International Law Commons^™

A Time Of Turmoil, Fred H. Cate, Christopher Kuner, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Orla Lynsky, Christopher Millard

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

International Dealmaking At The White House: Toward A Viable Test Of Allowable Sole Executive Agreements, Joshua Abbuhl

National Security Law Program

The Constitution's Treaty Clause states that the President "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur." This clause represents the only instance in which the Constitution describes a process by which the United States can conclude agreements with foreign governments. However, the President regularly enters international agreements on his own authority and without the assent of a supermajority of the Senate. This Note explores when the President may lawfully enter such agreements, known as "sole executive agreements."

Linkages To The Resource Sector: The Role Of Companies, Governments, And International Development Cooperation, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

With support from GIZ, CCSI prepared a report titled "Linkages to the Resource Sector: The Role of Companies, Governments, and International Development Cooperation." It outlines options for how these stakeholders can increase the economic linkages to the extractive industries sector not only in terms of ‘breadth’ (number of linkages) but also in terms of ‘depth’ (local value added). Apart from providing the theoretical framework for linkage creation and an overview of existing literature on this topic, the study highlights successful case study examples. Recommendations are provided for the three types of stakeholders.

Emerging International Trends And Practices In Guardianship Law For People With Disabilities, Robert Dinerstein

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In this article, the authors identify current trends in promoting supported decision-making as an alternative to guardianship for people with disabilities. Support for supported decision-making (SDM) and other reforms to guardianship can be found in international conventions and declarations (notably, Article 12 of the CRPD); Concluding Observations and General Comment No. 1 issued by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and in various countries (or states/provinces/localities within those countries), including the United States, where developments in state legislation, state court cases (including the Jenny Hatch case, in which one of the co-authors was counsel and another …

On The Whittington United Nations Archive, Gail Partin, William Butler

Faculty Scholarly Works

On 14 October 1986 Mrs. Louise L. Whittington, the widow of William Vallie Whittington (1904–1986), wrote to inform the Dickinson School of Law that her husband recently had passed away and that she wished to give to the Library of the Law School a leather bound facsimile copy of the United Nations Charter and certain documents related to the surrender of Germany in the Second World War and the creation of the United Nations. Arrangements were completed in Spring 1987 for the transfer of the materials. These remain a significant treasure and important legacy for the development of international law …

Essay: Iran And The Military Option, Gregory P. Noone Dr.

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

When politicians, pundits, and prognosticators discuss the "military option" for Iran it is important to understand that it will in all likelihood result in a full scale international armed conflict. If the "military option" mission is to eliminate Iran's nuclear capabilities, there is no one target to destroy, bomb, or obliterate that will render Iran's nuclear program dead therefore making such an option unlikely to be quick or efficient. A conflict with Iran would involve an extensive air campaign and probably result in Iran launching missiles at Israel and Eastern Europe. The Persian Gulf would effectively be closed off as …

Examining The Legality Of The Guantánamo Bay Detention Center According To International Humanitarian Law And International Human Rights Law, Sydney T. Winchester

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this research paper is to examine how international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) are applied to the Guantánamo Bay detention center. This paper was completed through the research of international treaties, court cases, and secondary sources that thoroughly discussed issues pertaining to Guantánamo and international law.

This paper first examines the differences between the two laws by looking at the particular roles each is meant to play in the subject of international law, as well as how the two have been applied thus far to the situation at Guantánamo. Second, the paper discusses …

Agora: Reflections On Rjr Nabisco V. European Community: The Scope And Limitations Of The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality, Hannah Buxbaum

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Introductory Note To United Nations Security Council Resolution 2298, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

On July 22, 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2298 supporting efforts by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to remove chemical weapons from Libya and facilitate their destruction in another country. This resolution was critical to the international effort to prevent chemical weapons in Libya from being at risk of acquisition by members of the so-called Islamic State operating in Libya.

Strength In Intellectual Property Protection And Foreign Direct Investment Flows In Least Developed Countries, James T. Gathii

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Variation In The Use Of Sub-Regional Integration Courts Between Business And Human Rights Actors: The Case Of The East African Court Of Justice, James T. Gathii

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Saving The Serengeti: Africa's New International Judicial Environmentalism, James T. Gathii

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article analyzes recent environmental law decisions of Africa's fledgling international courts. In 2014, for example, the East African Court of Justice stopped the government of Tanzania from building a road across Serengeti National Park because of its potential adverse environmental impacts. Decisions like these have inaugurated a new era of enhanced environmental judicial protection in Africa. This expansion into environmental law decision-making by Africa's international trade courts contrasts with other international courts that are designed to specialize on one issue area such as human rights or international trade, but not both. By contrast, Africa's international courts are simultaneously pushing …

A Collision Course Between Trips Flexibilities And Investor-State Proceedings, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article discusses an important, yet understudied threat to patent, as well as other intellectual property sovereignty under TRIPS: pending and potential challenges by companies under international agreements protecting investments. Although such agreements have existed for decades, Philip Morris and Eli Lilly are blazing a new path for companies to sue countries they claim interfere with their intellectual property rights through so-called investor-state arbitrations. These suits seek hundreds of millions in compensation and even injunctive relief for alleged violations of internationally agreed intellectual property norms. The suits fundamentally challenge TRIPS flexibilities at the very time the Declaration on Patent Protection …

The Egyptian Coup, The United States, And A Call To Strengthen The Rule Of Law And Diplomacy Rather Than Military Counter-Terrorism, Thomas Mcdonnell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article examines from a legal and historical perspective (a) the United States’ implicit ratification of the Egyptian military’s overthrow of the first fairly and freely elected Egyptian president and (b) how the perceived U.S. support for the coup contributes to Islamic terrorism.

To guarantee that oil has been readily available (and during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism), the U.S. has supported secular, authoritarian regimes in the Islamic world, including the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, the Shah of Iran, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and, initially, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, not to mention autocratic leaders …

The Brazilian Amazon Timber Industry And The International Mechanisms Of Timber Trade Control – Combating Illegal Logging And Associated Trade, Juliana Coelho Marcussi

Dissertations & Theses

Illegal logging and its associated trade are one of the main causes of degradation of the Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil. They spring from several deficiencies in the regulatory and monitoring systems. The purpose of this work is to recommend mechanisms to overcome these deficiencies to eliminate illegal logging and its associated trade in the long-term and to enhance the appreciation of the standing forests and the sustainable use of their natural resources.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Brazilian tropical timber market’s trends, and briefly describes the main stages of timber supply chain to build familiarity with the activities …

Legacies Of Exceptionalism And The Future Of Gay Rights In Singapore, Stewart Chang

Scholarly Works

This article analyses how the ties between Singaporean exceptionalism and its Western colonial and neocolonial roots explain why the Singapore's legislature and judiciary have retained its anti-sodomy statute under s 377A of the Penal Code. After decolonisation, restrictive laws pertaining to sexual conduct, originally justified by colonial lawmakers as bringing superior Western moral order to the uncivilised Asian territories, evolved into an "Asian values" moral exceptionalism that distinguished Singapore from the overly liberal West. This exceptionalism, however, also illustrates an Oedipal angst of the Singaporean Government to overcome and overtake the old colonial father in its attempt to redefine itself …

A Systems Theory Of Fragmentation And Harmonization, Anthony J. Colangelo

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

International law’s accelerating “fragmentation” presents the international legal system with what looks like a multilayered existential threat. Theoretically, how can we conceive of international law as a unitary system if its rules are becoming progressively frayed and pixilated to the point of incoherence? Doctrinally, what is “the law” if different, purportedly authoritative, bodies interpret it so differently? And practically, how are actors increasingly subject to the ever-expanding universe of international law supposed to behave when the law itself is so splintered that it may point them in many, perhaps contradictory, directions at once?

The prevailing view so far among international …

Between Flexibility And Stability: Ad Hoc Procedures And/Or Judicial Institutions?, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

The choice between the flexibility offered by ad hoc procedures and the stability proper of established judicial institutions poses many interesting questions for those interested in international dispute resolution. This chapter seeks to assess some of these questions and, possibly, to offer suggestions to future parties and their counsel on how to select the most appropriate resolution mechanism to resolve their international inter-state dispute. To begin with, it is worth noting two important and related trends that characterize contemporary international dispute resolution: first, the increased use of international litigation by diverse international actors, and second, the multiplication of dispute resolution …

A Red Card For Fifa: Corruption And Scandal In The World’S Foremost Sports Association, Chance Esposito

Law Student Publications

On a global scale, soccer (or as it is commonly called in most other countries “football”) is the most popular sport based on its numbers alone with over 250 million players. In recent years, the sport has become increasingly popular in nations or territories such as the United States. As a result of this increased interest, the sport and its governing organization, The Federation Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”), has been thrown into the global media arena in the past two decades. Recently unearthed information, however, has put the actions of the organization at the center of controversy for alleged …

Athletes Have Rights Too, Right? Investigating The Extreme Unfairness In Sports' Purported Supreme Authority - Why The International Court Of Arbitration For Sport Fails To Reign Supreme, Zachary Gotlib

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note argues that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), despite its role as a leading body in international sports dispute resolution, fails to achieve true supremacy due to systemic unfairness. CAS lacks key principles of fairness, particularly in its treatment of individual athletes compared to powerful entities like teams and leagues, hindering its ability to be recognized as a supreme judicial body.

The International Health Regulations: The Governing Framework For Global Health Security, Lawrence O. Gostin, Rebecca Katz

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

• The International Health Regulations (IHR) are the governing framework for global health security yet require textual and operational reforms to remain effective, particularly as parallel initiatives are developed.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) is the agency charged with oversight of the IHR, and its leadership and efficient functioning are prerequisites for the effective implementation of the IHR.
• We reviewed the historical origins of the IHR and their performance over the past 10 years and analyzed all of the ongoing reform panel efforts to provide a series of politically feasible recommendations for fundamental reform.
• This article offers proposals for fundamental reform—with …

False Rubicons, Moral Panic & Conceptual Cul-De-Sacs: Critiquing & Reframing The Call To Ban Lethal Autonomous Weapons, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Casting into the indeterminate future and projecting visions of so-called killer robots, The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (The Campaign) has incited moral panic in an attempt to stimulate a discussion and ultimately a ban on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS). Their efforts have been superficially successful but come at a self-defeating substantive cost. In the hope of shifting the dialogue from the hyperbolic to a constructive dialogue on the interaction between human and machine abilities in both current and future weapon systems, this article explores the conceptual paradox implicit in The Campaign and proposes an alternative.

Having provoked the international …

International Collaboration On Ip/Access To Medicines: Birth Of South Africa’S Fix The Patent Laws Campaign, Brook J. Baker

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Government Lawyers In South Africa, Jonathan Klaaren

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bank Frauds And Tracking The Hidden Assets, Albert F. Tellechea, Michael J. Cortes

Florida A & M University Law Review

Each year banks are the targets of insider and outsider fraudulent activity. Borrowers overstate their assets and holdings in order to obtain loans for which they would never otherwise qualify. Employees embezzle, steal, or conspire with crooked clients for a kickback, and billions are lost. Law enforcement agencies around the world are reporting increased instances of corporate, mortgage, and bank fraud. For example, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations ("FBI") in its FY2007 Financial Crimes Report states that its corporate fraud cases doubled from five years earlier. Through FY2007, U.S. Grand Juries returned 183 indictments resulting in 173 convictions. …

Banning Metal Mining In Guatemala, Randall S. Abate, Raquel Aldana

Journal Publications

Metal mining is unsustainable for Guatemala and its harms insurmountable for its people. Guatemalans who oppose metal mining have been fighting for decades domestically and internationally against the environmental degradation and other human rights abuses from metal mining activities in the country with little to show for their efforts. The State is too weak and corrupt to offer much hope for reform. Guatemala requires extensive governance reforms to become the type of strong democracy capable of reaping the potential benefits of metal mining in its territory. This is a long-term project. Most Guatemalans opposed to metal mining already know this, …

The Michigan Guidelines On Risk For Reasons Of Political Opinion

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Convention”) recognizes as refugees those who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on the basis of inter alia “political opinion,” are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of their home country

(De)Legitimation At The Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Cosette D. Creamer, Zuzanna Godzimirska

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

International courts employ a variety of legitimation strategies in order to establish and maintain a sound basis of support among their constituents. Existing studies on the legitimating efforts and legitimacy of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) judicial bodies have relied largely on theoretical or normative priors about what makes them legitimate. In contrast, this Article directly connects the study of courts' legitimating efforts with their effects by empirically mapping the reception of the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism's (DSM) exercise of authority by the system's primary constituents--WTO Members. Using an original data set of WTO Member statements within meetings of the …

"Measuring" The Erosion Of Academic Freedom As An International Human Right, Klaus D. Beiter, Terence Karran, Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article reports and comments on the results of an assessment of the legal protection of the right to academic freedom (an examination of its factual protection to be undertaken at a future point) in EU member states, having examined these countries' constitutions, laws on higher education, and other relevant legislation. The assessment relied on a standard scorecard, developed by utilizing indicators of protection of academic freedom, notably as reflected in UNESCO's Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, a document of 1997 that is not legally, but "politically" binding, and which concretizes international human rights requirements in respect …

Making International Health Regulations Work: Lessons From The 2014 Ebola Outbreak, Tsung-Ling Lee

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Many legal scholars believe that the lack of enforcement mechanisms provided by the International Health Regulations (IHR) in part explains the slow containment of the deadly Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa in 2014. In contrast, some global health practitioners deem funding for global health emergencies as a key remedy to the ineffective international infectious disease control regime. Such belief underpinned the creation of the Pandemic Emergency Facility (PEF), the World Bank's new financing initiative, aiming to finance global disaster response. Some commentators hope that the establishment of the PEF will resuscitate international interest in global health security and …