Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Hard, Soft & Uncertain: The Guarani Aquifer And The Challenges Of Transboundary Groundwater, David N. Cassuto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article begins with an overview of the ecology of the Guarani Aquifer region before turning to the legal and ecological problems it faces. Because the majority of the Guarani Aquifer underlies Brazil (with the rest residing below Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), the laws and policies of Brazil have a significant managerial impact. Consequently, the Brazilian legal regime forms the focus of the first Part of the Article. The Article then analyzes the international transboundary framework before turning to the recently enacted Agreement on the Guarani Aquifer. This Agreement, signed but not yet ratified by four countries, represents a major …

The Importance Of Information And Participation Principles In Environmental Law In Brazil, David N. Cassuto, Romulo S.R. Sampaio

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the two different kinds of uncertainty, ‘hard’ uncertainty (unknown unknowns) and ‘soft’ uncertainty (known unknowns), in the context of environmental law decision making. First, the authors argue that these different categories should not be treated the same when facing decisions under uncertainty. To deal with these different uncertainties, a tiered risk analysis process is called for, using participatory techniques to turn hard uncertainty into (more manageable) soft uncertainty as well as to increase the legitimacy of environmental decision making, even in cases of hard uncertainty. This methodology can and should apply to all instances of domestic, transnational …

"Turn On The Lights" -Sustainable Energy Investment And Regulatory Policy: Charting The Hydrokinetic Path For Pakistan, Nadia B. Ahmad

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Hydrokinetic energy is an under-recognized, low-cost renewable technology that can be deployed in Pakistan through a robust national energy strategy and international investment schemes to tackle the country’s acute energy crisis. This article will show how national and local laws can be amended to favor progress in the sustainable energy sector and achieve hydrokinetic energy production in Pakistan, which if actualized, would be nothing short of a game changer—strategically and environmentally. Despite current legal regimes that disfavor small scale hydroelectric power production, Pakistan and other less developed countries can adapt and deploy hydrokinetic technology through revamped investment laws, regulatory rules, …

Successes, Failures, And Remaining Issues Of The Justice System Reform In Japan: An Introduction To The Symposium Issue, Setsuo Miyazawa

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Historical Genealogy Of Japan's Judicial Reform: Its Achievements And Challenges, Shunsuke Marushima

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adjusting Course: Proposals To Recalibrate Japan's Law Schools And Bar Exam System, Eric C. Sibbitt

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Step In The Right Direction For Japan's Judicial Reform: Impact Of The Justice System Reform Council Recommendations On Criminal Justice And Citizen Participation In Criminal, Civil, And Administrative Litigation, Hiroshi Fukurai

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Difficulty Of Enforcing American Family Law Judgments In Japan, James B. Kildunne

UC Law SF International Law Review

This Note examines modem Japanese family law, focusing particularly on Japan's failure to ratify the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the difficulty that poses for parents seeking to enforce custody orders from their home country in Japan; the formal, functional, and cultural limitations within the Japanese legal system that make joint custody between separated parents very difficult to achieve; procedures in place in the United States at both the local and federal level to prevent international child abduction; and, finally, a recommendation that the United States utilize its unique relationship with Japan to urge …

The Impact Of The Human Provincial Administrative Procedure Provisions, Peter Witherington

UC Law SF International Law Review

In April, 2008, Zhou Qiang, then the governor of Hunan Province (and current president of China's Supreme People's Court), presided over the adoption of the Hunan Provincial Administrative Procedure Provisions ("Provisions"). At its passage, this regulation represented the first comprehensive code of administrative procedure to be adopted in the People's Republic of China. This Note contends that Provisions represent a departure for administrative procedure in China, and should be viewed as a positive, if preliminary, step towards comprehensive rule of law.

Beginning with a brief overview of modern Chinese administrative law and its theoretical underpinnings, this Note presents the argument …

The Trials And Tribulations Of Japan's Legal Education Reforms, Daniel H. Foote

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Japan's Judicial System May Change, But Its Fundamental Nature Says Virtually The Same: Recent Japanese Reforms On The Judicial Appointment And Evaluation, Takayuki Ii

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Circumstances That Would Prejudice Impartiality: The Meaning Of Fairness In Japanese Jurisprudence, Mark A. Levin

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enforcing Online Arbitration Agreements For Cross-Border Consumer Small Claims In China And The United States, Philip Johnson

UC Law SF International Law Review

This Article analyzes the enforceability of provisions found in international business-to-consumer contracts that mandate online arbitration between the parties to resolve their disputes.

Specifically, the Article assesses the applicability of the New York Convention, Chinese law, and United States law to contracts that require online arbitration for disputes that arise out of low value transactions between businesses and consumers in China and the United States. The Article concludes with recommendations for changes in the law that aim to improve online dispute resolution, thereby promoting online commercial activity.

Regulation Of Private Equity In Brazil: Policy Questions Presented And Critique, Shannon Guy

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

In this note, I explore some of the policy questions affecting Brazil’s private equity industry that the country must tackle. In Part II, Section A, I begin by asking the threshold question of whether the Brazilian government should play an active role in encouraging the growth of the private equity industry. I resolve that Brazil should play an active role in encouraging the industry’s growth to encourage several possible benefits to the real economy. Private equity may benefit the economy by providing job growth and job preservation, improved access to credit for firms that would not otherwise have funds, and …

Favoritism And Corporate Law: The Confused Corporate Opportunity Doctrine In The Hyundai Motor Case, Hwa-Jin Kim, Seung Hwan Lee, Stephen M. Woodcock

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Core legal principles of U.S. corporate law are often met with perplexity in foreign jurisdictions. This is especially true for legal principles that are controversial even in the U.S. This Article takes the corporate opportunity doctrine and examines how it has been exported to the civil law regime in Korea. Korean conglomerates such as Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group have become major players in the global market, but corporate law and practice in Korea have had a difficult time keeping up with developments in the business sector. The Hyundai Motor Case demonstrates an ambitious, but ill-fated, attempt at the …

Recent Changes In U.S. And U.K. Overseas Anti-Corruption Enforcement Under The Fcpa And The U.K. Bribery Law: Private Equity Compliance, Isaac A. Binkovitz

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

The following discussion provides a preliminary guide for those tasked with steering private equity firms through the shifting obstacle course of overseas anti-corruption compliance. Section I briefly reviews the centrality of overseas anti-corruption enforcement and its role in creating a more hospitable business climate in emerging markets. Section I also examines the American and British enforcement regimes in general before analyzing the most recent changes–specifically, changes as to the scope of liability and expansion of their jurisdiction. This section is designed to help determine whether investments or acquisitions fall within the purview of either enforcement regime. Section II discusses various …

'Quack Corporate Governance' As Traditional Chinese Medicine – The Securities Regulation Cannibalization Of China's Corporate Law And A State Regulator's Battle Against State Political Economic Power, Nicholas C. Howson

Law & Economics Working Papers

From the start of the PRC’s “corporatization” project in the late 1980s, a Chinese corporate governance regime subject to increasingly enabling legal norms has been determined by mandatory regulations imposed by the PRC securities regulator, the CSRC. Indeed, the Chinese corporate law system has been cannibalized by allencompassing securities regulation directed at corporate governance, at least for companies with listed stock. This article traces the path of that sustained intervention, and makes a case – wholly contrary to the “quack corporate governance” critique much aired in the U.S. – that for the PRC this phenomenon is necessary and appropriate, and …

Privacy Laws And Privacy Levers: Online Surveillance Versus Economic Development In The People’S Republic Of China, Ann Bartow

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Essay describes and contextualizes the ongoing efforts by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to reconcile two dramatically competing interests: the desire to extensively monitor the communications of its citizenry, and a burning ambition to further develop its banking and financial industries, its high tech innovation capabilities, and its overall share of the “knowledge economy.”

Monitoring and censoring communications, especially via “one-to-many” social networking platforms, is viewed as essential for the prevention of mass anti-Party political activities ranging from peaceful civil disobedience to armed insurrection and for the protection of the reputations of individual Party leaders. Mobile Internet technologies …

The Role Of Networks, Mentors, And The Law In Overcoming Barriers To Organizational Leadership For Women With Children, Terry Morehead Dworkin, Aarti Ramaswami, Cindy A. Schipani

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The 2012 election brought headlines such as "Another 'Year of Women' in Congress." Although the number of women in the highest legislative offices increased, their numbers are still significantly lower than those of men. Fewer than 100 women hold office in both houses of Congress. Corporate America similarly reflects significantly low female leadership numbers. For example, "fewer than 20% of finance industry directors and executives are women, and [there are] no women leading the 20 biggest U.S. banks and securities firms." Women make up nearly half the workforce and hold 60% of bachelor degrees, yet they hold only 14% of …

Beyond Seduction: Lessons Learned About Rape, Politics, And Power From Dominique Strauss-Kahn And Moshe Katsav, Hannah Brenner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

n the last decade, two influential international political figures, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, and Moshe Katsav, former President of Israel, were accused of engaging in extreme and ongoing patterns of sexual violence. The collection of formal charges against the two men included rape, forcible indecent assault, sexual harassment, and obstruction of justice. The respective narratives surrounding the allegations against Katsav and Strauss-Kahn have their own individual characteristics, and each of the cases unfolded in diverging ways. Yet, the actions of these two men taken together, and the corresponding response of the legal systems in France, …