International Law Commons^™

Addressing The Root Of Housing Insecurity: Washington Should Divest From “Crime-Free” Housing Programs, Sarah Cerdena

Seattle University Law Review

Crime-Free Rental Housing Properties (CFRHPs) have proven to be an ineffective and inequitable approach to public safety. Often, tenants in these properties are evicted—at times, extrajudicially—as a result of conduct that does not rise to violations of their lease provisions, much less criminal behavior. By placing extraordinary power in the hands of local law enforcement to carry out these ordinances, CFRHPs predictably pose significant harm to Black and Latinx communities, survivors of domestic violence, disabled tenants, and low-income tenants generally. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court grappled with the tensions arising between CFRHPs and the enforcement of Washington landlord-tenant law. …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Esg Investing Breaches Erisa Fiduciary Duties? A Closer Look At Spence V. American Airlines, Inc., Eric Chin-Ru Chang

Seattle University Law Review

In Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties due to BlackRock’s ESG investing practices. Contrary to some reports suggesting that the ruling prohibits ESG investing under ERISA, a closer look at the ruling shows that the court only targeted American Airlines’ failure to manage conflicts of interest appropriately, rather than the legality of ESG investing itself. In light of the intensifying ESG backlash in the United States, this Article cautions against further restrictive measures on ESG investing. Such measures would exacerbate the widening …

Authoritarian Transfers, Günter Frankenberg, Fernanda G. Nicola

University of Miami Law Review

The rapid proliferation of foreign agent laws globally has become a hallmark of rising authoritarianism, with these laws weaponized to suppress dissent and stifle civil society. While the post-World War II study of legal transplants focused on liberal legal orders, the rise of authoritarian regimes has introduced a new dimension: the transnational movement and adaptation of authoritarian legal frameworks, or authoritarian transfers. This Article fills a critical gap by developing an analytical framework to distinguish authoritarian transfers from democratic ones, using transfer theory, a central theme in comparative law that explores how laws travel, adapt, and transform within new social …

Bandung And The Future Of Africa’S Pasts, Rabiat Akande, Olufemi Elias

Articles & Book Chapters

The idea of decolonization that animated the spirit of the 1955 Bandung Conference continues to power imaginations of an alternative to the world Bandung inhabited. In this essay, we look upon Africa from Bandung, and simultaneously from Africa to Bandung, to recover an “otherwise”—a seeing of the future from Africa’s pasts. In the future envisioned in Bandung and beyond, flag independence was regarded as the first stop in the project of decolonization.1 The conference was to provide both “guidance to mankind … [on] the way which it must take to attain safety and peace” and “evidence that Asia and Africa …

Iran And Its Proxies: Attribution And State Responsibility, Jennifer Maddocks

International Law Studies

Iran has invested heavily in proxy militias since the regime's founding in 1979. In the decades that followed, groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shi'a militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen have projected Iran's influence across the region. Today, Iran's proxy network is considerably weakened due to Israel's military actions following October 7, 2023, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Yet the Houthis' attacks on Israel and against Red Sea shipping demonstrate how Iran's support to these groups continues to facilitate their conduct in violation of international law. This article examines Iran's potential …

Statutory Copy-Pasting In The Law Of Sovereign Immunity, Chimène I. Keitner

William & Mary Law Review

Congress sometimes copy-pastes language from one statute into another statute. While this can serve the goals of consistency and efficiency, copy-pasting can cause problems when done across disparate legal regimes, such as different sovereign immunity doctrines. When Congress enacted the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) of 1976, it borrowed language from the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) of 1946 that exempts the exercise of “discretionary functions” from tort jurisdiction. Both statutes allow private damages claims against governmental entities in defined circumstances. Despite this superficial similarity, the statutes were enacted in very different contexts and serve fundamentally different purposes. Nonetheless, courts …

Unsafe At Any Speed: "Safe Third Country Agreements" - Offshoring And Eroding Legal Protections Owed To Refugees And Asylum Seekers, Thomas Michael Mcdonnell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article analyzes third country agreements and refugee transfer practices of the United States and the European Union. Part II demonstrates that, under international law, all countries are obligated to protect refugees and are prohibited from directly or indirectly sending them to a country where there is a substantial basis for believing that their life or freedom would be threatened. Part II will likewise show that the notion of "safe third country" transfer agreements and practices is often a fallacy, an oxymoron. Instead of keeping refugees safe, such agreements and practices seriously erode the fundamental non-refoulment obligation …

The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality And Wire Fraud, L. Jackson Howell Jr.

Fordham Law Review

As globalization and technology increasingly blur geographic boundaries, federal prosecutors have turned to the wire fraud statute as a powerful tool for targeting transnational misconduct. Despite its popularity in international fraud prosecution, the statute’s application to foreign conduct continues to raise unresolved and pressing questions under the presumption against extraterritoriality. Specifically, courts have struggled to identify when a domestic wire communication is sufficient to bring a largely foreign fraudulent scheme within the reach of U.S. law. With the U.S. Supreme Court silent on the wire fraud statute directly, and zigzagging in its extraterritoriality jurisprudence more generally, lower courts are split …

The Future Of Diplomatic Asylum In Latin America, Regina Romero-Garza

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

Latin American Countries (“LAMC”) maintain a distinct set of diplomatic practices that differ from those commonly observed around the world. One observable distinction is the doctrine of diplomatic asylum, which allows political refugees of other countries to seek asylum in foreign embassies. The concept of diplomatic asylum is seldom recognized outside of the Latin American region, leaving LAMC as one of the few that recognize and use this locally recognized right. Various cases have arisen over the years involving disputes between the countries receiving the refugee (receiving state) and the country that wants the refugee in their custody (territorial state). …

The Siren Song Of Territoriality, Robin J. Effron, Alan M. Trammell

Indiana Law Journal

Territoriality—the theory that a state’s physical borders determine its power and sovereignty—boasts a long, venerable history. For centuries, it served as the dominant political theory for myriad ideas. It defined a wide range of doctrines, including personal jurisdiction, choice of law, and prescriptive jurisdiction. By the middle of the twentieth century, though, this rigid territoriality no longer described or responded to the challenges of a society that had grown increasingly mobile and interconnected. Courts replaced inflexible territorial theories with more functional theories rooted in fairness and state regulatory interests.

In recent years, territoriality has seen a curious resurgence. The Supreme …

2025 Fall - Clihhr Newsletter, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr)

CLIHHR Newsletters

This Fall 2025 issue of the CLIHHR Newsletter highlights the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights’ continued work in advocacy, research, and education. It features the Institute’s landmark report on Indigenous land rights in the Brazilian Amazon, major events including the 2025 Lemkin Award Ceremony, faculty and student achievements, alumni spotlights, and engagement with international human rights mechanisms. The newsletter reflects CLIHHR’s ongoing commitment to supporting marginalized communities and advancing human rights and atrocity prevention efforts.

Case Global: A Winning Tradition, Case Western Reserve University School Of Law, The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center

Case Global Newsletter

Volume 17, No. 1 (2025)

• CWRU once again ranked among the best in 2025 PreLaw magazine and US News & World Report rankings of International Law Program...
• Case Western Journal of International Law Tackles the Need to Update the Geneva Conventions
• Building on a Winning Tradition
• CWRU Launches New International Development Law Lab
• CWRU Establishes Spring Break in the Hague Program
• Professor Michael Scharf leads Team to Prepare Ukrainian Judges and Prosecutors to Try Environmental War Crimes
• Professor Rapp teaches Comparative Law to Saudi Administrative Judges in Riyadh
• Yemen Accountability Project publishes two new White Papers
• Immigration Clinic Builds Momentum …

Citizen Shareholders: The State As A Fiduciary In International Investment Law, Eleanor L. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

International investment law provides stability for investors, helps capital flow across the globe, and can be a critical tool for sustainable development. This regime, however, has become increasingly controversial, in part due to its inability to reconcile investor obligations with competing human rights obligations. International investment treaties provide substantive guarantees to investors, including submission to binding arbitration in the event of breach. When found in breach of one of these guarantees, international investment arbitral tribunal awards are often in the hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially creating “regulatory chill” for states that may otherwise take affirmative action to protect human …

Twenty-Fourth Annual International Advocate For Peace Award, Honoring Dr. Zafra Lerman, Zafra Lerman, Andrea K. Schneider, Felix Wu, Armando Gonzalez

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

On March 6, 2025, the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution presented the twenty-fourth annual International Advocate for Peace Award to Dr. Zafra M. Lerman. The following is a transcript of the event.

Dispute Resolution Tailored For Digital Assets, Michele Kallo

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

As digital asset markets continue to expand, the need for efficient and reliable dispute resolution mechanisms has grown increasingly pressing. In May 2022, alone, over 200 individual and class action lawsuits related to digital assets were filed, with cases only deepening in nuance. Traditional litigation, with its high costs, slow timelines, and jurisdictional complexities, often falls short in resolving such disputes. In reaction to these limitations, decentralized arbitration platforms have emerged as spaces for dispute resolution. While innovative, these platforms’ susceptibility to issues such as market volatility, barriers to juror diversity, and impartiality limitations raise questions about their effectiveness as …

Burying Weapons Under The White Pine Tree: Reducing Nuclear Weapons And Using The Monetary Savings To Compensate Native Peoples Injured By The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, William Y. Chin

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

From Humanitarians To Patriots: The Decline Of International Adoption And The Turn To Domestic Prioritization, Karsen Kreidler

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

The world is getting smaller as globalization is leading to more connection and interdependence between countries than ever before. Businesses, ideas, and even people are being exchanged across countries. This can be seen in the development of international adoption, a complex legal issue that involves a balance of child’s rights, state sovereignty, and international law. International adoption has been an important facet of globalization for many decades, and has undergone certain developments and trends over the course of its history. Recently, international adoptions have drastically decreased, as several nations are adjusting their policies, including tightening or even completely banning foreign …

Home By Now? “Habitual Residence” And The Hague Convention On The Civil Aspects Of International Child Abduction, Emily Mcanally

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction (“the Convention”) is a multilateral treaty signed in 1980 which aims “to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any Contracting State”; and to ensure mutual respect of the “rights of custody and access” between the contracting states. As of 2025, there are 103 signatories of the Convention who have committed to taking “all appropriate measures” and employing “the most expeditious procedures available” to ensure that children wrongfully within their territory can be returned home. Although the Convention has existed for nearly half a century, …

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Survey Of "Start-Up" & Investor Visa Programs And Their Effects, Candace Yuan

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

Entrepreneurship has positive economic benefits and allows for innovative progress within countries. Immigrants, specifically, are in a unique position to bring new perspectives, backgrounds, and ideas to their host countries, which makes them especially entrepreneurial. In particular, immigrants play key roles in their host country by starting businesses or making investments that lead to job creation, innovation, and increased national productivity. This broader phenomenon is known as Immigrant Entrepreneurship, where immigrants contribute to the economy of their host country by starting new businesses or investing. Immigrant entrepreneurship is a developing but relevant topic, as literature in this arena suggests that …