Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

A Brief History Of Coptic Personal Status Law, Ryan Rowberry, John Khalil

Faculty Publications By Year

Coptic Christians comprise the largest non-Muslim population in Egypt (12-17% of Egypt’s total population). For over a millennium, the Coptic Church has administered and adjudicated personal status matters (i.e., family law) for its members using Biblically-based principles that are vastly different from those of Shari’a Law. The Egyptian government, however, has advocated for a universal right of divorce for all Egyptians modeled on Shari’a Law, a development that would significantly impact Coptic Personal Status Law. * Using interviews conducted with Coptic bishops, priests, and parishioners in Egypt, along with primary and secondary sources, this article traces the development of Coptic …

International Agreements, Internal Heterogeneity, And Climate Change: The "Two Chinas" Problem, Daniel Abebe, Jonathan S. Masur

Faculty Scholarship

Every quantitative forecast of Chinese emissions – save for two important exceptions – uses only national-level data, a methodological weakness that can wash out distinctions between East and West. Of the two studies that employ sub-national data, one projects higher emissions than any of the national-level studies; the other projects much higher emissions than any other study. We read this as suggesting that Chinese carbon emissions over the forthcoming several decades may be significantly greater than the standard models have anticipated, with correspondingly higher costs to China from any agreement to curb carbon emissions. In light of the importance of …

Individualized Service Provision In The New Welfare State: Lessons From Special Education In Finland, Charles F. Sabel, Annalee Saxenian, Reijo Miettinen, Peer Hull Kristensen, Jarkko Hautamäki

Faculty Scholarship

The essay is four parts. Part 2 sets out the theoretical frame of the argument. It explains briefly why social solidarity increasingly depends on the provision of capacitating or enabling circumstances; why those services must increasingly be adapted to individual needs to be effective; and what is organizationally problematic (from the point of view of current theories of organization) about the success of countries such as Finland, Denmark and the US in delivering these services. It sketches two paths — a Nordic way, building on traditional professions, and a roundabout, US way, re-building broken bureaucracies originally intended as substitutes for …

The Structure Of Terrorism Threats And The Laws Of War, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers a major debate in the American and European counterterrorism analytic community – whether the primary terrorist threat to the West is posed by hierarchical, centralized terrorist organizations operating from geographic safe havens, or by radicalized individuals conducting a loosely organized, ideologically common but operationally independent fight against western societies – and this debate’s implications for both jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Analysis of how the law of armed conflict might be evolving to deal with terrorism should engage in more nuanced and sophisticated examination of how terrorism threats are themselves evolving. Moreover, the merits of …

Are Gender Stereotypes Bad For Women? Rethinking Antidiscrimination Law And Work-Family Conflict, Julie C. Suk

Articles

The conflict between work and family responsibilities remains a significant barrier to women's equality in the American workplace. As many commentators have noted with envy, the United States stands apart from most European countries in its failure to give women a legal right to paid maternity leave.

This Article argues that the United States's potential for reconciling the work-family conflict is undermined by the predominance of antidiscrimination law. The unique trajectory of U.S. antidiscrimination law, designed to combat paternalism and gender stereotypes, has pushed family and medical leave into a single legal regime. But today, due to the costs and …

Forgive Me, Founding Fathers For I Have Sinned, Carolyn A. Pytynia

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants the federal government the authority to make the law of the land and, in turn, preempt state law that is incompatible with the federal government's legislative and treaty making efforts. In addition, other provisions of the Constitution authorize the federal government to participate in matters of foreign affairs, and the Supreme Court has found this authority to be exclusive to the federal government in a number of cases. However, the Constitution is silent on the issue of when federal preemption of state law is appropriate when states seek to legislate in matters …

Promoting Commercial Law Reform In Eastern Europe, Samuel Bufford

Faculty Scholarship

This article is my account of what I did in a decade of advising governments and teaching judicial seminars on commercial law matters in Central and Eastern Europe, beginning in 1991. This article contains my individual reflections on more than a dozen visits to developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe to advise governments and to educate their judges, and several visits of judges from some of those countries to the United States. In many ways, my experiences are typical of United States judges who have done the same kind of work in developing countries. In some ways, my experiences …

Freeze-Outs: Transcontinental Analysis And Reform Proposals, Marco Ventoruzzo

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most crucial, but systematically neglected, comparative differences between corporate law systems in Europe and in the United States concerns the regulations governing freeze-out transactions in listed corporations. Freeze-outs can be defined as transactions in which the controlling shareholder exercises a legal right to buy out the shares of the minority, and consequently delists the corporation and brings it private. Beyond this essential definition, the systems diverge profoundly.

This gap exists despite the fact that minority freeze-outs are one of the most debated issues in corporate law, in the public media, in a vast body of scholarly work …

The Merits Of ‘Merits’ Review: A Comparative Look At The Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Jeffrey Lubbers, Michael Asimow

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article compares several systems of administrative adjudication. In the U.S., adjudication is typically performed by the same agency that makes and enforces the rules. However, in Australia, almost all administrative adjudication is performed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), a non-specialized adjudicating agency, and several other specialized tribunals that are independent of the enforcing agency. These tribunals (which evolved out of concerns about separation of powers) have achieved great legitimacy. In the U.K., recent legislation (the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act) merged numerous specialized tribunals into a single first-tier tribunal with much stronger guarantees of independence than previously existed. …

Teaching International Law: Lessons From Clinical Education: Introductory Remarks, Richard J. Wilson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Panama And The Specter Of Climate Change, Ruth Gordon

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Miranda, Dickerson, And Jewish Legal Theory: The Constitutional Rule In A Comparative Analytical Framework, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In this Essay, Professor Levine briefly explores Dickerson v. United States, the important 2000 decision in which a divided United States Supreme Court held that the standard established in Miranda v. Arizona continues to govern the admissibility of confessions, notwithstanding a federal statute enacted subsequent to Miranda that provided an alternative standard. Levine addresses broader theoretical implications of the approaches adopted by the majority and dissenting opinions in Dickerson. Drawing a parallel to the interpretation of the Torah in Jewish legal theory, he proposes a comparative framework for analyzing the division between the majority and dissent over the concept and …

Hate Speech And The Language Of Racism In Latin America: A Lens For Reconsidering Global Hate Speech Restrictions And Legislation Models, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

In Latin America, like many countries in Europe, hate speech is prohibited. Yet Latin America is rarely included in the transnational discussion regarding the regulation of hate speech. Instead, the discourse focuses on a comparison of the advisability of Europe's hate speech regulations and free speech acceptance of hate speech in the United States. As a result, the ability to fundamentally examine the connections between hate speech and inequality, in addition to the most effective legal mechanisms for addressing it, is undermined. It is especially critical to broaden the hate speech debate now that we are seeing an apparent rise …

Feminism As Liberalism: A Tribute To The Work Of Martha Nussbaum Symposium: Honoring The Contributions Of Professor Martha Nussbaum To The Scholarship And Practice Of Gender And Sexuality Law: Feminism And Liberalism, Tracy E. Higgins

Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, I revisit and expand an argument I have made with respect to the limited usefulness of liberalism in defining an agenda for guaranteeing women's rights and improving women's conditions. After laying out this case, I discuss Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach to fundamental rights and human development and acknowledge that her approach addresses to a significant degree many of the objections I and other feminist scholars have raised. I then turn to fieldwork that I have done in South Africa on the issue of custom and women's choices with regard to marriage and divorce. Applying Professor Nussbaum's capabilities …

Promoting Public Health Through Clinical Legal Education: Initiatives In South Africa, Thailand, And Ukraine, Tamar Ezer

Articles

No abstract provided.

Three Transnational Discourses Of Labor Law In Domestic Reforms, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Current labor law debates, in the United States and elsewhere, reflect entrenched discursive positions that make potential reform seem impossible. This Article identifies and examines the three most influential positions, which it names the “social,” “the neoliberal,” and the “rights-based” approach. It shows that these discursive positions are truly transnational in character. In contrast with conventional wisdom, which accepts the incompatibility of these positions, this Article creates a conceptual framework that productively combines elements from each to enrich the debates over labor law reform and to foster institutional imagination. Applying this framework, the Article examines the collective bargaining systems of …

Betting On Dog Racing. The Next Legalised Gambling Opportunity In South Africa? A Cautionary Note From The Regulation Of Greyhound Racing In Great Britain, Marita Carnelley

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

This article commences with a brief overview of the history of dog racing in South Africa. It provides a synopsis of South Africa’s current legal position on dog racing and the betting thereon. The main question this article addresses is whether there is any policy reason why dog racing and wagering should not be legalised and regulated. Furthermore, some comments are included discussing how such regulation should fit into the broader existing gambling regulatory framework should the legislature make the decision to legalise dog racing and wagering.

The article concludes with a discussion of the greyhound racing industry in Britain …

Rewarding Trespass & Other Enigmas: The Strange World Of Self-Exclusion & Casino Liability, Emir Aly Crowne-Mohammed, Meredith A. Harper

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

In this paper, the authors address many of the tortious and contractual issues associated with the liability of casinos to problem gamblers. The issues in tort are analyzed through the traditional elements of the action – duty of care, standard of care, proximity, and recognizable loss. Under contract law, the authors examine the problems associated with consideration and mental capacity when problem gamblers sign a contractual undertaking to be excluded from casinos and other gaming venues.

Many of the references cited in this work relate to the Province of Ontario because an earlier article (and report) on the issue of …

Luck Of The Irish: Will The Casinos Tranform From Gaelic Grey To Gaelic Green $$, William N. Thompson

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

As the first decade of the twenty-first century evolved, Ireland was one of only two countries in the European Union that did not have legal, regulated casinos. The Irish Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1956 does not prohibit games with equal chances. Moreover, games can be conducted lawfully, according to the Act, if promoters assess minor seat charges to players, and “the promoter derives no personal profit from the promotion of the game.” Additionally, Part III of the 1956 law indicates that amusement centers can have slot machines that award small prizes. The Act also includes provisions for private lotteries, …

Explanation Interpretation In Functionalist Comparative Law — A Response To Julie De Coninck, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Response to Julie de Coninck, The Functional Method of Comparative Law: Quo Vadis?, 74 Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht 318–350 (2010) in which De Coninck criticizes existing functionalist comparative law for what she perceives as lack of interest in empirical foundations.