Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Applying The Doctrine Of Superior Responsibility To Corporate Officers: A Theory Of Individual Liability For International Human Rights Violations, Brian Seth Parker

UC Law SF International Law Review

With the Supreme Court set to hear Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petrol. Co., a principal means of seeking redress for corporate complicity in egregious international law violations under the Alien Tort Statute hangs in the balance. This Article examines the doctrine of superior responsibility, otherwise known as command responsibility, as a functional theory of liability in filling some of the gaps potentially left by Kiobel or by adding another arrow to the quiver if the Supreme Court refuses to grant corporations immunity. The doctrine of superior responsibility imposes liability on superiors when they knew or should have known about their …

Introduction To "Litigating Palestine: Can Courts Secure Palestinian Rights?", George Bisharat

UC Law SF International Law Review

This brief introduction outlines the premises of a conference entitled "Litigating Palestine: Can Courts Secure Palestinian Rights?" where two articles from this issue of the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review were first presented. The conference premises were: first, that Palestinians have human, civil, and collective national rights; second, that Israel has a lengthy and well-documented record of violating Palestinian rights; and third, that it is an empirical fact that a number of efforts have been launched to protect Palestinian rights in a number of court systems throughout the world. This being the case, it seems appropriate to evaluate these …

Transforming Accountability: A Proposal For Reconsidering How Human Rights Obligations Are Applied To Private Military Security Firms, Lauren Groth

UC Law SF International Law Review

This Article argues that there is an [a]ccountability gap within the legal frameworks that apply to private military security contractors (PMSCs) that has led to widespread impunity and human rights violations. Recent legal efforts to address the problem have been unsuccessful because they fail to consider and reflect the larger transformations taking place in international relations. This failure is, in essence, the [A]ccountability gap: international law no longer accurately reflects the nature of the realities it is meant to regulate, allowing those organizations which now hold power in global politics, yet are unrecognized by international law, to escape accountability. Thus, …

Face-Veil Bans And Anti-Mask Laws: State Interests And The Right To Cover The Face, Evan Darwin Winet

UC Law SF International Law Review

In the past decade, numerous nations have responded to the perceived threat of the Islamic face-veil (niqab) by taking steps to implement laws restricting the right to cover the face in public. France and Belgium have passed general bans. Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and several states of Australia have introduced similar measures. Syria, Egypt and Sweden have all passed laws banning face-veils in public schools. Many other nations and more local governments have considered anti-veil legislation or upheld the denial of basic services to citizens who cover their faces.

This Note begins with a historical approach to the practice …

International Surrogacy Contract Regulation: National Governments' And International Bodies' Misguided Quests To Prevent Exploitation, Emily Stehr

UC Law SF International Law Review

Over the past decade, a growing number pf American and European women have begun to travel to other countries, often developing countries, in search of surrogates. The surrogates are usually "gestational surrogates," meaning that the children to whom they give birth are conceived via in vitro fertilization. The children are thus genetically related to the commissioning parents, or to the commissioning men and third-party women who provide eggs, but not to the surrogate birth mothers. Uncertainty about the legality of such surrogacy contracts in the United States, and outright bans on the contracts in some European countries, fuel the "reproductive …

International Law And Limitations On The Exercise Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction In U.S. Domestic Law, Dan E. Stigall

UC Law SF International Law Review

With the rise of transnational crime, domestic courts are increasingly called upon to make decisions, within the context of a national court and domestic legal system, which implicate international issues and the interests of other sovereign states. This Article explores the role of international law in U.S. law in the context of an area of law which marks the intersection between domestic law and international affairs: the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction. The analysis demonstrates the continued force of international law in the body of U.S. domestic law which governs this realm and highlights both the advantages and dangers attendant to …

Business Insolvency And The Irish Debt Crisis, 11 Rich. J. Global L. & Bus. 407 (2012), Paul B. Lewis

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Among the volume of material written about the Irish debt crisis and its impact over the past few years, strikingly little has been written about the ability to save a financially distressed company under Irish law and whether corporate restructuring could have mitigated some of the financial damage to Irish companies, particularly those in the property and construction industries. There is a reason for this. The number of filings under the Examinership law - the rough equivalent of Chapter 11 in the United States - remained small and relatively constant during both the recent boom and the more immediate bust …

Penalty Clauses And The Cisg, Jack Graves

Scholarly Works

Commercial agreements often provide for “fixed sums” payable upon a specified breach. Such agreements are generally enforced in civil law jurisdictions. In contrast, the common law distinguishes between “liquidated damages” and “penalty” clauses, enforcing the former, while invalidating the latter as a penalty. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) does not directly address the payment of “fixed sums” as damages, and the validity of “penalty” clauses has, traditionally, been relegated to otherwise applicable domestic national law under CISG Article 4. This traditional orthodoxy has recently been challenged—suggesting that the fate of a penalty clause …

Desde Quisqueya Hacia Borinquena: Experience And Visibility Of Immigrant Dominican Women In Puerto Rico: Violence, Lucha And Hope In Their Own Voices, Sheila I. Velez Martinez

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

According to the United Nations, (U.N.) more than 1.5 million Dominicans have migrated from the Island of La Espatiola, most living in the United States.

The Training, Appointment, And Supervision Of Islamic Lawyers In The Federal Territories Of Malaysia, Amanda Whiting

Washington International Law Journal

Although much has been written about the place of Islam, as law and as religion, in Malaysia, considerably less attention has been paid to Islamic lawyers (“peguam syarie”). This article undertakes a preliminary examination of a topic that demands closer scrutiny, relying chiefly upon parliamentary acts, state enactments and the rules made pursuant to them, as well as in-depth oral history interviews with Islamic and secular lawyers that were recorded from May through August 2010. It describes the training and practice of Islamic lawyers in one jurisdiction of the federation of Malaysia—the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya …

The Training, Appointment, And Supervision Of Islamic Judges In Singapore, Muhammad Haniff Hassan, Sharifah Thuraiya Su'ad Ahmad Alhadshi

Washington International Law Journal

Syariah court judges and the decisions they make clearly have an effect on the interpretation and application of Islamic law in contemporary Muslim societies, and the educational background of those who staff these courts obviously informs the way they understand, interpret, and apply the law. To date, however, little research has been done on the educational processes by which Islamic court judges are trained to think about Islamic law. Likewise, the means by which Islamic court judges are appointed and regulated has received little scholarly attention. This article offers a descriptive overview of the training, work, and professional regulation of …

Sources Of Law, Sources Of Authority: The Failure Of The Philippines' Code Of Muslim Personal Laws, Gregory M. Chiarella

Washington International Law Journal

The Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines (“CMPL”) was established in 1977 as part of an effort to quell longstanding violence between Christians and Muslims in the predominantly Christian country. This codification of Islamic laws in the areas of marriage, divorce, and inheritance provided for a system of Shari‛a courts that would operate within the larger framework of the legal system of the Philippines. Three and a half decades later, the CMPL has had little effect. The Shari‛a courts are understaffed and underutilized, accounting for less than 0.1% of the caseload in the Philippines. The CMPL is plagued …

Citizenship And Marriage In A Globalizing World: Multicultural Families And Monocultural Nationality Laws In Korea And Japan, Erin Aeran Chung, Daisy Kim

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This Article analyzes how individual and local attempts to address low fertility rates in Korea and Japan have prompted unprecedented reforms in monocultural nationality laws. Korea and Japan confront rapidly declining working-age population projections; yet, they have prohibited the immigration of unskilled workers, until recently in Korea's case, on the claim that their admission would threaten social cohesion. Over the past two decades, both countries have made only incremental reforms to their immigration policies that fall short of alleviating labor shortages and the fiscal burdens of maintaining a large elderly population. Instead, prompted by the growth of so-called multicultural families …

Jus Post Bellum In Iraq: The Development Of Emerging Norms For Economic Reform In Post Conflict Countries, Christina C. Benson

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

Finally emerging from decades of conflict and isolation, Iraq has endured three devastating wars, the demise of the Saddam Hussein regime, the end of international economic sanctions, and the protracted process of approving a constitution and forming a new democratically elected government. The nation’s emergence from war, and efforts to build the foundations of stable governance and economic growth, provides a fascinating case study for analyzing new international norms promoting the “rule of law” in post-conflict countries.

This paper addresses arguments that early legal and economic reforms implemented by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the Iraqi Interim Government (IIG) …

Harmonization, But Not Homogenization: The Case For Cuban Autonomy In Globalizing Economic Reforms, Heather Shreve

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Since 1959, Cuba has been an anomaly in the Western Hemisphere. From its fierce isolationism to its steadfast commitment to-communism and Fidel Castro, the Cuban model shunned many modern conventions and developments of the increasingly globalized world. However, in the last decade, subtle shifts in Cuban governance and control led some scholars to question if and how Cuba could participate in the modern, global economy. President Razil Castro answered the speculation in late 2010 with an announcement regarding Cuban economic modernization and, again, in 2011, as significant economic reforms were implemented. All of these changes beg the ultimate question: Can …

The Forgotten Taxation Landmine: Application Of The Accumulated Earnings Tax To Irc Sec. 831(B) Captive Insurance Companies, Beckett G. Cantley

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

The Human Rights And Wrongs Of Foreign Direct Investment: Addressing The Need For An Analytical Framework, David Shea Bettwy

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Legal Services In India: Is There An Obligation Under The Gats Or Are There Policy Reasons For India To Open Its Legal Services Market To Foreign Legal Consultants?, Arno L. Eisen

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Targeting Demand: A New Approach To Curbing Human Trafficking In The United States, Morgan Brown

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Business Insolvency And The Irish Debt Crisis, Paul B. Lewis

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.