International Law Commons^™

18 U.S.C. § 3553(A)’S Undervalued Sentencing Command: Providing A Federal Criminal Defendant With Rehabilitation, Training, And Treatment In “The Most Effective Manner”, Erica Zunkel

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The vast majority of federal criminal defendants are sentenced to prison, and non-incarceration sentences have become vanishingly small. During the sentencing process, federal district court judges are required to consider what sentence will provide the defendant with necessary rehabilitation and treatment in the most effective manner pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(d). Courts regularly undervalue, ignore, or even violate this statutory command. Some courts seem to believe that the Bureau of Prisons can provide adequate rehabilitation and treatment and do not explain how this squares with what the statute requires. Other courts barely engage with the issue. Only a minority …

Right To A Healthy Prison Environment: Health Care In Custody Under The Prism Of Torture, Juan E. Méndez

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Deprivation of adequate health care — including preventive and remedial therapies — violates State obligations under domestic and international law. Because it deprived inmates of a fundamental right it is appropriate to analyze the scope of that obligation under norms of international law that are binding as treaty law or as customary international law. Recent developments in international standards illuminate the scope of the State’s obligations to provide health care to persons deprived of liberty. Salient among those recent developments in the normative framework is the most recent version of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, …

Letter From The Editor, Lara Thiele

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Masthead Volume 9

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Employee Right To Disconnect, Paul M. Secunda

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

U.S. workers are increasingly finding it difficult to escape from work. Through their smartphones, e-mail, and social media, work tethers them to their workstations well after the work day has ended. Whether at home or in transit, employers are asking or requiring employees to complete assignments, tasks, and projects outside of working hours. This practice has a profound detrimental impact on employee privacy and autonomy, safety and health, productivity and compensation, and rest and leisure. France and Germany have responded to this emerging workplace issue by taking different legal approaches to providing their employees a right to disconnect from the …

A Catholic Response To Global Climate Change Migration, Michael S. Talbot

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This Article examines Catholic Social Teaching’s approach to the challenges of human migration and environmental refugees. By juxtaposing the inadequacies of current international frameworks for protecting environmental migrants with previous sources of Catholic Social Teaching, this Article speculates on the possible moral argument to be made by the Church in support of efforts to fill a gap in the international legal framework around climate change induced migration. Ultimately, the Paper speculates that such an argument would include three components: (1) a broadening of the definition of refugee, (2) a recognition of our interconnected and interdependent lives, and (3) the expectation …

The Right-To-Work For Rohingya In Thailand, Lara Thiele

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The world finds itself currently in the biggest refugee crisis in history. Many individuals have to leave their home country and escape to a new home, hoping to remain there and begin a productive and dignified life. The stateless Rohingya are a group that has been part of this migratory movement due to the group’s maltreatment in Myanmar. Many Rohingya have gone to Thailand, where they have remained for over twenty years, without the permission to work or remain in the country lawfully. In fact, the current Thai laws neglect to allow for the Rohingya to remain lawfully in Thailand …

Remedies For Victims Of Human Trafficking Under The Palermo Protocol And United Nations Basic Principles: A Case Study Analysis, Josephine A. Suchecki

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Human trafficking is a phenomenon that is happening right under our noses, yet does not receive the recognition nor publicity necessary to combat this human rights crisis. The Palermo Protocol and the United Nations Basic Principles have been implemented on an international level to solve these issues, but with varied success. The Palermo Protocol was created to apply to the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of the offenses established in article 5 of the Protocol. The Basic Principles from A/HRC/26/18 highlight the fact that effective remedies are not often accessible to victims of trafficking, as there are gaps between enactment and …

Human Rights Violations Consequent To Transshipment Practices In Fisheries, Chelsey F. Marto

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

Transshipment, the process of transferring catch from a small fishing vessel onto a larger fishing vessel far off shore, has been used to commit a variety of human rights abuses on the sea. Companies can get away with this because there is little to no oversight over the activities. Yet, there has been little to no incentive to change these practices, because companies are generally not penalized for these actions. The author proposes a variety of tactics be implemented in addressing these concerns. These include imposition of sanctions upon countries who allow for nefarious activities, increased video surveillance on board …

Marine Renewable Energy Law And Policy In The Bay Of Fundy: The Impact Of Ambiguous Domestic Boundaries In Canada On Nova Scotia's Regulatory Framework, Esteban Salcedo

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

Using a legal history methodology, this paper examines existing marine renewable energy law and policy in Nova Scotia with a focus on its application in the Bay of Fundy. This paper critically assesses the current approach to coastal management in light of recent recommendations summarized in the Fournier report. This paper argues that, despite clear calls to develop integrated ocean management and marine spatial planning in policies and regulations, Canada and Nova Scotia have failed to do so because of unclear federal-provincial boundaries. Ambiguous domestic borders in the Bay of Fundy have been at the source of an overly cautious, …

Prefatory Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nafta/Usmca Dispute Settlement Mechanisms And The Constitution, John S. Baker Jr., Phd, Lindsey Keiser

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Un Antagonism Towards The State Of Israel Resolution 2334 Of The Un Security Council: A Misinterpretation Of International Law, Jacob Dolinger

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pacta Sunt Servanda State Legalization Of Marijuana And Subnational Violations Of International Treaties: A Historical Perspective, Brian M. Blumenfeld

Pepperdine Law Review

In November 2012, voters in the states of Colorado and Washington passed ballot initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana industries. Since then, eight additional states and the District of Columbia have followed suit, and many more have seen legalization debates in their legislative halls and among their electorates. Over twenty bills recently introduced in Congress have sought to break federal marijuana laws away from prohibition. Although the national debate is indeed a vibrant one, it has neglected to address how legalization may be jeopardizing the compliance status of the United States under international drug treaties, and what the consequences may be …

Courts Increasingly Demand That Businesses Break The Law, Geoffrey Sant

Akron Law Review

United States courts are demanding that businesses break foreign laws at an exponentially increasing rate. A practice that was virtually unheard of only 30 years ago is now so widespread that U.S. courts are ordering foreign lawbreaking in the most trivial discovery matters. When a court receives a discovery request that violates a foreign law, it applies the 5-part Aérospatiale balancing test—a test where 4 of the 5 factors are left to the subjective decisions of the judge. By ordering foreign law breaking, our courts—often biased in favor of United States discovery rules—are encouraging abusive litigation tactics, undermining the rule …

The Horror In Our Heads: Cultural Trauma Expert Testimony In U.S. Courts, Elizabeth Topolosky

Akron Law Review

Over the past twenty years, the international criminal tribunals have increasingly relied upon expert testimony describing the intergenerational and cultural effects of mass trauma events in their decisions. The admission of such broad, generalized expert testimony is facilitated by permissive rules of evidence and the broad and complex scope of international criminal litigation. To date, few litigators have attempted to present American courts with similar expert testimony. This article explores the admissibility and uses of this kind of evidence in American legal forums and provides a how-to guide for practitioners hoping to use similar testimony to build their cases.

Humanitarian Logic And The Law Of Siege: A Study Of The Oxford Guidance On Relief Actions, Sean Watts

International Law Studies

In terms of human suffering, few military operations have rivaled sieges and comparably harsh legal regimes have governed them. At a time when legal vindication of humanitarian interests in armed conflict is ascendant, conventional accounts of the law of war governing humanitarian relief may seem out of step, plagued with glaring gaps in humanitarian logic. In 2016, Oxford University professors published a United Nations-commissioned legal study—the Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict. The Guidance contends that during armed conflict international law prohibits belligerents from arbitrarily denying offers of humanitarian relief …

Whose Land Is It Anyway? Navigating Ghana's Complex Land System, Aimee Kline, Élan Moore, Elizabeth Ramey, Kevin Hernandez, Lauren Ehrhardt, Megan Reed, Morgan Parker, Samantha Henson, Taylor Winn, Taylor Wood

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article dives into Ghana’s complex land-registration system, which is influenced by both statutory and customary law. Section II discusses Ghana’s statutory land laws. Section III provides a brief overview of Ghana’s customary land laws. Section IV discusses several obstacles within Ghana’s land-administration system.

Special Issue, December 2018

International Journal on Responsibility

Contents:

5 – 7 Terry Beitzel, Gjylbehare Muharti, and Hysen Nimani, Responsibility in the Balkans: Justice, Media and Arts.

8 – 22 Mujë Ukaj and Qendresa Jasharaj, International Criminal Responsibility in Kosovo: Establishment of the International Criminal Court - de lege lata, de lege ferenda.

23 – 41 Avdullah Robaj and Sabiha Shala, Responsibility in Building Rule of Law: Kosovo Challenges.

42 – 54 Mujë Ukaj, The Irresponsible Persons: the Imposition and Execution of the Mandatory Treatment Measures on Criminal Procedure of Kosovo.

55 – 64 Gani Asllani, Bedri Statovci, and Gentiana Gega, Development and Protection of Economic …

Michigan Guidelines On The International Protection Of Refugees, James C. Hathaway

Books

The Michigan Guidelines on the International Protection of Refugees are the result of a collective endeavor of hundreds of scholars, advocates, judges, and international officials to tackle some of the most important and challenging questions in international refugee law. This volume presents 20 years of the Guidelines — the consensus work of senior Michigan Law students and experts from around the world on cutting-edge refugee law concerns — in five languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian).

The Guidelines address five of the most difficult issues of refugee status: what is the meaning of a “well-founded fear”; when may refugee …

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.