International Law Commons^™

A Few Steps Toward An Explanatory Theory Of International Law, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

If any one sentence about international law has stood the test of time, it is Louis Henkin's: "almost all nations observe almost all principles of international law and almost all of their obligations almost all of the time." If this is true, why is this true? What makes it true? How do nations invent rules that then turn around and bind them? Are international rules simply pragmatic and expedient? Or do they embody values such as the need for international cooperation? Is international law a mixed game of conflict and cooperation because of its rules, or do its rules make …

Is International Law Really ‘Law’?, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

International law is enforced by the process I describe as reciprocal-entitlement violation. The violation may be of the same entitlement or, more likely, of a different entitlement. But it is on the whole an effective process—as effective for the international legal system as is the enforcement of most laws in domestic systems via the state-sanctioned deprivation of one or more entitlements held by individual citizens or corporations. It is impossible to understand why nations do or refrain from doing the things they do without understanding what the entitlements are and how nations act to preserve their full complement of existing …

Three Obstacles To The Promotion Of Corporate Social Responsibility By Means Of The Alien Tort Claims Act: The Sosa Court's Incoherent Conception Of The Law Of Nations, The "Purposive" Action Requirement For Aiding And Abetting, And The State Action Requirement For Primary Liability, David A. Dana, Michael Barsa

Faculty Working Papers

The ATCA could be a powerful tool to promote corporate CSR, especially in developing countries where local legal restraints are weak. But despite the good normative reasons why the ATCA should be used in this way, serious obstacles remain. The Supreme Court's ahistorical and incoherent formulation of the "law of nations" fails to promote the development of the ATCA in ways that would cover even serious environmental harm. Also, the federal courts' confused jurisprudence concerning aiding and abetting and state action creates too many loopholes through which egregious corporate behavior may slip unpunished. In order to overcome these obstacles, we …

International Law And Rawls' Theory Of Justice, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

The complexity of present-day international law stands in an uneasy relation to the scheme of justice propounded by Rawls. The problems facing international lawyers may pose a conceptual threat to some of the fundamental bases upon which Rawls builds his entire theoretical edifice.

Bagram, Boumediene, And Limited Government, Robert Knowles

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reasonable Grounds Evidence Involving Sexual Violence In Darfur (With J. Hagan & R. Brooks), Todd Haugh

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Relevance Of International Law To The Domestic Decision On Prosecutions For Past Torture, Bartram Brown

All Faculty Scholarship

The US, as a champion of human rights abroad, has often been skeptical and even critical when other states have granted de facto amnesty allowing impunity for gross violations of human rights. Nonetheless, some now argue that the US should turn a blind eye to the evidence indicating that under the Bush Administration US government officials formulated and implemented a policy of torture. Naturally, arguments about US national security have been central to the debate. The CIA’s own reports insist that enhanced interrogation techniques have been effective in yielding valuable information vital to the national security of the United States, …

Neither Victims Nor Executioners: The Dilemma Of Victim Participation And The Defendant's Right To A Fair Trial At The Ineternational Criminal Court, Scott T. Johnson

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

My talk today analyzes victims' [articipation from the defendant's perspective and its impact upon the right to a fair trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Comparacion Historica Y Contemporanea De Los Esfuerzos Legales De Brasil Y Los Estados Unidos Para Acorralar La Piratedria De Musica Digital Y Software P2p, Nolan Garrido

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Hoy en dia las compras legales de mfisica en linea han subido notablemente.

Climate Change And Developing Countries: The International Law Perspective, Ved P. Nanda

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

A broad scientific consensus exists that climate change is real and the amount and rate of change have accelerated; the only uncertainty is about the political will of the international community to take effective measures to combat it.

Crimes Against Humanity Draft Bill Of 2009: The International Umplications Of Addressing Impunity Through National Legislation, Hansdeep Singh

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

U.S. scholars have long been calling for domestic legislation addressing crimes against humanity.'

The Crisis: Libertas And Veritas, Eric Engle

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The world today finds itself in a recession. The global recession was caused by unsustainable borrowing provoked by the self destructive and incoherent "war on terror" in concert with irresponsible bank lending-bad debt.

From Beggars To Citizens: The Right To Nondiscrimination In Admission Into Commercial Establishments In Guatemala, Najman Alexander Aizenstatd Leistenschneider

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The denial of access to individuals into commercial establishments for arbitrary reasons is a common occurrence.

The Evolution Of Anti-Slavery Laws In The United States, Regina Bernadin

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

In this new century, the United States of America is still struggling to end slavery within its borders.

A Human Rights Framework For Corporate Accountability, Jeanne M. Woods

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The ongoing controversy over corporate liability for human rights violations' seems counterintuitive today, in an era characterized by the unprecedented expansion of both rights instruments and global commercial intercourse.

International Migration: Trends, Challenges, And Need For Cooperation Within An International Human Rights Framework, Ved P. Nanda

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

International migration is a growing phenomenon with the estimated number of international migrants worldwide currently at 214 million

A "Re-Visioned" Foreign Direct Investment Approach From An Emerging Country Perspective: Moving From A Vicious Circle To A Virtuous Cycle, Rumu Sarkar

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

This Critical Essay sets forth and expands upon remarks presented at the International Law Weekend 2010 in New York, New York, which constitutes the annual meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA)

The Legal Integration Of The American Continent: An Invitation To Legal Science To Build A New Ius Commune, Juan Pablo Pampillo Balino

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The legal integration of the American Continent is one of the most important, suggestive and fertile issues for legal scholars on our continent.,

Tortured Law/Tortured "Justice"-Joint Criminal Enterprise In The Case Of Aloys Simba, Beth S. Lyons

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Joint criminal enterprise (JCE)-a judicially interpreted doctrine'- has become a "hallmark" mode of liability at the international Tribunals.

The Moon Agreement And Private Enterprise: Lessons From Investment Law, Timothy G. Nelson

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The year 2009 marked two events of interest to those with an interest in lunar exploration.

Introduction: The New Collective Security, Peter G. Danchin, Horst Fischer

Faculty Scholarship

Whether viewed as a socio-legal project gently civilizing states away from an older politics of diplomacy, deterrence, self-help and legitimate warfare, or as an institutional project establishing a collective security system premised on the rule of law, the primary purpose of the United Nations today remains the maintenance of international peace and security and the abolition of the “scourge of war.” In March 2003, the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq, a member State of the United Nations, in order to disarm it and change the regime of Saddam Hussein. The war shook the United Nations and leading capitals around …

Things Fall Apart: The Concept Of Collective Security In International Law, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter provides an introduction to the analytical and historical aspects of the concept of collective security in international law. Taking the examples of Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 during the League of Nations and the complaint brought by Hyderabad against India at the very inception of the United Nations in 1948, the chapter traces the complex dialectics of normativity and concreteness in debates concerning collective security. Mirroring the normative and institutional dilemmas underlying the two cases of Ethiopia and Hyderabad, it is observed that the questions of “external threats” (the threat or use of force between States) and …

A No-Excuse Approach To Transitional Justice: Reparations As Tools Of Extraordinary Justice, David C. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

It is sometimes the case that a debate goes off the rails so early that riders assume the rough country around them is the natural backdrop for their travels. That is certainly true in the debate over reparations in transitions to democracy. Reparations traditionally are understood as material or symbolic awards to victims of an abusive regime granted outside of a legal process. While some reparations claims succeed—such as those made by Americans of Japanese decent interned during World War II and those made by European Jews against Germany after World War II—most do not. The principal culprits in these …

Tensions Between International Law And Domestic Responsibilities, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Assessing The High-Level Panel Report: Rethinking The Causes And Consequences Of Threats To Collective Security, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Faculty Scholarship

This is a contribution to a volume of essays anchored in the evaluations of proposed reforms of the United Nations system extant in the middle half of the last decade. The essay’s focus is primarily on the role of the Security Council as the provider of collective security within the system. It contends that the term “collective security” has become far too amorphous and too all-embracing to be useful, and that it runs the risk of distorting the proper allocation of power within the international system. It argues for a more circumscribed view of collective security, and for a less …

Avoiding Evasion: Implementing International Migration Policy, Justin Gest

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

Despite the broadening range of international arbiters of global migration, the state—with its sovereign control of its territory and its subjection to the politics of its society—remains the only arbiter that oversees the actual interactions during which a proposed bill of rights would be followed. “As long as the nation-state is the primary unit for dispensing rights and privileges, it remains the main interlocutor, reference and target of interest groups and political actors, including migrant groups and their supporters.” This suggests that the normative persuasion and mobilization of even the most powerful non-state actors can only be in the ultimate …

The Most-Favoured Nation Principle, Equal Protection, And Migration Policy, Tomer Broude

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

This article discusses the theoretical interaction between the economically grounded most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment principle and the human-rights based concept of equal protection of migrants. In the multilateral law of international trade, MFN is an article of faith that lays a valid claim to having significantly contributed to the success of the trade-liberalizing and welfare-enhancing role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade /World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO). Above and beyond its trade-related economic roles, when it applies to individuals of different nationalities, the logic of MFN also appears to generally conform to fundamental principles of equal protection of the …

Soft Law And The Protection Of Vulnerable Migrants, Alexander Betts

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

Since the 1980s, an increasing number of people have crossed international borders outside of regularized migration channels, whether by land, air or sea. Policy debates on these kinds of movements have generally focused on security to the neglect of a focus on rights. In a range of situations, though, irregular migrants, who fall outside of the protection offered by international refugee law and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), may have protection needs and, in some cases, an entitlement to protection under international human rights law. Such protection needs may result from conditions in the country of origin …

Protecting And Promoting The Human Right To Respect For Family Life: Treaty-Based Reform And Domestic Advocacy, Ryan Mrazik, Andrew I. Schoenholtz

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

This article examines the right to respect for family life in international law, focusing on its underlying principles and explicit protections. The article identifies these legal norms so that drafters of international treaties, specifically the International Migrants Bill of Rights, and United States legal practitioners representing immigrant children can incorporate the right to respect for family life into their drafting and advocacy, thereby protecting and promoting this critical human right.

To encourage both high-level, international treaty-based reform and the grassroots domestic advocacy necessary to comprehensively protect and promote this right, this article provides specific ideas for incorporating the right to …

Extreme Vulnerability Of Migrants: The Cases Of The United States And Mexico, Jorge A. Bustamante

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

This paper deals with the notion of vulnerability of migrants, with respect to the realities of two countries, the United States and Mexico. The vulnerability of migrants is understood as a heterogeneously imposed condition of powerlessness. This is based on the premise that migrants are inherently vulnerable as subjects of human rights from the point of their departure as they leave home to initiate their migration. That is, any human being is less vulnerable at home than after she leaves home to become a migrant. The same applies to a sociological extension of the notion of home--a community of origin. …