Transnational Law Commons^™

Transnational Mass Tort Litigation: A Proposal For An International Court Of Civil Justice, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter argues for the creation of an International Court of Civil Justice for transnational mass tort cases. It considers the challenges of adjudicating cross-border mass torts along with the incentives and feasibility of a new international court. Drawing upon case studies including the Bhopal disaster, litigation surrounding the devastation of the Ecuadorian rainforest, and the attempts to sue over human rights abuses in Nigeria, the chapter demonstrates that the world's legal systems were not designed to solve these kinds of complex cases, and the absence of mechanisms to ensure coordination means that victims try, but fail, to find justice …

Ogoni Activism And Access To Remedy: Business And Human Rights From The Bottom Up, Ayodeji Kamau Perrin

Faculty Scholarship

Do court victories result in social change? Can victories in court result in losses outside of court? If victories in court are no guarantee of victory outside of court, how much worse are court defeats? This Article explores these questions in part through analyzing Ogoni litigation against Royal Dutch/Shell. In 2002, Esther Kiobel and several co-plaintiffs tried to hold Royal Dutch/Shell accountable for its role in the death of Kiobel’s husband and for wider corporate abuses and related state human rights violations in Ogoniland. But in 2013, a unanimous United States Supreme Court held that the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) …

The Evolution Of Sodomy Decriminalization Jurisprudence In Transnational And Comparative Constitutional Perspective, Ayodeji Kamau Perrin

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I demonstrate that legal mobilization by activist litigants combined with a comparative methodological jurisprudence has been central to the “transnational legal process” of the generation and diffusion of the sodomy decriminalization norm since the 1950s. My analysis of the transnational comparative jurisprudence relies on a comprehensive legal survey of seven decades of decriminalization jurisprudence (1954–2022), primarily using successful cases. Although the scholarship on the well-known Dudgeon, Toonen, and NCGLE cases often asserts the influence that these cases had on subsequent domestic court constitutional jurisprudence, I suggest that it is the domestic privacy jurisprudence of lobbyists, …

Transnational Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

Fiduciary law is expanding throughout the world.¹ It seems to be a new phenomenon, but in reality, it is not. Fiduciary law is ancient. It existed centuries ago in Mesopotamia, ² Rome, ³ Egypt,⁴ Greece,⁵ as well as in Jewish ⁶ and Christian laws.⁷ Fiduciary duties arguably developed later in Great Britain when master landlords left for the holy land on religious crusades and had to rely on others to manage their estates.⁸ The ancient rules, such as those found in agency law in Mesopotamia, may not have been as sophisticated as the current ones-such …

The Case For An International Court Of Civil Justice, Maya Steinitz

Books

When multinational corporations cause mass harms to lives, livelihoods, and the environment in developing countries, it is nearly impossible for victims to find a court that can and will issue an enforceable judgment. In this work, Professor Maya Steinitz presents a detailed rationale for the creation of an International Court of Civil Justice (ICCJ) to hear such transnational mass tort cases. The world's legal systems were not designed to solve these kinds of complex transnational disputes, and the absence of mechanisms to ensure coordination means that victims try, but fail, to find justice in country after country, court after court. …

Transnational Litigation As A Prisoner's Dilemma, Maya Steinitz, Paul Gowder

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article we use game theory to argue that perceptions of widespread corruption in the judicial processes in developing countries create ex ante incentives to act corruptly. It is rational (though not moral) to preemptively act corruptly when litigating in the courts of many developing nations. The upshot of this analysis is to highlight that, contrary to judicial narratives in individual cases — such as the (in)famous Chevron–Ecuador dispute used herein as an illustration — the problem of corruption in transnational litigation is structural and as such calls for structural solutions. The article offers one such solution: the establishment …

Back To Basics: Public Adjudication Of Corporate Atrocities Torts, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

The editors of this online symposium invited me to contribute to the subject of an argument I have recently advanced. This argument is that the world needs a permanent International Court of Civil Justice (ICCJ) to adjudicate cross-border mass torts. A common reaction to this proposal has been to suggest that the function of such an international court be assumed by one of the existing arbitration institutions or filled by a new one. I’d like to take this opportunity to argue against that idea.

Corporate atrocities, which are the symposium’s focus, may be crimes, but they also have a tort …

Transfer Pricing: Un Practical Manual – China, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact

Faculty Scholarship

Any contemporary Chinese transfer pricing assessment needs to consider the United Nation (UN) Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing for Developing Countries released in May 2013. In particular, Chapter 10 discusses Country Practices and presents China’s most up to date transfer pricing policy statement.

China is not an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nor has it formally adopted the OECD’s Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations. Chapter 10 makes it very clear that China is charting a different transfer pricing course in at least nine important areas. China believes that: 1. significant comparability adjustments are …

Vogtländische Straβen-,Tief- Und Rohrleitungsbau Gmbh Rodewisch (Vstr) V. Finanzamt Plauen – Vat Triangulation V. Drop Shipments, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In ECJ Case 587/10 (Vogtländische Straβen-,Tief- und Rohrleitungsbau GmbH Rodewisch (VSTR) v. Finanzamt Plauen) an American firm, Atlantic International Trading Company (AIT) is a middleman in an otherwise all-European VAT triangulation. AIT appears to have approached its compliance obligations as if it was a middleman in an American drop shipment.

However, drop shipments are treated very differently from VAT triangulations.

Commercially these transactions are very similar. They are composed of two back-to-back sales, A/B followed by B/C, with a single delivery from A directly to C. This article compares the tax treatment of drop shipments under the RST with triangulation …

Neither Rules Nor Standards, Steven A. Dean

Faculty Scholarship

Specifying the content of a requirement or a prohibition up front-e.g. replacing a "reasonable speed" requirement with a fifty-five miles per hour speed limit-can make life easier for enforcers and citizens alike. Recent efforts to substitute international tax rules for decades-old standards may do just the opposite, jeopardizing the "miracle" that is today's international tax regime. Enhanced information exchange and formulary apportionment will undermine the legitimacy that is essential to the success of any international legal regime. A better solution would overhaul the century-old benefits principle to weave enforcement deep into the fabric of the international tax regime. Only then …

Transfer Pricing In Vat/Gst Vs. Direct Taxation: A Paper On The Topic Of Relations Between Associated Companies, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This paper considers transfer pricing in VAT/GST and direct taxes, one of a range of tax relationships that flow between associated companies. The topic necessarily proposes an inquiry into vertical harmonization of transfer pricing norms alongside an assessment of present efforts to horizontally harmonize transaction values.

Stated differently, the vertical inquiry is: should the same transaction between the same associated enterprises be valued in the same manner by a single country in VAT/GST and direct taxes? The horizontal effort is: should two jurisdictions treat transactions between associated enterprises within their respective jurisdictions in the same manner in VAT/GST and direct …

It-Apas: Harmonizing Inconsistent Transfer Pricing Rules In Income Tax - Customs - Vat, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In most jurisdictions there are three separate spheres of transfer pricing analysis - income tax, customs and VAT. Although they share policy objectives, terminology and frequently borrowing methodologies from one another these domestic transfer pricing systems are not in harmony.

Businesses find this lack of harmony costly, problematical, but also a planning opportunity. The door is open for arbitrage.

What if the transfer pricing rules within a jurisdiction were harmonized? The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are considering this question.

This paper synthesizes the range of transfer pricing regimes currently in use, …

After Atrocity Examples From Africa: The Right To Education And The Role Of Law In Restoration, Recovery, And Accountability, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This article begins to consider these important questions through a discussion of the multiple models used to address, and redress massive human rights violations in South Africa, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. I argue that lawyers and policy makers working to advance the rule of law must consider the role of law in transitional societies not only as a means of ensuring that perpetrators of grave human rights abuses are held accountable, but also as a foundation for the future. I submit that for the rule of law to take root, the conditions of a society must be fertile; and respect …

Taxing Services Under The Eu Vat And Japanese Consumption Tax: A Comparative Assessment Of New Eu Place Of Taxation Rules For Services And Intangibles, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Place of taxation rules are the seminal cross-jurisdictional provisions of any consumption tax regime. They determine where among competing jurisdictions a particular service is taxed. They are not important for transactions that are restricted to a single jurisdiction and to businesses or individuals belonging to that jurisdiction. However, when two or more jurisdictions are involved, these are the essential tools for revenue allocation and avoidance of double taxation.

It is therefore of considerable importance to Japanese businesses and consumers when the European Union (EU) undertakes a wholesale revision of the place of supply rules for services and intangibles. The European …

Palestinian Refugees And Their Legal Status: Rights, Politics, And Implications For A Just Solution, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

The Palestinian refugee problem is one of the longest-lasting refugee crises in the world——now exceeding fifty-three years——without a real solution in sight. Although at its core a political problem, the Palestinian refugee crisis is also a problem of legal distortion: Palestinian refugees fall into a legal lacuna that sets them outside minimal international protections available for all other refugee groups in the world. This paper provides background to the legal anomaly that sets Palestinian refugees apart; discusses the legal, practical, and political implications of that status; and proposes a framework and mechanisms aimed at promoting a rights-based solution for the …