11929 research outputs found
Sort by
AECA and the United States War Crimes Connections in Yemen
Get PDFThe conflict in Yemen wages on, and many states, including Saudi Arabia and the United States, have been complicit in human rights violations. The United States’ current and past administrations have continued to sell arms to Saudi Arabia despite multiple international organizations’ documenting the state’s human rights violations. This Article argues that, despite the lack of transparency regarding how much support the United States is lending to Saudi Arabia arms being used in Yemen, the United States may be held responsible for human rights violations in Yemen. The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) provides the U.S. President with the authority and responsibility for the exportation of defense articles and services. Under the AECA, specifically 22 U.S.C. § 2785, the United States fails to comply with arms sales requirements by not sufficiently performing end-use monitoring, failing to ensure arms sold to Saudi Arabia are used for their intended purpose, and breaking international law as cited under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
ECtHR Halts Forced Deportation of Uyghur Couple Seeking Asylum in Malta: Latest in a Series of Breaches of European Convention on Human Rights
Get PDFOn January 16, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordered Malta to halt the process of forcibly removing a Uyghur couple, A.B. and Y.M., seeking asylum. The couple, who are Chinese nationals of Uyghur ethnicity and Muslim faith, arrived in Malta in 2016; the rejection of their initial application in 2017 forced them to live in hiding for years. Prior to bringing their case to the ECtHR, the Uyghur couple had been detained at the Safi Barracks and were facing immediate deportation to China
Raising the Threshold for Trademark Infringement to Protect Free Expression
Get PDFThe First Amendment right to free speech limits the scope of rights in trademark law. Congress and the courts have devised various defenses and common law doctrines to ensure that protected speech is exempted from trademark infringement liability. These defensive trademark doctrines, however, are narrow and often vary by jurisdiction. One current example is the speech-protective test first articulated by the Second Circuit in Rogers v. Grimaldi, expanded by the Ninth Circuit, and recently restricted by the Supreme Court in Jack Daniel’s Properties v. VIP Products to uses of another’s mark within an expressive work that do not designate the source of the accused infringer’s products. The Rogers test prevents a finding of infringement if this use is artistically relevant to the underlying work and does not explicitly mislead consumers as to the source or content of the work. This categorical rule has definite advantages over the multi-factor likelihood of confusion test in trademark disputes involving expressive works, but—like other speech-protective doctrines—this test has limitations and shortcomings.
This Article therefore proposes an alternative test for protecting First Amendment interests in trademark law that better balances the public interest in avoiding consumer confusion against the public interest in free expression. This proposed broad trademark fair use test would apply to any informational or expressive use of words, names, or symbols claimed by another as a mark in connection with any goods or services. If this threshold requirement is satisfied, this use is not infringing unless the accused infringer’s expression is (1) a false statement about its products (including false claims of sponsorship, endorsement, or approval) or (2) is likely to mislead a reasonable person about the source of the goods, services, or message. This more holistic approach to protecting speech interests in the trademark enforcement context should increase clarity and predictability in trademark law, and will enable courts to dispose of speech-harmful claims as a matter of law early in a lawsuit
The Future of Crypto-Asset Mining: The Inflation Reduction Act and the Need for Uniform Federal Regulation
Get PDFCrypto-asset mining is energy-intensive and environmentally harmful, presenting challenges and opportunities for federal, state and local governments, regulators, and society as a whole. As of December 2021, the United States has thirty-eight percent of the global crypto network hash rate, which is the total amount of computational power used to mine and process crypto transactions, making the United States the world’s largest crypto-asset mining industry. The total electricity consumption of crypto-asset mining in the United States is estimated to be around 121.36 terawatt-hours (“TWh”) per year, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 10.9 million households in the United States. Crypto-asset mining in the United States is extremely energy-intensive, emitting roughly 65.4 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide annually, or the equivalent of seven million gasoline-powered vehicles. As a result, effective regulatory frameworks are necessary to address the explosion of energy and environmental issues caused by crypto-asset miners, who are under pressure to maximize earnings by using less expensive carbon-emitting energy.
To date, crypto-asset mining has not been governed by a federal regulatory framework, but instead by a patchwork of state-by-state responses that vary from highly restrictive, such as the moratoria proposed in New York, to dangerously permissive, such as the deregulation occurring in Wyoming. This article examines existing federal, state, and local regulatory schemes that directly or indirectly address the negative effects of crypto-asset mining. Although different state and local regulations attempt to strike a balance between reducing crypto-asset mining’s negative environmental and energy consumption impact and retaining crypto’s economic benefits, the country will continue to suffer from crypto-asset mining’s severe energy and environmental consequences until there is a unified response. This article proposes that the Inflation Reduction Act’s (“IRA”) federal regulatory authority, as well as earlier federal precedent, could potentially prevent a “race to the bottom” among states with permissive crypto-asset mining regulations. In the alternative, the article also evaluates the effectiveness of state-level crypto-asset mining regulatory measures until a uniform federal response is adopted
The Great Climate Migration: A Critique of Global Legal Standards of Climate-Change Caused Harm
Get PDFApproximately 2.4 billion people, or about forty percent of the global population, live within sixty miles (one hundred kilometers) of a coastline. The United Nations (“U.N.”) determined that “a sea level rise of half a meter could displace 1.2 million people from low-lying islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with that number almost doubling if the sea level rises by two metres.” The U.N. also reports that “sudden weather-related hazards” have internally displaced an annual average of 21.5 million people since 2008. Within the next few decades, this number is likely to continue to increase. As sea levels rise and weather events become more frequent and severe, ecosystems will begin to collapse, clean water and fresh food will be harder to find, coasts and islands will be engulfed by the sea, shelters will be damaged by storms and fires, and biodiversity will suffer. Though many individuals will rebuild in hopes of preserving their homes and families, their determination to stay could result in dangerous conditions and political turmoil; others will have no choice but to abandon their homes in search of a safer future, a phenomenon that has come to be known as “The Great Climate Migration.
The SEC Should Not Sacrifice Citizens on the Altar of Private Sector Innovation
No full textRepublicans on the House Financial Services Committee are pushing hard on legislation that would regulate the structure of digital asset markets. Like most other proposals for crypto legislation that we have seen from Congress thus far, this discussion draft is a terrible blueprint for regulation that would tailor, exempt and repeal existing laws in order to accommodate crypto industry business models, notwithstanding the harm they have caused
Latin America\u27s Contribution to the Normative Discussion Around Rising Sea Levels: Incorporating the Principles of Uti Possidetis and Solidarity
Get PDFLadies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, good morning. Initially, I would like to give thanks for the kind invitation made by Professor Claudio Grossman and now members of the committee to participate in this special conference on sea level rise and International Law’s impact on the Americas, which has set up an ahead of time debate due to the effects that are being experienced by the entire international community.
The conference that preceded me today highlighted the emergence of this discussion, and this systemic character that involves its interpretation by impacting our states and peoples, demanding coordinated action in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation. As a phenomenon, climate change generates a series of serious environmental consequences, which can already be observed today. One of the consequences of the planet’s rise in temperature is the rise in sea level, which is due to the melting of glaciers in the arctic and in Antarctica, in an unprecedented and unexpected way. This will result in flooding and submersion of coastal areas, causing various damage such as reconfiguring the geographical boundaries that make up these states. In this sense, the goal of this presentation is a quick and objective analysis of the existing norms around the theme, and then to reflect how Latin America is situating this discussion and what could be its contribution to normative interpretation of this subject
Algunas reflexiones Sobre la Condicion de Estado en Relacion con la Elevacion del Nivel del Mar
Get PDFEstimados amigos y amigas:
Deseo, en primer lugar, agradecer a los promotores de esta iniciativa por su amable invitación y compromiso con el tratamiento de la importante temática que nos convoca. Al mismo tiempo, quiero destacar mi satisfacción por participar en esta actividad y hacerlo además con personas muy valiosas, por quienes siento especial aprecio, así como recalcar que voy a compartir con ustedes algunas reflexiones sobre la condición de estado en relación con la elevación del nivel del mar de carácter personal, es decir, que no comprometen a la Comisión de Derecho Internacional de las Naciones Unidas y son todavía muy preliminares
Gender and the Law
No full textGender and the Law is the new title for our long-running Women and the Law publication. Gender and the Law provides timely coverage highlighting the most pressing legal questions in the realm of gender and law. Assembled by a team of expert editors, this work collects the best research addressing legal issues affecting women, the law and masculinities, gender identity and expression, and sexuality published within the last year.
With timely coverage from top legal scholars of both “hot” topics and legal questions with a long history, this text allows practitioners to quickly get up to date and identify trends in a broad range of fields in this fast-changing area of the law Articles explore the relationship between gender and the following areas of law.https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_bks/1280/thumbnail.jp
Habeas Corpus Checklists, 2024 ed.
No full textDiscusses the standards developed by the courts, together with pertinent statutes and leading case law for every jurisdiction. Examines the law\u27s historical development and the current law. Also addresses the departures from previous law and practice. Analyzes habeas corpus themes, patterns, and directions for current and future litigation. This guide provides the actual language of the court with complete citations to aid in further research.https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_bks/1284/thumbnail.jp