Transnational Law Commons^™

International Child Abduction And Children's Rights: Two Means To The Same End, Eran Sthoeger

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Hague Convention aims to deter future abductors and demonstrate mutual respect for the laws of its member states, while presumably serving the best interests of the child. It operates as a jurisdictional mechanism by reinstating the status quo prior to the removal through the prompt return of the child to his or her place of habitual residence. This return, as clearly stated in the Hague Convention itself, bears no effect on the merits of any existing or future custody dispute between the parents. The Hague Convention demands that contracting states respect past or future decisions pertaining to custody decided …

Legal Pluralism In Post-Colonial Africa: Linking Statutory And Customary Adjudication In Mozambique, David Pimentel

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Sui Generis Regime For Traditional Knowledge: The Cultural Divide In Intellectual Property Law, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Faculty Publications

To some extent, traditional knowledge can be protected under various intellectual property laws, but there is no effective international legal protection for this subject matter. This has led to proposals for a sui generis regime to protect traditional knowledge. The precise contours of the right are yet to be determined but a sui generis right could include perpetual protection. It could also result in protection for historical communal works and for knowledge that may be useful but that is not inventive according to the standards of intellectual property law.

Developing countries have been more supportive of an international traditional knowledge …

Masthead, Volume 35 (2011)

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Symposium Introduction – Beyond Borders: Extraterritoriality In American Law, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Volume 35, Canada-United States Law Journal

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Volume 36 Issue 2 (2011)

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 36 Issue 2 (2011), Canada-United States Law Journal

Canada-United States Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Third-Party Financing On Transnational Litigation, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

Third-party litigation finance is a growing industry. The practice, also termed “litigation lending,” allows funders with no other connection to the lawsuit to invest in a plaintiff’s claim in exchange for a share of the ultimate recovery. Most funding agreements have focused on domestic litigation in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, the industry is poised for growth worldwide, and the recent environmental lawsuit brought by Ecuadorian plaintiffs against Chevron demonstrates that litigation funding is also beginning to play a role in transnational litigation.

This article, prepared for a symposium on “International Law in Crisis,” speculates about …

Forum Non Conveniens And Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments, Christopher A. Whytock, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

When citizens of Ecuador sued Texaco, Inc. in a U.S. court seeking damages for oil contamination in the Amazon, Texaco successfully moved to dismiss the suit in favor of Ecuador based on the forum non conveniens doctrine, arguing – as that doctrine requires – that Ecuador was an adequate alternative forum and more appropriate than the United States for hearing the suit. The plaintiffs then refiled the suit in Ecuador, and a court there entered a multi-billion dollar judgment against Chevron Corporation, which had merged with Texaco. Chevron now argues that the Ecuadorian legal system suffers from deficiencies that should …

Letting The Arbitrator Decide Unconscionability Challenges, 26 Ohio St. J. On Disp. Resol. 1 (2011), Karen H. Cross

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This article examines how courts are allocating jurisdictional questions relating to unconscionability to the arbitrator, and assesses the approach of U.S. courts to this issue from a historical and comparative perspective. The U.S. allocation rule is evolving toward one of deference to the arbitrator, allowing the arbitrator to make an initial determination of whether there is an enforceable agreement to arbitrate. As a matter of timing, the U.S. approach is becoming more similar to that of France. Such an approach, especially in the commercial sphere, has the potential to be relatively efficient and consistent. But in the context of mandatory …

Enthusiastic Enforcement, Informal Legislation: The Unruly Expansion Of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Amy D. Westbrook

Georgia Law Review

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was enacted
over thirty years ago to prohibit bribery of foreign officials
by U.S. persons. In the last few years, the Department of
Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) have dramatically expanded the FCPA
through a surge in its enforcement. Responding to
complex developments in law, the global economy, and
agency politics, the DOJ and the SEC have brought ten
times as many cases as in prior years, and assessed
hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. At the same
time, the substantive reach of the law has been extended
through …

Do You Mind My Smoking? Plain Packaging Of Cigarettes Under The Trips Agreement, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 450 (2011), Alberto Alemanno, Enrico Bonadio

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Plain packaging, a new tobacco control tool that a growing number of countries are considering, mandates the removal of all attractive and promotional aspects of tobacco product packages. As a result of plain packaging, the only authorized feature remaining on a tobacco package is the use of the brand name, displayed in a standard font, size, colour and location on the package. In opposing this new strategy, the tobacco industry is particularly keen on emphasizing the uselessness of plain packaging in reducing smoking rates and its incompatibility with trade mark provisions of international treaties. In particular, the tobacco industry and …

The Limited Case For Permitting Sme Procurement Preferences In The Wto Agreement On Government Procurement, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

This is a chapter in the book, Sue Arrowsmith & Robert D. Anderson, The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Challenge and Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2011). The chapter puts under scrutiny public procurement policies designed to benefit SMEs per se, as small or medium sized enterprises, and to evaluate whether the GPA (and hence possibly other trade agreements liberalizing procurement markets) should be more accommodating to these policies, even though these policies might restrict international trade. The chapter also evaluates whether the GPA should be more accommodating to policies designed to benefit firms controlled by individuals who belong to historically …

When Corporations Translate Treaties, Caroline Bradley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitating Territoriality In Human Rights, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For many years, territorial principles anchored an international system organized around nation-states. Recently, however, the human rights movement has sought to change the state-centric focus of international law and overcome the limitations of a system where the territorial state is the primary actor. The field of human rights has promoted a new legal orthodoxy that places the person at the center of the international legal system. Within this orthodoxy, non-state actors play a prominent role, unilateral domestic lawsuits are promoted, and territorial borders give way when necessary for humanitarian intervention. In contrast, territorial conceptions of international law are viewed as …

Morrison, The Effects Test, And The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality: A Reply To Professor Dodge, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Streaming The International Silver Platter Doctrine: Coordinating Transnational Law Enforcement In The Age Of Global Terrorism And Technology, Caitlin T. Street

National Security Law Program

The dramatic expansion of technology and globalization over the last thirty years has not only facilitated transnational terrorist operations, but also has transformed the countermeasures utilized by law enforcement and amplified the need for counterterrorism coordination between foreign and domestic authorities. Crucially, these changes have altered the fourth amendment calculus, set out by the international silver platter doctrine, for admitting evidence seized in U.S.-foreign cooperative searches abroad. Under the international silver platter doctrine, courts admit the evidence gathered by foreign authorities abroad unless the unreasonable search is deemed a "joint venture" between U.S. and foreign authorities. Notably, the legal framework …

Redesigning Global Trade Institutions, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

This is a draft of an essay for the symposium, 2021: International Law Ten Years from Now, held by the Southwestern Journal of International Law in cooperation with the International Law Association (American Branch) Weekend West. The essay deals with two questions. First, what is to be of the WTO and world trade institutions generally? It examines the rise of regionalism in international trade agreements and possible roles for variable geometry for the WTO. The essay critiques proposals to move towards (or back to) plurilateralism for the WTO. Second, what should trade agreements do? This question goes to the core …

Global Procurement Law In Times Of Crisis: New Buy American Policies And Options In The Wto Legal System, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

This is a draft chapter, Sue Arrowsmith & Robert D. Anderson (eds.), The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Challenge and Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2011). What should governments do to protect their citizens in a global economic crisis? National economies are interdependent and economic risk is systemic on a global scale, but economic policy remains pervasively national in scope. Fiscal policy has not been the subject of much in the way of collective action at the global level, and if it has, states accomplish it in ad hoc political (as opposed to legal) arrangements in response to particular crises. States …