International Law Commons^™

Congress's Limited Power To Enforce Treaties, Michael D. Ramsey

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article focuses on Justice Scalia’s concurrence in the judgment in Bond v. United States. It makes three main points. First, Scalia’s claim that Congress lacks a general power to enforce treaties is unpersuasive as a matter of the Constitution’s original meaning. Further, Scalia’s claim rests strongly on the structural point that giving Congress treaty enforcement power would expand the federal government’s power without limit. Second, Scalia’s structural concerns about effectively unlimited congressional power are nonetheless partly justified to the extent that courts substantially defer to Congress’s claims about what action is necessary and proper to enforce a treaty. …

Bond And The Vienna Rules, Roger P. Alford

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article briefly outlines the Court’s holding in Bond, and the general framework of interpretation set forth in the Vienna Rules. It then looks at Supreme Court jurisprudence that is consonant with the Vienna Rules. The Article then analyzes Bond’s interpretive approach using the Vienna Rules methodology. It concludes with reflections on the future of Supreme Court treaty interpretation and how that interpretation could avoid reaching the constitutional question of the scope of the treaty power.

Bond V. United States: Choosing The Lesser Of Two Evils, David Sloss

Notre Dame Law Review

This essay makes two main points. First, the majority’s interpretation of the CWC Act is inconsistent with the statute and the underlying treaty. Indeed, the majority opinion displays a basic misunderstanding of the design of the underlying treaty. Second, Justice Scalia’s construction of the Necessary and Proper Clause is antithetical to the structure and original understanding of the Constitution. If adopted as law, Justice Scalia’s view would seriously harm the federal government’s ability to conduct foreign affairs on behalf of the nation. Since Justice Scalia’s constitutional error would be far more damaging than the majority’s statutory error, the majority’s statutory …

Bond, The Treaty Power, And The Overlooked Value Of Non-Self-Executing Treaties, Julian Ku, John Yoo

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article proceeds as follows. First, it discusses the Bond case and how the treaty at issue in Bond illustrates the practical importance of non-self-executing treaties in U.S. practice. It elaborates on this point in Part II by arguing that the CWC is the classic example of an important international treaty that could not have been properly implemented without separate legislation. Next, it offers a discussion of the academic criticism of non-self-execution as tending to undermine the United States’ ability to comply with international obligations. It then responds to this criticism by exploring the ways in which non-self-executing treaties like …

Resource Resilience: How To Break The Commodities Cycle, Lisa E. Sachs, Nicolas Maennling

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The past year has seen dramatic declines in the prices of global commodities. Between June 2014 and the beginning of this year, crude oil prices fell by 50 percent to around $50 a barrel. Similarly, mineral prices have seen a drastic fall since the peak of the “commodity supercycle” in early 2011. Between then and April of this year, iron ore prices fell by 70 percent, coal prices by 54 percent and copper prices by 40 percent.

Not So Fast, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

President Barack Obama and the Republican leadership in Congress are trying to pass "fast track" legislation in order to push through major economic agreements with eleven countries of the Pacific region (the Trans-Pacific Partnership) and Europe (the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) without the possibility for Congressional amendments. Both are being sold generally as "trade agreements," yet they involve key areas of business law and regulation far beyond trade. Before Congress approves fast track, these agreements need to be made public and exposed to thorough public scrutiny.

The Effects Of International Laws On Modern Day Slavery., Sadmira Ramic

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Authorization Versus Regulation Of Detention In Non-International Armed Conflicts, Ryan Goodman

International Law Studies

What does the law of armed conflict say about detention in non-international armed conflict? Is the law “utterly silent,” as some contend, with respect to the grounds for detention—regulating who may be confined and for what status or behavior? And do the in bello rules provide a source of affirmative authority that empowers belligerents to engage in detention? How those questions are resolved and, in particular, the basis for reaching the conclusions may have unintended consequences for the regulation of warfare. This article contends that the laws of war regulate the grounds for detention but do not authorize detention in …

Transactional Enforcement Discovery, Aaron D. Simowitz

Fordham Law Review

    Joseph Stiglitz described the current Argentine sovereign debt crisis as “America throwing a bomb into the global economic system.” And yet, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to tackle only one head of this massive hydra. Presented with numerous issues arising from the controversy, the Court granted certiorari only on the issue of whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) blocked Argentina’s creditors from obtaining discovery of Argentina’s worldwide financial transactions. Justice Scalia, writing for the Court, concluded that because the FSIA says nothing on its face about discovery—it says nothing about discovery.

    But the majority did not grapple with the …

Can Banks Be Liable For Aiding And Abetting Terrorism?: A Closer Look Into The Split On Secondary Liability Under The Antiterrorism Act, Alison Bitterly

Fordham Law Review

    The Antiterrorism Act of 1990 (ATA) explicitly authorizes a private cause of action for U.S. nationals who suffer an injury “by reason of an act of international terrorism.” ATA civil litigation has increased dramatically following September 11, 2001—and banks, because of their deep pockets, have emerged as an increasingly popular target. Courts are divided concerning the scope of liability under the statute, specifically over whether the ATA authorizes a cause of action premised on secondary liability. Under a secondary liability theory, a plaintiff could argue that a bank, through providing financial services to a terrorist client, aided and abetted an …

The Normalization Of Foreign Relations Law, Ganesh Sitaraman, Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The defining feature of foreign relations law is that it is distinct from domestic law. Courts have recognized that foreign affairs are political by their nature and thus unsuited to adjudication, that state and local involvement is inappropriate in foreign affairs, and that the President has the lead role in foreign policymaking. In other words, they have said that foreign relations are exceptional. But foreign relations exceptionalism, "the belief that legal issues arising from foreign relations are functionally, doctrinally, and even methodologically distinct from those arising in domestic policy,” was not always the prevailing view. In the early twentieth century, …

Congress's International Legal Discourse, Kevin L. Cope

Michigan Law Review

Despite Congress’s important role in enforcing U.S. international law obligations, the relevant existing literature largely ignores the branch. This omission may stem partly from the belief, common among both academics and lawyers, that Congress is generally unsympathetic to or ignorant of international law. Under this conventional wisdom, members of Congress would rarely if ever imply that international law norms should impact otherwise desirable domestic legislation. Using an original dataset comprising thirty years of legislative histories of pertinent federal statutes, this Article questions and tests that view. The evidence refutes the conventional wisdom. It shows instead that, in legislative debates over …

Formalism And Distrust: Foreign Affairs Law In The Roberts Court, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

When it comes to foreign relations, the Roberts Court has trust issues. As far as the Court is concerned, everyone — the President, Congress, the lower courts, plaintiffs — has played hard and fast with the rules, taking advantage of the Court’s functionalist approaches to foreign affairs issues. This seems to be the message of the RobertsCourt foreign affairs law jurisprudence.

The Roberts Court has been active in foreign affairs law, deciding cases on the detention and trial of enemy combatants, foreign sovereign immunity, the domestic effect of treaties, the extraterritorial reach of federal statutes, the preemption of state laws, …

Maritime Expansion And Delimitation After The Timor Gap Treaty, Marcel Hendrapati

Indonesia Law Review

The Timor Gap Treaty on oil and gas management cooperation in some parts of the Timor Sea was full of political intrigues between Australia and Republic of Indonesia, since the treaty which comprises three areas of cooperation was detrimental to Indonesia and it indicated the highest influence of Indonesian Republic by Australia. Renunciation of the treaty due to the independence of Timor Leste after a referendum resulted in the issue of maritime delimitation between Timor Leste and Indonesia. Nevertheless in fact in 2002 the new state declared maritime expansion to a distance of 100 nautical miles measured from the former …

Indonesia’S Delimited Maritime Boundaries, Anbar Jayadi

Indonesia Law Review

In case of Indonesia’s geographical condition, it goes without saying that with great potentials come great responsibilities to manage. With an overall distance of more than 1900 km from east to west and nearly 80% of its area are sea regulating its borders especially maritime boundaries will not only affect the integrity of the nation but also protect its natural resources.

Book Review: Völkerrecht. Eds. E. Menzel & Knut Ipsen: Verlag C.H. Beck-Munchen, 1979., Hugo J. Hahn

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Jurisdiction - Aliens, Federal Courts And The Law Of Nations, Jeff Ballew

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Filartiga V. Pena-Irala: A Contribution To The Development Of Customary International Law By A Domestic Court, C. Donald Johnson Jr.

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Filartiga V. Pena-Irala: Comments On Sources Of Human Rights Law And Means Of Redress For Violations Of Human Rights, Gabriel M. Wilner

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Comment On Filartiga V. Pena-Irala, Dean Rusk

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.