International Law Commons^™

Comparative Law And International Dispute Resolution Processes: Looking Forward, Looking Back, S. I. Strong

Faculty Articles

The last few years have been momentous ones in the area of cross–border dispute resolution. Numerous countries have sought to bring the innovations of international commercial arbitration into their national legal systems by creating international business courts operating in English and/or with foreign judges sitting alongside national judges, while other jurisdictions have signed onto new international instruments facilitating the resolution of cross–border legal disputes. One of these agreements—the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (Singapore Convention on Mediation)—came to fruition in record time (a mere five years from start to finish) and with record adherence (an …

Reforming International Investment Arbitration: An Introduction, Chiara Giorgetti, Laura Létourneau-Tremblay, Daniel Behn, Malcolm Langford

Law Faculty Publications

For over a decade, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) has suffered a so-called legitimacy crisis. Critics have argued that ISDS is pro-investor, biased against developing countries, beset by incoherent jurisprudence and plagued by a lack of transparency and excessive costs and compensation. While the system has its defenders, ISDS continues to attract controversy. Nine out of ten of the over 2,600 international investment agreements permit arbitral claims by foreign investors against states, and the number of cases has surged to well over one thousand with a significant number challenging directly the regulatory powers of states. Thus, while ISDS has emerged as …

The Modern Architecture Of Religious Freedom As A Fundamental Right, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gmo Corn, Mexico, And Coloniality, Ernesto Hernandez-Lopez

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Genetically modified ("GMO") corn germinates legal controversies in Mexico. Since 2013, Mexican courts have temporarily suspended GMO corn because it threatens biodiversity. In the Colectividad del Maiz lawsuit, courts have prohibited Mexico from issuing commercial GMO permits while the litigation continues. Companies like Monsanto need these permits to sell GMO seeds. Corn is the most essential food item for millions of Mexicans and is central to Mexican culture. Mexicans wait for Colectividad del Maiz's resolution, siding with biodiversity or GMOs. This Article describes scientific GMO controversies and analyzes biosecurity, class-action, and international environmental law. It argues that this corn fight …

Jost Delbrück: My Friend, Roger B. Dworkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A profile and tribute to the international legal scholar Jost Delbrück (1935-2020), written by his good friend and colleague Roger Dworkin. Delbrück was not only a graduate of the Indiana University School of Law, but was also a Maurer faculty member.

Africa And The Radical Origins Of The Right To Development, James T. Gathii

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article builds on my earlier scholarship on African approaches to international law through examining the evolution of the right to development. Previously, I identified two approaches to international law in Africa – a contibutionist (or weak) approach and a critical (or strong) approach. Through analysis of the tight to development in the work of two eminent Senegalist jurists, Doudou Thiam and Keba Mbaye, I show that while Thiam adopts a radical stance that falls within the realm of critical approaches, Mbaye charts a third way: One that shares aspects of both approaches but has distinct characteristics of its own. …

A Leap Of Faith: Twail Meets Caribbean Queer Rights Jurisprudence—Intersections With International Human Rights Law, H. Patrick Wells

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article examines the legal status of queer rights in Caribbean jurisprudence. It conducts an analysis of Caribbean queer rights case law, in order to arrive at an understanding of the extent and dynamics of constitutional protection for these rights. It then uses the revelations from this analysis to determine how Caribbean queer rights jurisprudence has intersected with international human rights norms, values and rules. Finally, the article applies the TWAIL methodological approach to international law to argue that the Caribbean queer rights jurisprudence has not so far reflected the counter-hegemonic, resistance, anti-imperialist discourse that TWAIL champions, in spite of …

Treaty Shopping And The New Multilateral Tax Agreement—Is It Business As Usual In Canada?, Catherine Anne Brown, Joseph Bogle

Dalhousie Law Journal

On 1 January 2020 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Multilateral Convention (MLI) entered into effect for many of Canada’s tax treaties. New provisions introduced by the MLI, specifically the principal purpose test (PPT) and a new preamble, raised concerns that the bar to deny treaty benefits would be substantially lower than the bar previously set by Canada’s General Anti- Avoidance Rule (GAAR). This paper considers how the MLI will impact access to treaty benefits in Canada by applying the new MLI measures to treaty shopping cases previously challenged under the GAAR. The paper concludes that application of …

Climate Change Management In The Space Age, Paul B. Larsen

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article is about how we can use space technology and regulation to help overcome adverse effects of climate change on Earth. It describes the growing use and importance of outer space technology for monitoring, understanding, and resolving the problems of climate change. It describes precedents for the current climate crisis, discusses relevant international space laws, and explains how they fit into the existing international laws on climate change. It emphasizes the oversight role of the United Nations (“U.N.”). It describes the heavy duties placed by current climate laws on the developed countries compared with the developing countries. It explains …

International Law And Theories Of Global Justice, Steven Ratner, David Luban, Carmen Pavel, Jiewuh Song, James Stewart

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

International law informs, and is informed by, concerns for global justice. Yet the two fields that engage most with prescribing the normative structure of the world order – international law and the philosophy of global justice – have tended to work on parallel tracks. Many international lawyers, with their commitment to formal sources, regard considerations of substantive (and not merely procedural) justice as ultra vires for much of their work. Philosophers of global justice, in turn, tend to explore the moral commitments of international actors without grappling with the international legal doctrine or institutions. In recent years, however, both disciplines …

Book Review, Roberto Rosas

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Front Matter, Vol. 52 (2020)

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Masthead, 52 (2020)

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Atrocity Prevention: The Role Of International Law And Justice, Amb. Todd F. Buchwald, Jody M. Aremband

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

"The issue of atrocity prevention has taken something of a beating in the last few years, a victim perhaps of the transactional approach to security and other foreign policy issues that seem to be engulfing us. Yet this is an issue that cannot go away. Its staying power is a testament to its deep moral roots. The horrors of the Holocaust and the knowledge of the capacity of man for cruelty to his fellow man will haunt the world forever. The experience of our modern history– in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and elsewhere – leave …

Codifying The Obligations Of States Relating To The Prevention Of Atrocities, Sean D. Murphy

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

Keynote Speech, “Codifying the Obligations of States Relating to the Prevention of Atrocities.”

..."my focus is on international obligations embedded in major multilateral treaties that address the issue of prevention, either expressly or implicitly. In doing so, I will attempt to connect the past to the present, so as to highlight six obligations of States relating to prevention that the Commission deemed essential for inclusion in its 2019 CAH Articles."

Questioning Unlimited Veto Use In Face Of Atrocity Crimes, Jennifer Trahan

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

"This article discusses the need to re-visit—based on existing legal obligations—the problem of veto use by the permanent members of the UN Security Council while there are ongoing atrocity crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, and/or war crimes). Specifically, the article— which previews the arguments in my forthcoming book—raises the question of whether all such veto use is consistent with international law."

The Security Council Veto In The Context Of Atrocity Crimes, Uniting For Peace And The Responsbility To Protect, Ved P. Nanda

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

"After Russia’s thirteen vetoes and seven by China to shield the Syrian regime from any action, it seems reasonable to ask the question: In light of the findings of several U.N. reports, as well as reports from credible human rights organizations, that Syrian military and security forces have continued to commit atrocity crimes ever since the onset of the Syrian crisis, is it not prudent to explore the measures to protect innocent men, women, and children from such flagrant violations of human rights?"

Section 230 And The Duty To Prevent Mass Atrocities, David Sloss

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

"Of course, any proposal to create a statutory exception to section 230 immunity raises a set of complex questions about the proper scope of such an exception. This article identifies the key issues that would need to be resolved if Congress decided to create an exception along these lines. The remainder of this article consists of three parts. The first part explains why removal of immunity from civil liability is an appropriate mechanism to help prevent use of social media to incite or induce commission of mass atrocity crimes. The second part contends that the exception to section 230 immunity …

Social Media Platforms In International Criminal Investigations, Rebecca J. Hamilton

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

"YouTube’s tagline is “Broadcast Yourself.”64 People around the world have taken up the invitation, including people whose lives are being lived out in conflict zones. Proponents of international criminal justice have seized upon the resulting material for its evidentiary value, and we are seeing the field of international criminal investigations in the midst of a major transformation as a consequence. There has been plenty of commentary about this transformation in terms of the challenges and opportunities that the evidence itself brings. But less attention has been given to what these technology-driven developments have done to expand the range of actors …

Irregular Forces, Irregular Enforcement: Making Peace Agreements In Non-International Armed Conflicts Durable, Margaux J. Day, Eian Katz

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

"The legal status of NIAC peace agreements is a matter that remains unresolved. While it is clear that AOGs may attain international legal personality in some contexts, authoritative sources of interpretation have not reached a consensus with respect to their capacity to create contracts. In Part I, this Article reviewed the controversy over AOG treaty-making power and the split within the courts on the issue. In Part II, it illustrated the many different areas of international law under which AOGs are held to possess legal personality, suggesting that they could be able to accede to binding treaties. Part III showed …