International Law Commons^™

Operationalizing Free, Prior, And Informed Consent, Carla F. Fredericks

Publications

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has acknowledged varying ways in which international actors can protect, respect and remedy the rights of indigenous peoples. One of these methods is the concept of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as described in Articles 10, 19, 28 and 29. There has been much debate in the international community over the legal status of the UNDRIP, and member states have done little to implement it. In applied contexts, many entities like extractive industries and conservation groups are aware of risks inherent in not soliciting FPIC and have endeavored to …

Grave Crimes And Weak Evidence: Fact-Finding Evolution In International Criminal Law, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

International criminal courts carry out some of the most important work that a legal system can conduct: prosecuting those who have visited death and destruction on millions. Despite the significance of their work--or perhaps because of it--international courts face tremendous challenges. Chief among them is accurate fact-finding. With alarming regularity, international criminal trials feature inconsistent, vague, and sometimes false testimony that renders judges unable to assess with any measure of certainty who did what to whom in the context of a mass atrocity. This Article provides the first-ever empirical study quantifying fact-finding in an international criminal court. The study shines …

Utilizing Secondary Sanctions To Curtail The Financing Of The Islamic State, Jimmy Gurulé

Journal Articles

This article will discuss existing legislation used to curtail the financing of the Islamic State, the value of imposing secondary sanctions against the terrorist group, and concerns regarding the extraterritorial applications of US sanctions.

Business Responsibilities For Human Rights And Climate Change - A Contribution To The Work Of The Study Group On Business And Human Rights Of The International Law Association, Sara L. Seck

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This contribution to the work of the International Law Association’s Study Group on Business and Human Rights considers the relationship between business responsibilities for human rights and climate change. While it is now widely accepted that the adverse effects of climate change undermine the enjoyment of human rights, and that businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights, the relationship between business responsibilities for human rights and climate change is unclear. This paper first considers state duties to protect human rights from climate change harms, including harms arising from business activities, and second, considers how the business responsibility to respect …

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, January 2017, Daugirdas Kristina, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

In this section: • Congress Overrides Obama’s Veto to Pass Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act • U.S. Federal Court of Appeals Upholds United Nations’ Immunity in Case Related to Cholera in Haiti • U.S.-Russian Agreements on Syria Break Down as the Syrian Conflict Continues • Russia Suspends Bilateral Agreement with United States on Disposal of Weapons-Grade Plutonium • The United States Makes Payment to Family of Italian Killed in CIA Air Strike • United States Ratifies Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance

The Road Not Taken: A Comparison Of The E.U. And U.S. Insider Trading Prohibitions, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

This essay, written for a symposium on insider trading in the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, explores the different paths taken by the United States and the European Union with respect to who is subject to the prohibition on insider trading. After providing an overview of the difference between the U.S. and the E.U. prohibition, the essay explores the different outcomes that would occur under U.S. versus E.U. law in several high profile insider trading cases of recent years. The essay also addresses the jurisdictional reach of each regime’s prohibition and considers the normative lessons of this …

Is There A Right To Be Free From Corruption?, Anita Ramasastry

Articles

Scholars and policymakers have, for some time, focused on the link between corruption and human rights. This has been to illustrate that corruption is not a victimless crime. While this has publicized the impact of corruption on individuals and on society, it has not changed the lack of political will to prosecute many instances of corruption. Thus citizens often stand by as their leaders plunder national treasuries. Rather than focusing solely on human rights, or trying to create a new “human right” to be free from corruption, this article explores the right to a legal remedy for victims of corruption …

Astroturf Activism, Melissa J. Durkee

Articles

Corporate influence in government is more than a national issue; it is an international phenomenon. For years, businesses have been infiltrating international legal processes. They secretly lobby lawmakers through front groups: “astroturf” imitations of grassroots organizations. But because this business lobbying is covert, it has been underappreciated in both the literature and the law.

This Article unearths the “astroturf activism” phenomenon. It offers an original descriptive account that classifies modes of business access to international officials and identifies harms, then develops a critical analysis of the laws that regulate this access. I show that the perplexing set of access rules …

The Advent Of Lawyers In Japanese Government, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

Until 2003, Japanese lawyers were prohibited by law from entering full-time employment in governmental bodies. That year, in line with recommendations by the Justice System Reform Council, the Lawyers Act was amended to permit lawyers to undertake such employment. Incorporating information and insights from interviews with former government lawyers and other concerned parties, this article examines the rise in the hiring of government lawyers and its impact. The article considers factors that have contributed to the increase, examines the roles played by these lawyers, considers prospects for the future, and discusses implications for government, the legal profession, clients, and legal …

Solomonic Judgments And The International Court Of Justice, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter, in a forthcoming book on legitimacy and international courts, analyzes the impact of Solomonic or "split the baby" judgments on the normative and sociological legitimacy of the International Court of Justice.

Law And Recognition-- Towards A Relational Concept Of Law, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Law is plural. In all but the simplest situations multiple laws overlap—national laws, subnational laws, supranational laws, non-national laws.

Our jurisprudential accounts of law have mostly not taken this in. When we speak of law, we use the singular. The plurality of laws is, at best an afterthought. This is a mistake. Plurality is built into the very reality of law.

This chapter cannot yet provide this concept; it can serve only develop one element. That element is recognition. Recognition is amply discussed in the context of Hart’s rule of recognition, but this overlooks that recognition matters elsewhere, too. My …

International Adjudicative Bodies, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

The past fifty years have seen a tremendous rise in international litigation. There are more parties who are more prone to use international law mechanisms to resolve their disputes, and more international actors have more forums available to them to which they can bring their disputes. Indeed, the multifaceted growth of international dispute resolution is one of international law's most important and interesting recent developments.

At the heart of this development are international adjudicative bodies, a diverse group of international bodies that have a common dispute settlement function, the outcome of which is binding on the parties. This chapter examines …

Brazil's Olympic-Era Anti-Corruption Reforms, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

A country once renowned for glorifying corruption now leads what may be the furthest-reaching anti-corruption investigation in history. Brazil, once typified by its "Brazilian jeitinho" way of creatively navigating social problems,' now executes "Operation Car Wash," bringing down political and business leaders by the dozens. So too has Brazil's Congress adopted a series of dramatic, and effective, new anti-corruption laws, in response to public outcries for reform. It is deeply ironic, but not at all coincidental, that Brazil concurrently hosted the Summer Olympics. This paper chronicles the extraordinary series of events that connect - in a line that is straight …

China's And India's Differing Investment Treaty And Dispute Settlement Experiences And Implications For Africa, Won Kidane

Faculty Publications

This Article examines China’s and India’s differing investment treaty and dispute settlement experiences and the resulting implications for Africa. It attempts to answer the question of whether there is evidence of China’s and India’s attempt to take advantage of the default structural imbalance enabled by centuries of international investment laws and institutions that favor the investor. The Article begins by presenting the background of the current economic reality and trends that necessitate the evaluation of the existing rules and institutions. It then presents a detailed assessment of this phenomenon by focusing on the investment cases brought against India for context, …

Economic Coercion And The Limits Of Sovereignty: Cuba’S Embargo Claims Against The United States, Jose Gabilondo

Faculty Publications

While scholars and journalists have written exhaustively about the property claims against Cuba certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, little attention has been paid to Cuba’s public international law claim against the United States for embargo losses caused by its unilateral sanctions. As a result of the normalization process between the two countries that began in 2014, resolving both the property claims and the embargo claim has become a diplomatic priority. While conceding the doctrinal limitations under existing authorities, this paper critically evaluates Cuba’s claim and presents strong legal support for it.

Public international law provides no exact …

Prioritising Human Development In African Intellectual Property Law, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Faculty Publications

The global intellectual property structure has been criticised for requiring developing nations to adopt intellectual property standards that are appropriate for industrialised countries. Some commentators have observed that industrialised nations, such as the United States, developed their economies by borrowing from others, but that through the use of globalised intellectual property standards, they have effectively limited other nations from doing the same. This article does not aim to revisit the question of the suitability of the existing intellectual property standards for developing countries. Nor does it seek to analyse whether, as a general proposition, intellectual property rights should be expanded …

Amicus Curaie, Submitted Susan Akram, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Summary of Argument

Palestinian refugees fall under a legal regime that is distinct from all other refugees in the world. As such, they are covered by a series of special provisions that apply only to them and no other refugees. Their special status resulted from the decisions of the drafters of key international treaties to exclude Palestinian refugees from the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and to conditionally exclude them from the benefits of the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.

Three main reasons …

Recognizing Women's Rights At Work: Health And Women Workers In Global Supply Chains, Erika R. George, Candace D. Gibson, Rebecca Sewall, David Wofford

Faculty Scholarship

The Guiding Principles mandate that businesses respect the human fights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights and in the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Due diligence processes and risk impact assessments are the main recommended means for ensuring compliance with companies' commitments to respect international human fights. Because OSH as a conceptual framework and regulatory order is not sufficient to identify the risk of health fights violations to women workers, we argue companies should not anchor their due diligence and risk assessment in OSH conventions and settle for a check-the-box solution …

Imagining Equity And Inclusion: South Africa's International Economic Politics And Reflections On The Writings Of Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

In honour of Justice Dikgang Moseneke, this essay takes up his invitation to imagine an ethos consistent with South African Constitutionalism, one which could promote economic justice. This essay explores how the tools of international economic law as utilised by South Africa could serve as a means of transformation to advance the end of a more inclusive economic globalisation. South Africa's trade policies and participation in international business and human rights policy initiatives are offered as illustrations of a shift towards asserting interests aligned with the country's constitutional economic justice commitments. First, emphasising Justice Moseneke's writings outside of his rulings …

Tallinn, Hacking, And Customary International Law, Ahmed Ghappour

Faculty Scholarship

Tallinn 2.0 grapples with the application of general international law principles through various hypothetical fact patterns addressed by its experts. In doing so, its commentary sections provide a nonbinding framework for thinking about sovereignty, raising important considerations for states as they begin to articulate norms to resolve the question of precisely what kinds of nonconsensual cyber activities violate well-established international laws — a question that will likely be the focus of international lawyers in this area for some time to come.

This essay focuses on one area of state practice where states are already dealing with these issues: the use …

How International Is International Law: Remarks By Lori F. Damrosch, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

Our moderator's questions begin with “in what sense is international law and in what sense isn't it universal?” and continue with whether international law may be “different in different places” and what the implications of such differences may be. I am here to defend the “universalist” perspective, as the immediate past president of the American Society of International Law and before that, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of International Law. Though both the Society and the Journal have “American” in their titles and our geographic headquarters is in the United States, the Society's mission statement commits us to pursue …

Industry Lobbying And "Interest Blind" Access Norms At International Organizations, Melissa J. Durkee

Scholarly Works

The standard approach of many international organizations (IOs) to non-governmental associations makes no formal distinctions between nonprofit private sector groups, known as trade or industry associations, and public interest groups. Thus, most IOs offer accreditation and access to both kinds of group on equal terms, without differentiating between them. I call this approach “interest blind” and use this short essay to examine its origins and consequences. Specifically, the approach has resulted in robust participation in international governance by industry and trade lobbying groups, which can affect the quality of deliberation at IOs and of the information that international officials and …

Local Liability In International Economic Law, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Opposing International Justice: Kenya’S Integrated Backlash Strategy Against The Icc, Laurence R. Helfer, Anne E. Showalter

Faculty Scholarship

The government of Kenya has employed a wide range of strategies to undermine the recently-dismissed prosecutions of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto before the International Criminal Court (ICC). This Article argues that these strategies are part of an integrated backlash campaign against the ICC, one that encompasses seemingly unrelated actions in multiple global, regional and national venues. We identify three overarching themes that connect these diverse measures— politicizing complementarity, regionalizing political opposition, and pairing instances of cooperation and condemnation to diffuse accusations of impunity. By linking its discrete acts of opposition to these three themes, the government …

The Abiding Problem Of Witness Statements In International Criminal Trials, Megan A. Fairlie

Faculty Publications

Recent amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence for the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) give Trial Chambers the discretion to admit unexamined, party-generated witness statements in lieu of live testimony. The use of this evidence—which undermines the right of confrontation and prevents the judges from independently assessing witness credibility—is now a hotly contested issue in each of the Court’s ongoing trials. As ICC judges grapple with the thorny question of how to implement these new provisions without undermining the right to a fair trial, this Article, which is the first to examine the rule amendments and their early implementation, …

Ending The Excessive Use Of Force At Home And Abroad, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

In the mid-1980s the American Society of International Law (ASIL) launched an initiative to engage more women and minority members in the Society and international law more generally.' Professor Henry Richardson was there, encouraging all of the new aspirants, including me. He is still doing that, and this essay in his honor is an expression of gratitude, admiration, and affection. It develops themes Hank and I have both pursued for decades: human rights, peace and non-violence, and the promotion of international law and ASIL.

The Globalization Of Entrepreneurial Litigation: Law, Culture, And Incentives, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

The fiftieth anniversary of Rule 23’s adoption in 1966 provides an opportunity to consider how legal change occurs. Law, culture, and incentives all play a role. But which dominates? The adoption of Rule 23 preceded a significant surge in the use of the class action, and some areas of litigation came to depend on Rule 23’s availability (e.g., securities litigation, antitrust litigation, and, for a time, mass torts litigation). Perhaps even more importantly, Rule 23 spurred the growth of the plaintiff’s bar, enabling small firms with a handful of lawyers to develop into major institutional firms of one hundred or …

How Should The E.U. Respond To Brexit And Trump?: The Lessons From Trade Wars, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

The U.K.’s decision to exit the E.U. (popularly known as “Brexit”) sets the stage for a potential retaliatory trade war. Similarly, the aggressive nationalism of U.S. President Donald Trump does also. In both cases, game theory suggests how such a conflict might be resolved. This paper first examines three standard game theory models – the Chicken Game, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and the Stag-Hunt Game – and then turns to the strong incentives for rent-seeking by special interests and considers how rent-seeking likely affects how these games might play out. Although the conventional wisdom expects that the U.K. will suffer retaliation …

Debating Autonomous Weapon Systems, Their Ethics, And Their Regulation Under International Law, Kenneth Anderson, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

An international public debate over the law and ethics of autonomous weapon systems (AWS) has been underway since 2012, with those urging legal regulation of AWS under existing principles and requirements of the international law of armed conflict, on the one side, in argument with opponents who favor, instead, a preemptive international treaty ban on all such weapons, on the other. This Chapter provides an introduction to this international debate, offering the main arguments on each side. These include disputes over defining an AWS, the morality and law of automated targeting and target selection by machine, and the interaction of …

Trade Agreements, Regulatory Sovereignty And Democratic Legitimacy, Bernard Hoekman, Charles F. Sabel

Faculty Scholarship

Governments increasingly are seeking to use bilateral and regional trade agreements to reduce the cost-increasing effects of differences in product market regulation. They also pursue regulatory cooperation independent of trade agreements. It is important to understand what is being done through bilateral or plurilateral mechanisms to address regulatory differences, and to identify what, if any, role trade agreements can play in supporting international regulatory cooperation. This paper reflects on experience to date in regulatory cooperation and the provisions of recent trade agreements involving advanced economies that have included regulatory cooperation. We argue for a re-thinking by trade officials of the …