International Law Commons^™

Bringing The European Eel Back From The Brink: The Need For A New Agreement Under The Convention On Migratory Species, Chris Wold

Pace Environmental Law Review

The European eel is considered “Critically Endangered.” Its population has been declining due to overutilization, barriers to migration such as dams, pollution, and climate change. The international community has responded by including the European eel in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (“CITES”) to regulate international trade and Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (“CMS”) to help improve the species conservation status. The EU has taken regional action to prohibit imports into and exports from EU Member States, although intra-EU trade is permissible. Despite these actions, the eel’s conservation status might not be …

Challenging Federalism: How The States’ Loud Constitutional Provocation Is Being Met With Silence, Jennifer M. Haidar

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Enforceability: Foreign Arbitral Awards In Chinese Courts, Mo Zhang

San Diego International Law Journal

Enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in China has always been a widespread concern. There is not only a fear of deficiency in the Chinese legal system, but also a disconnection between foreign perception and Chinese reality. Since the nation joined the New York Convention in the 1980’s, China has made efforts to fulfill its treaty obligations. Foreign parties, however, remain skeptical about whether foreign arbitral awards will be fairly enforced in the country.

In 2015, the Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC) issued a judicial interpretation that contains provisions explicitly addressing several confusing and controversial matters on foreign arbitration. In …

The Renewable Power Of The Mine, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Access to affordable and reliable energy is key for the mining sector and with rising demand for minerals and falling ore grades, energy demand is estimated to increase by 36% by 2035. Today, energy produced and procured by mining companies is mostly fossil fuel based. This will have to change if the sector is to contribute to the decarbonization of the world economy, needed for countries to meet the target adopted at the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius.

At the same time, the costs of solar, wind and battery storage systems have …

Defining 'Diversity' In Corporate Governance: A Global Survey, Askhaya Kamalnath

Journal of Legislation

This Article explores the connotation of the term “diversity” in the corporate governance sphere and the utility of such a connotation. To explore what the term has come to mean, this Article conducts a comparative analysis of how the term is used in the corporate governance context in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, India, and Malaysia. Based on this analysis, this Article argues that the push for “diversity” (in the way it has come to be understood) on company boards needs to be re-examined and recommends that the SEC needs to define the term in accordance with its policy goals.

The "Foreign Agent Problem": An International Legal Solution To Domestic Restrictions On Non-Governmental Organizations, Jacqueline Van De Velde

Cardozo Law Review

The United States' Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), has recently come into the spotlight due to its use in the ongoing Russian election interference investigation. But the United States 'foreign agent restriction is only one of many: while FARA was the first of its kind, it now exists among a multitude of such restrictions. Too, the U.S. foreign agent restriction is lenient, compared to the restrictions appearing in other countries- restrictions that now are crippling civil society and to which international law is ill-equipped to respond. This Article analyzes this sudden avalanche of 'foreign agent" legislation: restrictive domestic legislation that …

Framing The Global Pact For The Environment: Why It’S Needed, What It Does, And How It Does It, Teresa Parejo Navajas, Nathan Lobel

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

We face a critical environmental crisis. Humanity consumes unsustainably; we use resources at a rate fifty percent faster than they are reproduced by the planet. The population is growing exponentially and climate change, the most important challenge of this century, is already wreaking havoc around the world. Despite numerous existing international environmental treaties, the Earth, and, therefore, human safety and prosperity, is in peril. According to a recent study by scientists from Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the ongoing “sixth mass extinction” threatens to cause an “assault on the foundations of human civilization.” In November 2017, …

Tying The Knot: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Understanding The Human Right To Adequate Nutrition, Jessica Fanzo, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Elizabeth F. Fox, Anna Bulman

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Malnutrition is alarmingly prevalent, affecting one in three people worldwide. In this Article, we argue that a key reason the global community has been unsuccessful in combating malnutrition is a lack of clarity outside the field of nutrition regarding the true meaning of “nutrition.” In particular, this has limited the effectiveness of international human rights law as a mechanism for addressing malnutrition.

In this interdisciplinary Article, which draws from both the legal and nutrition fields, we unpack the meaning of nutrition and demonstrate that a standalone right to adequate nutrition does indeed exist in international human rights law as a …

The Relevance Of Fatf's Recommendations And Fourth Round Of Mutual Evaluations To The Legal Profession, Laurel S. Terry, Llerena Robles, Jose Carlos

Faculty Scholarly Works

More than two hundred countriesin the world have agreed to abide by the anti-money laundering ("AML") recommendations developed by the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF"), which is an intergovernmental organization. This Article focuses on the potential impact on the legal profession of FATF's fourth round of mutual evaluations. During these mutual evaluations, which currently are underway, FATF-affiliated countries examine each other's compliance with the FATF Recommendations and recommend follow-up action. This Article first presents the legal profession-related results from the completed Mutual Evaluation Reports. A number of these FATF Reports recommend changes that include requiring lawyers to report suspicious client …

Regulating China's Ecommerce: Harmonizations Of Laws, Pinghui Xiao

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Internet commercialization began in China in 1995. Since then, China has seen a digitalization movement, which has become a joint undertaking between industry and government in the age of ubiquitous Internet in China. China’s Premier Li Keqiang announced ‘Internet Plus’ as the national strategy in his Government Work Report presented during the Two Sessions of the year of 2015. Following Premier Li’s vision for the ‘Internet Plus’ Strategy, China is now determined “to integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, …

The Duty To Prevent Genocide Under International Law: Naming And Shaming As A Measure Of Prevention, Björn Schiffbauer

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In contrast to prosecuting and punishing committed acts of genocide, the Genocide Convention is silent as to means of preventing future acts. Today it is generally accepted that the duty to prevent is legally binding, but there is still uncertainty in international law about its specific content. This article seeks to fill this gap in the light of the object and purpose of the Genocide Convention. It provides a minimum requirement approach, i.e. indispensable State actions to comply with their duty to prevent: naming and shaming situations of genocide as what they are. Even situations from times before the Genocide …

Straining To Prevent The Rohingya Genocide: A Sociology Of Law Perspective, Katherine Southwick

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper analyzes the generally muted international response to the protracted plight of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar, from the perspective of sociology of law. The first part provides background on the Rohingya crisis and discusses relevant international legal frameworks relating to crimes against humanity and genocide. The second part adapts analytical frameworks developed by Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat on the emergence and transformation of disputes, in order to examine some of the factors that frustrate the processes of naming crimes, blaming perpetrators, and claiming rights and protection for the Rohingya minority in the international context. Work …

A Conversation With The Honorable Rosalie Silberman Abella And Dean Matthew Diller, Rosalie Silberman Abella, Matthew Diller

Fordham Law Review

DEAN MATTHEW DILLER: This year we are leading up to our celebration of 100 Years of Women at Fordham Law School. In September 1918, the Fordham Law faculty voted to admit women, and we are planning to celebrate that in style. But tonight perhaps is a bit of a teaser for that. Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella is a woman of firsts. She is the first Jewish woman to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court of Canada, and before the Supreme Court, when she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976, she became the first Jewish woman …

Venezuela: A Uniquely Senian Insight Into A Human Rights Crisis, Andrea I. Scheer

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

For over twenty decades, Venezuelan political leaders have blatantly disregarded their citizens’ human rights, leading to the downfall of Venezuela’s economy and democratic institutions, including severe food and medicine shortages, as well as staggering inflation rates. As a result, Venezuela provides a unique affirmation of the Capabilities Approach introduced by Professor Amartya Sen, which focuses not only on the freedoms that individuals possess, but also on what individuals are capable of doing as possessors of these freedoms. This Note seeks to use Sen’s Capabilities Approach to understand the nature and scope of Venezuela’s multidimensional crisis, arguing that a Senian approach …

Conflicts Of Interest And Law-Firm Structure, Cassandra Burke Robertson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Business and law are increasingly practiced on a transnational scale, and law firms are adopting new business structures in order to compete on this global playing field. Over the last decade, global law firms have merged into so-called “mega-brands” or “mega-firms”—that is, associations of national or regional law firms that join together under a single brand worldwide. For law firms, the most common mega-firm structure has been the Swiss verein, though the English “Company Limited by Guarantee” structure is growing in popularity as well, as is the similar “European Economic Interest Grouping.” All of these structures allow related entities to …

Assessing The Impact Of The Global Compacts On Refugees And Migration In The Middle East, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Today, the overwhelming burden of the global refugee and migrant crisis is borne by the Middle East region, driven by protracted armed conflict and exacerbated by a deficit of applicable international legal norms. Most States in the Middle East have not adopted the international treaties that provide protection guarantees for refugees and stateless persons, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The lack of legal status for persons displaced by conflict, many of whom are stateless refugees, leaves them in situations …

Quest For Relevance: Whither The Asean Charter In Shaping A Shared Regional Identity And Values, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Promulgated in 2007, the Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reaffirms ASEAN’s longstanding policy of non-interference in member-states’ internal affairs and the retention of consultation and consensus as fundamental tenets of decision-making in ASEAN. This essay considers the role of soft law in the interpretation and development of the ASEAN Charter. It also considers whether the Charter will help ASEAN achieve integration as well as promote democracy, human rights and development in an immensely diverse region comprising half a billion people. The essay argues that although the Charter is a binding legal instrument, the text enables a …

Secession And The Prevalence Of Both Militant Democracy And Eternity Clauses Worldwide, Rivka Weill

Cardozo Law Review

The prevalent approach suggests that constitutions are silent about secession and may even implicitly allow it. But an examination of world constitutions reveals that the overwhelming majority of countries vigorously protect territorial integrity. This is true even of countries classified as consociational or consensus democracies. Scholars further point to the existence of secessionist political parties as proof that secession may align with constitutionalism. This Article, however, explains how democracies engage in a delicate game to chase and eliminate secessionist political mobilization. Democracies have been able to conceal their fight against secessionists by creating a large gap between "the law on …

V.20-1 2018 Masthead

San Diego International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ip Rights And Indigenous Rights: Between Commercialization And Humanization Of Traditional Knowledge, Julie Yassine

San Diego International Law Journal

The relevance of traditional knowledge is undeniable, but the only question that remains is how to protect it. Does IP law provide adequate and sufficient protection for traditional knowledge? Can it accommodate the particularities of indigenous groups without affecting their aspirations and inspirations? Applying IP law to traditional knowledge is highly contested by indigenous communities, as it can effectively lead to a community’s partial or total commercialization, which requires some efforts to “humanize” it for further adaptation to the context of indigenous rights.