International Law Commons^™

Mediation To Resolve The Bedouin-Israeli Government Dispute For The Negev Desert, Sarah S. Matari

Fordham International Law Journal

In Part I, this Note elaborates on the rights that indigenous persons have to ancestral land and the sources of international law that support those rights. Part I also discusses the alternative dispute resolution process of mediation and the customary discouragement of mediation between parties with a power imbalance. Part II explores whether the Negev Bedouins and Israeli government should pursue mediation to resolve their land dispute and generally addresses techniques used to monitor mediation sessions between parties with a power imbalance. Part III explores why mediation is better suited to resolve the Israeli government-Negev Bedouin land dispute than is …

J.Mc.B V. L.E.: The Intersection Of European Union Law And Private International Law In Intra-European Union Child Abduction, Claire Dekar

Fordham International Law Journal

The certified question and the legal impact of the Court of Justice's preliminary ruling on that question are the subject of this Comment. Part I explains the relevant provisions of the Hague Abduction Convention, Brussels II bis, and the implicated European human rights laws, and discusses the case in chief before the Irish High and Supreme Courts. Part II examines the Court of Justice's opinion on the certified question. Finally, Part III analyzes the impact of the opinion on J.McB. and his family, Brussels II bis and its interpretation, and the jurisprudence the Court of Justice regarding the protection of …

Awaking The Sleeping Dragon: The Evolving Chinese Patent Laws And Its Implications For Pharmeceutical Patents, Rachel T. Wu

Fordham International Law Journal

Part I of this Comment will discuss the development of the Chinese IP system and discuss why it has been ineffective in protecting pharmaceutical patents by comparing it to the US patent system. Part II analyzes the third amendment to the Chinese patent law and how it protects patents, particularly pharmaceutical ones, and deters counterfeiters from infringing upon the patents. Part II also presents different views on the effectiveness of the third amendment to protect patents. Part III argues that even though the third amendment is a great leap forward, pharmaceutical counterfeiting will continue to happen if the local governments …

The International Legal Right To Individual Compensation In Nepal And The Transitional Justice Context, Matthew F. Putori

Fordham International Law Journal

Part I of this Note provides a brief political history of Nepal since the mid-eighteenth century; defines the concept of transitional justice; and explores the international law of remedy, reparations, and compensation. Part II focuses on the right to individual compensation in order to determine which human rights violations trigger a state's legal obligation to compensate victims, and then applies that right to the transitional justice context. Finally, Part III proposes the design of an individual compensation program in which Nepal, and other transitional states, can fulfill legal obligations while simultaneously working toward peace, democracy, and development.

Nuclear Weapons And Compliance With International Humanitarian Law And The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Charles J. Moxley Jr., John Burroughs, Jonathan Granoff

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay proceeds in three Parts. Part I describes the effects of nuclear weapons and the many calls in recent years from across the political spectrum for the abolition of nuclear weapons, including such calls by President Obama both as presidential candidate and as president. Part II describes the Obama NPR and the many respects in which it backs away from the avowed objective of abolition by continuing the United States' Cold War posture, which was premised on the putative legitimacy of nuclear weapons and deterrence and in defiance of international law. Part III suggests how a nuclear posture committed …

Assessing The Applicability Of The Business Judgment Rule And The "Defensive" Business Judgment Rule In The Chinese Judiciary: A Perspective On Takeover Dispute Adjudication, Charlie Xiao-Chuan Weng

Fordham International Law Journal

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization ("WTO") on November 10, 2001, corporate China has been struggling to dismantle the inefficient management systems formed in the era of the planned economy, and it barely survives under the more competitive market economy environment that began to form in 1978. In order to become stronger, both before and after WTO admission, many corporations have been trying to restructure and grow by devouring others. Part I of this Essay provides a basic summary of the business judgment rule and the "defensive" business judgment rule. Part II discusses some of the difficulties that …

Working Toward A Legally Enforceable Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime, Ronald J. Sievert

Fordham International Law Journal

The foundation of the international effort to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ("NPT"). This Article proceeds in three parts. Part I proposes a new Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Part II contains preliminary observations regarding the Security Council, General Assembly and Zanger Committee provisions of the new treaty and then addresses the basic question of why nations might be willing to scrap the established NPT in favor of this new proposed agreement. Finally, Part III discusses how the advent of international institutions and the increasing incorporation of international law into the framework of domestic, regional and …

After Guantánamo: Legal Rights Of Foreign Detainees Held In The United States In The "War On Terror", Ashley C. Pope

Fordham International Law Journal

Part I of this Note explores the background of both the Guantánamo detainee problem-i.e., what rights a foreign national detained at Guantánamo has-and the domestic detainee problem-i.e., what rights a foreign national detained on US soil has-that the United States may soon be facing, as well as the development of the law that has left open these legal ambiguities. Part I also discusses the applicability of international law on the issue. Part II presents the current conflict over the rights foreign detainees should have and the legality of detention on US soil, discusses the applicability of international law within the …

Taking The Law Seriously: The Imperative Need For A Nuclear Weapons Convention, Peter Weiss

Fordham International Law Journal

Jonathan Swift famously said, "Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through." Swift was no doubt referring to the propensity of the law to shrink from prosecuting the lords of the realm, while going vigorously after smaller fry. But his aphorism applies equally to issues: the more portentous the issue, the less likely it is to yield to legal restraints. This is evidenced by such lawless pronouncements as "international law is not a suicide pact" or, more recently, "I believe that all nations-strong and weak alike-must adhere to standards that govern the …

Nonproliferation Verification And The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Jenifer Mackby

Fordham International Law Journal

President Obama's administration has ushered in a banner period for nuclear issues, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty ("CTBT") has figured prominently among them. In his benchmark April 2009 speech in Prague calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, President Obama added that his administration would "immediately and aggressively" pursue US ratification of the treaty. In September, President Obama presided over the United Nations ("UN") Security Council summit meeting that adopted Resolution 1887, which "enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons" and also calls on states to "refrain from conducting a nuclear test explosion …

Obama's Nuclear Posture Review: An Ambitious Program For Nuclear Arms Control But A Retreat From The Objective Of Nuclear Disarmament, Charles J. Moxley Jr.

Fordham International Law Journal

President Barack Obama and US political and policy leaders across the political spectrum have in recent years spoken about the need to eliminate nuclear weapons because of the dangers they pose. In 1970, the United States agreed by Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ("NPT") to negotiate nuclear disarmament in good faith. The International Court of Justice ("ICJ") in 1996 found that this is an obligation not just to begin but also to "bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control." International humanitarian law ("IHL") prohibits the use …

The Treaty Of Lisbon: A Story In History Or The Making Of A Treaty, Therese Blanchet

Fordham International Law Journal

And like all stories there are of course the main characters, the public heroes, and, around them, those who help them find a happy ending. The story in this Essay is written in honor of one of the characters who played a key role in achieving the Treaty of Lisbon: Jean-Claude Piris, who was for more than twenty two years, Director General of the Legal Service of the Council of the EU. But to understand this story, to understand the reasons behind it, one should know its roots.

Pirates And Impunity: Is The Threat Of Asylum Claims A Reason To Allow Pirates To Escape Justice, Yvonne M. Dutton

Fordham International Law Journal

Pirates are literally getting away with murder. Modern pirates are attacking vessels, hijacking ships at gunpoint, taking hostages, and injuring and killing crew members.1 They are doing so with increasing frequency. According to the International Maritime Bureau (“IMB”) Piracy Reporting Center’s 2009 Annual Report, there were 406 pirate attacks in 2009—a number that has not been reached since 2003. Yet, in most instances, a culture of impunity reigns whereby nations are not holding pirates accountable for the violent crimes they commit. Only a small portion of those people committing piracy are actually captured and brought to trial, as opposed to …

Formalization Of Plea Bargaining In Germany: Will The New Legislation Be Able To Square The Circle?, Regina E. Rauxloh

Fordham International Law Journal

In German criminal trials, the common law instrument of the guilty plea is unknown. Consequently, one cannot speak of plea bargaining in the strict sense. Nevertheless, informal negotiations, which center on the exchange of a confession for a sentence concession, play an increasing role in the German criminal process. It is claimed that in today’s Germany “the criminal procedure cannot be imagined without the phenomenon of informal agreements.” After years of academic debate and developing case law on informal agreements, the German Federal Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) has now passed new legislation that regulates agreements and makes them part of the …

The Evolution Of Operational Policies And Procedures At International Financial Institutions: Normative Significance And Enforcement Potential, Daniel D. Bradlow, Andria Naude Fourie

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The exact contours of international organizations’ (IO) responsibility have not yet been clearly defined. While IOs – and international financial institutions (IFIs) in particular – have in the past avoided drawing those contours in more certain terms, this position is slowly changing: IFIs have been changing expectations about their standards of conduct, as reflected in their evolving operational policies and procedures (OP&P). This report provides an overview of the content, formulation, adoption, amendment and enforcement of OP&P at multilateral development banks (MDB) (a subset of IFIs). It highlights the impact of three developments that are strengthening the normative significance and …

Regulating Information Flows, Regulating Conflict: An Analysis Of United States Conflict Minerals Legislation, Christiana Ochoa, Patrick J. Keenan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The connection between conflict and commercial activity is the focus of this paper. In particular, it focuses on the ongoing conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is funded, in large part, by the sale of conflict commodities – minerals, metals and petroleum that fund violent groups at their source and then enters legitimate markets and products around the world. Recently, attention has turned to how to regulate conflict commerce as a tool for divesting from violent conflict. In the United States, for example, the recently-adopted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act include a provision …

Military Forces, Global Health, And The International Health Regulations (2005), David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Security, economic, development, and humanitarian threats created by infectious diseases have heightened the importance of military forces to national and global public health responses. This article explores the increasing need for military involvement in public and global health surveillance and response to infectious disease threats, and focuses on how military forces can more effectively support implementation of the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR (2005)). The article explains the major changes made in negotiations that produced the IHR (2005) and the importance of these changes to military-to-military activities and civilian-military cooperation. It identifies five areas in which military …

Ethnicity, Elections, And Reform In Burma, David C. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Muslims In A Secular State: Islamic Law And Constitutions Islam In America

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Convergences And Divergences In International Legal Norms On Migrant Labor, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This essay will argue that even where disparate treaties converge doctrinally, they may diverge normatively and that normative divergence may be significant in its own right. Section I of this essay seeks to chart out an initial such analysis, conducting a concise comparison of particular rules affecting migrant workers from different realms of international law. Section I concludes with both a graphic representation of doctrinal convergences and divergences, and a further discussion the doctrinal relationships among treaties as elucidated through consideration of hypothetical legal disputes.

Section II considers the normative implications of divergent rule systems. In particular, Section II raises …