International Law Commons^™

Reconciling Policy And Equity: The Ability Of The Internal Revenue Code To Resolve Disputes Regarding Nazi-Looted Art, Joseph F. Sawka

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles, Vladimir Jares

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

As policymakers, academia, and the media have paid increased attention to the Arctic region, there is more evidence of a certain lack of knowledge concerning the applicable international law.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of December 10, 1982--adopted in 1982 and in force since November 16, 1994--provides both a legal framework within which all activities in oceans and seas must be carried out and, as far as the seabed of the Arctic Ocean international law is concerned, answers to questions related to its legal status and applicable regulations.

If a coastal State wishes to delineate …

Medellin, Delegation And Conflicts (Of Law), Peter B. Rutledge

Scholarly Works

The case of Medellin v. Texas presented the Supreme Court with a recurring question that has bedeviled judges, legal scholars, and political scientists-what effect, if any, must a United States court give to the decision of an international tribunal, particularly where, during the relevant time, the United States was party to a treaty protocol that bound it to that tribunal's judgments. While the Supreme Court held that the International Court of Justice's ("ICJ") decision was not enforceable federal law, its decision reflected an important recognition that the issues presented in that case were not limited to the specific area of …

The Captures Clause, Ingrid Wuerth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Captures Clause of the United States Constitution gives Congress the power to "make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water." A variety of courts, scholars, politicians and others have recently cited the Clause to support conflicting arguments about the scope of Congress’s power to initiate and prosecute war. Some claim or assume that the Captures Clause gives Congress power over the taking and detention of people, while others conclude that the power is limited to property only. Similarly, those who view Congress’s power broadly understand the Captures Clause as giving Congress the power to determine what (or whom) may …

A Few Drops Of Oil Will Not Be Enough, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn provide a rich description of the various kinds of violence, deprivation, depredation and exploitation that women experience on a vast scale in the developing world. They write of sex trafficking, acid attacks, “bride burning,” enslavement, spousal beatings, unequal healthcare (something the USA still struggles with), insufficient food, gendered abortions and infant and maternal mortality. They are right to identify the education of women and girls as part of the solution to the widespread “gendercide.” However, their approach focuses too much on the capacity, indeed the virtue or heroism, of individual women. It does not take …

From Outrage To Action, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Kristof and WuDunn provide a vivid panoramic view of problems faced by women (primarily in the “developing” world), what has been done and what more could be done to help them achieve dignity and autonomy in their lives, and how vindication of their rights could contribute to the broader social development of their societies. In this they provide us with important insights into how human rights might be effectively proclaimed and successfully implemented. In reviewing their considerable contributions, I shall also suggest some limitations on both their analysis and their policy recommendations.

The Fog Of Certainty, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

In a recent essay in the Yale Law Journal, constitutional law scholar Michael Stokes Paulsen argues that “[t]he force of international law, as a body of law, upon the United States is . . . largely an illusion.” Rather than law, he suggests, international law is mere “policy and politics.”

For all the certainty with which this argument is advanced, it cannot survive close scrutiny. At its foundation, Professor Paulsen’s essay rests on a pair of fundamental misconceptions of the nature of law. Law is not reduced to mere policy, to begin, simply because it can be undone. Were that …

Interview Of Ambassador Hugo Paemen Conducted By Rosine Plank-Brumback On September 24, 2009, Institute Of International Economic Law, Georgetown University Law Center

The Oral History Project of the World Trading System

Interview of Ambassador Hugo Paemen, Chef de Cabinet of European Commissioner Vicomte Étienne Davignon, Former Deputy-Director-General for External Affairs and Former Spokesperson of the European Commission, conducted by Rosine Plank-Brumback on September 24, 2009.

Experimenting With Territoriality: Pan-European Music License And The Persistence Of Old Paradigms, Ana Eduarda Santos

Duke Law & Technology Review

This article tells the story of what could have been an interesting and important shift in our approach to territoriality in the digitalized world. Europe had the chance to be the cradle of an unprecedented copyright experience – the creation of a quasi pan- continental license in the music field – but it might have lost that opportunity in the midst of non-binding recommendations and resolutions. This article argues this loss is due to the overreaching persistence of old paradigms, namely the principle of territoriality.

From Ankara To Strasbourg: Developing A Comprehensive Supranational Litigation Strategy For Patriarchal Preservation In Turkey, Joshua B. Gessling

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Standards For The Promotion And Protection Of Children's Rights: American And South African Dimensions, Johan D. Ven Der Vyver

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Power And Cooperation: Understanding The Road Towards A Truth Commission, Ming Zhu

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Truth commissions, usually described as a softer transitional justice alternative to trials, gained traction in academic circles following the establishment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Though they are praised for their value in societal reconciliation and widely recognized for their flexibility; little is understood of their causal factors or requirements. This Article turns to this hole in the research and examines the effects of one potential causal variable, the balance of power between the warring parties. Through an in-depth examination of four case studies, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and East Timor, this Article finds that truth commissions are …

Overcoming Collective Action Failure In The Security Council: Would Direct Regional Representation Better Protect Universal Human Rights?, Noah Bialostozky

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rights And Duties Of Minorities In A Context Of Post-Colonial Self-Determination: Basques And Catalans In Contemporary Spain, Jorge Martínez Paoletti

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sept. 2009, Ifc, Addressing Grievances From Project-Affected Communities, Good Practice Note, Final, Ifc

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

Application Of International Humanitarian Law By United States Courts

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

No abstract provided.

A Tragedy Of The Commons: Property Rights Issues In Shanghai Historic Residences, Kara L. Phillips, Amy L. Sommers

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

No abstract provided.

Volume 28 - Number 2: Table Of Contents

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

No abstract provided.

The Right To Life, The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, And Abortion

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

No abstract provided.

Comparing Supremacy: Sovereign Immunity Of States In The United States And Non-Contractual State Liability In The European Union, Jose A/ Gutierrez-Fons

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

No abstract provided.

From Armchair Reading To Action: Acknowledging Our Role In The Horror Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo - And Doing Something About It., Shareen Hertel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Reading Adam Hochschild's extraordinary account of ordinary people caught up in the horrific ravages of a civil war raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I was struck by how incongruous my own encounter with this suffering is. I read his article over lunch, safe in the comfort of my own home. As a woman, I live largely without fear of the kind of brutal sexual violence that Hochschild opens his article with, as he related the story of a Congolese NGO worker who is herself a victim of multiple rapes.

If They Just Weren't So Rich!, Anja Mihr

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The deadliest war on earth-as it is called-in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will only end when the country's richness fades or is kept under surveillance. Human rights and peace might have a chance if Congo's lucrative diamond, gold or coltan mines were under shared control by non-profit agencies or international organizations with the intention to spread the mines' benefits and wealth among the Congolese people. Wishful thinking? Most likely it is, but what other alternative is there? The country's extraordinary wealth in natural resources is the main reason for the immense corruption, the extermination of entire villages, the …

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

The Rape of the Congo. By Adam Hochschild. The New York Review of Books. August 13, 2009.

Natural Resources And Wealth Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo (Drc): Of Benefit To Whom?, Nicola Colbran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When asked to discuss the humanitarian tragedy in the DRC, the question really is where to start? The article by Adam Hochschild discusses some of the most horrific events and experiences imaginable: widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, the recruitment of child soldiers, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The immediate human response is who is to blame, how did it happen and how can the world apparently do nothing?

Human Rights Law On Trial In The Drc, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ongoing tragedy in Eastern Congo contains so many tragic lessons that it should shake to their very foundations all comfortable ideologies about human rights and politics. The atrocities in the DRC should implicate all but have so far resulted in almost limitless impunity. Here, I briefly put human rights law on trial for its role in perpetuating this tragedy.

International Law In Crisis: A Qualitative Empirical Contribution To The Compliance Debate, Michael P. Scharf

Cardozo Law Review

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Professors Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner published The Limits of International Law, a potentially revolutionary book that employs rational choice theory to argue that international law is really just "politics" and does not render a "compliance pull" on State decision-makers. Critics have pointed out that Goldsmith and Posner's identification of the role of international law in each of their case studies is largely conjectural, and that what is needed is qualitative empirical data that identifies the international law-based arguments that were actually made and the policy-makers' responses to …

The Constitutionality Of Decolonization By Associated Statehood: Puerto Rico's Legal Status Reconsidered, Gary S. Lawson, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

International and constitutional law arguably collide in the legal arrangement between the United States and Puerto Rico. As a matter of international law, it is unclear that this arrangement conforms to customary international and treaty obligations. As a matter of national law, it is unclear that the Constitution permits an arrangement between Puerto Rico and the United States—short of separation (independence as a State) or integration (admission to the Union as a state)—that could conform to these international obligations. In particular, the Appointments Clause and the Constitution’s voting provisions may well be in tension with contemporary international law relative to …

Mtic Fraud Infects Tradable Carbon Permits, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud has been slowly morphing from cell phones and computer chips to other commodities. In the last few months however MTIC made a dramatic appearance in tradable CO2 permits. It closed exchanges and prompted France and the Netherlands to unilaterally change their tax treatment of CO2 trades. The UK has followed the French treatment in large measure. On Monday June 8, 2009 rumors of MTIC fraud in carbon emission permits closed the main European exchange for spot trading of European Union carbon emissions permits and Kyoto offsets. When BlueNext began trading permits again on Wednesday, June …

Aug. 28, 2009, J. Loukas, Bic, An Exception To All Rules, Compare Wb And Ifc Standards, Jackob Kane Loukas

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

Attempt, Conspiracy, And Incitement To Commit Genocide, Jens David Ohlin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In these brief commentaries to the U.N. Genocide Convention, I explore three criminal law modes of liability as they apply to the international crime of genocide. Part I analyzes attempt to commit genocide and uncovers a basic tension over whether attempt refers to the genocide itself (the chapeau) or the underlying offense (such as killing). Part I concludes that the tension stems from the fact that the crime of genocide itself is already inchoate in nature, since the legal requirements for the crime do not require an actual, completed genocide, in the common-sense understanding of the term, but only a …