• Selected
• Entire List

Abstract:
The recalcitrance of the United States in global warming negotiations leads to the question of whether international litigation can viably contribute to encouraging the United States to meet its global responsibilities regarding climate change. This article surveys and assesses the various potential international forums in which a climate change law suit might be brought against the United States.

global warming, environmental law, international law, United States

Abstract:
While American environmentalists are not of one mind as to the environmental implications of the rise of the World Trade Organization (WTO), one major response has been to suggests that the WTO is incompatible with environmental protection and that the United States should take unilateral action to systematically ban the importation of goods that are made in ways deemed to cause unnecessary harm to the environment. While recognizing many environmental criticisms of the WTO as valid, this article makes the case that it would not be wise to eliminate the WTO or to unilaterally ban foreign products in an attempt to influence offshore environmental policy. Rather, the author argues that the WTO has the potential to be an effective forum for the creation and enforcement of harmonized international standards relating to process production methods ("PPMs").

international law, environmental law, enivronment, environmental protection, world trade organization, wto

Abstract:
This introduction to the symposium: Envisioning a More Democratic Global System held at Widener University School of Law in the spring of 2006 provides a conceptual overview of symposium papers published in Volume 13:2 of the Widener Law Review. The papers, which can be found at the Widener Law Review website, fall into two groups. As a reference point for understanding how the democratization of the international system can occur, the first group examines the process of democratization at the national level. The second group of papers forward and assess specific proposals for democratizing the global system with a particular emphasis on the proposal for a global parliament. In addition to his own paper, the contributions discussed by Professor Strauss in the introduction are from: Daniele Archibugi, Director, Italian National Research Council; Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University and Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara; Greg Fox, Professor, Wayne State University School of Law; Thomas Franck, Professor Emeritus, New York University School of Law; Zaid Ibrahim, Member, Parliament of Malaysia; Robert Johanson, Director, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame; David Kennedy, Professor, Harvard Law School; Heraldo MuïFFDoz, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations; Kinhide Mushakoji, Professor, Osaka University of Economics and Law; Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World; Heikki Patomaki, Professor, University of Helsinki; Kimon Valaskakis, President, The New School of Athens.

democracy, global parliament, international law, global governance

Abstract:
This article makes the theoretical case for a civil society initiated Global Peoples Assembly (GPA) that would be popularly elected by the global citizenry. The authors argue that if civil society organizations were able to agree on a framework for a GPA and to hold popular elections, the assembly would be poised to become a singularly influential global institution. Exploring the dynamics of democratic legitimacy, and how it acts to empower political institutions, the article explores how an unofficially created GPA could gradually assume law-making powers.

international law, global peoples assembly, democracy, global democracy, international organization

Abstract:
For those interested in democratizing global governance, the threshold question of whether to pursue a popularly elected global parliament is often one of political feasibility. This article compares the potential achievability of four different strategic approaches to initiating a global parliament: Amendment of the United Nations Charter; Creation by the United Nations General Assembly as a Subsidiary Organ; Civil Society Organized Elections; And Interstate Treaty Process. The article concludes with a short discussion of how a global parliament could contribute to a more peaceful global order.

democracy, global governance, global parliament, international law

Abstract:
When one of the parties is foreign in civil personal jurisdiction cases, United States courts have assumed it appropriate to overlook international jurisdiction law and apply solely United States constitutional, statutory and common law doctrines related to jurisdiction. Courts in other countries likewise apply their own domestic doctrines of jurisdiction in international cases. Applying both positivist and normative methodologies, this article makes the theoretical case that the international law of personal jurisdiction should be applied in domestic courts.

international law, jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction

Abstract:
The recently concluded Hague Convention on Choice of Courts Agreements is the culmination of over a decade of negotiations. While the convention is very modest in what it attempts to accomplish, many observers see it as a first step toward achieving greater global uniformity of rules regarding jurisdiction and satisfactions of judgments. To the extent the United States Constitution governs the international ambit of United States jurisdiction in international cases, there is the potential for conflict between the Constitution and international treaty rules. A treaty found to be in conflict with the Constitution would likely be held invalid - at least in part - by United States courts. This could both damage U.S. relations with its treaty making partners and undermine attempts to promote a coordinated and coherent international jurisdictional system. Both results would be particularly unfortunate at a time when the legal demands of the global economy have amplified the advantages of developing and maintaining a well-coordinated international jurisdictional system. This article makes the theoretical case that an interpretation of the US Constitution as governing the international ambit of United States jurisdiction in international cases is not consistent with a teleological interpretation of the Constitution.

international law, jurisdiction, choice of courts, treaties, constitution, hague convention on choice of courts agreements

Abstract:
In the United States v. Alvarez Machain, the United States Supreme Court held that the United States could exercise criminal jurisdiction over a Mexican doctor who was abducted by agents of the American government from his office in Mexico and transported to the United States. As the Court's first international law decision after the end of the cold war, this case set the stage for how it would approach the domestic application of international law in the post cold war era. Despite the importance of the case, the Supreme Court failed to articulate the conceptual understanding of the relationship between the domestic and international orders which led it to disregard international law. Working from the author's own positivist theory of the relationship between the domestic and international realms, he explains why the decision lacks conceptual coherence and offers a structured analysis which leads to the conclusion that the Court should have applied the international law of jurisdiction.

international law, jurisdiction, abduction

Abstract:
The global system as presently structured relies on states to be intermediaries between citizens and the international system. This means that the planet's six billion citizens are not directly involved in creating international law, and the international order, likewise, does not for the most part directly command their compliance with its laws. Because law, domestic or international, can only affect the social order to the extent it influences the behavior of real human beings, both the process of creating and complying with international law necessarily must take place in two steps. This article makes the case that this bifurcated system is dysfunctional in that it allows states to avoid being bound by community laws, and to mobilize their citizens in contravention of international legal obligations. The article examines how a relationship between citizens and a global parliament would work to ameliorate this problem by changing the structure of global governance so that citizens would over time become direct subjects of parliamentary influenced international legal obligations.

international law, democracy, international order, global parliament, global peoples assembly, global governance

Abstract:
As economic and social decisions are increasingly being made internationally, both civil society and business networks are attempting to gain seats at the global table. The evolution of these two networks has been largely uncoordinated, and neither can claim to represent the global citizenry as a whole. Global civil society's critics are already challenging its claims to represent the public interest, and the charge of illegitimacy has even greater resonance when leveled at corporate and banking elites. This article makes the case that only when citizens and business interests work within an overarching democratically representative global body can they achieve policy accommodations that will be widely seen as legitimate.

This article is available at the Foreign Affairs website.

international law, democracy, global parliament, global peoples assembly, international organizations