International Law Commons^™

Voyage Of Injustice: The Socioeconomic Exploitation In The Cruise Industry, Tarissa L. Peterson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Crypto-Asset Regulation Under Wto Law, Ines Willemyns

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

No abstract provided.

A Dose Of Accountability: Fixing Treaty Enforcement To Combat State Complicity In Transnational Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking, Caitlin Sharma

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international fentanyl crisis underscores significant gaps in treaty enforcement, particularly with state accountability for drug manufacturing and export practices leading to illicit fentanyl trafficking. Despite preventive measures established by United Nations drug conventions, legal loopholes in these provisions impede meaningful cooperation between state parties. This Note uses key countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, and India, as case studies in both producing and receiving fentanyl and its precursors. It evaluates current proposals to mitigate the crisis, such as enhanced international cooperation and the potential expansion of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction. However, these solutions remain insufficient due …

Uncharted Waters: Barriers To Ocean Carbon Removal In The High Seas Under Unclos And The Bbnj, Connor Stevens

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Legal Models For Aligning U.S.-African Trade And The Afcfta, Katrin Kuhlmann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The U.S.-African trade relationship has become increasingly volatile and conditional, with significant implications for supply chains, trade corridors, and regional and global markets. This relationship has historically been based on a unilateral, preferential legal approach through a trade preference programme – the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – under which individual countries petition for eligibility to receive duty-free treatment. AGOA expired in September 2025 in the midst of U.S. tariffs, but in early 2026 the programme was retroactively reauthorised through December 2026, with further application subject to “modernisation” and alignment with the “America First” policy. While many see reauthorisation …

International Law, The Courts, And The Political Branches Of Singapore: Painting A Complete Picture, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In line with Singapore's vision of the separation of powers, the courts' duty is primarily to give effect to domestic law; the political branches take the lead in engaging with international law. A study of Singapore's interface with international law would therefore be incomplete were it to consider only the courts' role and not the political branches' model of international law as primarily a guarantor of Singapore's sovereignty and standing as a participant on the international stage. The political branches have been circumspect in engaging with international law in other areas, such as human rights, preferring a specifically Singaporean vision …

Democratizing Restitution: Trust As An Equitable Approach To Competing Claims On Cultural Heritage Objects, Britta Redwood

Articles

As formerly colonized states began to win their independence in the mid-twentieth century, a growing chorus of voices called on museums in London, Paris, Berlin, and other European cities to return objects taken during the colonial period. Having largely ignored these requests until recently, museums throughout Europe and the United States have begun negotiating returns of these objects to their rightful owners. There is a growing recognition among Western cultural institutions that continuing to hold cultural heritage objects taken under conditions of coercion or violence is morally untenable. More recently, some scholars have argued for a human rights approach to …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan G. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

A Corporate Accountability “Turn” In International Climate Litigation, Jacqueline Peel

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporations are among the most significant emitters of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, which are responsible for the existential threat of climate change. Yet accountability for corporate emitting activities has been difficult to secure, particularly where companies operate across nation-state borders or have global value chains. This Essay looks at recent developments in international law, found in a series of climate-related advisory opinions issued by international courts and tribunals, which may signal greater corporate accountability for climate harms. It argues that the recent advisory opinions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and …

Corporate Climate Litigation In Europe: Scaffolding From State Obligations And The Rise Of Polluter-Pays, Joana Setzer, Nina Koistinen, Catherine Higham, Lucas Biasetton

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Over the last decade, Europe has been the crucible of path-defining climate cases. Across the region, courts have been asked to define the limits of public and private responsibility. This Essay argues that corporate climate litigation in Europe has developed along two intersecting trajectories that together define an emerging framework of climate accountability. The first extends public-law standards to corporations, translating human rights and carbon-budget principles into private-law duties of care, due diligence, and disclosure that reach across entire value chains. The second trajectory sees the emergence of polluter-pays litigation, which seeks to proportionate damages and adaptation costs from major …

From Chainsaws To Courtrooms: Corporate Climate Litigation And Deforestation In Brazil, Maria Antonia Tigre, Mariana Barbosa Cirne

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporate climate litigation has emerged as one of the most dynamic and high-profile tools for addressing the private sector’s role in the climate crisis. While much of the scholarship and public debate has centered on cases in the United States and Europe, litigation targeting corporations in the Global South—particularly Brazil—has grown rapidly, both in volume and significance. Brazil now ranks among the world’s top jurisdictions for corporate climate damage claims. These suits have pioneered methods for quantifying climate damages, often from illegal deforestation, and have tested the reach of the civil liability regime in novel ways. This Article offers the …

Distillation Laundering: Regulatory Arbitrage And A Potential Beijing Effect In Ai, Laura Edelson, Filippo Lancieri

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay introduces distillation laundering, a new form of regulatory arbitrage. Distillation, a technique for training large language models based on the outputs of other models instead of from scratch, is generally prohibited by the terms of service of closed-weight frontier models. However, it is economically efficient and has been key to the success of the cheap, distilled (largely Chinese) open-weight models, which have reshaped the global political economy of AI regulation. US companies have now begun to re-import the effects of distillation through various means—a process we call distillation laundering. We also discuss how attempts to lobby these models …

How The U.S. Constitution Shapes International Tax Law: Instrument Choice In Tax Agreements, Noam Noked, Young Ran (Christine) Kim, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The U.S. Constitution’s Treaty Clause, which requires Senate approval by a two-thirds vote for treaties, has significantly influenced the development of international tax law. This Article examines the implications of Senate supermajority requirements on bilateral and multilateral tax treaties and agreements, alternative instruments, relevant international tax standards, and global tax governance.

Historically, tax treaties have been approved exclusively as Article II treaties requiring Senate approval. The difficulty of entering into treaties with the United States has influenced the instrument choice and design of U.S. and international tax standards. To address this challenge, several U.S. and international tax reforms have employed …

Mandatory Cooperation Under International Law, Evan J. Criddle, Evan Fox-Decent

Faculty Publications

Humanity in the twenty-first century faces serious global challenges and crises, including pandemics, nuclear proliferation, violent extremism, refugee migration, and climate change. None of these calamities can be averted without robust international cooperation. Yet, national leaders often assume that because their states are sovereign under international law, they are free to opt in or out of international cooperation as they see fit. This book challenges conventional wisdom by showing that international law requires states to cooperate with one another to address matters of international concern – even in the absence of treaty-based obligations. Within the past several decades, requirements to …

To The Hague And Beyond: The Shifting Terrain Of International Criminal Justice, Leila Nadya Sadat, Valerie Oosterveld, Sharon Weil, Nancy Combs, David Crane

Faculty Publications

Panel of international criminal law experts speak about the areas in which they work.

‘Salami Slicing’ And Issue Estoppel: Foreign Decisions On The Governing Law, Adeline Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Whether an issue estoppel arises over foreign decisions on the governing law of the claim has not been directly considered by an English court, but decisions in other jurisdictions show that this question is increasingly being raised in litigation. Is there identity of issue if the two courts apply different choice of law rules? The answer turns on whether a broad or narrow framing of the issue is adopted. It is suggested that, absent an issue which is subject to forum international public policy, forum overriding mandatory rules or which is one that the forum court retains the prerogative to …

The Implementation Of An International Treaty Across A Small Island Developing State: The United Nations Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) In Cabo Verde, Lydia Landim

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. To date, it is the most comprehensive international treaty for women’s rights. Cabo Verde, a small island developing state located off the west coast of Africa, ratified CEDAW in 1980. As an archipelago, Cabo Verde serves as a unique case study for treaty implementation, particularly, as literature on small island developing states has established that these states face unique challenges when it comes to implementation of laws, policy, and to governance overall, all of which heavily intersect …

Reassessing Indonesia's In-Kind Benefit Tax Regulation: Insights From Australia, Florencia Irena Gunawan, Maria Na Uli Salsabilah Sabililah

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This research critically assesses Indonesia's in-kind benefit tax regulatory framework based on the principles of equity, certainty, and neutrality, drawing comparative insights from Australia's fringe benefits tax system. Utilizing a normative juridical method, this study finds that integrating in-kind benefits into Indonesia's income tax framework poses several challenges. First, under the equity principle, current valuation methods do not accurately reflect employees' ability to pay, potentially resulting in inequitable tax burdens. Second, under the certainty principle, ambiguities in the exemption rules may create risks of differing interpretations between taxpayers and tax authorities. Third, under the neutrality principle, differential treatment across industries …

Achieving Judicial Consistency Through The Establishment Of Civil And Criminal Chambers In Indonesia's District And High Courts, Dwi Bintang Satrio, Efa Laela Fakhriah, Artaji Artaji

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia has implemented the chamber system to achieve judicial consistency and fulfil the fundamental objectives of law, namely legal certainty, justice, and expediency. However, despite this effort, inconsistencies in judicial decisions remain prevalent, particularly in civil and criminal cases at the district and high court levels. This study employed a normative juridical approach supported by case analysis to examine the effectiveness of the current chamber system in achieving judicial consistency and to identify structural weaknesses that hinder its optimal implementation. The results reveal that judicial inconsistencies are found in several court decisions, such …

The Death Penalty For Bribery-Related Corruption In Social Assistance During Non-Natural Disasters: A Legal Certainty Perspective, Elly Sudarti, Sahuri Lasmadi, Andi Agus Salim, Riana Devi Lestari, Mohammad Thoriq Bahrie

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This article analyzes the judge's verdict regarding the bribery corruption of social assistance during a non-natural disaster committed by Juliari Batubara. It questions whether such bribery corruption can be punishable by the death penalty. Juliari was not sentenced to death because the law only threatens the death penalty under natural disaster conditions, and COVID-19 is not considered a natural disaster. The death penalty is only threatened for corruption under Article 2, paragraph 2, not for bribery corruption. The judge's decision followed conventional legal norms, resulting in a verdict that was overly normative and failed to address the issue. This article …