

This note surveys the different venues in which heads of state can be prosecuted. Heads of states have been tried in domestic courts, international criminal tribunals, and special "hybrid" courts. Each of these venues has a distinct set of procedures that provides different boundaries and rules for prosecutors and courts that are charging or trying a case. This note highlights how these differences can significantly impact the outcome of prosecutors' attempts to hold a head of state accountable for his crimes. To illustrate this, this note examines three very different examples of head of state prosecutions: Alberto Fujimori in Peru, …

Constitutionalizing Communications: The German Constitutional Court's Jurisprudence Of Communications Freedom, Christopher Witteman

UC Law SF International Law Review

In the United States, the debate over communications issues as disparate as network neutrality and public broadcasting seems to be carried out in a constitutional vacuum. This is not surprising, as the First Amendment is framed as a negative - government shall make "no law" infringing the freedom of speech.

This paper explores the very different system that results from a constitution that is phrased in the affirmative, guaranteeing the freedom of the press and broadcasting. The German post-war constitution was built on the ashes of a fascist dictatorship that had misused mass communications; the new constitution was structured so …

The Environment And Trade Agreements: Should The Wto Become More Actively Involved, Mark S. Blodgett, Richard J. Hunter Jr.

UC Law SF International Law Review

The article first explores several basic arguments concerning whether the World Trade Organization (WTO) should require member states to adopt environmental standards as major components of international trade agreements. Section II provides a brief background on the debate surrounding environmental aspects of trade agreements and their relationship to development. Section III discusses the benefits and problems associated with enforcing environmental standards through the WTO. Section IV provides arguments for the incorporation of environmental standards in trade agreements through the WTO.

War Of Words Or A Regional Disaster: The (Il)Legality Of Israeli And Iranian Military Options, Behnam Gharagozli

UC Law SF International Law Review

As the intensity of the verbal exchanges between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran grows, so does the importance of analyzing the current Israeli-Iranian enmity. This note sets out to answer two questions: (1) Whether Israel has the right to attack Iran out of self-defense, and reciprocally; (2) whether Iran has the right to attack Israel out of self-defense. This paper will argue that while neither side may legally invoke the right of preemption or Article 51 self-defense, there is ample evidence to suggest that Iran has more of a reason to fear an Israeli conventional attack on its …

An Emerging Norma: The Duty Of States To Provide Reparations For Human Rights Violations By Non-State Actors, Cecily Rose

UC Law SF International Law Review

An international norm is emerging whereby States, in certain circumstances, have a legal duty to provide reparations for violations committed by non-State actors. The reparations programs designed by truth and reconciliation commissions form the most recent and striking evidence this norm's emergence. In particular, the governments of both Peru and Sierra Leone have adopted the recommendations made by their respective truth commissions regarding the provision of reparations to victims, regardless of the status of the perpetrators. While this emerging norm has a basis in certain international human rights treaties as well as in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of …

Violent Against Women And Hiv Control In Uganda: A Paradox Of Protection, Kim Thuy Seelinger

UC Law SF International Law Review

An increasing amount of medical and human rights literature indicates that gender-based violence (GBV) can increase women's risk of HIV infection. Conversely, disclosed HIV-positive status can itself leave women vulnerable to marginalization and abuse.

However, the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill (HIV Control Bill) currently pending before the Ugandan Parliament presents a paradox of protection. Advocates fear its mandatory testing, disclosure, and criminalization provisions will (a) discourage women from accessing health services, and (b) render women who disclose their HIV positive status vulnerable to GBV, marginalization, and threats of prosecution.

This article presents a timely comparison of Uganda's …

Masculinity, Health, And Human Rights: A Sociocultural Framework, Shari L. Dworkin

UC Law SF International Law Review

This paper draws upon a sociocultural framework from masculinity studies and applies it to the case of men's health with the goal of providing the legal field with critical considerations that might shape a stronger future research agenda in the area of masculinity, rights, and health.

It is well recognized that gender inequality affects women, and that men enjoy numerous cultural and institutional privileges that negatively shape women's health outcome. These commonly understood drivers of women's poor health have led to crucial and much needed linkages between women's rights and health. However, men do not exclusively enjoy cultural and institutional …

Competitive And Fair: The Case For Exporting Stronger Extraterritorial Labor And Employment Protection, Carson Sprott

UC Law SF International Law Review

Increasingly, U.S. citizens are choosing or being asked to work in foreign countries for U.S. corporations or their direct subsidiaries. American laws often regulate expatriate employment status, but there is drastic inconsistency in the application of such laws. This paper discusses the limited application of U.S. labor and employment laws to U.S. corporations abroad to both American and foreign labor. This is juxtaposed against the stronger rights of alien workers here in the U.S. The analysis is specifically focused on the need for a coherent foreign employment law policy consistently applied by Congress. As a corollary, there is an economic …

Hiv-Based Claims For Protection In The U.S. And U.K., Ruly Tafzil

UC Law SF International Law Review

This year, millions will suffer persecution and death as a result of their HIV-positive status and AIDS-related illnesses. In the face of this morbid reality stands the promise of refuge offered by the international community, laid out in instruments such as the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This note compares and critiques the means by which HIV-positive persons may claim protection in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the United States, HIV-based claims for asylum were predominantly characterized as claims of persecution on account of a particular social …

The Law At War: Counterinsurgency Operations And The Use Of Indigenous Legal Institutions, Richard Morgan

UC Law SF International Law Review

Success in counterinsurgency campaigns requires the U.S. military to train, equip, and ultimately turn over responsibility for public safety to indigenous legal institutions. Doing so presents many challenges, as pragmatic concerns for operational security and use of intelligence as legal evidence must be reconciled with cultural differences and the weakness of indigenous legal institutions. This article argues, however, that such participation may be required under international law. Further, participation may help to legitimize counterinsurgency goals in the eyes of the local populace, and bring additional resources to military efforts. In order to realize such benefits, this article argues that military …

Operation Denucleunification: A Proposal For The Reunification And Denuclearization Of The Korean Peninsula, Eunice Lee

UC Law SF International Law Review

Since the division of the Korean peninsula into two countries, North and South Korea, the peninsula has been in the public eye primarily because of North Korea's nuclear program. Scholars have addressed ways to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, but to this day, North Korea remains a nuclear state. As North Korea continues to be isolated from the outside world, mystery surrounds the manner in which its government behaves. Should the U.S. respond to North Korea's perceived nuclear threat with force, or should diplomacy be used to achieve peace? Given the complexity of the nuclear dilemma, there is no simple solution …

Dolphins, Whales, And The Future Of The International Whaling Commission, Yui Nishi

UC Law SF International Law Review

Whaling has become a global controversy over the past few decades. In particular, countries such as Japan continue to hunt small cetaceans for both consumption and curbing purposes. Moreover, "small cetaceans" do not fall under the protection of the International Whaling Commission (hereafter "IWC"); therefore, the hunts are virtually unregulated. While the intensely emotional aspect is a significant part of the controversy, this note proposes a scientific, reason-based approach to this topic, which considers what solutions may be beneficial to all countries involved. Specifically, this note proposes that nations through international cooperation (1) conduct intensive scientific research in order to …

Human Trafficking: State Obligations To Protect Victims' Rights, The Current Framework And A New Due Diligence Standard, Viviana Waisman

UC Law SF International Law Review

Women who are trafficked for sexual exploitation are vulnerable to human rights violations in their country of origin, during their migration, and then in the destination country. This paper examines the existing legal protections available to trafficked women using Spain as an illustrative case study, and offers a new approach for defining State obligations to protect trafficking victims. The author advocates utilizing a due diligence standard framework that requires States to meet their international human rights obligations by granting legal residence to trafficking victims.

Judicial Protection Of The Right To Health In Colombia: From Social Demands To Individual Claims To Public Debates, Alicia Ely Yamin, Oscar Parra-Vera

UC Law SF International Law Review

Even in a region characterized by a number of countries with robust constitutions and judicial enforcement of social rights, Colombia stands out as a striking example of judicial activism regarding health rights. Nowhere has Colombia's judicialization of social demands been more striking than in the health domain. By 2008, it was clear that recourse to the courts had become an essential "escape valve" in a health system that was incapable of regulating itself; but the routinization of judicial intervention had created additional problems. In July of 2008, the Colombian Constitutional Court (the Court) issued a sweeping decision aimed at improving …

Approaching Visible Justice: Procedural Safeguards For Mental Examinations In China's Capital Cases, Zhiyuan Guo

UC Law SF International Law Review

In 2008, the Yang Jia cop-killing case became both a national sensation and received worldwide attention. The ensuing vehement debate over Yang Jia's mental fitness and the legitimacy of mental examinations in the case served as the inspiration for this Article. Part I examines procedural flaws in the handling of Yang Jia's case, particularly problems with the mental examinations. Part II addresses the background issue: What led to the tragic disposition of Yang Jia's case? By providing a general overview of the existing legal provisions relating to mental examinations in criminal cases in China, the author concludes that it is …

Tainted Milk: What Kind Of Justice For Victims' Families In China, Yungsuk Karen Yoo

UC Law SF International Law Review

The Chinese government's reaction to the fallout from the 2008-2009 tainted milk scandal paints a vivid picture of modem Chinese legal culture and the development of the rule of law. Quick to institute criminal prosecutions but barring affected families from bringing civil suits, the government continues to maintain a firm grip on the courts, preferring to resolve disputes through mediation and settlement. Meanwhile, the Sanlu case marks a turning point in dispute resolution in China, testing the limits of access to justice for private litigants who bring tort law claims in Chinese courts. As China becomes a major global economic …

The Importance Of Teaching Law And The Reinforcement Of The Judiciary System In Haiti, Jomanas Eustache

UC Law SF International Law Review

This article is a reflection on the inseparable binome "Law and Justice." The concepts of Law and Justice are so intertwined that the absence or weakness of either can lead to impunity and finally to a lack of peace in society. Unfortunately, some behavior, misconduct, or practices, are mainly facilitated by the malfunction of the judicial system. This can be seen all too clearly in the situation in Haiti. This article highlights the urgency of the situation and the need for all interested sectors and individuals to act swiftly, legally, and with firmness to ensure and strengthen the basis of …

The Preliminary Reference Procedure Of The Court Of Justice Of The European Communities: A Model For The Icj, Alicia Farrell Miller

UC Law SF International Law Review

When nations fail to observe their international obligations it undermines both respect for and future compliance with international law. In the so-called vicious cycle, the more the law is flouted, the less legitimate it becomes and the less states and individuals feel bound by it. The United States Supreme Court in Medellin recently exemplified this vicious cycle by spurning the authority of the International Court of Justice ("ICJ") and holding that a decision of the ICJ is not self-executing and thus does not constitute binding federal law. In contrast, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (formerly known as …

Trade Sanctions, Human Rights And Multinational Corporations: The Eu-Acp Context, Olufemi Amao

UC Law SF International Law Review

This paper examines the human rights dimension of trade agreements between the European Union ("EU") and the African Caribbean and Pacific ("ACP") group of countries and their relevance to the control of multinational corporations ("MNCs"). It notes that even though MNCs are the major beneficiaries of the agreements, they have not been prominent in the discourse. The paper explores the foundation for the inclusion of human rights issues in trade agreements, and argues in favour of their legitimacy. The study contends that human rights clauses in the agreements should be triggered where there are human rights violations in the territory …

Divided By Common Language: 'Capture' Theories In Gatt/Wto And The Communicative Impasse, Dongsheng Zang

UC Law SF International Law Review

Since the 1999 ministerial conference in Seattle, the WTO has been plagued by a series of collapses in trade negotiations: 2001 in Doha, 2003 in Cancun, 2006 in Hong Kong, and most recently, July 30th, 2008 in Geneva. How to understand the stalemates? What is behind the communicative impasse between the developing countries and the developed countries? This article examines a key conceptual framework in the discourse on trade policy: "capture" theories. It tracks two groups of "capture" theories: first, "capture" theories during the 1980s GATT which set the foundation for the WTO, and second, "capture" theories espoused by developing …

Nation-Building In The Penumbra: Notes From A Liminal State, Monica Eppinger

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Panel Iv - "Can The West Learn From The Rest?" - The Chinese Legal Order's Hybrid Modernity, Nicholas Calcina Howson

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Changing The Current Policy Towards Spousal Abuse: A Proposal For A New Model Inspired By Jewish Law, Yuval Sinai, Benjamin Shmueli

UC Law SF International Law Review

Abuse in general, and within an ongoing, intimate relationship with a spouse in particular, is a scourge that the legal system must uproot. This paper examines two models that differ in their approach to the issue of spousal abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional): modern secular common law, as represented by two legal systems-American and Israeli law-and ancient, religious Jewish law. Thus, the paper offers an opportunity to see and analyze the dialogue between an ancient, religious legal system and its modern, secular counterparts, and the possible-perhaps surprising--contribution of the former to the latter.

The two models, secular common law and …

A Law Of No Gods, No Masters - Developing And Defending A Participatory Legal System, Matt Halling

UC Law SF International Law Review

This note develops and analyzes a new legal vision consistent with recent activist literature about a participatory society. A participatory society (in this note) consists of collectively owned property, a decentralized state, and attempts to maximize citizen participation in politics. Rather than nation states, society is structured as a federation of councils deliberating and coordinating with each other to solve political issues. Participatory society's structure demands a "participatory law" be developed to manage it, and this note attempts to develop the overarching features of such a system. Once the basic legal model is outlined, the article then looks for comparisons …

The End Of Peremptory Challenges: A Call For Change Through Comparative Analysis, Amy Wilson

UC Law SF International Law Review

Lawyers use peremptory challenges to create partial juries. United States Supreme Court precedent has shown the Court's willingness to limit some blatantly discriminatory uses of the right to peremptory challenges. However, the use of peremptory challenges in jury voir dire is inherently discriminatory. Merely limiting the use of peremptory challenges is not sufficient. This note discusses how jury selection is treated in the United Kingdom. The analysis is specifically focused on the abolition of peremptory challenges in the United Kingdom and uses the experience there to argue for an abolition of their use in the United States as well.

Addressing Judicial Activism In The Indian Supreme Court: Towards An Evolved Debate, Madhav Khosla

UC Law SF International Law Review

The Indian Supreme Court has invited a great deal of interest for its alleged activism and the role that it has begun to play in Indian governance. Recent years have been witness to substantial debate on the Court's functioning, with scholars positing views and raising concerns with considerable passion. This paper analyzes the judicial activism discourse in the Indian Supreme Court by focusing on the contributions of Professor Upendra Baxi. It argues that, despite the attention the Court has received on the question of judicial activism, the debate in this area has, for the most part, failed to engage with …

The Influences Of The West On The 1993 Russian Constitution, Victoria Schwartz

UC Law SF International Law Review

This article explores the influences of the West on the text of the 1993 Russian Constitution. Although previous scholarship has identified Western influences on the Russian Constitution, these works do not trace how or why the particular transplant occurred. This article has a descriptive and analytical, but not normative goal of filling that gap by explaining the transplants that occurred, and why and how they were made. Among its conclusions, the article finds that the choices made by the framers of the 1993 Russian Constitution can often be explained by the contemporaneous political situation within Russia. Part of the uniqueness …

Divine Judgment: Judicial Review Of Religious Legal Systems In India And Israel, Josh Goodman

UC Law SF International Law Review

This paper analyzes and compares how two democratic states, India and Israel, incorporate discrete areas of religious law into their secular legal systems. As religion has become an increasingly important political force in India and Israel, both countries have turned to constitutionalism and to civil courts to manage the role of religious law within the democratic system. This development represents the convergence of two global trends: an expansion in the power of courts and the growth of religious politics. This paper examines how the conflict of secular and religious legal norms has played out in the Israeli and Indian civil …