International Law Commons^™

China's Belt And Road Initiative Is Reshaping Human Rights Norms, Mikkaela Salamatin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since its birth in 2015, the Belt and Road Initiative has garnered significant attention for its benefits and its detriments. Much of the current scholarship in this area is focused on particular pieces of the Belt and Road Initiative, with few in legal scholarship considering the impact of the relationship between China's growing soft power and its effect on international law and international institutions. Every state has the right to pursue power and influence, but this Note specifically examines how China's methods of obtaining this power and influence--specifically through the Belt and Road Initiative and related actions within United Nations' …

Something Is Not Always Better Than Nothing: Problematizing Emerging Forms Of Jus Ad Bellum Argument, David Hughes, Yahli Shereshevsky

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since the adoption of the UN Charter, an unending debate concerning the permissible exceptions to the use of force prohibition has filled the pages of countless law reviews. The resulting legal regime, the jus ad bellum, has become increasingly strained as the international community faces new threats and encounters unforeseen scenarios. The post-war legal architecture is, so the debate goes, either insufficiently enabled to address contemporary challenges or consistently undermined by actors who seek exceptions to the strict limits placed upon state conduct. Debates regarding different instances when force is used exhibit a predictable pattern. Those that wish to limit …

Congressional Enforcement Of International Human Rights, Margaret E. Mcguiness

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist based in the United States, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was brutally murdered and dismembered by Saudi government agents. It was a brazen violation of the most fundamental, internationally recognized human rights, carried out by one close US ally in the territory of another close ally. The US intelligence community quickly determined that the Saudi government and its Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, were responsible for the killing. Members of Congress briefed by the intelligence community accepted that conclusion, and on October 10, 2018, a …

Misappropriation-Based Trademark Liability In Comparative Perspective, Jeremy N. Sheff

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The anti-misappropriation principle, at its core, is that it is wrongful and therefore actionable for a competitor to gain a commercial advantage from the efforts of another, even if that advantage does not directly harm the person whose efforts have been misappropriated. This principle appears to be a deep theoretical commitment of modern intellectual property law. And nowhere in intellectual property law is the anti-misappropriation impulse more directly implicated than in the context of conspicuous consumption.

As I have written about elsewhere, modern consumers engage in conspicuous consumption of branded goods to signal social affiliation and identity, and to …

A Global System Of Work, A Global System Of Regulation?: Crowdwork And Conflicts Of Law, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The on-demand economy has truly gone global. Consider online platform TaskRabbit, a U.S.-based site for odd jobs. A high number of TaskRabbit’s users were seeking help with the construction of furniture they purchased at IKEA, and skilled carpenters started using the platform to find customers. Corporate management at Swedish company IKEA noticed the trend, and as a result acquired TaskRabbit in 2017. As a result, a Swedish company now owns a platform labor service in the United States and Britain, with plans to expand the TaskRabbit platform to twenty-seven more countries where IKEA currently owns brick and mortar stores. …

Party Autonomy And Default Rules Regarding The Choice Of Number Of Arbitrators, Ilias Bantekas

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This article is divided in two main parts. The first focuses on the party autonomy paradigm in international commercial arbitration. This includes an examination of rules and practices allowing the parties to choose both an even and odd number of arbitrators. The second part looks at the variety of default options, including the appropriate number of arbitrators in multi-party proceedings. Two smaller sections follow these. The first examines, albeit briefly, the position with respect to truncated tribunals. The second analyzes the appropriate number of arbitrators in the event that the parties choose one or more legal persons as arbitrators, particularly …

Untangling The Yemen Crisis, Paul Williams, Laura Graham, Jim Johnson, Michael P. Scharf, Milena Sterio

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Overlapping Web Of Data, Territoriality And Sovereignty, Jennifer Daskal

Contributions to Books

Provides a framework to better understand Global Legal Pluralism and the current international state of law.

Equips practitioners, theorists, and students with deeper insights and analytical tools to describe the conflict among legal and quasi-legal systems.

Analyzes global legal pluralism in light of legal theory, constitutionalism, conflict of laws, international law, commercial transactions, and as it affects indigenous polities, religious orders, and citizenship.

Pandemia Y Derecho Internacional, Claudio Grossman

Contributions to Books

La pandemia actual ha cobrado un tremendo precio a la humanidad. A la fecha, más de un millón de personas han fallecido, varios millones han sido infectadas y no se vislumbra un final para las trágicas consecuencias que la COVID-19 ha infligido a las personas. La pandemia ha afectado a todas las naciones, debido a las interconexiones en numerosos campos, incluido el comercio, las inversiones y el turismo, que, como resultado de la globalización, han multiplicado los contactos entre las personas. No obstante, la pandemia ha demostrado también que las poblaciones más vulnerables son las que más sufren. Los países …

The Changing Landscape Of International Law, Claudio Grossman

Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Artificial States And The Remapping Of The Middle East, Ash U. Bali

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article critically examines arguments tracing contemporary crises in the Arab world to the making of the Arab state system a century ago. A series of popular and scholarly articles occasioned by the recent spate of World War I-related centenaries suggest that new boundaries be drawn in the Middle East to produce more stable nation-states. More specifically, a set of authors has advocated for different borders that would avoid ethno-sectarian conflict by designing relatively homogenous smaller states to replace multiethnic, multisectarian states like Iraq and Syria. Such proposals are significant for the underlying presumptions they reflect concerning the relationship between …

Judging Judicial Appointment Procedures, S. I. Strong

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Over the last several years, judicial appointment procedures in the United States have become increasingly intractable. Members of both parties are seen to engage in political gamesmanship, calling the legitimacy of the appointment process into question and decreasing public confidence in both the legislature and the judiciary. Questions are even beginning to arise about whether and to what extent the United States is complying with the rule of law.

Although numerous solutions have been proposed, one alternative has not yet been considered: international law. As paradoxical as it may seem, the best and perhaps only feasible solution to quintessentially domestic …

The Charming Betsy Canon, American Legal Doctrine, And The Global Rule Of Law, Justin Hughes

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the 1803 The Schooner Charming Betsy case, Chief Justice Marshall announced a canon of interpretation that "an act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the laws of nations if any other possible construction remains." The Charming Betsy canon has become as venerable as its name is felicitous: as recently as 1988 the Supreme Court noted that the doctrine "has for so long been applied by this Court that it is beyond debate."

After exploring the traditional justifications for Charming Betsy, this Article proposes that the canon should be justified, not just by Congressional intent or separation …

Space, Cyber, And Telecommunications Law: 2019-2020 Annual Report, Matt Schaefer, Justin Hurwitz, Jack M. Beard, Frans Von Der Dunk, Elsbeth Magilton

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

In assembling this Annual Report we appreciated the opportunity to review major accomplishments and growth of the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law (SCTL) program during the 2019-2020 academic year. Of course, this was a year like no other as we responded to an unfolding global pandemic. We are proud of what we accomplished prior to that and of our response in the face of that sudden change. For readers unfamiliar with the program, the SCTL program was established in 2007 largely in response to interest by the U.S. Air Force in establishing a U.S. based program in space law to …

Structuring The Governance Of Space Activities Worldwide, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

I. Introduction

II. The Structure of Governance under International Space Law: The Problems

III. The Structure of Governance under International Space Law: The Solutions?

IV. Conclusion

Introduction

Outer space is widely considered to be something of a global commons, an international domain outside the jurisdiction of any country that “belongs to no state and is, in law, as such not subject to appropriation, though its resources are.” This is also reflected by key provisions of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the most comprehensive convention on outer space and space activities, notably that “[o]uter space, including the moon and other celestial …

Scoping National Space Law: The True Meaning Of “National Activities In Outer Space” Of Article Vi Of The Outer Space Treaty, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty, requiring “authorization and continuing supervision” of “national activities in outer space” including those of “nongovernmental entities,” has always been viewed as the primary international obligation driving the establishment of national space legislation for the purpose of addressing private sector space activities. As the Article itself did not provide any further guidance on precisely what categories of “national activities by nongovernmental entities” should thus be subjected to national space law and in particular to a national licensing regime, in academia generally three different interpretations soon came to be put forward on how to interpret …

Paradigm Perplexities: Does International Humanitarian Law Or International Human Rights Law Govern The Gaza Border Protests Of 2018-2019, & What Are The Consequences? A Response To The Supreme Court’S Opinion In Yesh Din V. Idf Chief Of Staff (Hcj 3003/18), Anthony Carl

Student Articles & Notes

In March 2018, thousands of Gazan citizens mobilized for a mass protest movement at the border with the State of Israel that endured for more than a year and a half, ending in late 2019. By February 2019, the IDF’s response to these protestors resulted in 189 deaths and 23,313 injuries to Gazan Palestinian protestors. Upon hearing challenges to the IDF’s rules of engagement brought by a number of human rights groups, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in HCJ 3003/18 Yesh Din v. IDF Chief of Staff that the IDF’s response was proper under the law enforcement paradigm of international …

Internet Jurisdiction: Using Content Delivery Networks To Ascertain Intention, Patrick Lin

LL.M. Essays & Theses

Specific jurisdiction in civil litigation centers on the rather general,yet immutable, concept of intention. Although the word “intention” does not surface prominently in the personal jurisdiction case law, it is clearly intrinsic to the concept of “purposeful availment”. On the Internet, however, intention is hard to ascertain: how does a court, for example, determine whether the defendant intended that its website, application, or advertisement within a mobile application should end up in the forum state? In answering such a question, courts have historically used one of two approaches to establish intent: (i) a targeting test or (ii) a degree of …

The Arctic In World Affairs: A North Pacific Dialogue On Will Great Power Politics Threaten Arctic Sustainability, Lawson W. Brigham, Robert W. Corell, Jong Deog Kim, Yoon Hyung Kim, Arild Moe, Charles E. Morrison, David Vanderzwaag, Oran R. Young

Reports & Public Policy Documents

The eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation, and the United States) wish to maintain a position of preeminence when it comes to dealing with matters of Arctic Ocean governance. However, major non-Arctic states, while recognizing the sovereign rights of the coastal states in their economic zones and on their continental shelves, have growing interests in the maritime Arctic relating to activities such as commercial shipping, oil and gas development, fishing and ship-based tourism. They are increasingly claiming to have a legitimate interest in being consulted when it comes to addressing matters relating to the …

Autonomous Systems & International Norms, Charles J. Dunlap Jr., Richard Jordan, Elsa Kania, Michael Klare

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.