SelectedWorks @ Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law
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Currency Wars and the Erosion of Dollar Hegemony
No full textA currency war is being waged against the dollar-based international economic system established in Bretton Woods after World War II. Much attention has been paid to the use of force and threats to the peace in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. But there is little law scholarship that examines threats to the dollar and the dollar-based system. And yet, challenging a country’s currency means challenging it on multiple fundamental fronts. Stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives and other investments are all priced in a nation’s currency. If the dollar is undermined, the American economy itself and the existing international economic system are also undermined.The U.S. dollar has unquestionably been the world’s international reserve currency for decades. But its supremacy is being contested. Dollar hegemony has been part and parcel of American economic and military power. It has given the U.S. government and U.S. consumers enormous benefits. Americans traveling abroad can be assured that dollars will be accepted and welcomed, often without having to convert dollars into local currency. Most international trade is set in dollars, even if the exports are not destined for the U.S. Oil is priced in dollars so oil-consuming countries must accumulate dollars, mostly by exporting their goods and services to receive dollars needed to pay for oil. The world’s central banks hold trillions of dollars of U.S. treasury bonds. The dollar is “as good as gold,” although it has not been backed by gold since 1971 when the U.S. stopped redeeming dollars for gold at a fixed rate of $35 dollars an ounce. Still, the demand for dollars and dollar securities has remained high. Consequently, the interest rate the U.S. has to pay on these securities is relatively low. This allows Americans to have easy access to credit – live beyond their means and borrow at lower interest rates for homes and automobiles. The U.S. government can finance larger deficits longer and at lower interest rates even during the 2008 financial crisis. For reasons discussed in the Article, including Quantitative Easing (“QE”) pursued by the U.S. Federal Reserve as a response to the financial crisis in 2008, dissatisfaction with the dollar-based system has deepened. Frenetic dollar printing via QE, resulting in U.S. export of inflation abroad, has spawned food riots and revolutions in the Middle East and exacerbated preexisting cracks in the system. In the past, many countries have resented the dollar’s “exorbitant privilege” but have obediently lined up to support the system. Things are different today. U.S. allies are less dependent on the U.S., and there are serious economic rivals (Russia and China) acting in concert with countries such as Brazil, India, and South Africa (BRICS) to pose a serious challenge to the dollar-based system. This Article examines various events that might seem unconnected and disparate but which together, once the dots are connected, reveal not only fractures in the system but also concerted efforts to undermine the dollar. Russia, China and other countries have begun establishing alternative non-dollar-based systems. Bilateral and multilateral trade is being conducted by various countries in a currency other than the dollar. But more threatening to the dollar’s supremacy is the decision by many to sever the dollar-oil link, which would decrease global demand for dollars. BRICS countries have established a new development bank to rival the World Bank and the IMF, using their own currencies rather than the dollar. China has been accumulating gold and even Western European allies are repatriating gold stored in the U.S. back to their territories. The dollar and other rival currencies may be up one moment and down the next. The purpose of this Article is to look at long-term trends and warn about fundamental fault lines and global headwinds that are not immediately obvious – all the more necessary when the economic snapshot of American markets, and relatedly of the dollar, appears more rosy than it really is
The Progression and Evolution of International Law Scholarship over the Past 50 Years: Some Quantitative Observations
No full textDebates have intensified in recent years about the utility of legal scholarship generally, and international law scholarship has not been immune from some specific, targeted scrutiny. Yet few fields of legal scholarship have a history like international law scholarship, where the courts and other authorities have identified scholars of international law as holding a special place of privilege and stature in the interpretation of international law. This essay examines the unique role of international law scholarship in the interpretation of international law by courts and other authorities. Furthermore, through various data compilations and the depictions of trends in more than a dozen unique and original graphs, it examines the growth and evolution of international law and human rights scholarship over time, including changing trends in jurisprudential categories of scholarship between “the law of nations,” “international law,” and “human rights.” While this data tells a story on its own, the essay also hopes to provide information from which others can enhance their own assessment of trends not just in international law scholarship, but also in the evolution of international law itself
No Free Lunch, but Dinner and a Movie (And Contraceptives for Dessert)?
No full textThe Hobby Lobby decision incited a wave of vitriolic responses, but it is important to understand what the Court actually held before assessing whether such a response was warranted. After reviewing the circumstances leading to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its accompanying regulations, it is clear that the Court’s legal analysis was correct. Exploring the criticisms from the media and the legal academy in light of that fact reveals the current dispute in the United States over the very nature and purpose of government. In addition scholars and citizens should note the several questions left unaddressed in the litigation, including whether the contraceptive mandate regulations were even authorized by the Affordable Care Act or instead represent the kind of administrative overreach of which the Supreme Court has begun to take note
Culture in Law and Development: Nurturing Positive Change
No full textThis book examines why law and development has failed despite years of rule of law efforts pursued by governments, international agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. Law and development has had many incarnations, but “rule of law” is a core component. The standard law and development template includes predictable prescriptions such as drafting laws, constructing institutions, and promoting legal education. These are important steps towards the development of a market economy and the establishment of a state that is appropriately subject to the constraints of law. However, law and development does not need more laws because law alone is insufficient. Preoccupation with the institutional, legalistic and technocratic dimensions of law and development has created a systemic blind spot to culture. This book traces the acultural tradition of public international law, international relations, private international law and international human rights law. It then argues that despite this deeply entrenched acultural framework, law and development needs to supplement rule of law projects with culture change projects, so that rule of law objectives can be established in a cultural environment that supports broad development objectives such as maximizing human capability and freedom. Law and development is deeply embedded in cultural norms. This book builds on the works of scholars such as Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum and Arjun Appadurai. It adopts a holistic view of development and argues that cultural norms that impede the human capabilities of the poor, women and other marginal groups should be changed. Some anti-development norms fall within a human rights framework, such as female genital mutilation, footbinding and caste. Others, such as denying girls access to basic education, straddle both human rights and law and development traditions. Others might fit more within a market-oriented view of law and development. This book urges law and development scholars and practitioners to reject the acultural tradition of related fields such as public and private international law, international relations and even international human rights law and embark instead on a respectful but robust engagement with culture. Using concrete examples and country-specific case studies, the book defends culture change normatively and critically demonstrates how culture change has been accomplished
Imposing Criminal Punishment by Introducing False Testimony
No full textOn false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct in the Sholom Rubashkin case