International Law Commons^™

Towards Ocean Peace: Resolving Disputes Cooperatively And Empathetically Through Negotiation, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Oceans have immeasurable value. They are replete with natural resources and food sources; they enable transportation and recreation; they regulate earth’s climate. In sum, they make invaluable contributions to our physical, economic, and political well-being. And wherever there is something valuable, there are disputes over how that value should be maintained, grown, owned, and distributed. Internationally, disputes over maritime boundaries, access routes, drilling rights, and resource exploration are prolific. A sizeable bulk of international litigation is generated by ocean disputes. In the domestic context, disagreement among stakeholders as to environmental quality and pollution, natural resource management and conservation, geo-engineering, and …

A Cure From Rome For Montreal’S Illness: Article 5 Of The Rome I Regulation And Filling The Void In The 1999 Montreal Convention’S Regulation Of Carrier’S Liability For Personal Injury, Yehya I. Ibrahim Badr

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

An examination of the 1999 Montreal Convention shows that the drafters did not intend to lay down a comprehensive treaty that would organize a carrier’s liability for personal injury to passengers. They opted to achieve a certain level of uniformity through enacting a set of rules that tackled several key issues such as the grounds for a carrier’s liability, the available defenses, and the limits on the recoverable damages. Consequently, some unaddressed issues created a void in the Montreal Convention and were then left without a clear remedy. In this article, a distinction is made between two types of voids: …

Lessons For The Treaty Process From The International Law Commission And International Environmental Law, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The chapter examines Amnesty case studies in order to document the state practice identified and the gaps that need to be filled. The chapter will then consider the work of the ILC in its progressive codification of the law on prevention and loss allocation with respect to transboundary harm arising from hazardous activities, culminating in draft Articles8 and draft Principles,9 respectively, in 2001 and 2006. The modest claim of this chapter is that as the key United Nations body responsible for the progressive development and codification of international law, the work of the ILC should surely be of relevance to …

Testing International Legal Regimes: The Advent Of Automated Commercial Vessels, Aldo Chircop

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

International shipping is on the eve of a new era where remotely controlled and partially or fully automated and unmanned Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) will be carrying international trade. The regulation of navigation and shipping in the contemporary international law of the sea and international maritime law are premised on human presence and control onboard ships. Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 and several maritime conventions will need to be revisited to determine how MASS may be accommodated, and where not possible, what further legal development may be needed. Recently, the IMO …

The Quest For Justice For Victims Of Terrorism: International Law And The Immunity Of States In Canada And The United States, Karinne Lantz

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The paper begins with an overview of international law and the principle of state immunity, which is included to provide a necessary introduction for readers who are unfamiliar with these topics. Part two assesses the practice of Canada and the United States by examining the legislated exceptions to state immunity that allows claims against foreign states that sponsor terrorism, as well as the decision in Tracy (Appeal). Part three returns to international law and explores the decision of the ICJ in Jurisdictional Immunities. This examination calls into question whether, through Tracy (Appeal), Canada has violated Iran’s right to …

Conclusions: The Value Of An Innovation Framework For International Law, Sara L. Seck, Alastair Neil Craik

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The concluding chapter to Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law provides an assessment of the value of an innovation framework for further scholarship in the field of international environmental law. The authors note that thinking more systematically about how international law structures innovation and how innovation within law arises has potential to generate new insights into the role of law in the development of sustainable transitions and may provoke greater attention to the sources and processes of legal transformations themselves. Identifying the constraints to legal innovation, particularly in the context of increasingly complex system demands, was identified as …

The Vatican View On Sport At The Service Of Humanity, Ed Edmonds

Journal Articles

Participation in sport, particularly the opportunity for children to enjoy and learn through play, is a human right and strongly supported by the goals of Catholic social teaching and the efforts of the Olympic Movement and the United Nations. On October 5-6, 2016, the Vatican held the Sport at the Service of Humanity Conference, the first global conference on sport and faith, an initiative promoted by Pope Francis and supported by the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations. This essay focuses on the conference, its vision and goals, and a challenge to use sport to advance human development and …

Why Federal Courts Apply The Law Of Nations Even Though It Is Not The Supreme Law Of The Land, Anthony J. Bellia Jr., Bradford R. Clark

Journal Articles

We are grateful to the judges and scholars who participated in this Symposium examining our book, The Law of Nations and the United States Constitution. One of our goals in writing this book was to reinvigorate and advance the debate over the role of customary international law in U.S. courts. The papers in this Symposium advance this debate by deepening understandings of how the Constitution interacts with customary international law. Our goal in this Article is to address two questions raised by this Symposium that go to the heart of the status of the law of nations under the Constitution. …

International Human Rights Law: An Unexpected Threat To Peace, Ingrid Wuerth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

It is a great honor to deliver this lecture in honor of the late Dean Robert F. Boden. I am grateful to all of you for attending. My topic tonight is international law and peace among nations. It may seem a poor fit for a lecture honoring Dean Boden. I did not know him, but I have read that Dean Boden was passionately dedicated to teaching law students about the actual day-to-day practice of law. He believed that law schools should be focused on that sort of professional training—not on policy questions or preparing students to be “architects of society,” …

The Future Of The Federal Common Law Of Foreign Relations, Ingrid Wuerth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The federal common law of foreign relations has been in decline for decades. The field was built in part on the claim that customary international law is federal common law and in part on the claim that federal judges should displace state law when they conclude that it poses difficulties for U.S. foreign relations. Today, however, customary international law is generally applied based upon the implied intentions of Congress, rather than its free-standing status as federal common law, and judicial evaluation of foreign policy problems has largely been replaced by reliance upon presidential or congressional action, or by standard constitutional …

Procedural Justice In Transnational Contexts, Stephen Cody, Alexa Koenig

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Procedural justice scholarship shows that perceptions of judicial fairness can strongly influence a court participant’s satisfaction with judicial outcomes, as well as the perceived legitimacy of the dispute resolution forum. What is largely unknown, however, is how procedural justice plays out in transnational contexts. Most previous studies focus on adjudication in domestic forums. Here, drawing on 622 semi-structured interviews with victims in cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC), we document how four core procedural justice principles–voice, neutrality, trust and respect–are interpreted differently in transnational rather than in national contexts. We also identify additional factors–including participants’ concerns over physical safety …

The Impact Of Human Trafficking In Asean: Singapore As A Case-Study, Jaya Anil Kumar

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Southeast Asia remains a notorious hotbed for human trafficking. The seriousness of the problem has led to the emergence of various initiatives to combat human trafficking. This paper seeks to address why human trafficking in Southeast Asia remains a contentious issue despite the various initiatives put in place for its eradication. ASEAN Member States, including Singapore, can only resolve the current inertia when it comes to combatting trafficking-in-persons (TIP) by adopting a multidimensional, and multistakeholder approach to the problem. Within Singapore, it is recommended that the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act should be amended such that it provides greater protection …

The Extraterritorial Application Of Federal Criminal Statutes: Analytical Roadmap, Normative Conclusions, And A Plea To Congress For Direction, Julie R. O'Sullivan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Under what circumstances can crimes that cross national boundaries be prosecuted in federal court? This question is critical given the increasing frequency with which criminal conduct crosses borders. This Article provides a guide through extant extraterritoriality analysis--warts and all--and then considers what the answer should be.

First, this Article provides a step-by-step roadmap for those seeking to answer the questions of where a crime that spans borders was committed and, if it is deemed to have been committed outside the territory of the United States, whether the applicable statute and Constitution would countenance such a prosecution. This roadmap will reveal …

Book Review, Anna Spain Bradley

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Disruptive Neuroscience Of Judicial Choice, Anna Spain Bradley

Publications

Scholars of judicial behavior overwhelmingly substantiate the historical presumption that most judges act impartially and independent most of the time. The reality of human behavior, however, says otherwise. Drawing upon untapped evidence from neuroscience, this Article provides a comprehensive evaluation of how bias, emotion, and empathy—all central to human decision-making—are inevitable in judicial choice. The Article offers three novel neuroscientific insights that explain why this inevitability is so. First, because human cognition associated with decision-making involves multiple, and often intersecting, neural regions and circuits, logic and reason are not separate from bias and emotion in the brain. Second, bias, emotion, …

Deconstructing The Epistemic Challenges To Mass Atrocity Prosecutions, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

Mass atrocity prosecutions are credited with advancing a host of praiseworthy objectives. They are believed to impose much-needed retribution, deter future atrocities, and affirm the rule of law in previously lawless societies. However, mass atrocity prosecutions will accomplish none of these laudable ends unless they are able to find accurate facts. Convicting the appropriate individuals of the appropriate crimes is a necessary and foundational condition for the success of mass atrocity prosecutions. But it is a condition that is frequently difficult to meet, as mass atrocity prosecutions are often bedeviled by pervasive and invidious obstacles to accurate fact-finding. This Article …

The Human Costs Of Exiting And Revising Trade And Investment Agreements: Local Community Interests, Human Rights, And Global Politics, Diane Desierto

Journal Articles

International law is both a process of assertion and reliance and a system of principles and rules: together they constitute the course of international law, confounding those critics who simplemindedly assert that it can be one (process) or the other (system) but not both. . . . we treat the international legal system as an axiom—a social fact. We differ on many other ideas: new subjects, the limits of multilateralism, fragmentation, pluralism and universality, as a result of which we continue to debate the true characteristics of the international system. States intent upon effecting changes in the law will naturally …

International Law And Policy Considerations For Shipping's Contribution To Climate Change Mitigation, Aldo Chircop, Meinhard Doelle, Ryan Gauvin

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This report investigates the international law and policy challenges to the determination of the international shipping industry's contribution to climate change mitigation efforts through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations and the competent intergovernmental organization with respect to shipping in international law. The report sets out the international legal framework that serves as context for the IMO efforts, the challenge of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping and the process and issues in determining the industry's 'fair share' of mitigation efforts and potential legal pathways. The report concludes with general, policy and legal …

Amicus Curiae Observations On The “Prosecution’S Request For A Ruling On Jurisdiction Under Article 19(3) Of The Statute”, Fannie Lafontaine, Robert Currie, Amanda Ghahremani

Reports & Public Policy Documents

The Amici Curiae (‘the Amici’) have been granted leave by Pre-Trial Chamber I (‘the Chamber’) to submit observations in the present proceeding, which derives from the Prosecutor’s request under art. 19(3) for a ruling on whether the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

The Amici respectfully offer the Chamber observations on the novel legal issues raised by the Prosecutor’s Request: (II) the scope of art. 19(3) and the powers of the Prosecutor to seek a ruling on jurisdiction before a formal situation has been assigned to it; (III) the scope …

Behind The Steele Curtain: An Empirical Study Of Trademark Conflicts Law, 1952-2016, Tim W. Dornis

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The law on international trademark disputes is founded on precedent from 1952. Steele v. Bulova Watch Co. is the first and only Supreme Court decision addressing the question of how far the Lanham Act should be extended beyond the United States' national borders when international infringement is at issue. The decision laid the foundation for a three-pronged test that focuses on the factors of defendant nationality, effects on US commerce, and conflicts with foreign law. Although international trademark conflicts have multiplied dramatically--particularly throughout the last decade--there has been no systematic and comprehensive account of the actual state of the law. …

2018-19 Executive, Managing And Editorial Boards, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law

GJICL Editorial Boards

No abstract provided.

The Theory And Practice At The Intersection Between Human Rights And Humanitarian Law, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

The United States is more than fifteen years into a fight against terrorism that shows no sign of abating and, with the change in administration, appears to be intensifying. Other Western democracies that have historically been uneasy about U.S. counterterrorism policies have, in recent years, shifted toward those policies. And armed nonstate groups continue to commit large-scale acts of violence in multiple distinct theaters. The legal issues that these situations present are not entirely new, but neither are they going away. Recent publications, like the three works under review, thus provide useful opportunities to reflect on and refine our thinking …

The Jus Ad Bellum'S Regulatory Form, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that a form of legal regulation is embodied in decisions at the UN Security Council that condone but do not formally authorize specific military operations. Such decisions sometimes inflect or go beyond what the jus ad bellum permits through its general standards — that is, under the prohibition of cross-border force and small handful of exceptions. Recognizing that this form of regulation is both part of the law and different in kind from regulation through the general standards should change how we think about the jus ad bellum.

Cross-Examination In International Arbitration: A Clash Among Common Law Traditions, Robert H. Smit

Faculty Scholarship

Cross-examination, like it or not, has become a regular feature of international arbitration. As with other procedural cross-roads converging upon international arbitration from different legal traditions, cross-examination invites controversy and debate. This tends to focus on the procedural differences between civil-law “inquisitorial” and common-law “adversarial” systems, and how they inform the (un)desirability of cross-examination, or the need to modify it, in international arbitration. Less explored is how the practice of cross-examination differs in different common-law jurisdictions, including between prominent arbitral seats in the United States and England, Hong Kong and Singapore among others, and how those differences inform the approach …

Why Comparative International Law Needs International Relations Theory, Daniel Abebe

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter challenges the conventional wisdom that international relations theory has nothing to offer scholars interested in comparative international law. It argues that comparativists should not underestimate the value of international relations theory in explaining how and why certain states adopt particular interpretations of international law. While international relations theory cannot explain the evolution of specific doctrines, it can be very useful in understanding the general approaches to international law that states embrace. The chapter develops the connection between domestic institutional design and the interpretation of international law on one side, and realism, institutionalism, and liberalism on the other. It …

The Model International Mobility Convention, Michael W. Doyle

Faculty Scholarship

People are as mobile as they ever were in our globalized world. Yet the movement of people across borders lacks global regulation, leaving many people unprotected in irregular and dire situations and some States concerned that their borders have become irrelevant. And international mobility – the movement of individuals across borders for any length of time as visitors, students, tourists, labor migrants, entrepreneurs, long-term residents, family members, asylum seekers, or refugees – has no common definition or legal framework.

What Does It Mean To Be ‘Pro-Arbitration’?, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

International arbitration commentators commonly ask of a proposed policy or practice whether it is ‘pro-’ or ‘anti-arbitration’. Framing the question that way presupposes a shared understanding of what does or does not make a policy or practice arbitration-friendly. In truth, the ways in which policies or practices may affect international arbitration’s well-being are manifold. They may even distinctly serve international arbitration’s well-being in some respects while equally distinctly disserving it in others. It behooves those who take international; arbitration’s well-being seriously to acknowledge the multiplicity of metrics for identifying what is ‘pro-’ and what is ‘anti-arbitration’ and to seek the …

All Quiet In The Western (European Football) Front: Regulation Of Football In The European Continent, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

Regulation of football in Europe is, absent some piecemeal interventions (like sharing of TV rights) largely non-existent. This is the case, because the de facto regulator (UEFA, Union Européenne of Football Associations) has no mandate to comprehensively address on its own competitive balance, the focal point of football, and, in more general terms, sports regulation. Various aspects of competitive balance are part and parcel of antitrust law. European Union (EU) law thus, comes into the frame, since this is the body of law regulating antitrust in the European continent. The European Union, nevertheless, has no mandate to regulate football comprehensively, …

Unintended Agency Problems: How International Bureaucracies Are Built And Empowered, Anu Bradford, Stavros Gadinis, Katerina Linos

Faculty Scholarship

The ground underneath the entire liberal international order is rapidly shifting. Institutions as diverse as the European Union, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, and World Trade Organization are under major threat. These institutions reflect decades of political investments in a world order where institutionalized cooperation was considered an essential cornerstone for peace and prosperity. Going beyond the politics of the day, this Article argues that the seeds of today’s discontent with the international order were in fact sown back when these institutions were first created. We show how states initially design international institutions with features that later haunt them in …

The Blurring Of The Public/Private Distinction Or The Collapse Of A Category? The Story Of Investment Arbitration, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

The paper is a response piece to Deborah Hensler and Damira Khatam’s new article, Re-inventing Arbitration: How Expanding the Scope of Arbitration Is Re-Shaping Its Form and Blurring the Line Between Private and Public Adjudication. Their main argument regarding the public-private distinction is that the arbitral procedure has changed as a consequence of the substantive issues resolved in this particular ADR system. According to them the arbitral system, which was originally conceived for commercial purposes, has become another way of litigating public law, but without the accountability mechanisms attached to public courts. In this paper, I agree in large part …