Rule of Law Commons^™

The Procedural Aspect Of The Rule Of Law: India As A Case Study For Distinguishing Concept From Conception, Karina T. Hwang

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, the concept of the procedural aspect of the Rule of Law will be distinguished from what I argue are conceptions that are falsely promulgated as concept. The different aspects of the Rule of Law—form, substance, and procedure— are helpful in making the distinction between concept and conception. Examining procedure within the Rule of Law is particularly important, and I define a broader set of requirements of the concept of the procedural aspect of the Rule of Law. This concept is applied to understand the Indian conception of the Rule of Law, a particularly interesting case that brings …

Iraq, Afghanistan, And The War On Terrorism: Winning The Battles And Losing The War, Mona Ali Khalil

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Legal Status Of Foreign Military And Civilian Personnel Following The Transfer Of Power To The Iraqi Interim Government, J. Stephen Shi

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Establishing Rule Of Law In Post-War Iraq: Rebuilding The Justice System, John C. Williamson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Commercial Law Reform Issues In The Reconstruction Of Iraq, Theodore W. Kassinger, Dylan J. Williams

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Panel 2: Building The Institutions Of The Nation, Louis M. Aucoin, Karl F. Inderfurth, Howard J. Wiarda, Thomas P. Lauth

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Democracy, Judicial Review And The Rule Of Law In The Age Of Terrorism: The Experience Of Israel - A Comparative Perspective, Ralph Ruebner

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Democracy And The Commitment To International Law, Allen Buchanan

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Norm Supercompliance And The Status Of Soft Law, Brian Sheppard

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Two Faces Of Bribery: International Corruption Pathways Meet Conflicting Legislative Regimes, Jeffrey R. Boles

Michigan Journal of International Law

Suppose a government agency tasks its purchasing agent with buying a set of computer servers for the agency’s use, and the agent contacts a technology company to make the purchase. After selecting the needed servers, the agent learns of the servers’ fair market value but does not negotiate with the technology company to obtain the lowest possible price. Instead, unbeknownst to the government, the agent agrees with the technology company’s sales manager to purchase the servers on behalf of the government for an amount significantly above their fair market value, and, in return, the company agrees to give the agent …

Jlia 3:1 - The Future Of International Criminal Justice

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Learning From Our Mistakes: The Belfast Project Litigation And The Need For The Supreme Court To Recognize An Academic Privilege In The United States, Kathryn L. Steffen

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Through the Belfast Project, researchers sponsored by Boston College began to compile an oral history of the period of violent political conflict in Northern Ireland known as “The Troubles” in a series of interviews. The interviewees’ participation in the project was conditioned on a strict promise of confidentiality. However, when authorities in the United Kingdom became suspicious that the interviews contained evidence of criminal activity, the United Kingdom, pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, requested the United States to subpoena the materials on its behalf. Satisfaction of the subpoena would mean not only turning over the interview recordings, but …

National Security And The Protection Of Constitutional Liberties: How The Foreign Terrorist Organization List Satisfies Procedural Due Process, Aaron Schwartz

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Foreign terrorist organizations pose a real and constantly evolving threat to U.S. national security. The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List seeks to temper that threat by extending the U.S. government an effective legal tool to identify and sanction members of terrorist organizations and those who support them. At the same time, however, the government must also ensure that its efforts to protect U.S. citizens do not trample constitutionally protected rights. This comment begins by exploring the FTO List's authorizing legislation and the policy and goals of that legislation. The comment then reviews and analyzes a series of cases discussing the …

Third Time’S The Charm: Will Basel Iii Have A Measurable Impact On Limiting Future Financial Turmoil?, Erin Pentz

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The Great Recession of 2008 caused banking failures around the globe. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision responded swiftly to create new minimum capital requirements for financial institutions in hopes of preventing additional failures and warding off future crises. Although the new capital standards that Basel III proposes are a step in the right direction, those standards alone will not be sufficient to prevent future bank failures in times of economic decline. Rather, true financial sector stability requires adequate capitalization of all institutions in terms of quality and quantity of capital, a strong regulatory framework, and a limitation on the …

International Institutions And The Resource Curse, Patrick Keenan

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Many countries that are richly endowed with natural resources have failed to turn that resource wealth into sustained development. In many places, a small coterie of elites has become rich while most citizens see little benefit from their country’s vast resource wealth. A principal cause of this problem, often called the resource curse, is weak domestic institutions that permit leaders to enrich themselves and ignore the development needs of the country. From this, most scholars and policymakers have concluded that the way to fix the resource curse is to reform domestic institutions.

This article challenges the conventional wisdom and argues …

The Arab Spring’S Four Seasons: International Protections And The Sovereignty Problem, Jillian Blake, Aqsa Mahmud

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

In December 2010, public demonstrations erupted throughout the Middle East against autocratic regimes, igniting a regional political transformation known as the Arab Spring. Depending on events, modern international criminal and humanitarian law provided certain protections to vulnerable populations. However, international law did not provide a uniform degree of protection to civilians and combatants who faced similar circumstances. This Article argues for a uniform standard of protections for all populations affected by armed conflict, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It evaluates each of five major Arab Spring uprisings (Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, and Libya) and describes the legal protections that …

The Impact Of The Icty On Atrocity-Related Prosecutions In The Courts Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Yaël Ronen

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia was not mandated to proactively promote domestic prosecutions of war-related crimes. However, its operation may have had some impact on domestic proceedings concerning war-related crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The object of this article is to identify and explain this impact, with respect to qualitative (institutional legal capacities), quantitative (rates of prosecution and trends in sentencing), and normative (the adoption and application of criminal law norms) benchmarks.

The Limits Of Judicial Idealism: Should The International Criminal Court Engage With Consequentialist Aspirations?, Shahram Dana

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Idealism about what international criminal justice mechanisms can achieve has lead to ideologically driven judicial decision-making in international criminal law (ICL). ICL idealism manifests itself in the belief that international criminal prosecutions can achieve an awesome array of goals. These include retribution, deterrence, reconciliation, rehabilitation, incapacitation, restoration, building a historical record, preventing revisionism, expressive and didactic functions, crystallizing international norms, general affirmative prevention, establishing peace, preventing war, vindicating international law prohibitions, setting standards for fair trials, combating impunity, and more. Ironically, this idealistic overreach, although usually well intended, has actually contributed to the politicization of the international judicial process.

The …

No Witness, No Case: An Assessment Of The Conduct And Quality Of Icc Investigations, Dermot Groome

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The conduct and quality of investigations pursued by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism from judges on the Court. Criticism is directed at the time and length of investigations; the quality of the evidence advanced in court; the inappropriate delegation of investigative functions, and the failure to interview witnesses in a way that is consistent with the Prosecution’s obligation to conduct investigations fairly under Article 54 of the Rome Statute. This essay explores these criticisms and concludes that the judges are justified in their concerns regarding the Prosecution’s investigative …

Foreword, Claudio Grossman

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Reconciliation And The Rule Of Law: The Changing Role Of International War Crimes Tribunals, Oriana Lavilla

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

This paper explores the relationship between international war crimes tribunals and reconciliation in post-conflict societies. The aim of the present study was to examine how the role of international war crimes tribunals has changed in the peacebuilding process since the early years after World War II. Due to the evolving nature of international law and the international criminal legal system, international tribunals have become increasingly recognized as an integral component of peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was the first international tribunal with a mandate to contribute to international peace and security. The …

Cross-Border Targeted Killings: "Lawful But Awful"?, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since September 11, the United States has waged two very open wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. These two wars have killed nearly 7,000 U.S. military personnel and left some 50,000 American troops wounded; they have also left an unknown number of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers and civilians dead or wounded. But alongside these two costly and visible wars, the United States has also been waging what amounts to a third war.

This third war is a secret war, waged mostly by drone strikes, though it has also involved a smaller number of special operations raids. The author calls this third …

Function And Dysfunction In Post-Conflict Justice Networks And Communities, Elena Baylis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The field of post-conflict justice includes many well-known international criminal law and rule of law initiatives, from the International Criminal Court to legal reform programs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Less visible, but nonetheless vital to the field, are the international staff (known as internationals) who carry out these transitional justice enterprises, and the networks and communities of practice that connect them to each other. By sharing information, collaborating on joint action, and debating proposed legal rules within their networks and communities, internationals help to develop and implement the core norms and practices of post-conflict justice. These modes of collaboration are …

Civil Consequences Of Corruption In International Commercial Contracts, Padideh Ala'i

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The United States legal system seeks to prevent and prohibit bribery and corruption through a myriad of laws, regulations and policies. Anti-corruption jurisprudence is more developed in the context of public sector contracts where the United States criminalizes bribery of public officials through 18 U.S.C. §201 (Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses). In addition, the United States was the first country to criminalize bribery of foreign government officials in 1977 with the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA has since been amended to comply with the adoption of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign …

The Resilience Principle, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Resilient self-help is essential in coping with life’s upsets. This essay explores the prospect of recognizing Resilience as a Principle of Law. The propositions set forth here were debated at two conferences held in Brasilia, in December of 2013. The first, for legislators, was convened in the Senate of Brazil by the National Congress’ Joint Permanent Committee on Climate Change, and the second, for judges, was convened by the Federal Judicial Council’s Judicial Studies Center (Conselho da Justiça Federal Centro de Estudos Judiciários) and the High Court of Brazil (Superior Tribunal de Justiça). This eJournal of the IUCN Academy of …

Symposium - The U.S.-Iranian Relationship And The Future Of International Order

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

2012-13 Jlia Masthead

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Protecting Shareholders From Themselves: How The United Kingdom’S 2011 Takeover Code Amendments Hit Their Mark, Matthew Peetz

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury in 2011 caused considerable uproar in the United Kingdom. The political outcry caused significant amendments to the United Kingdom’s regulatory framework over mergers and acquisitions, the so-called, Takeover Code. These changes to the Takeover Code were made to help relieve pressure on target companies during takeover situations, and to correct the imbalance of power in favor of bidding companies that the political community had perceived during the Kraft-Cadbury takeover. After the changes were made, but before they were implemented, the business community expressed concern that these added regulations would be detrimental to the M&A market as …

The Case Of Christmas Island: How International Law Affects The Australian-Malaysian Refugee Deal, Ria Pereira

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

In July 2011, Australia and Malaysia entered into an arrangement in which Australian asylum seekers would be removed to neighboring Malaysia to have their asylum claims processed. Following widespread criticism in the media, Australia’s High Court ruled that such a deal violated Australia’s refuges protection laws. While this ruling should have put an end to the deal, Australia’s Immigration Minister indicated that the agreement might nevertheless be feasible. Policy makers proposed amending Australian domestic immigration laws to allow the deal to go forward unencumbered. A bill to amend Australia’s Migration Act was subsequently introduced. As it currently stands, Australian law …

The Cost Of Fear: An Analysis Of Sex Offender Registration, Community Notification, And Civil Commitment Laws In The United States And The United Kingdom, Kate Hynes

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Sex offenders are often seen as a notorious group in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The public opinion of the masses has often found its way into the laws which restrict the privacy and freedoms of many sex offenders. This comment will examine the often divergent trends in lawmaking and judicial authority in both countries in regard to sex offender registration, community notification, and civil commitment. Further, the comment will study the lasting effects on the sex offender population and potential civil rights implications.