International Law Commons^™

Man On Mars: How Can International Space Law Limit The Environmental Consequences Of The Coming Rush For Resources In Space, Elizabeth Anne Henderson

Michigan Journal of International Law

The body of international law governing space has stood at a standstill for decades. The five central treaties regulating this area of law are not only vague, but they have also become a hindrance to the global community’s ability to address the rapidly intensifying second space race. The treaties do not adequately state who space belongs to, who is entitled to take advantage of the natural resources of celestial bodies, or what protections are afforded to celestial environments in the face of impending mining and resource extraction projects. This impasse within international law has not stopped entrepreneurs and corporations from …

Human Rights At Sea: Analyzing States' Responses To Cruise Ships During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lixin Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the treatment of cruise ships by coastal states was inconsistent, with some ships being allowed to dock while others were not. To that end, this Note focuses on the obligations that a coastal state owes to the individuals onboard the cruise ships in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the rights to life and health. It further considers whether and how such rights are to be balanced with other countervailing considerations of such states, such as the risk of transmission to the local communities. This author concludes with the view that …

Medellín Manifesto On Transnational Value Chains And International Law, Diane Desierto

Journal Articles

Global Value Chains (GVCs) have been heralded as the ‘new world of trade’, yet they branch far beyond what has traditionally been considered ‘trade’—they interact with and are informed by multiple legal regimes often in ways unrelated to the theoretical and practical bases of those regimes. Building on the 2016 IGLP Manifesto, which sought to place law at the centre of GVC research, the Medellín Manifesto’s aspiration is to establish a research agenda that is specifically focused on international law: one that treats GVCs as amorphous and transnational legal creatures—they are transnational value chains (TVCs); one that recognises that the …

Teitiota And Climate Non-Refoulment: The International Law Obligation To Create Domestic Protection Mechanisms, Helen Kerwin

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ad Astra Per Aspera: Legal Revision Of Space Laws And Intellectual Property To Cultivate Global Alliance And Innovation, Jaiden E. Haggiag

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the inadequate nature of the current legal space regime and points out the gaps in outer space laws, including the following: Jurisdictional Challenges, Frameworks of Liability, and IP (Intellectual Property) Enforcement, utilizing laws such as the Outer Space Treaty (OST), the Liability Convention, the Registration Convention, the Moon Agreement, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and TRIPS, along with national laws like the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and The Inventions in Outer Space Act (35 U.S.C. § 105.). Through analysis of current scholarly proposals and treaty evolution and synthesize to provide policy options, the goal of …

Countries As Laboratories: Reflections On Sierra Leone’S Amended Anti-Human Trafficking Law, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

Sierra Leone’s improved anti-trafficking laws align with global norms, but enforcement remains weak due to socio-economic realities and Western deterrence mismatches, limiting effective prosecution despite recent legislative reforms.

Crimes Against Humanity And Customary International Law, Leila Nadya Sadat

Scholarship@WashULaw

A draft text of a treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity was finally sent to negotiations by the U.N. General Assembly on December 4, 2024, after six long years of advocacy by States and civil society. Questions remain, however, with regard to how crimes against humanity will be defined in the new treaty. On the one hand, some States have embraced a definition of crimes against humanity that tracks Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”). Other States have rejected Article 7 as the basis for the new treaty, but theirs …

It’S Not Too Late For States Parties To Fulfill The Promise Of The International Criminal Court: Three Actions They Should Take Now, Leila Nadya Sadat

Scholarship@WashULaw

What to do about a world in which atrocity crimes appear to be occurring with increasing and alarming frequency? Wars are prosecuted using scorched earth tactics that involve the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, credible allegations of genocide have been leveled at States in several corners of the globe, and acts and wars of aggression, which will be the subject of discussion at the upcoming International Criminal Court (ICC) Review in July, are on the rise.

The United Nations and other international institutions seem powerless to prevent or contain the violence, and the ICC, which was created …

The Click-And-Commit World Order, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay explores the rise of a new model of global governance: the “click-and-commit world order,” characterized by digitally mediated pledging platforms through which a wide array of actors—states, corporations, cities, NGOs, and individuals—publicly commit to addressing global problems through non-binding promises. In contrast to traditional treaty-making, these pledging platforms offer a decentralized, voluntary framework for international cooperation that relies on public declarations rather than negotiated obligations.

Within the U.N. system, this mode of governance developed within the United Nations Global Compact and the Paris Climate Agreement, where bottom-up pledges were institutionalized within formal and informal international structures. The internet …

International Space Law Under The Trump Administration: Commerce And Security, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

Early themes of the second Trump administration's orientation toward international space law include military assertiveness, privatization, and nominal diplomatic engagement. These themes carry significant implications for international space law. They pressure longstanding international legal ambiguities, widen existing geopolitical divisions, and raise questions about how public-private interdependence will shape state responsibility and the development of norms in space. This essay was prepared for a special issue of the American Journal of International Law that offers an introduction and overview of the U.S. government's actions across a wide range of international legal issues in the first six months of President Trump's second …

"In This House, We Pull Ourselves Up By Our Bootstraps": The Foundations Of Parliamentary Sovereignty In The United Kingdom, New Zealand, And Sweden, Andrew Hull

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

This paper considers the legal foundations of parliamentary sovereignty in three states: the United Kingdom, the Realm of New Zealand, and the Kingdom of Sweden. Two of these countries hail from the common law legal family, while Sweden is a civil law country with Nordic legal characteristics. After initial discussion of parliamentary sovereignty and Carl Schmitt’s theory of sovereignty, I will consider each of these states’ examples of parliamentary sovereignty in turn. We shall see the historical development of these three countries’ parliamentary sovereignties deeply implicates the other four of Zweigert and Kötz’s factors for defining legal styles: legal thinking, …

Framing Legal Systems In New And Emerging Statelets: Autonomous Projects Of The Zapatistas Of Chiapas And The Democratic Autonomous Administration Of Northern And Eastern Syria, Samuel Wolff

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

Autonomous movements within states are disruptions in the normal order and control that a state exerts over its territories. While there are some groups that aim to achieve autonomy and recognition while staying within the structure of the existing state, other groups seek to succeed and establish their own autonomous area completely succeeding and divorcing from the state. For a variety of reasons- from mistrust of a corrupt central government to violent repression of ethnic minorities- movements arise offering an alternative to the existing state. As these movements break, sometimes violently, from the state, they also break from the legal …

"Double-Sided Shareholder Primacy": Even More Powerful Corporate Governance Machine In China Than The United States?, Wenhan Tang

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

This article examines the emergence of a “double-sided shareholder primacy” in China’s corporate governance, contrasting it with the U.S. “single-sided shareholder primacy”. While the U.S. emphasizes shareholder interests as the corporate purpose but centralizes governance power in boards, China’s system uniquely combines shareholder-centric corporate objectives and concentrated shareholder control, reinforced by a more powerful “Corporate Governance Machine.” This machine integrates legal transplants (e.g., extreme shareholder meeting authority), ternary controllers (state, family, and minority stockholders), cultural ideologies favoring power concentration, and political metaphors likening meetings of shareholders to sovereign bodies. Despite its entrenchment, China’s 2024 Company Law revisions reveal efforts to …

Two Americas, Across Two Americas: A Comparative Analysis Of Indigenous Law In The United States And Guatemala, Thomas Jiwon Lynch

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

The United States and Guatemala are home to some of the largest indigenous populations on earth. They are also home to some of the worst transgressions against these peoples. Though superficially distinct, the two states share the same violent colonial history and their differing approaches to modern indigenous rights both miss the mark. The question is why. Is it because US judges routinely misinterpret existing case law? Because the rule of law is weaker in Guatemala? Or is there something far more deeply rooted in each state’s shared history that prevents true recognition of indigenous rights? This paper attempts to …

Comparative Federalism In The Us And The Eu — The Winemaker's Legal Perspective, Clement Xu

Emory International Law Review Recent Developments

In our lives, many of us will intersect with wine at some point, be it an aged bordeaux presented in elaborate fashion, or a box of nondescript cooler doled out at a backyard cookout. Beyond analyzing a wine for the complexity of its bouquet, or the strength of its tannins, the wine market as a whole beckons a nuanced study from the perspective of comparative law. The radical differences in business models, consumer base, and even expectations, between the “old world” and the “new world” give rise to a number of topics ranging from authenticity, legal protection, and government regulatory …

Synthetic Media As A Risk Factor For Genocide, Fatemah Albader

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning has introduced synthetic media—AI-generated images and videos—as a transformative tool in international law. While these technologies can enhance documentation, advocacy, and awareness in conflict zones, they also pose serious risks when misused to incite violence or genocide. This Article explores the dual nature of synthetic media, focusing on its capacity to inflame ethnic tensions, spread disinformation, and manipulate public perception in ways that can catalyze mass atrocities. Drawing on historical examples and recent events, it highlights how synthetic media can function as a risk factor for genocide, especially in volatile environments, and …

Rightly Dividing Jus Ad Bellum And Jus In Bello In The Israel/Hamas War, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

The purpose of this paper is to: (1) review the applicable rule of law as it relates to both the initiation of warfare and the use of armed force in the execution of that warfare; and (2) apply those legal standards to the facts associated with the Israel/Hamas conflict. While this may seem an easy task – to set out unanimity in the international community – it is not. The inability to set bright lines of distinction between aggressors and those acting in self-defense is not just a failure in definition or even understanding, it is a failure to legitimize …

Masthead - Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review, Vol. 8 (2025)

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Anticolonial Rights Advocacy, Christopher M. Roberts, Michelle M. Ong

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

It is often asserted that human rights discourse and practice principally originated following the Second World War, or as late as the 1970s, and that human rights claims are inherently Western and liberal. None of these assertions are true. In fact, both rights-based critiques and rights claims were frequently articulated prior to the Second World War. They were articulated not only by Western liberals, but also by anticolonial advocates from every part of the world. This article explores anticolonial rights claims advanced between the end of the First World War and 1930. Rights claims were extensively made by numerous groups …

On Emerging Technologies: The Old Regime And The Proactivity, Ran Xi

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Nowadays, emerging technologies are revolutionizing nearly every facet of human life, shaping legal, cultural, political, and technological landscapes. Despite various breakthroughs, emerging technologies have also brought to society legal and regulatory challenges, such as the pacing problem, regulatory silos, and the black box issue. However, existing state-centric regulation on emerging technologies results in fragmented, inconsistent, and ineffective statutes and policies. The traditional regulatory regime, due to its reactive mindset, incremental approaches, and tools of modest efficacy, fails to mitigate associated risks and harms, sometimes even impeding technological innovation. To tackle this dilemma, this Article proposes a proactive law approach with …