International Law Commons^™

Issues Surrounding The South China Sea Dispute, Motoyasu Nozawa

Japanese Society and Culture

On 12 July 2016, the decision of the South China Sea Arbitration1 (The Republic of the Philippines against the People’s Republic of China) by a tribunal created under Annex Ⅻ to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was a near-complete victory for the Philippines. This arbitration concerned the role of historic rights and the source of maritime entitlements in the South China Sea, the status of certain maritime features and the maritime entitlements they are capable of generating, and the lawfulness of certain actions by China that were alleged by the Philippines to violate the Convention. …

Comments To The Draft Working Group Iii Workplan, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, International Institute For Environment And Development, International Institute For Sustainable Development

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is currently working on how to reform international investment treaties, focusing in particular on those treaties’ provisions enabling investors to sue governments in international arbitration. As an observer organization in this process, CCSI has emphasized that in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform, it is important to first consider what it is that investment treaties aim to achieve, and only then to consider what form(s) of dispute settlement will best advance those objectives. This means not only looking at reform of the existing ISDS mechanism, but also alternatives to …

Transparency For Whom? Grounding Land Investment Transparency In The Needs Of Local Actors, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors.

In this new report focusing on agribusiness, forestry, and renewable energy projects (“land investments”), CCSI grounds transparency in the needs of project-affected communities and other local actors. Transparency efforts that seek to inform and empower communities can also help governments, companies, and other actors to more effectively manage operational risk linked to social conflict.

Troublingly, the report finds that:

• Disclosures around land investments continue …

Choice Of Law Governing A Contract Where Its Existence Is In Dispute: Clarifications From The Singapore International Commercial Court In Lew, Solomon V Kaikhushru Shiavax Nargolwala, Shou Yu Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore International Commercial Court’s judgment in Lew, Solomon v Kaikhushru Shiavax Nargolwala [2020] 3 SLR 61 is noteworthy as it heralds a modest development in Singapore private international law, especially in respect to the not uncommon issue of disputes over cross-border contracts where its existence is challenged. This case represents one of the handful of Singapore precedents which directly addresses the difficult conundrum where both the governing law and the existence of the underlying contract are in dispute. Under this context, it articulates a default choice of law position – the lex fori – where it is impossible to …

What’S Happening In International Mediation In 2021? [Sidra Survey], Nadja Alexander, Samantha Clare Man Xin Goh, Ryce Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy (“SIDRA”) issued the global International Dispute Resolution Survey: 2020 Final Report (the “SIDRA Survey”) on 3 July 2020, which studied the preferences, experiences, and perspectives of legal users (lawyers and legal advisers) and client users (corporate executives and in-house counsel) with regard to, among other mechanisms, international commercial mediation. Previous blogs have commented on the Survey findings. The SIDRA Survey was followed by a qualitative study conducted between November to December 2020, consisting of in-depth interviews held with 18 Legal Users and Client Users from 11 countries (“SIDRA Interviews”). This post focuses on some …

The Authority Of International Refugee Law, Evan J. Criddle, Evan Fox-Decent

William & Mary Law Review

As COVID-19 has spread around the world, many states have suspended their compliance with a core requirement of international refugee law: the duty to refrain from returning refugees to territories where they face a serious risk of persecution (the duty of non-refoulement). These measures have prompted some observers to question whether non-refoulement will survive the pandemic as a nonderogable legal duty. This Article explains why the international community should embrace non-refoulement as a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens) that applies even during public emergencies, such as the coronavirus pandemic. Viewed from a global justice perspective, the …

On Trust: The U.N. Security Council As Fiduciary, Devika Hovell

William & Mary Law Review

Perceived failures by the U.N. Security Council have been characterized as “betrayals of trust,” which threaten to impact the strength of the Council’s authority. In certain legal cultures, fiduciary law has been recognized as an effective legal mechanism to underwrite trust in the exercise of authority. This Article considers the potential value in applying the fiduciary construct to the Security Council setting as a way to consolidate trust. In doing so, it is necessary to unpack two different conceptions of the fiduciary construct: the precept of law (derived from domestic private law) and the precept of authority (sometimes described as …

The Aggravating Duty Of Non-Aggravation, Steven R. Ratner

Articles

International law's duty of non-aggravation requires states to avoid actions that might inflame an international dispute, both to maintain international peace and to preserve the effectiveness of judicial or arbitral proceedings. Yet parties on the receiving end of calls for non-aggravation --whether from the Security Council or at tribunal -- have little idea of what conduct they are expected to avoid. This state of affairs is most unfortunate in light of the centrality of this norm to the peaceful resolution of disputes and, in particular, examples of seemingly provocative and aggravating acts in recent years. This article attempts to give …

Persistent Optimism: The Inherency Of Security Within International Space Law, Timothy M. Bass

Florida Journal of International Law

When thinking about security in the realm of outer space, it is tempting to focus on areas like militarization, defense from attacks, hacking systems, and espionage; however, in doing so, we overlook the fundamental principles that attempt to ensure security in space law from its inception. By taking a moment to reflect on the guiding principles and goals of space exploration as laid out in treaty and domestic law from a broader perspective, it becomes clear that space is overwhelmingly hopeful in continuing the reign of peace.

The Legal And Practical Framework For Psychiatric Diagnoses As Bases For Requests For Euthanasia And Physician-Assisted Suicide In The Netherlands, Kasey Joyce

Florida Journal of International Law

There is not a clear answer on what kinds of cases are the kinds that cause successful requests for euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS), but most of them are diagnoses that hold severe and terminal physical symptoms or those that have chronic and severe psychiatric issues. A lingering question—one that is now being debated and revisited—is whether a diagnosed mental illness falls into the requisite terminal illness definition to pass through the procedure to get the end-of-life care available in the Netherlands. This Note will analyze the standards around what kinds of cases will pass through the Physician Review Board …

Direct And Structural Violence Against Transgender Populations: A Comparative Legal Study, Brian Kritz

Florida Journal of International Law

This Article is a comparative study exploring how the law impacts Transgender rights and Transgender access to justice. In countries where the law is hostile to Transgender rights, such law perpetuates structural violence, promotes discrimination and persecution, causing direct violence against Transgender populations. In countries where the law is more progressive, an interesting phenomenon exists. In these countries, where Transgender lives can be more openly lived, Trans-violence rates are noticeably higher than in countries where Transgender rights are restricted. This scholarship was developed with an eye towards reforming the law in countries with problematic legal structures and continuing efforts to …

War Crimes, Inc.: The Ats Case Against The U.S. Weapons Industry For Aiding And Abetting Atrocities In Yemen, Elizabeth Beavers

Florida Journal of International Law

The U.S. weapons industry provides much of the weaponry necessary to facilitate mass indiscriminate bombings by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, many of which amount to war crimes. The stories referenced in this note represent just a few of the lives harmed in the course of the Yemen civil war. Yet despite consistent public reporting detailing the damage, and calls from the international community to halt sales, the flow of weapons from the United States remains seemingly endless yet accountability is in short supply. The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) provides an avenue for Yemeni survivors to seek redress in U.S. …

Improving Sustainability And Promoting The Right To Holistic Food: The Role Of Agribusiness, Ying Chen

Florida Journal of International Law

This research provides an advanced interpretation of the right to food, arguing that it should include not only food security and food safety, but also sustainability. It further calls for the international community to replace the right to food with the right to holistic food. The new term highlights the holistic nature of food production. Monsanto (now Bayer) is used as an example to explain that agribusiness-specifically leading global companies-can play an important role in making the global food system safer, healthier, more productive, and more sustainable, primarily through their daily operations and technological advancements. In particular, agribusiness can make …

The Real Impact Of Impact Litigation, Susan Wnukowska-Mtonga

Florida Journal of International Law

This Article will first provide a brief background on the increasing role of impact litigation through U.N. mechanisms. It will then situate reproductive rights, specifically the right to a safe abortion, within the human rights framework and therefore subject to protection by states. Thirdly, this Article will provide a brief case commentary on the views of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), a U.N. treaty body, in the case of L.C. v. Peru. Finally, this article will propose three criteria to measure the effect of the outcome of the case on: L.C., the individual rights …

Implementation Of International Law In Indian Legal System, Vivek Sehrawat

Florida Journal of International Law

This Article explores the general stance of international law and domestic legal orders regarding the legal effects of international law in the Indian domestic legal system. This Article argues that India has been a significant contributor to the field of international law. However, India remains reluctant to draft treaties that restrict free rein and that seek expressly to accord domestic courts a judicial enforcement role. This Article examines the implementation process of international law in the Indian domestic system and addresses the requirements imposed by international law. It critically examines the fundamental dichotomy in approaches at the domestic constitutional level …

Towards A More Ethical Ll.M. Degree: Let's Give International Lawyers The Value They Deserve, Carrie W. Teitcher, Kathleen Darvil

Florida Journal of International Law

Created for international lawyers seeking American credentials, LL.M. programs have proliferated, filling a need in an increasingly global market. Yet the American Bar Association offers no guidance as to how programs specifically designed for international lawyers should be structured. The road to a more ethical LL.M degree necessarily begins with the American Bar Association and the need for it to establish guidelines for such programs, at least for those programs which qualify international lawyers to sit for the bar exam.

Nor do law schools do enough to ensure that LL.M. students seeking to become licensed attorneys in the United States …

Free Speech, Official History And Nationalist Politics: Toward A Typology Of Objections To Memory Laws, Rob Kahn

Florida Journal of International Law

The past two decades have seen an explosion of memory laws, especially in Eastern Europe, and an explosion of objections to them. According to critics, memory laws (1) violate freedom of speech; (2) create an official history; and (3) foster a narrow, particularistic politics. This Essay evaluates these competing arguments. The free speech objection lumps all memory laws together—regardless of content—and runs the risk of becoming an objection to hate speech bans more generally, something that limits its appeal outside of the United States. Opposing memory laws as official history is narrower, but it privileges the national history and historians …

A Critical Analysis Of The Rome Statute Implementation In Afghanistan, Abdul Mahir Hazim

Florida Journal of International Law

Afghanistan has been a war-torn country for the past forty years. Over this time, countless atrocities have been committed and the lives of thousands of innocents have been taken. For example, according to the most recent report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in 2018 alone 10,993 civilians were killed or injured in the country, one of the highest number of causalities since UNAMA started recording such numbers in 2007. Yet no one has been held accountable for the atrocities, neither in national nor in international courts, and an entrenched culture of impunity continues to flourish to the …

Protection Of Data In Armed Conflict, Robin Geiss, Henning Lahmann

International Law Studies

This article presents a novel way to conceptualize the protection of data in situations of armed conflict. Although the question of the targeting of data through adversarial military cyber operations and its implications for the qualification of such conduct under International Humanitarian Law has been on scholars’ and states’ radar for the last few years, there remain a number of misunderstandings as to how to think about the notion of “data.” Based on a number of fictional scenarios, the article clarifies the pertinent terminology and makes some expedient distinctions between various types of data. It then analyzes how existing international …

Wither Away State Right To Wage War Unilaterally, Giovanni Distefano

UAEU Law Journal

One only has to look into the history of international relations to realize that the use of force has been intrinsically related to the ius gentium. For example, it is quite revealing that international law, as a scientific discipline, emerged from this relation. There are also many publications from the founding fathers that are related to this branch of law and which tittles specifically mentioned the law in war. To this end, one can relate to the works of De Vitoria, Suarez, Molina, Grotius, etc. Thus, it would not be too bold to claim that the modern international order …

The International Criminal Court And The Security Council: Ten Years Of Coexistence Or Conflict?, Mohamed Hasan Alqassimi

UAEU Law Journal

The important role that was hoped to be done by the International Criminal Court requires us to look at the actual practice it has undertaken during the last ten years, and assess the extent to which it had managed to live up to the expectations that were prevalent when it was established, particularly, its role in eliminating the idea of immunity and impunity punishment, which has long been an obstacle to the development of the international criminal system. This paper mainly evaluates the work of the International Criminal Court, particularly in determining the scope of its relationship to the UN …

The Status Of International Treaty In The United Arab Emirates Constitution, Wael Allam

UAEU Law Journal

Like other countries, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) needs to enter into treaties to regulate its relations with States and the international community. Indeed, the UAE is a party to several international treaties in several areas; including labor, human rights, aviation, international humanitarian law, judicial cooperation, the fight against organized crime and human trafficking, etc. In light of the existence of these numerous international treaties concerning the UAE, the question arises about the status of international treaty in the United Arab Emirates; i.e., what is the binding force of the International Treaty in relation to other legal rules? What is …

Legal Reviews Of War Algorithms, Tobias Vestner, Altea Rossi

International Law Studies

States and scholars recognize legal reviews of weapons, means or methods of warfare as an essential tool to ensure the legality of military applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, are existing practices fit for this task? This article identifies necessary adaptations to current practices. For AI-enabled systems that are used in relation to targeting, legal reviews need to assess the systems’ compliance with additional rules of international law, in particular targeting law under international humanitarian law (IHL). This article discusses the procedural ramifications thereof. The article further finds that AI systems’ predictability problem needs to be addressed by the technical …

Reprisal In Time Of Peace And Contemporary International Law, Imad Al-Din Attallah Al-Mohammad

UAEU Law Journal

This article addresses the concept of "reprisal" under contemporary international law discussing, firstly, the definition of this concept during time of peace then in armed conflicts moving to the historical evolution of reprisal since the ancient Greeks until the present and by investigating its application in international practice through the study of the Naulilaa and the Caroline disputes.

Furthermore, the article considers the conditions under which this form of self-help (reprisal) would be a legitimate act before addressing the differences between reprisal and other forms of self-help such as retaliation, self-defense, reciprocity, and war. Then, the research discusses the legal …

International Liability For Damages Caused By Satellites And Other Space Vehicles In Light Of Outer Space Treaties, Muhammad Ali Al-Hajj

UAEU Law Journal

The research aims to describe the provisions of international liability of the damage caused by satellites and other spacecraft as well as addressing the definition of outer space and its nature. Then, it covers the role of the United Nations (UN) in its organization through adoption of several resolutions and agreements detailing the provisions that are relevant to the registration of launched vehicles into space and the rules of liability resulting from damages that may be caused. In conclusion, the study holds that states bear an absolute liability when damages occur on the ground or while the aircraft is in …

Treatment Of Section 232 Duties In Commerce Antidumping Proceedings, Elizabeth J. Drake

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The goal of antidumping methodologies is to achieve a fair comparison between the price of a product in the United States (“U.S. price”) and the price at which it is sold in the exporters’ home market (or other normal value) in order to quantify and remedy the amount of dumping that has occurred. Thus, the law requires U.S. import duties to be deducted from U.S. price in order to permit an apples-to-apples comparison between U.S. prices and home market prices that do not bear any U.S. import duties. The U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) has created an exception to this …

Privacy Before Trade: Assessing The Wto-Consistency Of Privacy-Based Cross-Border Data Flow Restrictions, Julian Rotenberg

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The first decades of the 21st century have been characterized by the growth of digital trade fueled by new business models based on cross-border data flows. With data taking a central role in the digital economy, governments and their constituents have become increasingly concerned about the commercial handling and commoditization of personal data. Consequently, governments have entered the business of regulating cross-border data flows, especially with the aim of protecting the privacy of their citizens. This regulatory trend does not occur in a vacuum: The World Trade Organization (WTO) through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) regulates the …

Satellites & Hong Kong’S Independence: How The Trade Of Commercial Satellites Impacts Democracy Abroad And National Security At Home, Nicholas A. Beekhuizen

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Trade laws have always struck a balance between political freedom and national security. The trade of commercial communication satellites (“CCS”) between the United States and Hong Kong is no exception. Until recently, Hong Kong held a special trade designation that allowed it to purchase CCS from the United States. This exception from the strict ban on sales of certain advanced technologies to China was allowed due to Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status. However, China’s continued encroachment on Hong Kong’s autonomy led the United States to strip Hong Kong of its special trade status and ban the free exchange of advanced technologies. …

An Inside Scoop On Scopes: An Overview Of The Laws And Policies Governing The Scopes Of Trade Remedy Orders, Scott D. Mcbride

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The globalization of supply and processing chains has led to an increase in the complexity of international trade laws and the necessity for the United States Department of Commerce to provide clarity in the enforcement of trade remedy orders and procedures. It is therefore no surprise that over the past few years, Commerce has experienced a surge in requests for rulings on whether or not certain imported products are covered by the scope of antidumping and countervailing duty orders. Furthermore, Commerce has conducted several inquiries to determine if imported products which are outside the scope of an antidumping or countervailing …

Divergent Strategies: A Legal History Of The Wto’S National Security Exception In The Context Of A Globalized Economy, 1983-2019, William J. Gardner Jr.

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This student note provides a legal history of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) adjudication of “national security” disputes under Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The skeptical German historian Oswald Spengler noted, “History is direction—but Nature is extension—ergo everyone gets eaten by a bear.” Tracing the history of landmark GATT and WTO decisions from the 1983 US—Trade Measures Affecting Nicaragua case, this note weaves through the WTO’s relatively consistent reluctance to engage in domestic policy, detailing the WTO’s massive deviation from that policy in the 2019 Russia—Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit case. In doing so, …