Rule of Law Commons^™

Prerogative In Common: On The Emancipatory Potential Of Radical Mutuality Amid Sovereign Decisionism, Matthew Builes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In times of crisis, liberal democracies resort to authoritarian measures that undermine core democratic values. Dominant thought in the study of emergency-era law and politics appeal to a dichotomy of normal and exceptional times, to critique or justify the turn to sovereign decisionism. While this strategy seems clear-cut, the persistence of exceptional spaces and the crises that supposedly generate them challenge existing frameworks by blurring the line between norm and exception. This project explores the prospect of radical mutual aid, as a transformative response to the enduring crisis of modernity.

Mutual Recognitions Across Generations, Steven L. Winter Walter S. Gibbs Distinguished Professor Of Constitutional Law

Law Faculty Research Publications

“Sovereignty,” Arendt says, “is contradictory to” the human condition. It is not, in any event, the kind of thing that can be shared across generations. Subsequent generations lack sovereignty to the precise degree that they are bound by the decisions of their predecessors. It is no answer to say that contemporary citizens participate in the sovereignty of a whole, transgenerational people. To paraphrase de Tocqueville, later generations are not free because they are not entirely equal, and they are not equal because they are not entirely free.

Where “sovereignty” is a metaphysical concept that transcends time, recognition is an act …

Interpretations Of Intent: Sovereignty, The Second Amendment, And Us Gun Culture, Lola I. Brown

Political Science Honors Projects

In this paper, I engage foundational theorists such as Jean Bodin, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke to examine the philosophies of sovereignty that underpin the US Constitution and the creation of the Second Amendment. I find that the US Founders' reaction to these foundational theories of sovereignty allowed for a breakdown in the system of sovereignty in the country, and made way for the implementation of the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law, in turn, created the conditions of possibility for the psyche of radical individualism that now permeates the US. This radical individualism allowed for the reinterpretation of …

Politik Hukum Pengambilalihan Flight Information Region (Fir) Dari Singapura, Canris Bahri P.S

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

Sovereignty is one of the conditions for the establishment of a country, the sovereignty of the state is the full and highest power in a country to regulate its entire territory which includes land, water and air space above it without interference from the governments of other countries. State sovereignty in airspace based on the 1944 Chicago convention on International Civil Aviation is "Complete" and "Exclusive". Recognition of the Archipelago's Sovereignty based on the 1982 International Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) also includes the air space above it. However, there are problems that arise in the implementation …

The Role Of Recognition In Kelsen's Account Of Legal Obligation And Political Duty, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Kelsen’s critique of absolute sovereignty famously appeals to a basic norm of international recognition. However, in his discussion of legal obligation, generally speaking, he notoriously rejects mutual recognition as having any normative consequence. I argue that this apparent contradiction in Kelsen's estimate regarding the normative force of recognition is resolved in his dynamic account of the democratic generation of law. Democracy is embedded within a modern political ethos that obligates legal subjects to recognize each other along four dimensions: as contractors whose mutually beneficial cooperation measures esteem by fair standards of contribution; as autonomous agents endowed with equal rights; as …

Sovereign Immunity And Interstate Government Tort, Louise Weinberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This paper argues that the Supreme Court made a serious mistake last term, when, in a case of interstate government tort, it tore up useful options that should be available to each state for the rare cases in which they would be of service. In seeking to insulate a state from liability when its employee intrudes on a sister state’s territory and causes injury there, the Court stripped every state of power, in cases of interstate government tort, to try injuries occurring on its own territory to its own residents—an unprecedented disregard of a state’s acknowledged traditional interests. Indeed, the …

The Original Theory Of Constitutionalism, David Singh Grewal, Jedediah Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Constitution embodies a conception of democratic sovereignty that has been substantially forgotten and obscured in today’s commentary. Recovering this original idea of constitution-making shows that today’s originalism is, ironically, unfaithful to its origins in an idea of self-rule that prized both the initial ratification of fundamental law and the political community’s ongoing power to reaffirm or change it. This does not mean, however, that living constitutionalism better fits the original conception of democratic self-rule. Rather, because the Constitution itself makes amendment practically impossible, it all but shuts down the very form of democratic sovereignty that authorizes it. No …

Some Remarks On Self-Defense And Intervention: A Reaction To Reading Law And Civil War In The Modern World, Josef Rohlik

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

An Emerging Norm - Determining The Meaning And Legal Status Of The Responsibility To Protect, Jonah Eaton

Michigan Journal of International Law

The responsibility to protect, from its recent nativity in the 2001 report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), is the latest round in an old debate pitting the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of states against allowing such intervention to prevent gross and systematic violations of human rights. Advocates for the concept see it as an important new commitment by the international community, injecting new meaning into the tragically threadbare promise to never again allow mass atrocities to occur unchallenged. ICISS offered the concept of responsibility to protect as a new way to confront …

Connecting The Dots Between The Constitution, The Marshall Trilogy, And United States V. Lara: Notes Toward A Blueprint For The Next Legislative Restoration Of Tribal Sovereignty, Ann E. Tweedy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This law review Article examines: (1) the underpinnings of tribal sovereignty within the American system; (2) the need for restoration based on the Court's drastic incursions on tribal sovereignty over the past four decades and the grave circumstances, particularly tribal governments' inability to protect tribal interests on the reservation and unchecked violence in Indian Country, that result from the divestment of tribal sovereignty; (3) the concept of restoration as illuminated by United States v. Lara, and finally (4) some possible approaches to partial restoration.

The Article first evaluates the constitutional provisions relating to Indians and the earliest federal Indian law …

Beyond Discretion: Prosecution, The Logic Of Sovereignty, And The Limits Of Law, Conor Clarke, Austin Sarat

Scholarship@WashULaw

Today it is widely recognized in both academic literature and the main-stream media that prosecutors have substantial discretion. Yet prosecutorial decisions involve, in our view, something more than a straightforward exercise of discretion. In this article we move from the language of discretion to that of sovereignty to describe prosecutorial power. In so doing we want to move from the language of administration to the language of power. Focusing on the decision not to prosecute, we argue that prosecutorial decisions participate in, and exemplify, the logic of sovereignty and its complex relationship to legality. By drawing on Carl Schmitt and …

The Bridge At Jamestown: The Virginia Charter Of 1606 And Constitutionalism In The Modern World, A.E. Dick Howard

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can International Law Survive The 21st Century - Yes: With Patience, Persistence, And A Peek At The Past, Dana Zartner Falstrom

San Diego International Law Journal

With the end of the Cold War-the principal international political framework that shaped the international system since the end of WWII-an increasing number of global tensions have arisen which have brought to the fore questions about the ability of existing international law to provide a guiding framework for state behavior. Debates over the limits of state sovereignty, the appropriateness of humanitarian intervention, the justness of pre-emptive war, the definition of self-defense, the legality of replacing a government in the interests of your ideals, and how to deal with terrorism have dominated discussions around the world. Moreover, these discussions have caused …

An Unrecognized State In Foreign And International Courts: The Case Of The Republic Of China On Taiwan, Pasha L. Hsieh

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article provides a comparative analysis of the status of the Republic of China on Taiwan in foreign and international settings. Most existing literature written from the traditional public international law perspective focuses on Taiwan's separate statehood from China. This Article addresses an important pragmatic issue that international courts and courts in foreign countries frequently face: whether Taiwan is a "foreign State" for particular salutatory purposes in judicial proceedings. Part I of this Article provides an overview of China-Taiwan relations and the status of Taiwan under international law. I argue that the ROC on Taiwan has been a sovereign State …

Rebus Sic Stantibus: Notification Of Consular Rights After Medellin, Aaron A. Ostrovsky, Brandon E. Reavis

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Comment examines, through principles of public international law and U.S. jurisprudence, the relationship between U.S. courts and the ICJ to determine if the former are indeed bound by the latter's decisions, proprio motu, or if instead some Executive action is required to make the decisions binding on the judiciary. Part of this examination will entail a discussion of the potential for dialogue between the ICJ and U.S. courts to "pierce the veil of sovereignty" that traditionally conceals the inner workings of sovereign states from the scrutiny of international tribunals. Based on this assessment, the Comment then addresses how …

Subjects Of International Law: A Power-Based Analysis, Guido Acquaviva

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, the Author challenges the definition of the term "state" that is commonly accepted in legal scholarship as the basis for assessing whether an entity is a subject of international law. By analyzing a number of cases that do not fit into the "traditional" model--including the Holy See, Napoleon, and the Confederacy--the Author reaches the conclusion that the only essential element of a subject of international law is its sovereignty. An entity is sovereign when it is able effectively to assert that it is not subordinate to another authority: territory and population are therefore not essential attributes of …

National Self-Determination And Ethnic Minorities, Olli Lagerspetz

Michigan Journal of International Law

The paper will include three parts. In the first part, the relation between nationality and popular sovereignty is explored. In the second part, there is a somewhat analogous discussion of the concept of ethnicity. In the last part, the conclusions are applied in a discussion of ethnic nationalism.

Commentary To Professor Stephen D. Krasner, Jürgen Kurtz

Michigan Journal of International Law

Comment on Professor Stephen D. Krasner's The Hole in the Whole: Sovereignty, Shared Sovereignty, and International Law

The Hole In The Whole: Sovereignty, Shared Sovereignty, And International Law, Stephen D. Krasner

Michigan Journal of International Law

Ideally, a body of law comprises a set of coherent and consistent rules. These rules contribute to the creation of an environment that is predictable, efficacious, and just. Most international lawyers hope, expect, or believe that such a body of law can exist for the international system. This is a fool's errand.

Diversity Or Cacophony? The Continuing Debate Over New Sources Of International Law, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Joyce L. Tong

Michigan Journal of International Law

We have reached a point when lawyers' commissions are summoned to discuss the consequences of legal proliferation as an ill threatening the standing of international law through incompatibility or irrelevance. Should this trend towards fragmentation be reversed? Should we devise a legal non-proliferation treaty? Or should we, conversely, welcome the current diversification in the sources of law as reflecting the realities of today's world, as a reflection of the flexibility and adaptability of law when the norm of sovereignty on which it is based is itself undergoing considerable recalibration? In short: how should we deal theoretically as well as practically …

The War Against Iraq And The Future Of International Law: Hegemony Or Pluralism?, Andreas Paulus

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article is devoted to the question of the future relevance of international law at a time when the idea of a "rule of law" in international affairs seems to be waning. Why should the sole superpower look to international law in its quest for protection from dangers of weapons of mass destruction and terrorists? Is the European insistence on questions of legality, which was visible in the dramatic British attempts to secure some kind of Security Council backing and to advance international legal arguments for its participation in the invasion of Iraq, more than a fig leaf for a …

Rule Of Law And The Limits Of Sovereignty: The Private Prison In Jurisprudential Perspective, Ahmed A. White

Publications

No abstract provided.

What Is Eleventh Amendment Immunity?, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court's Eleventh Amendment decisions give conflicting signals about what the Amendment does. On one view, the Amendment functions as a forum-allocation principle--immunizing states from liability in suits filed in federal court, but leaving open the possibility that states may be compelled to entertain suits against themselves in their own courts. A separate line of cases, however, implies that state courts enjoy an immunity from suit in their own courts and that nothing in the Constitution withdraws such immunity; on this view, the Eleventh Amendment, by protecting the states from suit in the federal courts, effectively immunizes the states …

The Beginnings Of The Rule Of Law In The International Trade System Despite U.S. Constitutional Constraints, Yong K. Kim

Michigan Journal of International Law

This study focuses on the emergence of ROL in U.S. international trade policy, a development which merits closer examination for the following reasons. First, the United States must still be considered the leader in international trade policy, and a ROL order without the most important trading entity would make little sense. Second, the United States is probably the foremost proponent of instituting a ROL order in international trade, though, ironically, it may also be the prime culprit in adhering to certain power-ordered relationships. Third, it seems only fair, if not natural, to extend the United States' domestic respect for the …

International Ethics For A New Era: The Problem Of The Kind World Policeman, Fernando R. Tesón

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of American Hegemony: Political Morality in a One-Superpower World by Lea Brilmayer

Why Redraw The Map Of Africa: A Moral And Legal Inquiry, Makau Wa Mutua

Michigan Journal of International Law

The author argues in this Article that the post-colonial state, the uncritical successor of the colonial state, is doomed because it lacks basic moral legitimacy. Its normative and territorial construction on the African colonial state, itself a legal and moral nullity, is the fundamental reason for its failure. The author argues that, at independence, the West decolonized the colonial state, not the African peoples subject to it. In other words, the right to self-determination was exercised not by the victims of colonization but their victimizers, the elites who control the international state system.

Explorations At The Edge Of Time: The Prospects For World Order, Catherine Tinker

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of the book by Richard A. Falk.

Socialist Federation--A Legal Means To The Solution Of The Nationality Problem: A Comparative Study, Viktor Knapp

Michigan Law Review

The history of federations is both long and short. It is long in that the federation originated with the Swiss Confederation, which dates back to the 1291 defense confederacy of the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden; it is short because the second federation in world history, one that has become a model for many others, did not come into being until almost five centuries later in America.

Toward Supremacy Of Treaty-Constitution By Judicial Fiat: On The Margin Of The Case, Eric Stein

Michigan Law Review

Increased interdependence of states in modem times has shaken the nineteenth century doctrines of extreme dualism and positivism. These doctrines would build an impenetrable wall between the international and national legal orders; they would elevate the state to the position of exclusive actor and deny the individual any standing in the international legal order; and, in the interpretation of a rule of law, they would exclude any regard for the political, economic, and social context in which the rule is applied.

Territorial Courts And Law: Unifying Factors In The Development Of American Legal Institutions-Pt.1-Establishment Of A Standardized Judicial System, William Wirt Blume, Elizabeth Gaspar Brown

Michigan Law Review

The United States first became a sovereign nation when individual states of the Confederation ceded to the states collectively their several interests in the lands west of the Appalachians which lay east of the Mississippi, north of Spanish Florida, and south of the Great Lakes. This area had been relinquished by Great Britain by the Treaty of 1783 and, with the exception of Kentucky, now became the property of the United States. It was the first area over which the states as a group had complete sovereignty, subject only to the claims of the various Indian tribes. Colonies fresh from …