International Law Commons^™

Comity: Another Nail In The Coffin Of Institutional Homophobia, Nanci Schanerman

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

El Arbitraje De Inversional En America Del Sur: Propuesta De Creacion De Un Centro Alternativo De Arbitraje De La Estructura Internacional De La Union De Naciones Suramericanas, Euyelit Adriana Moreno-Paredes

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Private And Public Construction In Modern China, Gregory M. Stein

San Diego International Law Journal

During the past three decades, real estate development in China has proceeded at an astonishing pace, with much development occurring before China's 2007 adoption of its first modern law of property. Investors thus spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the real estate market of a nation that, during most of this period, had not formal property law. How can a huge nation modernize so rapidly and dramatically when its legal system furnishes such uncertainty? And how can this happen in a nation that still purports to subscribe to socialist ideology? I set out to answer these questions by interviewing …

The Exclusionary Rule In Immigration Proceedings: Where It Was, Where It Is, Where It May Be Going, Irene Scharf

San Diego International Law Journal

The piece examines the treatment of the Fourth Amendment in immigration courts by surveying its jurisprudential history in those courts and then analyzes the judicial responses thereto. Disparities among circuit court rulings add to the confusion and unpredictability typical of Immigration Court decisions. Finally, the article discusses the difficulties raised by the divergent circuit court opinions and offers suggestions as to how we may resolve these difficulties in accordance with the Constitution's requirement of fair play.

The Lion Awakens: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - 1977 To 2010, Michael B. Bixby

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article discusses the history, purposes and provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and traces its use and enforcement activity from 1977 to the present. This once little-used law has in recent years become the focus of aggressive activity by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The manuscript also includes numerous charts reporting on key cases and enforcement activities over the last thirty-three years by the DOJ and SEC, as well as other information and statistics regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"Don't Mess With Moscow" - Legal Aspects Of The 2008 Caucasus Conflict, Hannes Hofmeister

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article deals with a highly topical issue in international law: The Caucasus War of August 2008. This conflict illustrates how international law has become one of the arenas in which contemporary wars are fought. Both Georgia and Russia claimed the mantle of legitimacy in an effort to shape international perceptions of the conflict. But which party to the conflict really acted in accordance with international law? In order to answer this complex question, this Article will proceed as follows: It will first reconstruct the course of events that led to the outbreak of war. Having done so, it will …

Two Paths To Judicial Power: The Basic Structure Doctrine And Public Interest Litigation In Comparative Perspective, Manoj Mate

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article analyzes two key critical moments in the empowerment of the Supreme Court of India--the assertion of the basic structure doctrine, in which the Court asserted that constitutional amendments may be held unconstitutional on substantive grounds, and the development of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regime, through which the Court sought to protect and promote the rule of law and assume an expanded role in governance. I argue, in this article, that these two moments are exemplars of two types of moments that capture distinct aspects of the role of courts in different polities--"constitutional entrenchment" and "judicialization of governance" …

The Vulnerability Of Subsea Infrastructure To Underwater Attack: Legal Shortcomings And The Way Forward, Laurence Reza Wrathall

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article explores the vulnerability of submarine pipelines and cables to underwater subterfuge beyond territorial waters, particularly with regards to the emerging threat posed by unmanned vehicles in executing such mal intent. Next, it describes the legal status of this critical infrastructure before identifying shortcomings in legal protection from underwater attack. Finally, potential solutions are offered for the way forward.

Providing Legal Certainty In South America: Can Mercosur Help?, Camilo A. Rodriguez Yong

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The presence of legal certainty within a country’s legal system is a very relevant factor in the foreign investor’s decision to invest in a particular country. It is therefore necessary for countries to develop mechanisms for avoiding or reducing the uncertainty over the law in their legal systems. This article studies the Southern Common Market’s (“MERCOSUR”) structure and function with the purpose of assessing it as a mechanism to offer legal certainty to foreign investors in the region. The analysis is carried out by examining three basic elements of this regional integrationist experience: a) its body of law, b) its …

Mdg: Reinvigoration Or Mourning?, Marc Alexander C. Gionet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit got underway on September 20th in New York. Opening speeches seemed to be a roster of who’s – who of contributors towards global poverty with the IMF and WTO leading the pack. As speeches progressed, a disturbing trend developed which romanticized the pre-recessionary period of progress towards MDG achievement and reducing world poverty.

Development As Power, Alison Brysk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

While material progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is laudable, and pledges of new resources are necessary, we can never fully address poverty without talking about power. As Amartya Sen pointed out, true development depends on freedom.

The Misnomer Of Mdgs? When Goals Are Rights, Erin Mooney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

That much more must be done to meet the Millennium Development Goals is evident. The proposals put forth by Douste-Blazy and the new pledges announced at the recent UN MDG Summit are steps in the right direction. More fundamentally, what is required is to recognize that the MDGs are not merely “goals” to aim for, hitting or missing as the case may be. Rather, they are about realizing rights which governments, individually and collectively, have pre-existing legal obligations to uphold and ensure.

The International Review | 2010 Fall, Michael Rhee

The International Review Newsletter

Protecting animal welfare: Overview and future prospects

Does greater use of criminal law prevent the spread of HIV?

“Vulture Funds”: Preying on poor countries or pursuing deadbeat nations

Protecting migrant workers: The legal framework and status of debate

“Ideological exclusion”: Keeping out people who don’t share your views?

Asylum in the United States for foreign homeschoolers?

Does Arizona’s anti-illegal immigrant law violate international law?

Kosovo: A license for more independence days around the world?

The crime of aggression on the slow road to becoming a crime

Gulf of Mexico oil leak: Any role for international law?

More protection for salamanders, …

Bringing War Criminals To Justice And Justice To Victims: Mass Rape In Bosnia-Herzegovina And The Efficiency Of The Icty, Meredith Loken

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper investigates if the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has been efficient in achieving its main objective of “bringing war criminals to justice [and] bringing justice to victims.” This study explores the historical context by which the ICTY was created, and therefore examines the disintegration of Yugoslavia, focusing specifically on the Bosnian War. During this conflict, rape was employed as a method of warfare; this paper presents a brief theoretical examination of rape as a war weapon and analyzes rape and sexual violence as explicit methods of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It explores the evolution of gender …

Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties To Walk The Plank, Jennifer S. Martin

American University Law Review

This Article addresses the following question: when should contract law permit parties to discontinue performance under a private security contract aimed to combat piracy? Piracy has been 'on the rise' off Somalia and in East Asia, with serious attacks escalating. Some shipping companies have responded by drafting 'best management practices', hiring security companies to advise on countering the threat and hiring armed or unarmed security protection. After presenting representative factual situations involving pirate attacks, the Article describes the traditional approach to defining the obligations of parties and the performance issues that arise during contractual performance. This approach takes into account …

Conflicts In International Tort Litigation Between U.S. And Latin American Courts, John Baker, Agustín Parise

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Iflas And Chapter 11: Classical Islamic Law And Modern Bankruptcy, Abed Awad, Robert E. Michael

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There is no question that the orderly development of Islamic finance will require finding ways to amalgamate the classical Islamic law of bankruptcy with the needs of the modern Islamic finance industry. The unreasonable reliance on ever-expanding opportunities has disappeared along with the global credit markets. It is therefore inescapable that loss scenarios must be dealt with. That in turn means effective bankruptcy laws. We hope this article will help foster the effort.

Foreword, Brian J. Kennedy

San Diego International Law Journal

This twelfth issue of the San Diego International Law Journal is composed of articles which examine a broad range of contemporary legal issues of international and foreign significance.

Reinforcing The Hague Convention On Taking Evidence Abroad After Blocking Statutes, Data Privacy Directives, And Aerospatiale, Brian Friederich

San Diego International Law Journal

There has always been tension between European countries and the United States on the topic of evidence gathering. Much of that tension stems from the inherent differences between common and civil policies and methods. Until the Hague Convention, the process for obtaining evidence abroad was cumbersome and unreliable. The Hague Convention sought to change that by providing signatory countries more effective methods of cooperating with each other in international litigation. However, the Hague Convention has not been able to achieve its purpose, at least not in the United States. U.S. courts have interpreted the Hague Convention as optional, meaning it …

Identifying And Enforcing Back-End Electoral Rights In International Human Rights Law, Katherine A. Wagner

Michigan Journal of International Law

From Kenya to Afghanistan, Ukraine, the United States, Mexico, and Iran, no region or form of government has been immune from the unsettling effects of a contested election. The story is familiar, and, these days, hardly surprising: a state holds elections, losing candidates and their supporters claim fraud, people take to the streets, diplomats and heads of state equivocate, and everyone waits for the observers' reports. It is the last chapter of this story-the resolution-that remains unfamiliar and still holds the potential to surprise. The increasing focus on and importance of the resolution of contested elections, that resolution's link to …

Migrant Domestic Workers In Egypt: A Case Study Of The Economic Family In Global Context, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Essay links a particular legal case study with a broader set of questions about the "family" in a global political and economic context. Part I clarifies the analytic links between the household, the market, and globalization. By studying Egypt, the Essay focuses on one part of this global sociolegal continuum and draws out the special significance of transnational background rules and conditions for the "developmental state." Part II presents the legal framework affecting labor conditions of sub-Saharan African asylum-seekers who are migrant domestic workers in Egypt, and particularly the legal framework that affects their ability to bargain in securing …

Promise Against Peril: Of Power, Purpose, And Principle In International Law, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

I take two recent monographs on international law – Mary Ellen O’Connell’s "The Power and Purpose of International Law," and Eric Posner’s "The Perils of Global Legalism," as case studies in a more general inquiry into the role of the "rule of law" ideal in domestic and international law. I argue that international and domestic law alike give varyingly explicit and effective expression to the rule of law ideal, and that the task before us is accordingly steadily to improve their effectiveness in so doing, not to pretend that there is no role for this ideal to play in interpreting …

In Pursuit Of Offshore Tax Evaders: The Increased Importance Of International Cooperation In Tax Treaty Negotiations After United States V. Ubs Ag, Samantha H. Scavron

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

No abstract provided.

Illustrating Illegitimate Lawfare, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Lawfare that erodes the good faith application of the laws and customs of warfare is illegitimate and untenable. This essay outlines the contours of such illegitimate lawfare and provides current examples to guide practitioners. Clearly addressing the terminological imprecision in current understandings of lawfare, this essay is intended to help prevent further erosion of the corpus of jus in bello. Words matter, particularly when they are charged with legal significance and purport to convey legal rights and obligations. When purported legal “developments” actually undermine respect for the application and enforcement of humanitarian law, they are illegitimate. Although the laws and …

Can Bilateral Free Trade Agreements Be A Catalyst For Widespread Economic Change: Analyzing The Successes And Failures Of The Us-Omani Fta, Demic Eugene Tipitino

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Diversification, a buzzword in the Middle East for much of the past two decades can only be likened to the phrase “dependence on foreign oil” used by American politicians during US elections. And indeed much like the latter has been mentioned by every president since Richard Nixon, it seems as if diversification is being sung in a round by kings presidents and sultans throughout the oil producing nations of the world, but still to no avail. Oman has been trumpeting diversification in five-year plan after five-year plan of which they are currently in their seventh (2006 - 2010) with an …

October Roundtable: Mdgs And Human Rights Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The UN millennium development goals can be put back on track” by Philippe Douste-Blazy. The Guardian. September 5, 2010.

The Trouble With Treaties: Immigration And Judicial Law, Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

China And Disability Rights, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Dispute Settlement Process Of The Wto: A Normative Structure To Achieve Utilitarian Objectives, Brian Manning, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The paper posits that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has failed to efficiently promote mutually advantageous global relationships. The authors contend that the structure and the functioning of the Dispute Settlement Body have contributed to the failure of the WTO. The DSB’s approach to interpreting the WTO agreements has been normative, as opposed to a realistic. Consequently, decisions from the DSB have resulted in strict interpretation of WTO agreements without appropriately balancing member’s national realities. Thus, the overall goals of the organization have been compromised to reinforce existing global power structures rather than promote cooperative governance.

The authors examine two …

After The Fall: Financial Crisis And The International Order, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have challenged the international order to a degree not seen since World War II — and perhaps the Great Depression. As the U.S. housing crisis metastasized into a financial and economic crisis of grave proportions, and spread to nearly every corner of the globe, the strength of our international institutions — the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Group of Twenty, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and others — was tested as never before. Likewise tested, were the limits of our national commitment to those institutions, to our international obligations, and to global engagement more …