International Law Commons^™

Climate Change And International Law: A Case For Expanding The Definition Of "Refugees" To Accommodate Climate Migrants, Jenny Han, Amanda Kuras

Fordham Undergraduate Law Review

The United Nations’ strict definition of “refugee” prevents individuals who are forced to migrate — often due to effects caused by climate change — from claiming the legal protections afforded to those lawfully classified as refugees. This restrictive definition represents a failure of current international law in responding to one of the world’s most pressing existential threats. The effects of climate change, including global warming, extreme weather and rising sea levels, displace millions of individuals worldwide. However, because climate change has only recently become recognized as a serious global and existential issue, international law has not yet responded to the …

The Rock: The Role Water Plays In Our Lives, Ronald Griffin

Faculty Books and Book Contributions

We witness increasing interconnectedness of issues, internationalization of flows of goods and movement of labor, intergovernmental cooperation, new attitudes to personal rights and meaning of family, including human rights, as well as changes of values, moral principles and ethical conceptions.We live in a pervious world. Traditional boundaries have become permeable. One of the great challenges of our time is the response of the law to current developments. The authors of the collection of essays offered in this book seek to analyze some of these challenges.The essays are revised versions based on presentations at the International Conferences on Law organized by …

Regulating Offshore Finance, William J. Moon

Faculty Scholarship

From the Panama Papers to the Paradise Papers, massive document leaks in recent years have exposed trillions of dollars hidden in small offshore jurisdictions. Attracting foreign capital with low tax rates and environments of secrecy, a growing number of offshore jurisdictions have emerged as major financial havens hosting thousands of hedge funds, trusts, banks, and insurance companies.

While the prevailing account has examined offshore financial havens as “tax havens” that facilitate the evasion or avoidance of domestic tax, this Article uncovers how offshore jurisdictions enable corporations to evade domestic regulatory law. Specifically, recent U.S. Supreme Court cases restricting the geographic …

The Necessity, Public Interest, And Proportionality In International Investment Law: A Comparative Analysis, Abdulkadir Gülçür

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

This article deals with relations of the three concepts of international investment law which can be enumerated as “necessity,” “public interest,” and “proportionality.” These three concepts have been reviewed in the light of the relevant investment tribunals’ decisions and judgments of other international judicial bodies. In democratic governments, legal acts and actions must be based on the “public interest.” However, the “public interest” does not constitute by itself a determinative factor for lawfulness. The proportionality principle has a significant role in the investment arbitrations concerning whether the “public interest” aim is met. Albeit those inferences, the “public interest” claim is …

The Demand For Unilateral Secession In Catalonia: While The Cause Is Compelling, Secession Would Not Be Legal Under International Law, Logan Hayes

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

Tensions between Catalonia and Spain have finally boiled over, leading to Catalonia’s decision to unilaterally secede from Spain. On October 1, 2017, an overwhelming 90% of voters chose to leave Spain in a referendum held by the Catalonian parliament. On October 10, 2017, Carles Puigdemont, President of Catalonia, gave a speech claiming that “with the results of the referendum on October first, Catalonia has earned the right to be an independent state.” The issue has now become whether Catalonia has the right, under international law, to maintain their unilateral secession from Spain in order to form their own independent nation. …

From Timbuktu To The Hague And Beyond: The War Crime Of Intentionally Attacking Cultural Property, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This essay refracts the criminal conviction and reparations order of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Al Mahdi case into the much broader frame of increasingly heated public debates over the protection, removal, defacement, relocation, display and destruction of cultural heritage in all forms: monuments, artefacts, language instruction, art and literature. What might the work product of the ICC in the Al Mahdi proceedings -- and international criminal law more generally -- add, contribute or excise from these debates? This essay speculatively explores connections between the turn to penal law to protect cultural property and the transformative impulses that …

Book Review, Marcos Zunino, Justice Framed: A Genealogy Of Transitional Justice (2019), Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Transitional justice initiatives, broadly speaking, respond to systematic human rights abuses. These initiatives take multiple shapes and forms. This means that the actual practice of transitional justice is diverse and organic. Transitional justice discourse, however, is aspirational, normative and selective. It is less heterogeneous and far more directive. Marcos Zunino’s eye-opening book, Justice Framed, is about gaps between narrative discourse and tangible practice. It is about the effects of discourse on practice. More pointedly, Justice Framed is about how discourse ‘surfaces’ certain kinds of practices of the past while sidelining and ignoring others. Hence, to come full circle, this book …

International Law: Explaining International Acts, Chimène I. Keitner

The Judges' Book

No abstract provided.

The United States International Religious Freedom Act, Nonstate Actors, And The Donbas Crisis, Robert C. Blitt

Book Chapters

This chapter explores whether recent changes to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) furnish the U.S. government with effective tools for engaging with and taking potential action against nonstate actors, such as the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), operating in the context of the Donbas crisis. Among the major amendments to IRFA introduced at the end of 2016, the statute now provides the U.S. government with the formal obligation to report on violent nonstate actors (NSAs) found to be violating freedom of religion or belief. In addition, the executive branch may designate those NSAs …

The Threat Is Real: Protecting The Energy Infrastructure From Cyberattacks, Patricia Blotzer

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Somali Piracy Prosecutions, Molly Parent

SURE (Stonehill Undergraduate Research Experience)

•From 2001-2010 the number of piracy incidents spiked. Somali piracy differs from other forms of piracy because it has a distinct modus operandi. Whereas most piracy is theft, Somali attacks focus primarily on capturing vessels and holding them for ransom. •The vessel attacks occur primarily in the high seas, outside the territorial jurisdiction of any one nation. Therefore, Somali piracy cases have been heard in various courts around the world. Many cases have been prosecuted in Kenya, Seychelles, the Netherlands, as well as many other countries around the world. •This analysis examines the nature of these prosecutions, and whether there …

Theorizing Sexual Violence Against Men In The Middle East And North African Region As Gender-Related Persecution Under Refugee And Asylum Law, Valorie K. Vojdik

Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Role Of International Rules In Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes, Tonya M. Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] The concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) is not new. 1 But, with the advent of Web 3.0, the distributed web that facilitates pseudonymous and cross-border transactions via blockchain's distributed ledger technology, 2 the idea of, and pressing need for, appropriate dispute resolution models for blockchain-based disputes to support this novel system of distributed consensus and trust of which blockchain proponents boast, is a primary concern in rapid development. 3 The common goal of each project is to utilize smart contracts to facilitate "superior, quicker[,] and less expensive proceedings by eliminating so many of the tedious and protracted trappings …

Forced Technology Transfer And The Us-China Trade War: Implications For International Economic Law, Julia Ya Qin

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Planetary Defense: Near-Earth Objects, Nuclear Weapons, And International Law, James A. Green

UC Law SF International Law Review

The risk of a large Near-Earth Object (NEO), such as an asteroid, colliding with the Earth is low, but the consequences of that risk manifesting could be catastrophic. Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented increase in global political will in relation to NEO preparedness, following the meteoroid impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. There also has been an increased focus amongst states on the possibility of using nuclear detonation, in particular, as a means of diverting or destroying a collision-course NEO, something that a majority of scientific opinion now appears to view as representing humanity’s best—or perhaps only—option in extreme …

Masthead

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Falling Through The Gap: The Culpability Of Child Soldiers Under International Criminal Law, Ally Mcqueen

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

This Essay, in Part I, will begin with an overview of the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. Part II will explore provisions within the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Beijing Rules that are applicable to child soldiers and can shed some light on their culpability after an armed conflict. In Part III, this Essay will then discuss the varying degrees to which international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court have addressed the criminal responsibility of children for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Finally, Part IV will …

Unravelling China's Gradual Approach To Equity Crowdfunding Regulation, Chen Li, Yu Qianqian

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Law And The Struggle Against Government Impunity In Africa, John Mukum Mbaku

UC Law SF International Law Review

In recent years, impunity has become pervasive throughout most African countries. In some African countries, impunity is due to the inability of national governments to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to account for their crimes. In others, impunity arises from the unwillingness of government to utilize the existing legal system to bring criminals, whether they are state- or non-state actors, to justice. Effectively combatting impunity in Africa must begin with the reconstruction of African States to provide democratic institutions, which are capable of adequately constraining the government and preventing civil servants and political elites from acting with impunity; and …

The Arrival Of "Statelessness Studies"?, David C. Baluarte

Scholarly Articles

In this symposium contribution, the author provides a view that the study of statelessness has emerged as a multi-disciplinary field and urge that we institutionalize it as such. Statelessness is fundamentally a legal concept. The definition of ‘stateless person’ specifically refers to the operation of law, and the protections envisioned by both the 1954 and 1961 Conventions afforded to stateless persons are legal in nature. At the same time, formal legal reasoning has proven inadequate to fully understand statelessness and protect stateless persons. Moreover, factual statelessness enjoys few legal protections, but is essential to a more robust understanding of nationality …

Contracting Around The Hague Service Convention, Robin Effron, John F. Coyle, Maggie Gardner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Interpretation In The Court Of Justice Of The European Union: Originalism, Purposivism, And L' Economie Générale, Siniša Rodin

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crystal Clear Vagueness: The Board Of Immigration Appeals Hampers Justice With Its Vague “Process Of Justice”, Maria Natera

Catholic University Law Review

The Immigration and Nationality Act has caused the issue of unconstitutional vagueness to become more prominent in recent years in the context of immigration law. The Act provides definitions for certain crimes that are grounds for legal immigrants to be placed in removal proceedings, with the possibility of deportation. With such severe potential consequences, it is crucial that the definitions be crystal clear on what every crime entails in order to give immigrants fair warning.

One such crime that may subject an immigrant to removal proceedings and deportation is a conviction for an “aggravated felony,” coupled with a sentence of …

A Mathematical Solution To The Sine Of Madness That Is Pharmaceutical Compulsory Licensing Under The Trips Agreement And The Doha Declaration, Ashley E. Sperbeck

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

A viable economic solution is necessary to address the shortcomings, textual ambiguities, and deficiencies engulfing international patent protection, leading to the inability of LDCs facing public health crises or national emergencies and lacking pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to obtain generic pharmaceuticals. This Note poses a solution to this problem via another Amendment to the TRIPS Agreement and the Doha Declaration, which provides a mathematical framework to determine when and under what circumstances a compulsory license should be granted. Furthermore, this Note contemplates establishment of a WTO subcommittee to oversee this proposed solution and to ensure compliance with this Amendment. This concrete …

Can “Imfcoin” Be Scaruffi's Moneta Immaginaria?, Alexander M. Heideman

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm. But these decentralized and unregulated digital fiat currencies have more in common with the currencies of ages past than many believe. These commonalities may result in the incorporation of new cryptocurrencies into older institutions. One such institution is the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which has bene relegated to an afterthought in the international monetary system since the Nixon Shock in 1971. The Fund's Managing Director recently made comments that indicated that the Fund is exploring the incorporation of a cryptocurrency into the framework of the SDR, a change which China …

Finding A Forest Through The Trees: Georgia-Pacific As Guidance For Arbitration Of International Compulsory Licensing Disputes, Karen Mckenzie

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This paper will examine the challenges of international compulsory licensing by examining the issue historically and legally as well as offer possible solutions. Thus, this paper will explore the challenge of balancing corporate interests against the affordability and availability of pharmaceuticals by focusing on discrete situations in developing countries, the history of compulsory licensing, and how the World Health Organization (the “WHO”) and the WTO have attempted to tackle these challenges through compulsory licensing, and it will suggest a possible framework for use in arbitration, which balances equities through a Georgia-Pacific analysis.

International Satellite Law, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

International satellite law can best be described as that subset of international space law that addresses the operations of satellites in orbit around the Earth. Excluding, therefore, topics such as manned space flight, suborbital space operations, and any activities beyond Earth orbits, this means addressing the use of satellites for telecommunications purposes, for Earth observation and remote sensing, and for positioning, timing, and navigation. These three major sectors of space activities are, in addition to jointly being subject to the body of international space law, each subject to their specific dedicated legal regime —international satellite communications law, international satellite remote …

The Investor-State Dispute Settlement System Amidst Crisis, Collapse, And Reform, Henrique Sachetim, Rafael CodeçO

Arbitration Brief

No abstract provided.

When Peer Pressure Is Not Enough: Mandatory Disclosure And Third-Party Funding, Sarah Gilcrest

Arbitration Brief

No abstract provided.

Adopting And Adjusting To The Development Of The Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism In China’S Recent Bilateral Investment Treaty Negotiations With The European Union, Runyang Liu

UC Law SF International Law Review

The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism has been widely used in international treaty-making and invoked many times in crossborder dispute resolution. ISDS is a system where a foreign investor can bring claims against a host state for its discriminatory acts upon the investor. As China pursues a new level of outbound investment in the last decade, the ISDS mechanism will apply particularly in the context of investment disputes involving Chinese investors and foreign countries. This note will examine the evolution of ISDS clauses in China’s Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), especially with the European Union (EU), as well as these clauses’ …