Regions

[Drew F. Cohen is a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.  He is also a contributing columnist for US News and World Report where he writes about comparative constitutional law, international human rights and global legal affairs.] Recently, Botswana called on the South African Development Community (SADC) to open an investigation into voting irregularities in the recent Presidential election in Zimbabwe...

Although the government of Colombia was far from pleased when the ICJ issued a judgment last November in a long-running territorial dispute with Nicaragua, it did not go so far as to say it would simply ignore the ruling.  But Colombia's vice president Angelino Garzon seems to be hinting in recent comments that Colombia is prepared to do just that. “The...

My friend Dapo Akande has a superb post at EJIL: Talk! discussing whether the ICC could prosecute the use of chemical weapons by the government in Syria. I agree almost entirely with Dapo's analysis, but I do want to offer a couple of thoughts about his discussion of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: The argument that chemical weapons are...

[Margaret K. Lewis is Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School] The current trial of former high-ranking official Bo Xilai has shined the international spotlight on China’s criminal justice system. Headlines are simultaneously emphasizing the Chinese leadership’s concern that its rule is “vulnerable to an economic slowdown” after China’s meteoric rise to become the world’s second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP. What is lacking in both the media and academic literature is an in-depth discussion of the role criminal law has played in China’s stunning economic growth to date as well as the role it might play in the future. This inquiry is particularly timely on the heels of a once-a-decade leadership transition and as China’s ability to maintain a robust growth rate is facing rising skepticism. As explained in more detail in my article here, not only has the PRC leadership historically used criminal law in service of economic ends but also, going forward, criminal law will likely play a multifaceted role in the leadership’s strategy to sustain growth during what promise to be turbulent times. The debate about the role of law in China’s development has thus far largely focused on the Washington Consensus’s support for a market economy’s need for clear and enforceable contract and property rights, often referred to as the “rights hypothesis.” The law and development literature’s emphasis on empowering private actors by creating a neutral bureaucracy subject to objective judicial review has shifted the debate from the most basic function of law: creating order. And creating order starts with the coercive power of the state exercised through criminal law. Not only is criminal law a direct way for the government to deprive people of money, liberty, and life, it is cheaper and faster than building the civil and administrative law systems on which the rights hypothesis relies. If a these systems are not credible enough to deter activities that are detrimental to economic growth, the government can invoke the heavy hand of criminal law.

The Faroe Islands has announced it has filed a referred the European Union to arbitration under the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea.  Apparently, it is a dispute over herring. “The Faroe Islands have today referred the use of threats of coercive economic measures by the European Union, in relation to the Atlanto-Scandian herring, to an arbitral tribunal under...

[Elizabeth Holland is an attorney with the law firm Foley Hoag LLP, where she focuses on international law and corporate social responsibility. The views expressed here are her own.] There is clear need for effective counterterrorism measures.  Equally compelling is the humanitarian imperative to address civilian need in situations of armed conflict.  It has been questioned, however, whether the balance struck...

I've spent a lot of time thinking about treaties. And I've read lots and lots of them over the years. From time to time, however, I encounter something I find truly novel on the treaty front. A case in point, was this story in IT World yesterday.  It refers to pending negotiations between the United States and Germany on an agreement...

[Aqsa Mahmud graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and currently practices as a government attorney in Washington, DC] The international community’s application (or nonapplication) of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to the recent Arab conflicts highlights notable limits to R2P. R2P is a relatively new doctrine that holds States responsible for protecting their populations and, where the sovereign fails, allows...