International Law Commons^™

Reconciling Disjunct Cryptocurrency Securities Enforcement With Purchaser Expectations, Jacob E. Simmons

Seattle University Law Review

The Southern District of New York’s July 2023 decision in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. has been touted as a monumental win for cryptocurrency purchasers and related businesses. The Ripple court held that, except institutional investor transactions, all sales of Ripple’s XRP token were not investment contracts, a class of security subject to federal securities law. The court’s ruling meant that Ripple could not be held liable for the unregistered trading of XRP beyond its sales to institutional investors. Ripple adds new insights to a pervasive policymaking dilemma addressed in this Note: is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regulatory …

A Blueprint To Reclaim Legal Education From External Rankers, Scott Rempell

Seattle University Law Review

The U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News) law school rankings have impacted the perceptions and behaviors of everyone in the rankings ecosystem for decades. Commentators have almost universally condemned these ordinal rankings, yet they continue to influence the legal education market, often in highly detrimental ways.

The influence of these rankings stems from legitimate market demands, for reasons that the psychology of choice literature makes clear. People want (or need) to efficiently acquire and digest information that could help them make consequential decisions. At a time when consumers of law school information did not have such choice-making assistance, U.S. …

Real-World Consequences For Online Actions: The Case For Expanding Employee Harassment Protection Via Employers’ Rights Of Action, Alexander Barnes

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues for expanding employers’ access to legal remedies that allow them to recoup the costs of protecting their employees from swatting, doxing, and other online harassment arising from their employees’ professional activity. Part I provides a brief description and history of the online harassment problem and its potentially deadly dangers. Part II describes employers’ legal responsibility to take action to protect their employees from harassment aimed at their employees within the scope of their employment. Part III explores common legal remedies that are currently available to employers, using the state of Washington as an example. Part III also …

Foreseeability And Duty In Washington Negligence Law: Leaving The Road Less Traveled By, Leo Linder

Seattle University Law Review

Washington negligence law is a confusing labyrinth of foreseeability that not even Ariadne’s string could guide plaintiffs out of. Foreseeability is implicated in four distinct analyses, several of which overlap considerably. Doctrines that were once questions of law are now questions of fact, and vice versa. Something needs to change.

Washington has taken the novel approach of bifurcating the duty element into two parts—duty’s mere existence, which is a question of law for the court to determine; and duty’s scope, which is a question of fact handed off to the jury to determine. Foreseeability impacts both of these assessments, but …

Arbitrating Corruption, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most controversial issues in international investment law is how arbitral panels should deal with investments tainted by corruption at their inception. The current practice of investment arbitrators is to refuse to hear investors’ claims when bribery allegations are substantiated. A recent wave of scholarship has attacked this “corruption defense,” arguing that the practice unfairly harms investors and encourages governments to maintain corrupt practices. This Essay responds to that scholarship, arguing that the current approach is the best policy choice on balance. The Essay analyzes three core policy questions at the heart of the debate: Would eliminating the …

Evidence-Based Transitional Justice: Incorporating Public Opinion Into The Field, With New Data From Iraq And Ukraine, Mara Revkin, Ala Alrababah, Rachel Myrick

Faculty Scholarship

The field of “transitional justice” refers to a range of processes and mechanisms for accountability, truth-seeking, and reconciliation that governments and communities pursue in the aftermath of major societal traumas, including civil war, mass atrocities, and authoritarianism. This relatively new field emerged in the 1980s as scholars, practitioners, and policymakers looked for guidance to support post-authoritarian and post-communist transitions to democracy in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Since then, the field has grown rapidly—so rapidly that it is outpacing its capacity to learn from past mistakes. Recent methodological advances in the study of public attitudes about transitional justice through quantitative …

The Validity Of Trade Restrictions On Artificial Intelligence Technology Under The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade's National Security Exception, Isabelle Brundieck

American University International Law Review

This Comment argues that the U.S. restrictions on the export of semiconductors and other AI technology to China do not violate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994). Instead, such measures are legitimate expressions under GATT 1994’s Article XXI national security exception, which allows a country to break other articles within the agreement if necessary to protect the country’s essential national security interests. Given the national security risks associated with the rise of AI technology and the likelihood that such technology will be supplied to a military enterprise, the current trade restrictions qualify for the exception. However, …

Neglected Riches: Exposing China’S Selective Default On The Hukuang Railway Bonds And The Avenue For Financial Accountability Under The Successor Government Doctrine, William Krag

American University International Law Review

The People’s Republic of China (“P.R.C.”) is in selective default for refusing to pay back private investors from the Hukuang Railway Bond default of 1911. The P.R.C. is the successor government to the Republic of China (“R.O.C.”) and Qing Dynasty. This Comment argues that though it is the successor government, the P.R.C. retains the legal rights and obligations of the former government and is the legal inheritor of these debts. This Comment takes this syllogism one step further and argues that the successor government doctrine is customary international law—applying the lessons from the Russian bond default of 1918. Finally, this …

Amnesty Laws In Modern Peace Agreements: An Analysis Of The Northern Ireland Legacy Act Under International Law, Mckenzie Gallagher

American University International Law Review

In September 2023, the United Kingdom passed the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act (“Legacy Act”), which grants amnesty to anyone who discloses information regarding murders, disappearances, or other unsolved crimes during the period known as “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. The Legacy Act’s amnesty provision is expected to hinder the peace process in Northern Ireland and in turn, avert accountability for serious international crimes. This Comment considers to what extent the Legacy Act’s amnesty provision violates the Good Friday Agreement, the peace accord ending decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, the European Convention on Human Rights, the United …

Policing The Strait: How China’S Policing Of The Taiwan Strait Violates The U.N. Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Elizabeth C. Parker

American University International Law Review

As tensions continue to grow across the Taiwan Strait, China is using domestic maritime law to justify an expansion of police power in the international waters of the Taiwan Strait in violation of international law. This Comment will argue that the People’s Republic of China has violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) by implementing non-resource-related police power in waters meant only for resource exploration and management. In comparing the language of China’s domestic maritime law with that of UNCLOS, this Comment will show that the People’s Republic of China has used domestic law to reinterpret …

The Brussels Effect And The Extraterritoriality Of Delaware Corporate Law, William J. Moon

Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores possible shareholder claims in the United States that may arise  if and when member states of the European Union implement the proposed Directive  on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. As a doctrinal matter, legal compliance  obligations for corporations incorporated in Delaware extend beyond the borders of  the United States. Under Delaware law, shareholders can bring viable fiduciary suits  against directors and officers when corporations violate applicable “positive law.”  This jurisprudence, principally aimed at ascertaining whether directors and officers  betrayed shareholders by engaging in or facilitating lawbreaking, is not limited to  complying with American law. As Delaware corporations expand …

Rule Of Law As A Law Of Rules: A Template For A Sustainable Foreign Investment Protection System, Divesh Kaul

Loyola University Chicago International Law Review

This article evaluates the relationship between rule of law and the foreign investment protection system. It illustrates that practice under foreign investment law presents the mechanism to appraise international rule of law principles. This work argues that rule of law not only provides a basis for the organization of public power but also sustains a minimum threshold of justice. A globalized rule of law, lying at the intersection of international law and economic globalization, provides the foundation of a minimum threshold and normative expectation for the international minimum standard with a focus on justice and individual rights. Accordingly, this work …

The Rise Of Sportswashing: How The Support Of The West And Global Apathy Enables International Human Rights Violations, Karan Kaushal

Loyola University Chicago International Law Review

The contemporary phenomenon of sportswashing, in which authoritarian regimes, exemplified recently by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, strategically use international sports, particularly soccer and golf, to bolster their global image while deflecting attention from their human rights violations is explored to find the role of the West in enabling sportswashing. The concept of sportswashing, its contemporary relevance, and its association with the complicity of FIFA and other sporting organizations are explored. There are also other examples of Western involvement in enabling sportswashing, with a focus on the human rights abuses associated with this involvement.

A detailed definition of sportswashing across different …

International Economic Law And Its Histories, Valentina Vadi

Loyola University Chicago International Law Review

International economic law is best defined as the branch of public international law that governs transnational economic relations, that is, international trade, foreign direct investment, and currency exchange. It is a field that mixes and mingles law and economics. Economic theory has predominated in international economic law literature. Yet, international economic law is not just about money, trade, and capital flows. It is also about individual lives, collective destinies, and interactions among different civilizations.

The historical evolution of global economic governance remains understudied. Yet, investigating the history of international economic law is timely and important because we can learn from …

Yugoslavia's Aftermath: Tracing The Roots Of The Icc And Its Limitations In The Ukrainian Crisis, Nikola Miovski

Loyola University Chicago International Law Review

The dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990's presented an opportunity for the international community to join together, and address wrongs committed against people in Eastern Europe. Specifically, wrongs committed in Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo presented the greatest opportunity to address the abuse of human rights, as there were reported tortures, murders, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

The international community responded with the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which indicted 161 high-level war criminals who had propagated some of the worst atrocities committed against segments of the Bosnian and Kosovan populations, respectively. The creation of the …

Balancing Predictability With Flexibility In Contract Negotiation And Drafting, Tahirih V. Lee

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Utopian Constitutionalism In Chile, David Landau, Rosalind Dixon

Scholarly Publications

In this article, we argue that the 2022 Chilean draft Constitution helps to articulate the distinction between a transformative constitutional project and a utopian one. Whereas a transformative project lays down markers for social change that will take time to achieve, a utopian project sets out goals that are unlikely to be achieved within any reasonable timeframe. Utopianism is a product of two relationships. The first is the internal relationship between the transformative goals laid out in a constitution and the institutional pathways through which changes will occur. The second is the external relationship between the goals in the text …

Difficult And Novel Legal Issues Explored By The Students Who Represented The University Of Bucharest In The 2023-2024 Edition Of The Willem Vis Moot Court Competition, Raluca Papadima

Other Publications

This article provides an overview of the Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in general and of the novel and difficult legal issues raised by the 2023-2024 moot Problem. On the merits, the main legal issues involved liability for misdirected payments as a result of cyberattacks and the existence of an obligation of information and/or good faith in the performance of a contract between commercial parties to a contract governed by the CISG. The procedural issues concerned the mechanisms for adding a new claim after the signature of the Terms of Reference and/or for consolidating two arbitrations, under the ICC …

Climate Defence In Investment Disputes: Azienda Elettrica Ticinese V. Germany And The Paris Agreement, Maria Laura Marceddu, Kanishka Bhukya, Debditya Saha

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

This case comment examines Azienda Elettrica Ticinese (AET) v Federal Republic of Germany, the most developed instance to date of a State deploying the Paris Agreement as a central element of its investment defence. The dispute arises from Germany’s 2020 Coal Ban Act and AET’s claims of indirect expropriation and breach of the fair and equitable treatment standard under the Energy Charter Treaty. Germany invokes the Paris Agreement in three distinct ways: as justification for its regulatory measures under the police powers doctrine; as interpretive context for the fair and equitable treatment standard; and, most innovatively, as applicable law …

Front Matter, National Law School Of India Review

National Law School of India Review

Front Matter (Title Page, Publisher Information, Masthead, Table of Contents).

Introduction: Twail And The International Law Of Jurisdiction, Rohini Sen

National Law School of India Review

Introduction: TWAIL and the International Law of Jurisdiction.

Universal Civil Jurisdiction And International Law: A Response To B.S. Chimni, Chimène Keitner

National Law School of India Review

The exercise of various forms of jurisdiction, and the delineation of a political entity’s jurisdictional reach over persons, places, and conduct, can sharpen and entrench inequities within and between states. One can thus aptly characterize certain exercises of jurisdiction, and particularly certain forms of extraterritorial jurisdiction, as assertions of imperial and/or hegemonic power. Importantly, however, jurisdiction can also be invoked to redress certain power inequities by providing access to judicial remedies for conduct that has evaded other forms of regulatory control. In addition, while certain assertions of extraterritorial prescriptive jurisdiction can represent overreaching by powerful states, the practice of disclaiming …

Foreign Sovereign Immunity Doctrine: A Twail Perspective, Maryam Jamshidi

National Law School of India Review

As Prof. B.S. Chimni has shown, while the international law of state jurisdiction masquerades as a technical procedural rule, it has long served the capitalist and imperialist interests of Western States—a revelation that aligns with Third World Approaches to International Law (‘TWAIL’). It is no surprise then that the international law on foreign sovereign immunity—which is a subset of the law of state jurisdiction—has also furthered the capitalist interests of Western countries. This tendency is reflected in the United States’ Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 1976 (‘FSIA’), which is one of the most important domestic foreign sovereign immunity regimes. Under the …

Editorial Note, Kopal Mittal

National Law School of India Review

Editorial Note.

“Spread Your Wings And Fly Away” – Reimagining Customary International Law Jurisdiction In Investor- State Disputes, Harshad Pathak

National Law School of India Review

A common assumption in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is that subject to the language of the arbitral provision invoked, an arbitration tribunal can only decide claims that allege a breach of the substantive obligations articulated in the instrument from which it derives jurisdiction. Over time, this assumption has come under challenge, including in cases where an ISDS tribunal derives jurisdiction from a municipal law source, such as an investment contract or legislation. The article addresses this issue by critiquing the Decision on Jurisdiction in Cambodia Power Company v. Cambodia, wherein an ICSID tribunal constituted pursuant to related investment contracts concluded …

Theorising Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: The Travails Of Twail, Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah

National Law School of India Review

Discussion of extraterritoriality focussing on capitulation theories looks backwards at an historical period. The present need is to study extraterritoriality used by hegemonic states both in an oppressive manner to advance their national interests and in a manner that protects common interests. As hegemonic power of the United States recedes, new actors like China and India will come to use extraterritoriality largely in an offensive manner. Preoccupation with the past is inapposite in a field in which the rapid developments are taking place. A theory must be found that permits defensive extraterritoriality that promotes community interests while curbing the offensive …

A New Research Programme For International Relations And International Law: Jurisdiction, Capitalism, And Imperialist Infrastructures, Maïa Pal

National Law School of India Review

This article argues that Chimni’s proposed framework for historically and theoretically reconceptualising jurisdiction in ‘The international law of jurisdiction: A TWAIL perspective’ has important implications for a much-needed renewed encounter between the disciplines of International Law and International Relations. It begins by summarising the contribution of Chimni’s article in terms of its two historical and theoretical contributions. It then focuses on the theoretical reconceptualization of jurisdiction as structurally interdependent with capitalism and sovereignty, rather than territory and sovereignty as found in mainstream and liberal approaches. Moreover, Chimni’s article fills gaps in critical approaches by thinking of jurisdiction in more material …

Extra-Territoriality And Solidarity, Vasuki Nesiah

National Law School of India Review

Bhupinder Chimni calls for a subaltern internationalism that stands in contrast to and challenges extraterritorial jurisdiction by imperial and capitalist forces. We have a productive instantiation of subaltern internationalism in the jurisprudence on jus standi at the International Court of Justice.1 A sovereign that is not the injured party may still legitimately represent injured peoples if the representation is grounded in a commitment to those peoples’ self- determination; the court’s admissibility jurisprudence has come to recognize this commitment as a legitimate erga omnes partes claim. Its most recent and spectacular expression was South Africa’s representation of Palestinians with a genocide …

Colonialism, Jurisdiction, And Sovereignty In Palestine, Usha Natarajan

National Law School of India Review

Knowledge production is never neutral, and academia – much like international laws and institutions among other social structures – is a key conduit for the efficient operations of power. Israel’s longstanding occupation and settler colonialism in Palestine challenges mainstream accounts of the international laws of jurisdiction, whereas Chimni’s TWAIL analysis better accounts for and predicts the imperial operations of such laws and points to fruitful evolution towards fairness and justice.10 I elaborate by considering firstly the exercise of jurisdiction during occupation and settler colonialism, and secondly the exercise of universal jurisdiction by states. I conclude with some thoughts on jurisdiction …

The Space Between Jurisdiction And Sovereignty, Asha Kaushal

National Law School of India Review

This Comment examines the relationship between jurisdiction and sovereignty in the context of Chimni’s principle of subaltern internationalism. When viewed from the perspective of decolonisation and self-determination, jurisdiction pulls against Third World spaces for governance. Instead, it deploys jurisdiction as a limiting legal instrument. I suggest that mainstream international law has relied upon—exploited, even—the space between jurisdiction and sovereignty to withhold the full realisation of self-determination from developing states. Drawing on the case study of East Timor, the Comment examines the many faces of jurisdiction on the plane of mainstream international law.