Transnational Law Commons^™

The Politics Of Law And The Laws Of Politics: The Political Paradoxes Of Transnational Constitutionalism, Pablo Holmes

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This essay addresses the ongoing debate on transnational constitutionalism and the theoretical assumptions related to the possibilities of internal politicization of transnational governance. After reconstructing the debate on the transnationalization of law and the emergence of fragmented forms of transnational governance, I engage with the description of emerging forms of constitutional law within the fragmented legal regimes of global governance. After doing that, I explore the assumption exposed by some legal scholars, which insists on the possibility of an internal politicization of legal discourse as a way to challenge the so-called "rule of experts" in transnational law. Drawing on the …

A Family Tradition: Giving Meaning To Family Unity And Decreasing Illegal Immigration Through Anthropology, Micah Bennett

Indiana Law Journal

My Note explores the family-preference provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act and argues that they are far too limited, especially in light of the “family unity” policy that underscores the law. Using Mexico as a model, the Note relies on the discipline of anthropology to explain that family inherently drives immigration, and it refers to an allegory from a Mexican immigrant to demonstrate how the INA is ineffective. It then argues that immigration law could learn from anthropology—both its scholarship and its disciplinary ideals—to craft a more effective and better informed immigration law, which would further the family unity …

Societal Constitutionalism, Social Movements, And Constitutionalism From Below, Gavin W. Anderson

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Within constitutional theory, in comparison to other fields of scholarship, the significance of transnational social movements has been relatively unexamined in the literature. Societal constitutionalism, grounded in the sociological method and open to reexamining received understandings of constitutionalism, would appear conducive to undertaking this enterprise. However, the general absence of social movements from the societal constitutionalism literature is not coincidental, and reflects a shared commitment with more conventional approaches to an institutional conception of constitutionalism, and a belief in the latter's necessary benevolence and Western origin. These assumptions reflect the limited focus of contemporary analyses of globalization and constitutionalism upon …

Transnational Corporations' Outward Expression Of Inward Self-Constitution: The Enforcement Of Human Rights By Apple, Inc., Larry Cata Backer

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Societal constitutionalism presents us with alternatives to state-centered constitutional theory. But this alternative does not so much displace as extend conventional constitutional theory as a set of static premises that structure the organization of legitimate governance units. Constitutional theory, in either its conventional or societal forms, engages in both a descriptive and a normative project-the former looking to the incarnation of an abstraction and the later to the development of a set of presumptions and principles through which this incarnation can be judged. Constitutional theory is conventionally applied to states-that is, to those manifestations of organized power constituted by a …

Fundamental Rights, Private Law, And Societal Constitution: On The Logic Of The So-Called Horizontal Effect, Florian Roedl

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The paper raises the issue of a normative justification of the horizontal effect of fundamental rights in private law. Justification in this sense means that the reasons given are neither functional nor instrumental, but that the reasons are supposed to be subject to the intrinsic logic of private law. In traditional doctrine, the reason usually given to confer horizontal effect to fundamental rights is a deferral to the constitution: The constitutional text decides whether and how fundamental rights apply to private legal relationships. This answer implies that fundamental rights are either logically or normatively alien to private law, that they …

A Sociology Of Constituent Power: The Political Code Of Transnational Societal Constitutions, Christopher Thornhill

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article proceeds from a critical sociological revision of classical constitutional theory. In particular, it argues for a sociological reconstruction of the central concepts of constitutional theory: constituent power and rights. These concepts, it is proposed, first evolved as an internal reflexive dimension of the modern political system, which acted originally to stabilize the political system as a relatively autonomous aggregate of actors, adapted to the differentiated interfaces of a modern society.

This revision of classical constitutional theory provides a basis for a distinctive account of transnational constitutional pluralism or societal constitutionalism. The article argues that the construction of transnational …

Lochner Disembedded: The Anxieties Of Law In A Global Context, Peer Zumbansen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper explores, in an inevitably cursory manner, some of the main challenges facing a legal theory of transnational governance today. In part building on and responding to William Twining's identification of key problems of law in a global context (2009; 2012), the following paper adopts a two-fold approach. One element is to suggest a conceptual architecture, which captures law in its transformational state through a focus on actors, norms, and processes. Second, the paper proposes case

studies as a central methodological device to explore the nature, scope, and function of governance-both legal and nonlegal-in a global context. Through the …

State Court International Human Rights Litigation: A Concerning Trend?, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The brief symposium contribution explores human rights litigation in U.S. state courts under state law. Faced with higher hurdles to successfully asserting Alien Tort Statute claims in U.S. courts and reluctant to re-embrace more traditional international lawmaking, human rights advocates have begun to experiment with alternative strategies for redressing human rights violations. One strategy involves state court litigation. Some commentators believe that state courts may prove more amenable to enforcing and advancing human rights. This symposium contribution explores the parallels between the recent willingness to consider state court litigation to remedy human rights violations occurring abroad and other state court …

Regulation, Renegotiation, And Reform: Improving Transnational Public-Private Partnerships In The Wake Of The Gulf Oil Spill, John J. Mckinlay

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Oklahoma And Beyond: Understanding The Wave Of State Anti-Transnational Law Initiatives, Martha F. Davis, Johanna Kalb

Indiana Law Journal

In the past year, initiatives to block judicial consideration of foreign or international law have been introduced in over half of the states. The proposals vary, ranging from the “softer” versions, which codify existing common law principles governing judicial decision making to the more extreme versions, which aggressively bar all consideration of foreign and international law, virtually eliminating judicial discretion regarding the relevance of such law in a particular case. This Essay contends that in all their variations, these anti-transnational law measures pose serious and fundamental challenges to the American judicial system. They undermine our federalist system by ignoring federal …

Evading Legislative Jurisdiction, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the last few years, and mostly unnoticed, courts have adopted a radically different approach to issues of legislative jurisdiction. Instead of grappling with the difficult question of whether Congress intended a law to reach beyond U.S. borders, courts have side-stepped it entirely. Courts have done so by redefining the definition of extraterritoriality. Significant and contentious decisions in the Ninth and D.C. Circuits paved the way by holding that not all regulation of overseas foreign conduct is extraterritorial. And then suddenly, last term, the U.S. Supreme Court breathed life into the practice. In its landmark Morrison v. National Australia Bank …

The Criminalization Of The Theft Of Trade Secrets: An Analysis Of The Economic Espionage Act, Nicola Searle

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Transnational Corporations As Steering Subjects In International Economic Law: Two Competing Visions Of The, Karsten Nowrot

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Transnational corporations (TNCs) not only occupy an important status as economic actors on the international scene, but they are also political actors who are increasingly involved in the progressive development and enforcement of the regulatory structures of the international economic system. Against this background, this article focuses on the current status and potential future development of TNCs as steering subjects in international economic law (IEL). It evaluates the role played by this category of nonstate actors in two of the central public international law fields of IEL, namely the legal order of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the international …

The Transnational Law Market, Regulatory Competition, And Transnational Corporations, Horst Eidenmuller

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In many regions of the world and across various fields, law has become a product. Individuals and companies seek attractive legal regulations, and countries advertise their legal wares globally as they compete for customers. Transnational corporations in particular are prominent actors in the emerging transnational law market. This article investigates the causes of this development and discusses these changes with respect to company law, contract law, the law of dispute resolution, and insolvency law. It assesses the market for legal rules and its practical consequences, and it provides legal policy recommendations for an efficient framework of the transnational law market. …

The Coevolution Of Transnational Corporations And Institutions, Sarianna M. Lundan

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

While economic theories of the firm have traditionally focused on the ownership of assets, the increasing use of contractual partnerships is beginning to challenge our conception of the firm by emphasizing its coordinating role. In structuring their contracts, as well as in managing the relationships governed by the contracts, firms try to mitigate uncertainties that could destroy the value-adding potential of such transactions. These uncertainties may be specific to the transaction partner, but they might also arise from the institutional context of the contracting parties, particularly in the case of transactions that cross borders. The coevolutionary process whereby firms both …

The Changing Face Of Transnational Business Governance: Private Corporate Law Liability And Accountability Of Transnational Groups In A Post-Financial Crisis World, Peter Muchlinski

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article seeks to critically assess the recently dominant financialized model of corporate law and governance and its contribution to the creation of the "asocial corporation" geared only to the enhancement of shareholder value. This article places corporate law in a wider context of national and international legal developments that, together, create a framework for the financialization of transnational corporate activity. This article shows that a new approach to transnational corporate governance is emerging from a number of sources. These predate the crisis but have been given impetus by it. In particular, three important phenomena are examined: the rise of …

Introduction: Transnational Corporations Revisited, Gralf-Peter Calliess

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Articles first presented at a symposium in the context of the biannual conference of the German Law & Society Association (Vereinigung fur Recht und Gesellschaft e. V) on "Transnationalism in Law, the State, and Society." This conference was organized together with the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 597 "Transformations of the State" at the University of Bremen from March 3-5, 2010. The Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State," U. BREMEN, www.staat.uni-bremen.de

Private Actors And Public Governance Beyond The State: The Multinational Corporation, The Financial Stability Board, And The Global Governance Order, Larry Cata Backer

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Transnational corporations are at the center of extraordinary and complex governance systems that are developing outside the state and international public organizations and beyond the conventionally legitimating framework of the forms of domestic or international hard law. Though these systems are sometimes recognized as autonomous and authoritative among its members, they are neither isolated from each other nor from the states with which they come into contact. Together these systems may begin to suggest a new template for networked governance beyond the state, but one in which public and private actors are integrated stakeholders. This provides the source of the …

Self-Constitutionalizing Tncs? On The Linkage Of "Private" And "Public" Corporate Codes Of Conduct, Gunther Teubner

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

What is special about the intertwining of private and public corporate codes? It is not only tendencies of juridification but also of constitutionalization that materialize in this interplay. Both types of corporate codes taken together represent the beginnings of specific transnational corporate constitutions conceived as constitutions in the strict sense. This point is based on a concept of constitutionalization that is not limited to the nation-state and implies that also nonstate societal orders develop autonomous constitutions under particular historical circumstances. The following arguments highlight how corporate codes feature functions, structures, and institutions of genuine constitutions:

1. To the extent that …

Transnational Corporations, Global Competition Policy, And The Shortcomings Of Private International Law, Gralf-Peter Calliess, Jens Mertens

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In this article we criticize the so-called more economic approach to European competition law for disregarding the importance of a functional system of private law. Based on the availability of market governance as an alternative mode for organizing transactions, it is presumed that vertical integration, which is the central organizational structure of transnational corporations, is economically efficient. Since the enforcement of cross-border contracts by state-organized systems of private law, however, is insufficient, "make-or-buy" decisions in international commerce are prejudiced against arms' length transactions in markets. Consequently, international transactions are integrated vertically into firms' structures to a higher degree than comparable …

Symposium Introduction – Beyond Borders: Extraterritoriality In American Law, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitating Territoriality In Human Rights, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For many years, territorial principles anchored an international system organized around nation-states. Recently, however, the human rights movement has sought to change the state-centric focus of international law and overcome the limitations of a system where the territorial state is the primary actor. The field of human rights has promoted a new legal orthodoxy that places the person at the center of the international legal system. Within this orthodoxy, non-state actors play a prominent role, unilateral domestic lawsuits are promoted, and territorial borders give way when necessary for humanitarian intervention. In contrast, territorial conceptions of international law are viewed as …

Morrison, The Effects Test, And The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality: A Reply To Professor Dodge, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Duplicative Foreign Litigation, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

What should a court do when a lawsuit involving the same parties and the same issues is already pending in the court of another country? With the growth of transnational litigation, the issue of reactive, duplicative proceedings - and the waste inherent in such duplication - becomes a more common problem. The future does not promise change. In a modern, globalized world, litigants are increasingly tempted to forum shop among countries to find courts and law more favorably inclined to them than their opponents.

The federal courts, however, do not yet have a coherent response to the problem. They apply …

Litigating Canada-U.S. Transboundary Harm: International Environmental Lawmaking And The Threat Of Extraterritorial Reciprocity, Austen L. Parrish, Shi-Ling Hsu

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article joins a spirited debate ongoing among international law scholars. Numerous articles have debated the changing nature of international law and relations: the impact of globalization, the decline of territorial-sovereignty, the ever important role that non-state actors play, and the growing use of domestic laws to solve transboundary problems. That scholarship, however, often speaks only in general theoretical terms, and has largely ignored how these changes are playing out in countries outside the United States in ways that impact American interests.

This Article picks up where that scholarship leaves off. It examines one of the perennial challenges for international …

Mixed Blessings: The Great Lakes Compact And Agreement, The Ijc, And International Dispute Resolution, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For scholars of international law and international dispute resolution, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and Agreement may seem a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they promise environmental cooperation and management of the Great Lakes at an unprecedented scale. The agreements have been heralded as a tremendous advancement in state-provincial relations. On the other hand, international scholars should be nervous for what the agreements signify for international law and dispute resolution. The Compact and Agreement are remarkable for replacing an already functioning regulatory regime: the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, administered by the International Joint Commission.

This …

Trail Smelter Déjà Vu: Extraterritoriality, International Environmental Law And The Search For Solutions To Canadian-U.S. Transboundary Water Pollution Disputes, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the 1930s, a privately owned smelting plant in Trail, Canada was the focus of the most famous case in international environmental law: the Trail Smelter Arbitration. But the subject of that landmark case has not gone away. Over the last seventy years, the Trail smelter dumped millions of tons of mercury, arsenic, and toxic waste into the Columbia River. The dumping's effects have been felt in neighboring Washington State, where the toxic discharges have caused environmental harm. In 2003, the EPA began investigating the Washington border area for designation as a Superfund (CERCLA) site, and controversially demanded that the …

On Domesticating Giants: Further Reflections On The Legal Approach To Transnational Enterprise, A. A. Fatouros

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article continues a line of inquiry begun long ago at the University of Western Ontario, at a time when transnational enterprise was dealt with under the heading of "direct private foreign investment." It picks up and develops certain points made in some relatively recent articles of mine, such as, The Computer and the Mudhut: Notes on Multinational Enterprise in Developing Countries (1971), 10 Columbia J. Transn'l. L. 325; Multinational Enterprise and Extraterritoriality (1972), 1 J. Contemporary Business (No. 4); and especially, Problemes et ethodes d'une reglementation des enterprises multinationales (1974), 101 J. Droit Int'l (Clunet) 495.

Book Review. International Claims: Their Settlement By Lump Sum Agreements By R. B. Lillich And B. H. Weston, A. A. Fatouros

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Why Federations Fail: An Inquiry Into The Requisites For Successful Federalism, Robert L. Birmingham

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.