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The Promises and Peril of Empiricism and International Investment Law Disputes
No full textEmpirical research into investment treaty conflict is simultaneously promising and potentially perilous. This chapter identifies both its costs and benefits while striving to provide a clear set of guidelines for quality research in an effort to identify the potential uses and abuses of empiricism in international investment law. Empirical research is not immune from the polarization within the field, but certain steps can ensure that empirical work is not influenced by narrow or ideological perspectives. First, we need to understand norms of quality social science to enable a data-driven, rather than emotive, conversation. Second, we need to create time and space for balanced contemplation that cuts across ideological groupings – rather than having conferences and events attended by one selected segment – and ensuring that alternative perspectives are welcomed. Third, we need to work on developing empathic dialogue to engage productively about empirical research and normative reform, including focusing upon aspects that are valuable and those that require development. The objective should be to organize conversations about international investment law around data to engage productively, so that reason and intuition can interact to create solutions that are constructive and sustainable for the longer term.https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_bk_contributions/1416/thumbnail.jp
quote: A Law That Helped End Slavery is Now a Weapon to End Affirmative Action
No full text“The lawsuits are aimed at wiping out any vestiges of what we call affirmative action in employment,” said Susan Carle, a law professor at American University and an expert in Reconstruction-era history. The law is being used because it carries a “constitutional overtone” that could ripple into other areas of the law that protect private-sector affirmative action and DEI programs, she said, adding: “I very much fear that they will prevail.
The Critical Contribution of Independent Accountability Mechanisms (IAMs) to the Global Governance Paradigm
Get PDFFor several decades now, the environmental and social safeguard policies adopted by international financial institutions (IFIs), along with the related accountability frameworks provided by the independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) established by each, have been at the very forefront of a global movement to extend good environmental and social governance values to the practice of international development finance. The complex of substantive and procedural standards of institutional conduct required under multilateral development bank (MDB) safeguard policies in respect of the assessment and implementation of bank-funded development projects or activities exemplifies the phenomenon of so-called “transnational” or “global” law - the rich and extensive variety of traditional and novel forms of transnational environmental and social regulatory activity which have proliferated in recent years. Such regulation comprises an almost endless assortment of codes, standards, and assessment and certification processes, many of which are non-State-led and essentially voluntary in nature, though they tend generally to reflect the values enshrined in more formal national and international legal frameworks
The Constitutional Court of Colombia Imposes Limits on the Use of Internet Jammers During Social Protests
Get PDFThe Constitutional Court of Colombia has issued an important ruling regarding the use of the Internet as the main tool to guarantee the fundamental rights to freedom of speech and access to information during social protests. This ruling marks an important precedent in the matter because it imposed new obligations on the State and the government to guarantee the maximum level of information . Likewise, the Court ordered the regulation of the use of signal jammers during social protests. This article will analyze the ruling and its effects in Colombia
Hair Me Out: Why Discrimination Against Black Hair is Race Discrimination Under Title VII
Get PDFIn May 2010, Chastity Jones sought employment as a customer service representative at Catastrophe Management Solutions (“CMS”), a claims processing company located in Mobile, Alabama. When asked for an inperson interview, Jones, a Black woman, arrived in a suit and her hair in “short dreadlocks,” or locs, a type of natural hairstyle common in the Black community. Despite being qualified for the position, Jones would later have her offer rescinded because of her hair. CMS claimed that locs “tend to get messy” and violated the “neutral” dress code and hair policy requiring employees to be “professional and business-like.” Therefore, CMS refused to hire Ms. Jones unless she cut her locs off. When Jones sought redress in court because she was not hired based on the employer’s racial bias of Black hair, the Eleventh Circuit denied that CMS committed any form of proscribed discrimination because discrimination based on a mutable racial characteristic is not protected under Title VII
Class of 1911
No full textClass of 1911, third floor, right wallhttps://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/photo_1910/1004/thumbnail.jp
Conceptualizing A Right to Research and Its Implications for Copyright Law: An International and European Perspective
Get PDFCopyright, at international, European, and national levels, does not provide a legal framework that prioritizes enabling and incentivizing research using protected works and information to the extent necessary and desirable in a digital, data-driven society in order to build a sustainable ecosystem for innovation and creativity. While small progress has been made, for example with the recent introduction of specific exceptions for research purposes and for text and data mining in certain national legislations as well as in the European Union law, a horizontal approach towards a more research-friendly copyright ecosystem has so far failed to evolve. By revisiting international and European human and fundamental rights instruments as well as the aims and objectives of the European Union, it is possible to distill research as a constitutional and ethical imperative. Conceptualizing a fundamental “Right to Research” and integrating it into a constitutional dialogue provides a convincing argument to rethink copyright towards a research-oriented normative system
Ransomware Groups on Notice: U.S. Cyber Operation Against REvil is Permissible Under International Law
Get PDFThe continued increase in the use of ransomware by cyber criminals has had a costly impact on businesses and organizations around the world. Ransomware groups continue to initiate attacks on businesses and organizations, and states have become increasingly concerned over the potential impact it may have on their critical infrastructure and economies. The United States’ recent acknowledgement of cyber operations against ransomware groups highlights the seriousness of the issue and exposes areas of international law that are complicated when applied to cyber operations against these groups. This Comment explores the relevant international law as it applies to the United States and the cyber operation against the criminal ransomware group REvil in the summer of 2021.
The relevant international law as it relates to a cyber operation from the United States is the U.N. Charter’s Article 2(4) prohibition on the use of force, the prohibition on intervention under customary international law, and the role of sovereignty. In application to the U.S. operation against REvil, the operation is permissible under international law. It is recommended that the U.S. bolster its legal position by clarifying, promoting, and consolidating its position on the role of sovereignty in international law and its application to cyberspace operations
Outer Space Resource Extraction: The Regulation of Commercial Space Actors
Get PDFOuter space resource extraction has become more feasible for the near future, with some companies already setting launch dates. The U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 legalized resource extraction, but it did not resolve many challenges that resource extraction poses, such as safety risks while extracting; what, where, and how one can extract resources; and technology one can use. A patchwork of administrative agencies currently governs the regulatory field of outer space, and because it is such a novel procedure, it is unclear which administrative agency should assume regulatory authority over on-orbit resource extraction activities. Under a traditional Chevron analysis, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) would have proper authority. However, because of West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency’s revitalization of the major questions doctrine, which agency has regulatory authority over on-orbit resource extraction activities would likely be a major question that Congress must answer clearly. This problem demonstrates the potential regulatory vacuum that could engulf all emerging technologies: if the regulation of everything that has vast political and economic significance requires clear congressional delegation, then many emerging technologies will simply go unregulated because of the unlikelihood of clear congressional delegation. To solve this problem for resource extraction, Congress should delegate regulatory authority over on-orbit resource extraction activities to NOAA because it is most suited to the task under a Gonzales v. Oregon analysis
Cancel the Debt, Cancel the Tax: Exclude Student Loan Debt Relief from Gross Income Using the General Welfare Exclusion
No full textThe mounting student loan crisis is seriously encumbering this country’s upcoming generation with approximately one in four borrowers struggling to repay or already in default. The cumulating federal student loan debt surpassed $1.6 trillion in 2022 and seriously impaired the younger generation’s ability to save after entering the job market. The effects of debt are even more crushing for the nearly one-third of the forty-five million borrowers that have debt but no post-secondary degree. Many could not complete their degree because the cost of attendance was too high. The high monthly payments and ballooning balances make it harder for borrowers to build wealth through buying a house or saving for retirement