International Law Commons^™

Against Wishful Scholarship: The Importance Of Engel, Duncan Mccargo

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

David Engel's Article on global consciousness' crystallizes a set of arguments he recently made in a number of publications, most notably in his coauthored book Tort, Custom, and Karma.2 To me, the main point of his argument is by no means limited to questions of law or globalism. Rather, he argues against the dominant mode of writing among scholars across a wide range of social science and related disciplines-a mode of writing that might best be termed "wishful scholarship." In wishful scholarship, the starting point of the author is the world as she or he wishes to see it, or …

The Human Right To Water: Will Its Fulfillment Contribute To Environmental Degradation?, Alezah Trigueros

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Human rights and environmental protection are two often overlapping bodies of law, each of which by their nature seeks to take priority over other applicable law. For this reason, these two bodies of law often find themselves in tension with one another. This Note aims to illustrate the tension between human rights and environmental protection in the context of the recent push for a codified human right to water. My thesis is that ideally these two bodies of law should balance each other out-a human right to water would be subject to environmental safeguards, and, likewise, conservation efforts would be …

Public Interest Litigation In India As A Paradigm For Developing Nations, Zachary Holladay

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Public interest litigation (PIL) in India can serve as a vehicle for creating and enforcing rights and is critical to the sustenance of democracy. PIL in India can address the needs of its citizens when legislative inertia afflicts the Indian National Congress. This Note discusses how PIL in India can serve as a model for other developing nations struggling with legislative inertia and can provide recourse to marginalized and disadvantaged communities. Furthermore, while PIL obscures the traditional boundaries of power in a liberal democratic polity, democracy is in fact strengthened by the expansion of standing to include any citizen who …

The Global Crackdown On Insider Trading: A Silver Lining To The "Great Reccession", Christopher P. Montagano

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The wake of the Great Recession marked a period of increased enforcement of insider trading violations by nation-states and self-regulatory organizations overseeing stock markets around the world. Before discussing the heightened global enforcement of insider trading, this Note explains the development of insider trading regulation by focusing on U.S., EU, and China law. This Note argues that the heightened global enforcement of insider trading violations in the wake of the Great Recession is a sign of a shared perception by market regulators around the world that there is a need to restore market confidence. Strong enforcement of insider trading regulations …

Background Paper For Second Workshop On Contract Negotiation Support For Developing Host Countries, Vale Columbia Center On Sustainable International Investment, Humboldt-Viadrina School Of Governance

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance (HSVG) have initiated a process to discuss the desirability and feasibility of mechanisms to provide negotiation support for developing host countries in their negotiations with major investors.

At a first workshop held in October 2011, participants agreed on the need for an expansion of support for developing countries in their contract negotiations.

A second workshop was held at Columbia University in July 2012 that undertook a gap analysis between the existing sources of support for developing countries in relation to complex contracts and the countries’ needs for …

Toward A Situational Model For Regulating International Crimes, Andrew K. Woods

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The international criminal regime, as currently conceived, relies almost exclusively on the power of backward-looking criminal sanctions to deter future international crimes. This model reflects the dominant mid-century approach to crime control, which was essentially reactive. Since then, domestic criminal scholars and practitioners have developed and implemented new theories of crime control—theories notable for their promise of crime prevention through ex ante attention to community and environmental factors. Community policing crime prevention through environmental design, and related "situational" approaches to crime control have had a significant impact on the administration of domestic criminal law.

This Article evaluates the implications of …

Forums For International Economic Adjudication: Threads In Fragments, Francis N. Botchway

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article challenges the notion of fragmentation in international law, arguing that the proliferation of international adjudicatory bodies, such as the ICJ, WTO DSB, and ECJ, does not lead to fragmentation but instead fosters integration and coherence in international jurisprudence. It highlights the alignment of procedures, shared sources of law, and interpretative approaches among these bodies, demonstrating that institutional diversity enhances efficiency and enriches international law rather than causing discord. The article emphasizes the role of these institutions in addressing complex legal issues, ensuring legal certainty, and promoting transparency and inclusivity in global dispute resolution.

Legal Lock-Picking: An Analysis Of Anti-Circumvention Law In The United States And Brazil, Skyler Sourifman

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note examines the contrasting approaches of the U.S. and Brazil in their anticircumvention laws under copyright regimes. It highlights how the U.S. DMCA strictly prohibits circumvention, while Brazil's proposal allows exceptions for fair use, interoperability, and public domain access. The analysis critiques the DMCA for its broad provisions that have led to inconsistent court rulings, such as in RealNetworks v. Streambox and Universal City Studios v. Corley, which have stifled competition and free expression. Conversely, Brazil's approach aligns with the Access to Knowledge movement, emphasizing a balanced copyright system. The note suggests that recent U.S. exemptions, like those …

Opportunistic Discipline: Using Eurasian Integration To Improve Sanctions Against Belarus, Ilya Zlatkin

Law Student Publications

This comment does not condemn or condone the Lukashenko regime's policies. Instead, it evaluates the effectiveness of the U.S. sanctions and provides some feasible alternatives. Also, this comment avoids normative arguments against sanctions, concentrating more on the probable economic and political effects. Part II supplies background information on the political developments within Belarus since the Soviet Union's collapse, including prior sanctions that the West imposed. Part III explains why the United States can legally institute sanctions. Parts IV and V discuss how American sanctions facilitate appropriation of significant Belarusian state assets by Russia and China, respectively. Part VI posits that …

The Right To Silence In The Hague International Criminal Courts, Mark Berger

Faculty Works

The War Crimes Tribunals and the International Criminal Court were established as international judicial institutions charged with the task of prosecuting individuals responsible for committing such human rights offenses as genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and violations of the laws or customs of war. These judicial bodies function in much the same way as domestic criminal courts and as such they have had to balance the institutional goal of prosecuting human rights offenders with the need to respect appropriate limits on the exercise of their authority. This article explores how that balance has been …

Walled Gardens Of Privacy Or “Binding Corporate Rules?”: A Critical Look At International Protection Of Online Privacy, Joanna Kulesza

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

A growing concern in the era of cloud computing is protecting Internet users' privacy. This concern is compounded by the fact that there are no effective international solutions. This article considers the latest European Union (EU) proposed development in this area – a regulatory model based on amended Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) – as introduced by the EU Justice Commissioner. These planned changes would have worldwide effects on international companies' online activities in transboundary cyberspace.

After providing a background on the concept of defining privacy in general, the article describes the BCR proposal, and proceeds to consider the likelihood of …

Proposal For An International Convention On Online Gambling, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

The proposal, which will be published as a chapter in a volume from the Internet Gaming Regulation Symposium co-organized by the William S. Boyd School of Law of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in May 2012, presents the outline of an international convention ('Convention') that will facilitate cooperation among countries in enforcement of their online gambling regulations while allowing the countries to maintain their individual legal approaches to online gambling. Countries continue to vary in their approaches - some permit and regulate, and others prohibit online gambling, and even countries that permit and regulate online gambling approach the issue …

Cisg Translation Issues: Reducing Legal Babelism, Claire M. Germain

UF Law Faculty Publications

The CISG (Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods) has remarkably facilitated commercial transactions across boundaries and different legal systems. This article, to be published as a Book Chapter, discusses some possible difficulties caused by using different languages, or words which might be interpreted differently, and some solutions and ways to deal with these difficulties. Three kinds of issues have appeared: the first has to do with drafting issues, and the peculiar problem of the six official languages of the Convention. The second set of issues deals with the interpretation of the Convention and the so-called homeward trend. …

The Russian Federation Joins The Oecd Convention Against Bribery, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

On April 17, 2012, the Russian Federation joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions (“the Convention”).[1] This is but the latest example of a recent trend among the major emerging markets toward criminalizing the bribing of foreign officials. This Insight will place Russia’s accession in context of the broader effort to establish a global anti-bribery regime.

The American Duality: Exceptionalism Or Exemptionalism?, Courtney Muniz

Communication Studies

Discusses how the ethnocentric tendencies found within American exceptionalism translate into U.S. foreign policy.

“Seeking Justice, Strategically”, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In his opinion piece, Ian Paisley takes to task the International Criminal Court (ICC) for, as he sees it, intervening in domestic processes of reconciliation at the expense of long-term prospects for peace. The "peace versus justice" paradox is not a new one and Paisley expresses a common criticism of justice mechanisms as disruptive of post-conflict, societal healing and the overwhelming hurdle of governing in the aftermath of violence. Missing from his analysis is a broader understanding of trends in international justice and accountability, of which the ICC is only one component. While the ICC is certainly not immune from …

American Indian Water Right Settlements, Darcy Bushnell

Publications

No abstract provided.

“Slippery Slopes: On Why We Need The Icc”, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Peace, reconciliation, and restorative justice: these are the albatrosses that international criminal law (ICL) must (unfairly) bear. Ian Paisley, MP from Northern Ireland and former United Nations and European Union peace envoy, echoes in a New York Times op-ed contribution the aspirations heaped onto the International Criminal Court (ICC). In March, the ICC convicted Thomas Lubanga for war crimes and the conscription of children as soldiers; justice has been done, Paisley claims. Yet the ICC was "intended as an instrument of peace," and "there is no peace" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On this ground he concludes, …

June Roundtable: International Criminal Court, Peace, And Justice, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Peace Must Not Be the Victim of International Justice” New York Times. March 16, 2012.

Paper On The Business Case For Transparency, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI strongly supports the transparency of contracts and tax flows. CCSI shares the belief of many stakeholders that transparency is essential to leverage extractive industries for sustainable development and is in the mutual interest of all stakeholders. However, some industry players continue to voice the concern that increased transparency would be harmful for their business. Therefore, CCSI is working to also establish the business case for transparency.

In one such case, some industry players have been lobbying against the regulations developed by the Security and Exchange Commission to implement the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform …

The International Review | 2012 Spring/Summer, Michael Rhee

The International Review Newsletter

Taking property for the public good: Eminent domain laws from around the world

Minimum wage policies in other nations and under international law

Flag desecration laws at home and abroad

Will new laws help develop effective and safe drugs more quickly?

Child sex abuse: Will the International Criminal Court investigate the Vatican?

Australia: Women soldiers at the front line of combat?

European Union: No more added sugar in fruit juices

International Criminal Court: The first judgment

First conviction of a former head of state since the end of World War II

Will a new treaty address Europe’s financial crisis?

On …

Public Health Regulation: The Impact Of Intersections Between Trade & Investment Treaties In Asia, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

There has been an explosive growth of free trade agreements (FTAs) in recent years. The World Trade Report 2011 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) shows Asian members to be among the most active in signing preferential trade agreements. This unprecedented growth has attracted much academic and policy discussion on aspects such as their effects on trade liberalization, problems raised by specific trade and investment provisions, dispute settlement, and concerns over “regionalism”. Like such areas, public health regulation has been significantly affected by such treaties. FTAs, together with bilateral investment treaties (BITs), are rapidly forming a source of intersecting state …

Beyond War: Bin Laden, Escobar, And The Justification Of Targeted Killing, Luis E. Chiesa, Alexander K. A. Greenawalt

Washington and Lee Law Review

Using the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden as a case study, this Article contributes to the debate on targeted killing in two distinct ways, each of which has the result of downplaying the centrality of international humanitarian law (IHL) as the decisive source of justification for targeted killings. First, we argue that the IHL rules governing the killing of combatants in wartime should be understood to apply more strictly in cases involving the targeting of single individuals, particularly when the targeting occurs against nonparadigmatic combatants outside the traditional battlefield. As applied to the bin Laden killing, we argue …

Gsp And Development: Increasing The Effectiveness Of Nonreciprocal Preferences, Matthew G. Snyder

Michigan Journal of International Law

The intellectual foundations of nonreciprocal preferences were first laid out in the 1960s, as several scholars noted developing countries' increasing reliance on highly volatile, low-value-added exports like agricultural and mineral commodities. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which became the mechanism for implementing nonreciprocal preferential market access, was developed in this context. GSP was envisioned as part of a larger development strategy that included import-substitution policies, infant industry protection, and preferential access to developed countries' markets. As GSP granted preferential access over World Trade Organization (WTO) most favored nation (MFN) rates, development economists anticipated that it would provide developing countries' …

Bridging International Law And Rights-Based Litigation: Mapping Health-Related Rights Through The Development Of The Global Health And Human Rights Database, Benjamin Mason Meier, Oscar A. Cabrera, Ana Ayala, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, the World Health Organization, and the Lawyers Collective have come together to develop a searchable Global Health and Human Rights Database that maps the intersection of health and human rights in judgments, international and regional instruments, and national constitutions. Where states long remained unaccountable for violations of health-related human rights, litigation has arisen as a central mechanism in an expanding movement to create rights-based accountability. Facilitated by the incorporation of international human rights standards in national law, this judicial enforcement has supported the implementation of rights-based claims, giving …

Trips And Bits: An Essay On Compulsory Licenses, Expropriation, And International Arbitration, Peter B. Rutledge

Scholarly Works

This essay examines the potential for arbitration to resolve disputes between private companies and developing countries over the propriety of compulsory licenses. At bottom, my thesis is that arbitration supplies the medium through which to mediate the tension between the profit-seeking goals of private multinational companies and the development goals of foreign nations, especially in the developing world. The compulsory license debate raises a clash of fundamental interests between the patent holder, the patent holder’s state, and the host state. Arbitration can play an important role in balancing those interests, albeit a highly unusual one. Arbitration provides an essential forum …

From Retribution To Reconciliation, From Spoiler To Peace Envoy, Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Is there a tension between justice and peace? That debate I leave to my co-panelists, because the most interesting and important thing about this month's centerpiece, without a doubt, is not its well-judged (if slightly ill-informed) take on the ICC, but the name of the author at its end.

The Constitutional Subject And Its Identity: My German Experience, Bernhard Schlink

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

"By Some Other Means": Considering The Executive's Role In Fostering Subnational Human Rights Compliance, Risa E. Kaufman

Cardozo Law Review

The broad realization of human rights domestically requires strong partnership among all levels of government. Indeed, international and domestic law support an important role for state and local governments in implementing the United States's human rights treaty commitments, with the federal government retaining ultimate responsibility. While the federal government's responsibility is clear, its options for fostering and facilitating subnational compliance have not been fully explicated. The United States's human rights treaty ratification practices and recent Supreme Court jurisprudence primarily constrain the executive's ability to compel state and local compliance without congressional authorization. In the absence of such congressional action, the …

The African Union Commission On International Law And The Proposed African Institute Of International Law: Where Do We Go From Here?, Olabisi Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The author critically reflects on the African Union Commission on International Law (AUCIL) statute of 2009 particularly in relation to its mandate to advance the teaching and development of international law in Africa; examines its relationship with proposed African Union Institute of International Law (AIIL) in Arusha, Tanzania; and calls for an amendment of the AUCIL Statute in order to enhance the achievement of its goals and clarification of some vague areas.