International Law Commons^™

State Practice In The Management And Allocation Of Transboundary Ground Water Resources In North America, Gabriel Eckstein, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Scholarship

Throughout the world, international and state political boundaries divide ground water resources into politically convenient jurisdictions. Subsurface water, however, does not recognize such borders and flows freely without regard to overlying politics. This disregard for the political dimension, coupled with the growing global importance of fresh water, has the potential for aggravating disputes and conflicts over the use, allocation, and preservation of such resources. To date, widely accepted norms of international law applicable to transboundary aquifers have yet to emerge. However, local and regional agreements, including both formal and unofficial arrangements, suggest the emergence of state practice that should be …

Making Copyright Whole: A Principled Approach To Copyright Exceptions And Limitations, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article suggests a path to develop a principled conceptualization for copyright of limitations and exceptions at the international level. The paper argues that, normatively, copyright has always sought to reflect a balance between protection and access. It demonstrates that this balance was present to the minds of the negotiators of the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and may have been somewhat overlooked in revisions of the Convention. It was ultimately replaced by a three-step test designed to restrict the ability of individual legislators to create limitations and exceptions. The article also considers the …

Rethinking Contract Practice And Law In Japan, John O. Haley

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article explores "the Japanese advantage" in the enforcement of ex ante contract commitments in comparison with the United States, arguing that ostensible convergence of Japanese and United States contract practice in on-going business relationships is based on very different assumptions and conditions. Writing in the early 1960s Takeyoshi KaWashima in Japan and Stewart Macaulay in the United States described prevailing views and practices related to business agreements. Their respective observations indicated a tendency in both countries to avoid formal, legally enforceable contacts. For over four decades scholars on both sides of the Pacific have tended view these observations as …

Reproductive Injustice: An Analysis Of Nicaragua's Complete Abortion Ban, Jocelyn E. Getgen

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Who Is The "Sovereign" In Sovereign Debt?: Reinterpreting A Rule-Of-Law Framework From The Early Twentieth Century, Odette Lienau

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Combining legal interpretation with political science analysis, this Article highlights the competing "statist" and "popular" conceptions of sovereignty at stake in sovereign debt issues. It argues that these two dominant approaches do not exhaust the offerings of intellectual history and considers an alternative approach that emerged in the early twentieth century and may be of relevance again today. The Article contends that U.S. Chief Justice Taft's foundational 1923 "Tinoco" decision, which grounds the current approach to sovereign governmental recognition, has been misinterpreted to support a purely statist or absolutist conception of sovereignty. It argues that a proper interpretation presents an …

Getting Beyond The Crossfire Phenomenon: A Militant Moderate's Take On The Role Of Foreign Authority In Constitutional Interpretation, Melissa A. Waters

Scholarship@WashULaw

This brief essay sketches out a, "militant moderate," take on the role of foreign and international law in constitutional interpretation. The essay examines and critiques the key arguments and assumptions of both internationalists (like Justice Breyer) and nationalists (like Justice Scalia). It urges scholars and policymakers to shift from the Crossfire-style debate that has dominated in recent years, toward a more nuanced approach that strikes a balance between the legitimate concerns of nationalists and the legitimate aspirations of internationalists. A militant moderate approach situates the debate over foreign authority in its broader context: American judges' growing participation in transnational judicial …

Pretrial And Preventative Detention Of Suspected Terrorists: Options And Constraints Under International Law, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

This article analyzes the grounds, procedures and conditions required by International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law for pretrial detention of suspected terrorists for purposes of criminal law enforcement, and for their preventive detention for security and intelligence purposes. Recognizing the difficulties in securing sufficient admissible evidence to prosecute terrorists within the tight time limits imposed by international law, the Article nonetheless suggests that indefinite detention, solely or primarily for purposes of intelligence interrogation, is probably not lawful under U.S. or international law. Preventive detention for security purposes, on the other hand, is generally permitted by international law, provided …

Detention As Targeting: Standards Of Certainty And Detention Of Suspected Terrorists, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

To the extent that a state can detain terrorists pursuant to the law of war, how certain must the state be in distinguishing suspected terrorists from nonterrorists? This Article shows that the law of war can and should be interpreted or supplemented to account for the exceptional aspects of an indefinite conflict against a transnational terrorist organization by analogizing detention to military targeting and extrapolating from targeting rules. A targeting approach to the detention standard-of-certainty question provides a methodology for balancing security and liberty interests that helps fill a gap in detention law and helps answer important substantive questions left …

Through The Wild Cathedral Evening: Barrier, Attitudes, Participatory Democracy, Professor Tenbroek, And The Rights Of Persons With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This article is a commentary on Michael Ashley Stein & Janet Lord, Jacobus TenBroek, Participatory Justice, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, - Tex. J. Civ Lib. & Civ. Rts. - (2008) (in press). In it, I seek to expand their analysis of the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in an effort to invigorate an area of institutionalized patients rights law that is now nearly forgotten: the rights of such persons to exercise civil rights while institutionalized. I also argue that Prof. Stein and Ms. Lord's paper should lead us …

Remedial Approaches To Human Rights Violations: The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights And Beyond, Thomas Antkowiak

Faculty Articles

A sustained reflection upon remedial obligations and possibilities is particularly necessary at this juncture in the development of international law, where important mechanisms with reparative functions have recently sprung up around the world: the International Criminal Court, the African Court of Human Rights, and several national schemes, as a result of proliferating transitional justice initiatives. This article argues for a remedial model that emphasizes the restorative measures of satisfaction and rehabilitation, as well as general assurances of non-repetition. The work first examines the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the only international human rights body with binding …

Humanitarian Assistance And The Private Security Debate: An International Humanitarian Law Perspective, Benjamin Perrin

All Faculty Publications

The changing nature of armed conflict has had a dramatic impact on the security risks facing humanitarian personnel. Historically, the safety of humanitarian aid delivery was secured through the consent of the relevant Parties to the conflict. However, non-international ethnically-motivated armed conflicts, failed and failing states, and insurgency-based warfare have fundamentally challenged the viability of this traditional security paradigm. In confronting today's complex security climate, humanitarian organizations are faced with a diverse menu of alternatives to enhance their security. The debate over armed protection that has sharply divided the humanitarian community is explored in this paper, including a critique of …

Searching For Law While Seeking Justice: The Difficulties Of Enforcing International Humanitarian Law In International Criminal Trials, Benjamin Perrin

All Faculty Publications

International criminal law finds itself at the confluence of public international law, international humanitarian law, human rights law and national criminal laws. Our understanding of the interrelationship between these sources of law has been hampered by the conventional wisdom that public international law doctrines applicable to disputes between states can be readily transposed to the international criminal prosecution of individuals. A detailed analysis of selected decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda demonstrates that these tribunals could not simply rely on classical sources of public international law to resolve difficult …

The Asymmetrical Nature Of The U.S. Treaty Processes And The Challenges That Poses For Human Rights, John Cary Sims

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Kurt Mills On Conflict And Compliance: State Responses To International Human Rights Pressure By Sonia Cardenas. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 200pp., Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Conflict and Compliance: State Responses to International Human Rights Pressure by Sonia Cardenas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 200pp.

Memory And Violence In Israel/Palestine, K. M. Fierke

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Israeli and Palestinian Narratives of Conflict: History’s Double Helix, edited by Robert I. Rotberg. Indiana University Press, 2006.

and

Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by Ussama Makdisi and Paul A. Silverstein. Indiana University Press, 2006.

The Children Of War, Jennifer Plante

Human Rights & Human Welfare

There are more than 300,000 child soldiers in the world today. Complex economic and psychological factors have contributed to this large number; while some of these child soldiers qualify as slaves, many do not. Although there are several United Nations (U.N.) conventions that protect the rights of the child, many states have had difficulty implementing such protections. This has led to the perpetuation of the child slavery problem. Unfortunately for the children involved, their troubles do not end with the fighting. After the conflict, former soldiers must undergo the oftentimes-painful process of rehabilitation and integration back into society.

Forced Child Labor And Cocoa Production In West Africa, Marjie Sackett

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The cocoa industry has profited from the utilization of forced labor in West Africa since the late 1800s. Despite the Portuguese decree in 1876 abolishing slavery, and the release of cocoa plantation slaves, slave labor was quickly reemployed, aided by the exploitation of legal loopholes and government officials willing to turn a blind eye. In 1905, after hearing reports of unfavorable labor conditions, William Cadbury dispatched a member of the Anti-Slavery Society to investigate the cocoa plantations. Upon receiving confirmation of human rights violations, Cadbury boycotted Portuguese cocoa and persuaded two other chocolate firms to do the same. Cadbury’s actions …

Public And Private International Law : German Views On Global Issues, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Intent, Presumptions, And Non-Self-Executing Treaties, Curtis A. Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Takings In Institutional Context: Beyond The Fear Of Fragmented International Law, Steven R. Ratner

Articles

Claims of regulatory expropriation have been raised in diverse venues adjudicating international investment disputes Although a basic consensus position has emerged on a state's power to affect private property rights without compensation to investors, the legality of such actions will and should depend on the specific regime and institutional context in which they are appraised. A uniform doctrinal answer is thus impossible and undesirable, and many worries about fragmentation of international law are misplaced.

The Value Of Year Books Of International Law, James C. Hathaway

Articles

Is there still a place for a 'Yearbook' of International Law? Viewed as no more than an annually published volume of scholarship, one would surely answer in the negative. There is no shortage of excellent law journals, including journals focused on international and comparative law. It is thus doubtful that any quality article published in a yearbook would have failed to find a good home elsewhere. With even relatively obscure law journals readily available in electronic form at minimal cost and with maximum ease, the case for a yearbook is surely weak if predicated simply on the importance of disseminating …

The Human Rights Quagmire Of 'Human Trafficking', James C. Hathaway

Articles

Support for the international fight against "human trafficking" evolved quickly and comprehensively. The campaign launched by the UN General Assembly in December 19981 led to adoption just two years later of the Trafficking Protocol to the UN Convention against Organized Crime.2 U.S. President George W. Bush was among those particularly committed to the cause, calling for collective effort to eradicate the "special evil" of human trafficking, said by him to have become a "humanitarian crisis."3 One hundred and twenty-two countries have now ratified the Trafficking Protocol, agreeing in particular to criminalize trafficking and to cooperate in investigating and prosecuting allegations …

Labeling Mass Atrocity: Does And Should International Criminal Law Rank Evil?, Steven R. Ratner

Articles

This essay concerns mass atrocity, not the kind that happened on September 11th, but an older kind when governments and those under them and supported by them killed innocent civilians on the basis of their ethnicity, on the basis of their politics, on the basis of their religion, or other traits of the group. These acts, crimes against humanity and genocide, were criminalized in the period after World War II by the International Military Tribunal and then by the Genocide Convention. These were very, very important steps forward in international criminal law, but the result of the post-war period was, …

Consumer Protection In The Americas: A Second Wave Of American Revolutions?, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

This article, which draws on the author's experience as a member of the Inter-American Juridical Committee of the Organization of American States, focuses on the problem of crafting an appropriate hemispheric regime for the protection of consumer rights. The subject is now a major element in the agenda of the OAS Specialized Conference on Private International Law (know also under its Spanish acronym as the CIDIP process), in part because of the increased salience of the issue in light of increasing e-commerce. The article, based on the author's presentation at a symposium at the St. Thomas School of Law in …

Tugba Basaran On The Rights Of Refugees Under International Law By James C. Hathaway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1239pp., Tugba Basaran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Rights of Refugees Under International Law by James C. Hathaway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1239pp.

Aziza Khatoon On Human Rights In Turkey Edited By Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 349 Pp., Aziza Khatoon

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights in Turkey edited by Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 349 pp.

Ayse Betul Celik On The Age Of Apology: Facing Up To The Past Edited By Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, And Niklaus Steiner. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 333 Pages., Ayse Betul Celik

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past edited by Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, and Niklaus Steiner. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 333 pages.

Gregory J. Moore On The U.N. Secretary General And Moral Authority: Ethics And Religion In International Leadership. Edited By Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp., Gregory J. Moore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The U.N. Secretary General and Moral Authority: Ethics and Religion in International Leadership. Edited by Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp.

Richard Burchill On Contemporary Human Rights Ideas By Bertrand G. Ramcharan. New York, Ny : Routledge, 2008. 192 Pp., Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Contemporary Human Rights Ideas by Bertrand G. Ramcharan. New York, NY : Routledge, 2008. 192 pp.

Eric A. Heinze On Humanitarianism And Suffering: The Mobilization Of Empathy Edited By Richard Ashby Wilson & Richard D. Brown. New York, Ny: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 328pp., Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization of Empathy edited by Richard Ashby Wilson & Richard D. Brown. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 328pp.