i s s u e s
Volume 40
Issue 1
Issue 2
Volume 39
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Volume 38
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Volume 37
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Volume 36
Issue 5
Volume 40:2
Articles:
Legal Constraints Upon the Use of a Tactical Nuclear Weapon Against the Natanz Nuclear Facility in Iran (PDF)
by Brian L. Bengs
Prior Restraints in Venezuela's Social Responsibility on Radio and Television Act: Are They Justified? (PDF)
by Angel Luis Olivera Soto
Notes:
The Looting of Iraqi Archaelogical Sites: Global Implications and Support for an International Approach to Regulating the Antiqities Market (PDF)
by Raisa E. Patron
Foreign Alternatives to the Alien Tort Claims Act: the Success (or is it Failure?) of Bringing Civil Suits Against Multinational Corporations That Commit Human Rights Violations (PDF)
by Bahareh Mostajelean
No Man's Land: The E.U.-U.S. Passenger Name Record Agreement and What it Means for the European Union's Pillar Structure (PDF)
by Christopher Patton
The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program: Illuminating the Shortcomings of the European Union's Antiquated Data Privacy Directiven (PDF)
by Justin Santolli
The New Afrian Union: Will it Promote Enforcement of the Decisions of the African Court of Human and People's Rights? (PDF)
by Carolyn Scanlon Martorana
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Volume 40:1
Articles:
"Babushka Said Two Things--It Will Either Rain or Snow; It Either Will or Will Not": An Analysis of the Provisions and Human Rights Implications of Russia's New Law on Non-Governmental Organizations as Told Through Eleven Russian Proverbs (PDF)
by Robert C. Blitt
Law-Making Through the Operational Activities of International Organizations (PDF)
by Ian Johnstone
Is Fame All There Is? Beating Global Monopolists At Their Own Marketing Game (PDF)
by Doris Estelle Long
How Well Do U.S. Judgments Fare in Europe? (PDF)
by Samuel P. Baumgartner
Jus Ad Bellum in the Age of WMD Proliferation (PDF)
by Daniel H. Joyner
Note:
Guilt By Association: Transnational Gangs and the Merits of a New Mano Dura (PDF)
by Melissa Siskind
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Volume 39:4
Articles:
Transnational Tribunals and the Transmission of Norms: The Hegemony of Process
by Christopher J. Borgen
Hybridity, Holism, and Traditional Justice: The Case of the Gacaca Courts in Post-Genocide Rwanda
by Phil Clark
Free Exercise of Religion and Animal Protection: A Comparative Perspective on Ritual Slaughter
by Claudia E. Haupt
Notes:
Extraterritorial Reach of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
by Sonia Merzon
The Right to Strike or the Freedom to Strike: Can Either Interpretation Improve Working Conditions in China?
by Mayoung Nham
Resolving the Bolivian Gas Crisis: Lessons from Bolivia's Brush with International Arbitration
by Lindsay Sykes Pinto
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Volume 39:3
Remarks to the Sohn Symposium: Remembering Louis Sohn
by Caitlyn L. Antrim
Articles:
The 200-Mile Limit: Between Creeping Jurisdiction and Creeping Common Heritage - Some Law of the Sea Considerations from Professor Louis Sohn's Former LL.M. Student
by Erik Franckx
A Decade of the Law of the Sea Convention: Is It a Success?
by David Freestone
The Law of the Sea Convention: A National Security Success - Global Strategic Mobility through the Rule of Law
by James Kraska
The Landmark 2006 UNCLOS Annex VII Barbados/Trinidad and Tobago Maritime Delimitation (Jurisdiction and Merits) Award
by Barbara Kwiatkowska
U.S. Policy and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
by John E. Noyes
Remarks:
A Tribute to Louis Sohn
by Stanimir A. Alexandrov
A Tribute to Louis Sohn
by Jose E. Alvarez
A Tribute to Louis Sohn
by Thomas Buergenthal
A Tribute to Louis Sohn: Is the Dispute Settlement System under the law of the Sea Convention Working?
by Bernard H. Oxman
A Tribute to Louis Sohn: Some New Facts and Some Lingering Mysteries in a Remarkable Life
by Peter D. Trooboff
A Tribute to Louis Sohn
by Rudiger Wolfrum
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Volume 39:2
Articles:
Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers (Abstract)
by Timothy Webster
Corporate Complicity in Internet Censorship in China: Who Cares for the Global Compact or the Global Online Freedom Act (Abstract)
by Surya Deva
Exporting Western Law to the Developing World: The Troubling Case of Niger (Abstract)
by Thomas A. Kelley
Notes:
Just Say Yes: Drug Trafficking Treaties as a Model for an Anti-Spam Convention
by Samuel Boone-Lutz
Why Europe is Safe from Choicepoint: Preventing Commercialized Identity Theft through Strong Data Protection and Privacy Laws
by Maeve Z. Miller
Here Comes the Mail-Order Bride: Three Methods of Regulation in the United States, the Philippines, and Russia
by Karen M. Morgan
Book Review:
The Role of Courts in Enforcing Economic and Social Rights
a review of Courts and Social Transformation in New Democracies: An Institutional Voice for the Poor?
edited by Roberto Gargarella, Pilar Domingo and Theunis Roux
Reviewed by Kristen Boon
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Volume 39:1
Articles:
The Myopia of U.S. v. Martinelli: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in the 21st Century (Abstract)
by Christopher L. Blakesley and Dan E. Stigall
Parallel Proceedings at the WTO and under NAFTA Chapter 19: Whither the Doctrine of Exhaustion of Local Remedies in DSU Reform (Abstract)
by Kevin C. Kennedy
Pinochet and the Uncertain Globalization of Criminal Law (Abstract)
by Robert C. Power
Essay:
Justiciability of the Israeli Fight against Terrorism (Abstract)
by Ariel L. Bendor
Notes:
The Fight against Corruption by International Organizations
by David Morrissey
The Price of Fame: Cities Regulation and Efforts Towards International Protection of the Great White Shark
by Julie B. Martin
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Volume 38:4
Articles:
Taking War Seriously: Applying the Law of War to Hostilities within an Occupied Territories (Abstract)
by Ariel Zemach
Change or the Illusion of Change: The War Against Official Corruption in Africa (Abstract)
by Ndiva Kofele-Kale
Notes:
Incitement to Terrorism in Media Coverage: Solutions to Al-Jazeera after the Rwandan Media Trial
by Spencer W. Davis
Drug Trafficking in the Americas: Reforming United States Trade Policy
by Joe Swanson
Peace Treaty Claim Waivers: The Case of Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein and the "Scene at a Roman Well"
by Michael Winn
Book Review:
Contesting the “Sovereignists”: How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love International Institutions
a review of International Organizations and their Exercise of Sovereign Powers
by Dan Sarooshi
Reviewed by Margaret E. McGuinness
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Volume 38:3 - Symposium Honoring the Late Edward R. Cummings
On September 30, 2005, The George Washington University Law School held a symposium to honor Edward R. Cummings, a graduate of the law school who served as an attorney with the Office of the Judge Advocate General and then the Department of State for more than thirty years. During his tenure at the Department of State, Mr.Cummings held positions as Assistant Legal Advisor for Politico-Military Affairs, Assistant Legal Advisor for Arms Control and Verification and Counselor for Legal Affairs at the U.S. Mission in Geneva, among others. Friends and colleagues gathered in part to celebrate his accomplishments and also to discuss the central conundrum Mr. Cummings faced in his career: Can law really play a role in time of war? The series of essays that follows reflects the presentations given at the symposium. Mr. Cummings passed away from pancreatic cancer in February of 2006.
Forward - Lawyers and Wars: Symposium Issue in Honor of Edward R. Cummings
by Sean D. Murphy
Introductory Remarks
by John B. Bellinger III
Means and Methods of Warfare
by W. Hays Parks
Continuity and Change in the Law of War: 1975 to 2005: Detainees and POWs
by Michael J. Matheson
The 'New' Non-State Actors in International Humanitarian Law
by Dinah PoKempner
New Paradigms for the Jus ad Bellum?
by Jane E. Stromseth
Internal Conflicts: Dilemmas and Developments
by Steven Solomon
The Legal Bureaucracy and the Law of War
by David Kaye
Taking the Bull By the Horns: Congress and International Humanitarian Law
by David Abramowitz
What do We Expect of Lawyers in Armed Conflict?
by Sir Franklin Berman QC
House of Representatives: In Memory of Edward R. Cummings
by the Honorable Tom Lantos
Expressions of Condolences and Tribute to Mr. Edward Cummings
by the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs
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Volume 38:2
Articles:
The Constitutionality of the Death Penalty: South Africa as a Model for the United States (Abstract)
by Mark S. Kende
The Sanctity of Sovereign Loan Contracts and its Origins in Enforcement Litigation (Abstract)
by James Thuo Gathii
The UN Security Council and the Law of Armed Conflict: Amity or Enmity? (Abstract)
by James D. Fry
Essay:
Boyakasha, Fist to Fist: Respect and the Philosophical Link with Reciprocity in International Law and Human Rights (Abstract)
by Donald J. Kochan
Notes:
Participation of Developing Countries in the International Climate Change Regime: Lessons for the Future
by Kevin A. Baumert
Conflicting Obligations for Oil Exporting Nations?: Satisfying Membership Requirements of Both OPEC and the WTO
by Stephen A. Broome
Latin American State Secrecy and Mexico’s Transparency Law
by Eric Heyer
Book Review:
Marching to Zion: Can (and Should) We Transform International Law with Moral Theory?
a review of Justice, Legitimacy, and Self-Determination: Moral Foundations for International Law
by Allen Buchanan
Reviewed by Jason C. Glahn
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Volume 38:1
Articles:
Transnational Guidance in Terrorism Cases (Abstract)
by Laura E. Little
Permanent Sovereignty and Peoples’ Ownership of Natural Resources in International Law (Abstract)
by Emeka Duruigbo
Notes:
The Rise of the NGO in Bangladesh: Lessons on Improving Access to Justice for Women and Religious Minorities
by Janice H. Lan
Determining the Remedy for Violations of Article 36 of the VCCR: Review and Reconsideration and the Clemency Process after Avena
by Harry S. Clarke, III
Book Review:
Do International Norms Influence State Behavior?
a review of The Limits of International Law
by Jack L. Goldsmith and Eric A. Posner
Reviewed by David Sloss
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Volume 37:4
Articles:
Engineering a Venture Capital Market and the Effects of Government Control on Private Ordering: Lessons from the Taiwan Experience
by Christopher Gulinello
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: The Status of Current Foreign Investors in a Post-Transition Cuba
by Matias F. Travieso-Diaz and Armando A. Musa
Assessing the Genocide and Political Mass Murder Framework: The Case of Uzbekistan
by Mike Daniels
Essay:
Property-Grabbing under African Customary Law: Repugnant to Natural Justice, Equity, and Good Conscience, Yet a Troubling Reality
by Kenneth K. Mwenda, Florence N.M. Mumba, Judith Mvula-Mwenda
Notes:
Of Course This Will Hurt Business: Foreign Standing under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act of 1999 and America's War on Drugs
by David T. Duncan
Is There an International Solution to Intellectual Property Protection for Plants
by Amy Nelson
Book Review:
Law is Not Enough
a review of Gender Injustice: An International Comparative Analysis of Equality in Employment
by Anne-Marie Mooney Cotter
Reviewed by Berta E. Hernandez-Truyol
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Volume 37:3
Articles:
Resolving Treaty Conflicts
by Christopher J. Borgen
International Judicial Assistance: Revitalizing Section 1782
by Okezie Chukwumerije
The Two Discourses in Colombian Constitutional Jurisprudence: A New Approach to Modeling Judicial Behavior in Latin America
by David Landau
Essay:
A Proposed International Legal Regime for the Era of Private Commercial Utilization of Space
by John S. Lewis, Christopher F. Lewis
Notes:
Privatizing the Duties of the Central Authority: Should International Service of Process Be up for Bid
by Emily Fishbein Johnson
Remembrance of Things Past: The Iraqi Jewish Archive and the Legacy of the Iraqi Jewish Community
by Dana Ledger
Book Review:
Misdelivered Message
a review of You the People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building
by Simon Chesterman
Reviewed by Marcella David
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Volume 37:2
Articles:
Israel's Security Barrier: An International Comparative Analysis and Legal Evaluation
by Barry A. Feinstein, Justus Reid Weiner
Shelter from the Storm: Rethinking Diplomatic Protection of Dual Nationals in Modern International Law
by Craig Forcese
Essay:
Executive Advisory Opinions and the Practice of Judicial Deference in Foreign Affairs Cases
by William R. Casto
Notes:
U.S. Legal Mechanisms for the Repatriation of Cultural Property: Evaluating Strategies for the Successful Recovery of Claimed National Patrimony
by James E. Sherry
Brandeis's Happy Incident Revisited: U.S. Cities as the New Laboratories of International Law
by Shanna Singh
Book Review:
Just Trade
a review of Trade, Inequality, and Justice: Toward a Liberal Theory of Just Trade
by Frank J. Garcia
Reviewed by Joost Pauwelyn
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Volume 37:1
Articles:
Canadian Fundamental Justice and U.S. Due Process: Two Models for a Guarantee of Basic Adjudicative Fairness
by David M. Siegel
How to Guarantee Contractor Performance on International Construction Projects: Comparing Surety Bonds with Bank Guarantees and Standby Letters of Credit
by David J. Barru
Jigsaw Sovereignty: The Economic Consequences of Decentralization in Post-Dayton Bosnia
by Adam Raviv
Essay:
From Mission-Creep to Gestalt-Switch: Justice, Finance, the IFIS, and Globalization's Intended Beneficiaries
by Robert Hockett
Notes:
Security, Sound, and Cetaceans: Legal Challenges to Low Frequency Active Sonar under U.S. and International Environmental Law
by Daniel Inkelas
Taxation of Cross-Border Interest Flows: The Promises and Failures of the European Union Approach
by Suzanne Walsh
Book Review:
The Politics of the People, Human Rights, and What is Hidden From View
a review of International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance
by Balakrishnan Rajagopal
Reviewed by Deena R. Hurwitz
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Volume 36:5
Articles:
The History, Development, and Decline of Crimes Against Peace (Abstract)
by Matthew Lippman
Transient Copying and Public Communications: The Creeping Evolution of Use and Access Rights in European Copyright Law (Abstract)
by Guido Westkamp
Legal Title to Land as an Intervention Against Urban Poverty in Developing Nations (Abstract)
by Bernadette Atuahene
The Right to Water: The Road to Justiciability (Abstract)
by Ramin Pejan
Notes:
Sarbanes-Oxley: Ignoring the Presumption Against Extraterritoriality
by Corinne A. Falencki
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Resurrecting the Odious Debt Doctrine in International Law
by Emily F. Mancina
Book Review:
Sleeping With the Enemy: Tales of Yankee Power, Globalization, and the Transformation of Economy by Cartel in the European Union
a review of Regulating Cartels in Europe: A Study of Legal Control of Corporate Delinquency
by Christopher Harding and Julian Joshua
Reviewed by Clifford A. Jones
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Volume 39:2 Abstracts
Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers
by Timothy Webster
This article examines the advances in preventing children from participating in armed conflict. Current estimates suggest that more than 300,000 children are involved in armed conflict throughout the world. This article discusses the international legal framework recently drawn up to ban child soldiery and investigates the contributions made by recent international criminal courts in the proscription process. It also surveys the United Nations’ various attempts to solve the problem of child soldiers and concludes with observations about the gestation of international law and its ability to grapple with this transcontinental problem.
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Corporate Complicity in Internet Censorship in China: Who Cares for the Global Compact or the Global Online Freedom Act
by Surya Deva
This article addresses the alleged involvement of several leading U.S. corporations—Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, and Cisco—in Internet censorship in China. Accordingly, it evaluates the efficacy of two regulatory initiatives—the United Nation’s Global Compact (Global Compact) and the Freedom Act—in dealing with the specific challenges posed by doing business with or within China. It argues that the Global Compact has failed not only in convincing U.S. corporations to embrace its principles, but also in ensuring that participant corporations seriously fulfill their undertaken commitments. Furthermore, the author claims that it is unlikely that the Freedom Act will promote Internet freedom globally by combating censorship by authoritarian foreign governments.
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Exporting Western Law to the Developing World: The Troubling Case of Niger
by Thomas A. Kelley
This article examines the Washington Legal Consensus (Consensus), a package of policy reforms imposed by the West on the Developing World to propel poor countries toward First World Propensity. It attempts to fill a gap in scholarly analysis that has overlooked how the Consensus actually affects the lives of ordinary people by addressing the case of Niger, an especially poor and isolated country in the midst of Consensus-inspired law reform. The article concludes that Consensus-mandated legal reforms grounded in liberal Western conceptions of law and justice are so fundamentally different from the law and justice that Nigerien people live by day-to-day that the attempt at abrupt reform will cause significant social dislocation.
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Volume 39:1 Abstracts
The Myopia of U.S. v. Martinelli: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in the 21 st Century
by Christopher L. Blakesley and Dan E. Stigall
This article explores the concept of extraterritoriality with respect to laws criminalizing the sexual exploitation of children via the internet through the lens of a recent court decision: U.S. v. Martinelli. In this decision, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) held that the defendant could not be prosecuted under a child pornography statute because the statute did not apply extraterritorially. The author argues that the CAAF erred in adopting a myopic view of implied extraterritoriality, ignored the weight of federal precedent on the issue, ignored the multiple grants of extraterritorial jurisdiction allowed by international law, and misread the legislative history of the statute in question. The article illuminates the reasons why laws criminalizing the sexual exploitation of children via the internet must apply extraterritorially.
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Parallel Proceedings at the WTO and Under NAFTA Chapter 19: Whither the Doctrine of Exhaustion of Local Remedies in DSU Reform?
by Kevin C. Kennedy
This article addresses the need to reform the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) to provide for rules on judicial restraint. It begins with an analysis of the doctrine of exhaustion of local remedies under customary international law and then examines the status of the doctrine at the WTO and under the North Atlantic Fair Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It concludes by recommending amending the DSU to mandate exhaustion of local remedies and amending NAFTA Chapter 19 to provide for the automatic selection of panelists in the event that a disputing country fails to appoint its panelists.
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Pinochet and the Uncertain Globalization of Criminal Law
by Robert C. Power
This article examines how the efforts to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to justice have affected international criminal law. It argues that traditional international law seems largely irrelevant today because the paradigmatic crime of the Pinochet era was torture, which is now addressed primarily through the Torture Convention, and the most appropriate forum is the International Criminal Court (ICC) rather than national courts. The article emphasizes the need to use international tribunals such as the ICC to help protect international criminal prosecutions from the kind of political erosion that left a very mixed record concerning Augusto Pinochet.
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Essay: Justiciability of the Israeli Fight Against Terrorism
by Ariel L. Bendor
This essay addresses the degree to which law and courts of law are capable of regulating the fight against terrorism and the degree to which this is actually being done in Israel.
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Volume 38:4 Abstracts
Taking War Seriously: Applying the Law of War to Hostilities within an Occupied Territories
by Ariel Zemach
This article addresses the application of the law of war to large-scale hostilities between an occupant and guerilla forces. It demonstrates that the rationale most often invoked as bases for applying the law of war are unavailable in the context of large-scale hostilities between an occupant and guerrilla forces. It then develops an alternative ationale for applying the law of war to such hostilities concerning the interest of individual soldiers in ensuring that the scope of application of the law of war fully coincides with the moral reality of war. Furthermore, the article argues that the law of war governs within its field of application in an unqualified manner. It thus takes issue with an approach advocating the adoption of a normative middle ground between the law of war and international human rights law.
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Change or the Illusion of Change: The War Against Official Corruption in Africa
by Ndiva Kofele-Kale
This article explores the historical context of the fight against corruption in post-colonial Africa. The article discusses and evaluates the various initiatives taken at the regional, continental, and global levels by African governments to combat corruption. It concludes by making recommendations for improving the African response to its corruption problem.
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Volume 38:2 Abstracts
The Constitutionality of the Death Penalty: South Africa as a Model for the United States
by Mark S. Kende
Despite evidence that many South Africans favored the death penalty, the new South African Constitutional Court in 1995 ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in State v. Makwanyane & Another (Makwanyane). The decision contrasts sharply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1976 landmark ruling in Gregg v. Georgia upholding the death penalty’s constitutionality. This article examines Makwanyane and compares its reasoning with certain aspects of U.S. Supreme Court death penalty cases. It then explores how recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have moved in the South African Court’s direction in light of growing public skepticism about the death penalty.
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The Sanctity of Sovereign Loan Contracts and its Origins in Enforcement Litigation
by James Thuo Gathii
This article examines sovereign debt enforcement litigation and the underlying contracts doctrine. Under the contracts doctrine, courts refrain from intervening on behalf of sovereign borrowers to maintain judicial neutrality in the face of a freely negotiated contract. It contrasts with the prior rule, which provided that renunciation or repudiation of a debt by a sovereign borrower was a precondition for accelerating payment. The article explores the origins of the current developing world debt crises emphasizing the role of indebted sovereigns, the external shocks arising from the oil crises, as well as over-lending by commercial banks. It then traces the effect of enforcement litigation of sovereign debt to the emergent principle of cooperative debt adjustment. Finally, it presents shortcomings of the sanctity of contracts doctrine and presents proposals for overcoming the strong rule of enforcement.
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The UN Security Council and the Law of Armed Conflict: Amity or Enmity?
by James D. Fry
This article lays out the theoretical relationship between the UN Security Council (Security Council) and international humanitarian law through the framework of constructivism. It argues that the Security Council and international humanitarian law have had a shaky relationship since the adoption of the UN Charter, a conflict that centers on the differences between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. The article concludes that, at a minimum, the Security Council must consider the international humanitarian law principles of proportionality, discrimination, humanity, and chivalry when authorizing UN forces under Article VII of the UN Charter. Short of this, it hardly can be said that the Security Council has overcome its aversion to international humanitarian law.
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Essay: Boyakasha, Fist to Fist: Respect and the Philosophical Link with Reciprocity in International Law and Human Rights
by Donald J. Kochan
From Grotius to Hobbes to Locke to an unconventional modern pop-culture manifestation in Ali G, the concept of “respect” has always been understood as important in human interaction and human agreements. This essay examines who should have the opportunity to redress potentially disrespectful actions related to international law and human rights. It concludes that, at least in the realm of human rights and international law, the identification of respect or disrespect should be held almost exclusively in the hands of governmental bodies rather than in unaccountable private litigants.
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Volume 38:1 Abstracts
Transnational Guidance in Terrorism Cases
by Laura E. Little
This article addresses the importance of using transnational material in federal court adjudication to decide terrorism-related cases. It argues that federal courts need now, more than ever, to look for guidance in international and comparative law materials in order to confront the challenge of balancing civil liberties and effective law enforcement. The article proposes four arguments why federal courts should use transnational materials: 1) the practice follows common sense; 2) the practice reflects methodologically good judging; 3) the practice serves our constitutional structure; and 4) the practice promotes the rule of law and world governance.
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Permanent Sovereignty and Peoples’ Ownership of Natural Resources in International Law
by Emeka Duruigbo
This article addresses the inability of many countries to convert valuable natural resources into an enhanced standard of living for their citizens. It examines the origins of the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources (PSNR) in international law with the goal of using PSNR as a tool to empower and benefit people, rather than a vehicle for their immiseration or the glorification of a handful of rulers. The predicament traces to the fact that rulers of developing countries have apparently interpreted PSNR as conferring ownership of their nations’ resources on themselves, thereby perceiving a license to corner the countries’ wealth where none exists. Early discussions of this subject have focused on the international position of the resource-endowed state. By contrast, this article adopts a people-centered focus and makes two contentions: first, the right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources is vested in peoples, not the states; and second, the term “peoples” should be used to denote the ownership of natural resources rather than faceless populations. It concludes that there is a possible role for international law in concentrating ownership of natural resources in the people through a tiered process that begins with a declaration clarifying the rights of peoples and responsibilities of governments.
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Volume 36:5 Abstracts
The History, Development, and Decline of Crimes Against Peace
by Matthew Lippman
This article traces the development, drafting, diminishment, and decline of crimes against peace in the twentieth century. It discusses how the “just war” tradition, which provides that war should be undertaken only for a “just cause,” has profoundly shaped the popular perception of the conditions justifying the resort to armed force by nation-states from the post-World War I period forward. It highlights how the difficulties of defining “aggression” in the United Nations (UN) Charter and diplomatic disagreement slowed the development of the concept of crimes against peace in the UN. The author argues that, as a result, we now risk a return to an age in which states viewed the resort to arms as their unbridled sovereign prerogative.
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Transient Copying and Public Communications: The Creeping Evolution of Use and Access Rights in European Copyright Law
by Guido Westkamp
This article discusses the adaptation of economic rights to digital uses under the current intellectual property doctrine. It examines the European Union’s Copyright Harmonisation Directive, which seeks to harmonize the standards relating to economic rights and limitations. The author argues that the European Union’s solution leads to a barely separable fusion of exclusive rights because it lacks a sound dogmatic definition as to which acts the legislation should cover.
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Legal Title to Land as an Intervention Against Urban Poverty in Developing Nations
by Bernadette Atuahene
This article studies the concept of “land titling,” the distribution of legal title to land to poor urban dwellers as a method of ameliorating poverty. The author develops a theory of how best to achieve “titling mobility,” a goal attained when the state allocates land title in a manner that eliminates the structural barriers that impair poor people’s social mobility and ability to accumulate wealth in the long-term. She argues that favorable location of titled land, and procedures that ensure equitable distribution of title among women and men, are essential. The author then tests her theory against the land titling programs implemented in Peru, the Philippines, and South Africa and makes recommendations for their improvement.
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The Right to Water: The Road to Justiciability
by Ramin Pejan
This article evaluates the status of water as a human right under international human rights law, including the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ General Comment 15. It addresses some of the major critiques of economic and social rights by demonstrating that it is possible to implement and ultimately adjudicate the right to water within a domestic context. The author uses South Africa as a case study to illuminate how concrete steps might be taken at the domestic level to provide for the right to water.
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