Volume 43 Category
Superior Responsibility of Civilians for International Crimes Committed in Civilian Settings
Jul. 6, 2012—This Article examines the notion of superior responsibility of civilians for international crimes committed in civilian settings. The doctrine of superior responsibility grew out of the military doctrine of command responsibility, and its evolution is informed by this origin. Jurisprudence and academic writers emphasize that the doctrine is applicable to civilian superiors of military or...
The Responsibility to Protect and the Decline of Sovereignty: Free Speech Protection Under International Law
Jul. 6, 2012—State sovereignty has long held a revered post in international law, but it received a blow in the aftermath of World War II, when the world realized the full extent of atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis on their own citizens. In the postwar period, the idea that individuals possessed rights independent of their own states...
The Use of Mortgage-Backed Securities in International Comparative Perspective: Lessons and Insights
Jul. 6, 2012—The secondary mortgage market in the United States has helped millions of people purchase homes over the past half century. Following the burst of the real estate bubble and the credit crisis, it is important for American policymakers not to lose sight of the importance that the secondary mortgage market has played in increasing home...
Standardizing the Principles of International Election Observation
Jul. 6, 2012—On October 27, 2005, thirty-two international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) signed the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, drafted with the assistance of the United Nations. For nearly four decades before the signing of the Declaration, international election observation rapidly gained acceptance as a legitimate method of guaranteeing free and fair...
Missed Opportunity: Congress’s Attempted Response to the World’s Demand for the Violence Against Women Act
Jul. 6, 2012—The Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Morrison struck down, as a violation of the Commerce Clause, § 13,981 of the Violence Against Women Act, that provided a private right of action for victims of gender-motivated violence to assert against their abusers. However, § 13,981 should have been affirmed as implementing legislation designed to fulfill U.S. obligations...
A Global Water Apartheid: From Revelation to Resolution
Jul. 6, 2012—It is well settled in international human rights law that a human right to water exists. Nevertheless, to date, there has been little scholarship about what the practical contours of the right should be. If legal tools are to benefit the world’s poor and disenfranchised, they cannot be void due to the impossibility of implementation. ...
A Foothold for Real Democracy in Eastern Europe: How Instituting Jury Trials in Ukraine Can Bring About Meaningful Governmental and Juridical Reforms and Can Help Spread These Reforms Across Eastern Europe
Jul. 6, 2012—Ukraine has never had a criminal or civil jury trial despite the fact that the right to a criminal jury trial is guaranteed by Ukraine’s Constitution. The lack of jury trials is one of the factors likely contributing to the corruption and deficiencies inherent in Ukraine’s judicial system. This Article argues that Ukraine can and...
Judicial Review under a British War Powers Act
Jul. 6, 2012—This Article considers how U.K. courts might exercise review under a hypothetical British “war powers act,” in the event that the current Labour Government or an incoming Tory one responds to calls to reform the Royal War Prerogative and Parliament passes such a statute. The Article undertakes a comparative study, analyzing how U.S. courts apply...
The Object and Purpose of a Treaty: Three Interpretive Methods
Jul. 6, 2012—This Article examines the three most prominent uses of the term “object and purpose” within the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and, in each instance, offers a new method for applying the term. First, the rule that a treaty be interpreted “in light of” its object and purpose requires a process of interpretation...
Al-Bihani, Not So Charming
Jul. 5, 2012—In June 2008, the Supreme Court extended the Suspension Clause to foreign detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Since then, courts have struggled to define appropriate standards to govern detainee habeas corpus petitions. Until recently, no court questioned the relevance of international law to the development of these standards. But, in January 2010, a D.C. Circuit...
