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American University International Law Review
Number of Followers: 11  Open Access journalISSN (Print) 1520-460X Published by WCL  [11 journals]
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- Preserving the Sea in a Radioactive World: How Japan's Plan to
Release Treated Nuclear Wastewater into Pacific Ocean Violates UNCLOS
Authors: Victoria Cruz-De Jesus
Abstract: On December 10, 1982, the 1973–1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) concluded. Japan became a signatory to the Convention on February 7, 1983 and ratified the Convention on June 20, 1996. Subsequently, Japan became a party to the treaty and committed itself to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
PubDate: Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:45:19 PST
- Who Thinks Treaties are Like Contracts' Not John Marshall
Authors: David P. Stewart et al.
Abstract: Courts in the United States are fond of analogizing treaties to contracts. The U.S. Supreme Court has done so on numerous occasions, as have nearly all federal circuit courts. Indeed, the treaty-as-contract trope has permeated U.S. legal discourse since at least the early 1800s when Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in Foster v. Neilson that “[a] treaty is in its nature a contract between two nations, not a legislative act.”
PubDate: Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:45:12 PST
- The Dialogic Function of I.C.J. Provisional Measures Decisions in the U.N.
Political Organs: Assessing the Evidence
Authors: Michael Ramsden et al.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to consider the degree to which provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) have influenced United Nations (U.N.) diplomacy and the exercise of functions by its political organs in the areas of international peace, security, and human rights. This article evaluates this influence by examining decisions in which the I.C.J. indicated provisional measures, denoting the remedy available to the Court, on an interim basis, to restrain or instruct the parties to take certain measures to preserve either or both parties’ rights pending the outcome of the case. In doing so, this article builds on scholarly literature about the function of I.C.J. provisional measures as part of a broader litigation strategy to influence negotiations and political settlements. Although the formal purpose of provisional measures is to preserve existing legal rights pending an outcome on the merits of a dispute, scholars have also noted parties’ use of provisional measures to advance a broader strategic purpose beyond the confines of the interim remedy proceedings.
PubDate: Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:45:05 PST
- Sanctions as Virtue-Signaling: Transitioning from Symbolism to Reparation
for Rohingya Genocide Victim
Authors: Kelsey Peden
Abstract: Kyi sat on the banks of the Inya Lake, saying goodbye to the place they said was no longer her home. The government of Myanmar had given her an option: leave or be arrested. She felt lucky to leave; most activists she knew did not get a warning first. A few kilometers away, her parents’ graves sat cleaned, adorned with fresh flowers. She hoped her sister would keep up the task in her absence, but she hadn’t been able to get ahold of her in quite some time. The feeling of the country was getting more concerned—"frantic" she explained, laughing, "everyone is afraid to answer the phone," as if the doors that had swung open to the world a decade earlier were showing signs of slamming closed again.
PubDate: Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:44:58 PST
- The Slippery Concept of "Object and Purpose" in International
Criminal Law
Authors: Patrick J. Keenan
Abstract: In little more than twenty-five years, the field of international criminal law has grown from a small slice of public international law into a functioning system of international justice, complete with multiple juridical bodies and substantial scholarly attention. Building on the legacy of the Nuremberg Tribunals and drawing from international humanitarian law, human rights law, and domestic criminal law principles, international criminal law has become its own discipline. Creating any new field of law is a complicated endeavor; this is especially true when the field affects and is affected by so many politically sensitive issues. Throughout this doctrinal experiment, one concept has been an essential ingredient to its development.
PubDate: Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:44:51 PST
- Storm Warning: New Zealand's Treatment of "Climate Refugee" Claims as
a Violation of Internatinal Law
Authors: Isabella Zink
Abstract: As some countries begin to acknowledge the increasingly strong effects of climate change, others have struggled with its slow onset of effects for decades. Coastal communities, especially island nations at or slightly above sea level, face not only threats of flooding and damaging storms, but also rising sea levels jeopardizing soil and water health. As citizens of these coastal regions face increasing difficulty accessing food, water, and medical care, the United Nations‘ (“U.N.”) scientific bodies predict there will be staggering numbers of displaced persons within the next few decades. Island nations rising two meters above sea-level face total submersion by 2050, and will increasingly feel the serious effects from encroaching sea water as it contaminates their fresh water sources. Although refugee protections are already enshrined in international law, the specific distinction of “climate refugee” does not yet exist. Thus, fewer protections are afforded to those fleeing instability in their countries due to climate change. However, alternative frameworks exist, such as the protection of the right to life and the freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under Articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), respectively. New Zealand, having arbitrated numerous applications for refugee status from applicants claiming that returning home would place their lives in danger from effects of climate change, has consistently denied requests for refugee status and deported applicants back to their home countries where they face hardship from the effects of ongoing climate change.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:48 PST
- Locked Up and Locked Down in the Land of Free: A Look at the United
States' Prisons and COVID-19's Disproportionate Effect on Black
Americans' Right to Health
Authors: Zachary Parrish
Abstract: The United States is infamous for having a large percentage of its population in prison. Each year since 2002, the United States has reported a higher incarceration rate than any other country in the world. Another unfortunate but widely prevalent issue that the United States has is systemic racism. The combination of the United States’ struggles with systemic racism and mass incarceration makes for a disproportionately devastating impact on Black Americans. As a result, Black Americans make up a disproportionate amount of the prisoners that fill American prisons.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:41 PST
- Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War in Ethiopia's Tigray Region and
the Developing Adjudication of Violations of the Protocol on the Rights of
Women in Africa
Authors: Valerie R. Cook
Abstract: On November 4, 2020, a civil war broke out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia between joint Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (“TPLF”). The war is in part an ethnic conflict between the newly centralized nationalist government under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the once politically dominant beneficiaries of a federalist system, the TPLF. Sexual violence as a method of war has become a hallmark of this conflict as reports of rape by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers against Tigrayan women have increased.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:34 PST
- Derogations to Human Rights During a Global Pandemic: Unpacking Normative
and Practical Challenges
Authors: Roman Girma Teshome
Abstract: After the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the COVID-19 outbreak as a “global pandemic,” States responded by taking more restrictive and urgent measures. These measures ranged from restrictions on public events to partial or total lockdowns, which restrict a plethora of human rights. Additionally, an unprecedented number of States declared a state of emergency to justify these measures; as of this writing, roughly two-thirds of States declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19 under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”).
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:27 PST
- El Control Estatal De La (Des)Informacion En Internet En El Contexto De La
Pandemia: Un Analisis De Las Tendencias Regionales Bajo Una Perspectiva De
Libertad De Expresion
Authors: Paula Roko
Abstract: El 3 de mayo de 2020, en el marco del Día Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa, el secretario general de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) afirmó que la desinformación se ha convertido en la “segunda pandemia”. Unos meses antes, el Director General de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ya había señalado que “las noticias falsas se difunden más rápido y con más facilidad que el virus, y que son igual de peligrosas”. Estos fueron comentarios recurrentes durante el 2020, un año que será recordado por el estallido de una pandemia mundial sin precedentes. Teorías conspirativas sobre el origen del COVID-19, curas milagrosas, tratamientos alternativos y métodos de prevención experimentales fueron algunas de las olas de información falsa que inundaron las redes sociales y los chats de las aplicaciones de mensajería.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:20 PST
- Reducing the Negative Effects of Counterterrorism Frameworks and Other
Restrictive Measures on Humanitarian Action and Enforcing the Obligations
of States in Relation to the COVID-19 Vaccine
Authors: Claudio Cerqueira Bastos Netto
Abstract: Countering terrorism has been a priority agenda point for the international community, especially after the September 11th attacks. As the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) points out, “States have had to confront a threat emanating from individuals and non-State armed groups [(NSAGs)] that resort to acts of terrorism. In response, States and international organizations have developed increasingly robust counterterrorism measures.”
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:13 PST
- Estados De Emergencia En El Sistenma Interamericano De Derechos Humanos:
Los Principales Retos De La Pandemia De COVID-19
Authors: Maria Agustina Bonella
Abstract: En las Américas, a medida que avanzaba la crisis sanitaria producida por la primera ola de la pandemia de COVID-19, los Estados han ido adoptando distintas medidas para ralentizar la propagación del virus y evitar el colapso de sus sistemas sanitarios, en miras a salvaguardar el derecho a la vida, a la integridad personal y a la salud de las personas que se encontraban sometidas a su jurisdicción. Estas medidas han incluido desde campañas de concientización sobre el lavado de manos, el distanciamiento social o el uso del barbijo, hasta medidas más extremas, como el cierre de escuelas y universidades; el cierre de fronteras; la prohibición de eventos masivos; el toque de queda y los confinamientos domiciliarios.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:07 PST
- Introduction Human Rights and States of Emergency: Unexpected Crisis and
New Challenges
Authors: Claudia Martin et al.
Abstract: We are delighted to present this year’s special issue of the American University International Law Review and the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, which includes two of the best essays in English and in Spanish recognized in the 2021 Human Rights Essay Award competition. It is satisfying to think that this competition allowed a number of participants an opportunity to expound their thoughts on so many important topics, regarding so many areas of the world. We hope these participants are able to use their articles as mechanisms for change.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:04:00 PST
- Prologue
Authors: Claudio Grossman et al.
Abstract: We are pleased to write this prologue for the special issue of the American University International Law Review featuring the winning papers from the 2021 Human Rights Essay Award, sponsored by the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of American University Washington College of Law.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:03:53 PST
- "We Can't Go Back Now": How Japan's Refugee Recognition System
Denies Rights and Shirks Obligations to Refugees Fleeing the 2021 Myanmar
Coup D'état
Authors: Jonathan Morrisey
Abstract: The February 2021 coup d’état of the democratic Myanmar government sent shockwaves through the country and across Southeast Asia. Myanmar communities abroad protested in solidarity while governments took action to protect their Myanmar residents from deportation. In Japan, the Ministry of Justice granted an Emergency Refuge Measure to thousands of Myanmar residents, permitting conditional visa extensions due to the coup. Nonetheless, some Myanmar residents in Japan sought stronger protections in the form of refugee status. Japan is a party to the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and, accordingly, provides a path to refugee recognition through its domestic law. However, the country is known for having a stringent refugee application procedure with extremely low acceptance rates.
PubDate: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:37:02 PST
- Better Than Bullets: Ethiopia is Committing War Crimes by Starving
Civilian Populations in the Ethiopian Civil War
Authors: Jordan Luber
Abstract: Abiy Ahmed is the prime minister of Ethiopia. He has been starving seven million people of a lone ethnic group in Ethiopia for over a year. He is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a war criminal.He won a Nobel Peace Prize for allying with a dictator who oversees slavery and locks dissidents in shipping containers in the desert. He took power promising an unprecedented age of progress, then a year later, changed his mind and began to massacre protestors. He launched a civil war with a barrage from armed drones. He manufactured a famine by destroying food supplies, ruining the harvest, and then preventing all food deliveries and aid with a military blockade. When the international community began to care about the famine, after months of silence, he rallied his supporters in the capital, who held placards of genocidaires Putin and Xi along with his.
PubDate: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:36:55 PST
- Discussant Remarks
Authors: Hannah L. Buxbaum
Abstract: Through the lens of current crises—including the climate crisis, the crisis of democracy, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic— Professor Daudet examines the role that international law plays in mediating the principle of national sovereignty and the interests of the global community.1 He goes on to inquire whether these crises might in some way create an opportunity to advance the international legal and political order.
PubDate: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:36:48 PST
- "Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste": Can International Law
Seize the Advantage'
Authors: Yves Daudet
Abstract: Some international crises are circumscribed, others are more diffuse, sometimes of varying intensity depending on the region. But, at the end of the day, all regions might be impacted according to an uncertain timetable. This is the case, for example, with terrorism, cybersecurity, the migration crisis, and the climate crisis, which is one aspect of environmental damage that intersects with the health crisis. Some are latent and marked by sudden outbreaks, such as terrorism or the Islamic State’s criminal operations. Others are set to worsen, such as the migration crisis, which today is probably small compared to what it will become. We must also think about financial or economic crises, cybersecurity breaches, misuse of new technologies and social networks, and, importantly, the painful experience of the January 2021 democratic crisis in the United States. But the current COVID-19 health crisis is the crisis that occupies everyone’s mind today.
PubDate: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:36:42 PST
- The Emerging Chinese Model of Statist Human Rights
Authors: Ryan Mitchell
Abstract: Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping commemorated World Human Rights Day 2018, marking the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), by declaring that “the happy life of the people is the greatest human right.” The comment was issued as part of a message to attendees of a symposium held in Beijing to commemorate the UDHR, celebrate China’s progress in realizing its aims, and articulate an officially-sanctioned vision of future action.
PubDate: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:36:35 PST
- Plural Belonging: The Samaritans' Negotiation of Space in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Authors: Zeina Jallad
Abstract: Created in 1993 in accordance with the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accords, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has grappled with the administration and maintenance of a vortex of highly fragmented legal and judicial systems. These fractured frameworks are the result of centuries-old colonial and military administrations that have exercised jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). A self-governing entity whose sovereignty has been undermined since its inception, the PA idealizes a democratic modus-operandi for the nation’s future, while actively participating in and benefiting from an overarching network of laws, court systems, and regulatory frameworks designed to discriminate against and abuse their subjects. Palestinian subjects as a whole struggle to gain access to the majority of their fundamental rights within these interweaving legal and judicial systems. Minority communities and vulnerable populations in particular have been harshly affected by these systems’ shortcomings and castigate the PA for its reluctance to incite meaningful change.
PubDate: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:36:28 PST
