International Law Commons^™

Mar. 15, 2006, D. Hunter, Memo To A. Durbin & S. Herz Re Analysis Of Ifc Perf. Standards Against Old Safeguards, David Hunter, Andrea Durbin, Steve Herz

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

International Treaty Enforcement As A Public Good: Institutional Deterrent Sanctions In International Environmental Agreements, Tseming Yang

ExpressO

The problem of compliance with treaty obligations has been an area of active study in international environmental law because of its importance to the effectiveness of environmental treaties. This paper examines the problem of enforcement as an important and distinct component of compliance. First, the paper describes the general nature of the problem and the theoretical approaches that have been put forward as alternatives. Second, the paper then locates a key difficulty of environmental treaty enforcement in its public good characteristics. The paper specifically examines the “public good” functions of enforcement as well as the difficulties of generating this “good.” …

Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002: Are Multi-National Corporations Unduly Burdened?, William Alan Nelson

ExpressO

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted by Congress in response to the frauds perpetrated by several large U.S. companies; Enron and WorldCom were the main catalysts for the swift regulatory response. Though the primary impetus of Sarbanes-Oxley was to deter corruption domestically, its impact has had multinational reach. Problems arise when foreign corporations domiciled outside the United States are subject to both U.S. securities law and the laws of their home country, particularly when the laws are in conflict. This five part comment examines the effect that the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 has had on multinational corporations. The comment begins by …

Exploring The Source Of Transatlantic Antitrust Divergence, Alan J. Devlin

ExpressO

This paper seeks to explore the sources of substantive divergence between the antitrust regimes of the U.S. and EC and to present a framework upon which harmonization could potentially be achieved. While the rise of the Chicago School and post-Chicago theory have merged to ensure a central role for economics in dictating antitrust enforcement in the United States, no such clear standard has emerged in Europe. The consequences for firms operating on a transatlantic basis are potentially severe, as they have to formulate different business strategies depending on which jurisdiction they operate in. An assessment of EC law demonstrates an …

The Freedom To Manifest Religious Belief: An Analysis Of The Neccesity Clauses Of The Iccpr And The Echr, Todd Parker

ExpressO

This paper examines Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Both documents affirm freedom of religion as a fundamental human right, yet both recognize the need for restrictions on freedom of religion when “necessary.” The paper discusses the text of Articles 18 and 9, as well as European Court of Human Rights and Human Rights Committee cases interpreting and applying the Articles. The paper then analyzes several current laws restricting religious freedom on necessity grounds as to whether the restrictions are legitimate or illegitimate under the …

Global Pharmaceutical Patent Law In Developing Countries- Amending Trips To Promote Access For All, Angela J. Anderson

ExpressO

This comment will analyze the need to amend and revise the current global pharmaceutical patent system under TRIPS to take into account the needs of developing countries and overall public health. This comment will emphasize that the current international trade rules, which although administered by the WTO, are dictated by developed country governments and powerful pharmaceutical companies, and therefore, without reform will further diminish the access of poor people in developing countries to vital medicines. Part II of this comment will provide a general overview of the international trade law governing patents on pharmaceuticals focusing specifically on the development of …

Making Chinese Labor Law Work, Sean T. Cooney

ExpressO

Labor abuses in China have drawn international condemnation and led to increasing domestic unrest. Government, business and unions in the United States have insisted that Chinese law needs to be reformed to deal with those abuses but they fail to identify precisely what reforms are required.

This article aims to shift debates about reforming Chinese labor law in the United States to a much greater level of specificity. The discussion focuses on two very prevalent abuses that are purportedly prohibited by existing labor regulation: underpayment of wages and excessive working hours. The article analyses in detail those aspects of China’s …

Arms Embargoes And The Right To Self-Defense In International Law , Matthew D. Vandermyde

ExpressO

Over the past few decades, a number of nations have argued that the mandatory arms embargoes imposed against them violated their right to self-defense. In some cases the Security Council has responded by adjusting the embargo to exclude its application to arms destined for the government, such as in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. But in other cases the Security Council has rejected the argument and refused to lift or adjust the embargo, such as in Bosnia and Liberia. In December of 2005, Somalia put forth a similar line of argument, asking the Security Council to lift the arms embargo imposed …

Are We Safer?, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Burying Our Constitution In The Sand?: Evaluating The Ostrich Response To The Use Of International And Foreign Law In U.S. Constitutional Interpretation, Cindy G. Buys

ExpressO

This article contributes to the current heated debate regarding the extent to which the U.S. Supreme Court should use foreign and international law in U.S. Constitutional interpretation. Despite a fairly high degree of commentary on this issue among the Supreme Court justices and other judges, scholars, politicians, and the media, the arguments on both sides of the debate have not been fully explored. This article clarifies the debate by carefully separating the different sources of law at issue and examining each source in light of the objections to the use of foreign and international law sources that have been raised. …

Mining The Common Heritage Of Our Dna: Lessons Learned From Grotius And Pardo, Jasper A. Bovenberg

Duke Law & Technology Review

The Human Genome Project generated oceans of DNA sequence data and spurred a multinational race to grab the bounties of these oceans. In response to these DNA property grabs, UNESCO, drawing upon international law precedents addressing analogous grabs in the past, declared the Human Genome the heritage of humanity. The UNESCO Declaration provided, first, that the heritage shall not, in its natural state, give rise to financial gains and, second, that countries establish an international framework to make the benefits from genome research available to all. This iBrief will first examine Grotius’s Mare Liberum to determine whether international law precedent …

Mar. 6, 2006, Consultation Advisory 13, Final Version Of E&S Safeguards Available On Wb Website, Lucie Giraud

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

Global Copyright, Local Speech, Michael Dan Birnhack

ExpressO

Copyright is no longer a matter of "promoting the progress of science" in the words of the U.S. Constitution. It is now more than ever before a matter of trade. Furthermore, under the WTO's TRIPS Agreement, we now have a global copyright (G©) regime.

The globalization of copyright law destabilized previous balances. The shift to a trade environment requires us to reevaluate the previous balance. The concern explored in this article is that the old foundations will collapse under the heavy weight of global forces. The concern is that local culture, access to information, research and free speech in general, …

Exporting Western Law To The Developing World: The Troubling Case Of Niger, Thomas A. Kelley

ExpressO

In recent years the West has imposed the Washington Legal Consensus on poor countries throughout the world. Carried out by international “rule doctors,” the Consensus’s goal has been to rationalize and modernize developing countries’ legal systems and thereby prepare them to reap the economic and social benefits of globalization. This paper describes the application of the Washington Legal Consensus to the West Africa Republic of Niger, and concludes that the West has much to learn about effectively exporting its law.

The main flaw in the Washington Legal Consensus is that it ignores the legal traditions that are already in place …

The Privacy Gambit: Toward A Game Theoretic Approach To International Data Protection, Horace E. Anderson

ExpressO

“Privacy” is one of the fastest growing areas of the law, due in part to the explosion of the Internet over the past decade. When we speak of privacy in the Internet age, we typically mean data protection, the regulation of the use of personal information about individuals by private interests, such as corporations. Unfortunately, much of the discourse on the subject adopts a framework more suitable to traditional privacy, an inviolable “right to be let alone” by the state. Rather than create a sacrosanct right against the government, the modern incarnation of privacy actually creates a quasi-property right, where …

Global Pharmaceutical Patent Law In Developing Countries- Amending Trips To Promote Access For All, Angela J. Anderson

ExpressO

This comment will analyze the need to amend and revise the current global pharmaceutical patent system under TRIPS to take into account the needs of developing countries and overall public health. This comment will emphasize that the current international trade rules, which although administered by the WTO, are dictated by developed country governments and powerful pharmaceutical companies, and therefore, without reform will further diminish the access of poor people in developing countries to vital medicines. Part II of this comment will provide a general overview of the international trade law governing patents on pharmaceuticals focusing specifically on the development of …

When The Inquisitorial And Adversary Systems Collide: Teaching Trial Advocacy To Latin American Lawyers, Leonard L. Cavise

ExpressO

The first part of the article reviews the principal differences in the two systems as it affects trial procedure. The article then reviews those aspects of accusatorial trial proceedings that caused the greatest degree of discomfort to the foreign lawyers. Finally, the article attempts to posit a few recommendations that should help not only to ease the transition process but also to anticipate the next level of procedural and substantive obstacles.

An Emerging Uniformity For International Law, David H. Moore

ExpressO

The status of international law in the U.S. legal system has been hotly contested. Most international law scholars maintain that customary international law (CIL) is federal common law immediately applicable in federal courts. A minority of scholars has responded that CIL may be applied by federal courts only when authorized by the political branches. The Supreme Court’s decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 124 S. Ct. 2739 (2004), stoked the debate. In Sosa’s wake, scholars have overwhelmingly concluded that the Supreme Court endorsed the majority view that CIL is federal common law.

This Article asserts that Sosa has been both misperceived …

Treaties In U.S. Courts: Judge Bork's Anti-Originalist Revolution, Kay Graeff, David Sloss

ExpressO

Two cases currently pending before the Supreme Court present an opportunity for the Court to resolve a conflict between two competing models of treaty adjudication: the Marshall model and the Bork model. The Marshall model applies a presumption in favor of judicial remedies for violations of individual treaty rights. The Bork model applies a presumption against private enforcement of treaties in U.S. courts.

During the first fifty years of U.S. constitutional history, the Supreme Court consistently applied the Marshallian presumption in favor of judicial remedies. As a judge on the D.C. Circuit in 1984, Robert Bork created the Borkian presumption …

Putting Regulation Before Responsibility: Towards Binding Norms Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Thomas F. Mcinerney

ExpressO

Globalization of business has heightened concerns regarding corporate conduct in developing countries. Critics have charged that multinational firms in particular have exported social harms involving labor, the environment, bribery, and human rights to jurisdictions outside of their home countries. Opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and the associated collective action problem such opportunities suggest, highlight the need for strong regulatory responses to these issues. Rather than prioritize the strengthening of national or international regulatory actors to address these social harms, voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives have emerged as a favored response within the international community. This article undertakes a critical examination of …

Preventing International Terrorism: Can Multinational Corporations Offer A Fresh New Perspective?, Jocelyne Kokaz-Muslu

ExpressO

Multinational corporations (“MNC”s) while investing in new ventures all over the world, have managed a variety of risk factors such as developing country risk, language risk, cultural risk, currency risk, and political risk including terrorism. The risk management strategies that have worked for MNCs would be beneficial and effective for states around the world, as well as the United States of America (“USA”), to win the war against terrorism. Furthermore, the USA has a unique position in the world, where it has accumulated dormant knowledge regarding fighting terrorism in light of its ownership of the most respected, most profitable and …

Report Of The Working Group On The Lessons Of International Law, Norms, And Practice, Working Group On The Lessons Of International Law, Norms, And Practice

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Representing Children And International Norms, Naomi Cahn

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Essay For The In-Print Symposium On The Myth Of Moral Justice, Stuart A. Scheingold

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

Stuart Scheingold responds to Thane Rosenbaum's The Myth of Moral Justice, agreeing with the aspiration to infuse law with moral imagination but critiquing Rosenbaum's oversight of existing moral energy within the legal profession, particularly through cause lawyering. Scheingold argues that Rosenbaum's approach is overly simplistic, failing to account for institutional obstacles and the contested nature of moral discourse, which can lead to conflict rather than harmony. He emphasizes that while moral advocacy, as seen in cause lawyering, can drive positive change, it also faces significant challenges and backlash.

Something's Happening Here: Children And Human Rights Jurisprudence In Two International Courts, Bernardine Dohrn

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How Children Are Heard In Child Protective Proceedings, In The United States And Around The World In 2005: Survey Findings, Initial Observations, And Areas For Further Study, Jean Koh Peters

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

John Paul Stevens, Human Rights Judge, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

This article explores the nature and origins of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' engagement with international and foreign law and norms. It first discusses Stevens' pivotal role in the revived use of such norms to aid constitutional interpretation, as well as 1990s opinions testing the extent to which constitutional protections reach beyond the water's edge and 2004 opinions on post-September 11 detention. It then turns to mid-century experiences that appear to have contributed to Stevens' willingness to consult foreign context. The article reveals that as a code breaker Stevens played a role in the downing of the Japanese general …

Acknowledgments, Antoine Garapon, Michel Rosenfeld

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law, Narrative, And The Continuing Colonist Oppression Of Native Hawaiians, David Barnard

ExpressO

The article does three things. First, and for the first time, it brings to bear the perspectives of critical race theory, postcolonial theory, and narrative theory on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Rice v. Cayetano, which dealt a severe blow to Native Hawaiians’ struggles for redress and reparations for a century of dispossession and impoverishment at the hands of the United States. Second, it demonstrates in the concrete case of Hawaii the power of a particular historical narrative—when it is accepted uncritically by the Supreme Court—to render the law itself into an instrument of colonial domination. Third, it …

Refugee Security And The Organizational Logic Of Legal Mandates, Mariano-Florentino Cuellar

ExpressO

While the refugee protection system is one of international law’s most recognizable features, it routinely places massive numbers of refugees in camps in the developing world, where they face chronic threats to their physical security from crime and disorder, coercion, and military attacks. Yet key actors responsible for refugee protection, including host states, advanced industrialized countries, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), generally have failed to prioritize refugee security. This article asks: (1) Why? (2) What have been the consequences? (3) And what do these answers reveal about how organizations carry out legal mandates in complicated political …