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Construction of a Dispute-Resolution Framework Under the International Judicial System for the Settlement of the Inter-Korean Conflict Over the Northern Limit Line: Operating the Advisory Proceedings of the International Court of Justice
Get PDFTo construct a dispute-resolution framework for the inter-Korean conflict over the Northern Limit Line (“NLL Conflict”) under the international judicial system, this dissertation proposes an advisory proceeding of the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) as the most promising alternative. It has proven difficult to draw a negotiated solution to this decades-long conflict, despite each of the respective State parties involved in the NLL Conflict presenting various arguments and claims about the valid legal status of the NLL. In this context, this dissertation examines the ICJ’s contribution to the resolution of international disputes, particularly controversy over the question of laws, through its advisory jurisdiction even in the absence of any involved State’s consent. For the purpose of this project, therefore, this dissertation examines the mechanism of the ICJ jurisdictional system with an emphasis on the essential elements required to establish each type of jurisdiction in its advisory proceeding. Through an analysis of relevant advisory precedents, in which not only substantive but also procedural issues were considered, this paper concludes that an advisory proceeding initiated by a competent primary organ of the UN is the most promising alternative for a dispute-resolution framework for the NLL Conflict under the present UN-centered international judicial system. Based on a judicial guidance rendered by the ICJ, North and South Korea are expected to find a more equitable solution to the NLL Conflict through international law
A Coffee Break for Bitcoin
Get PDFFor many, the appeal of bitcoin is in its detachment from government regulation. However, the Coffee bonding theory, which initially arose in the context of foreign stocks, suggests certain benefits of regulation for bitcoin, including increased legitimacy. By invoking the Coffee bonding theory, this Article offers another perspective on the regulation of bitcoin
The Extremes of Rap on Trial: An Analysis of the Movement to Ban Rap Lyrics as Evidence
Get PDFThis Article is a review of Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America. The book largely focuses on the dangers of allowing rap lyrics to be presented as evidence in criminal trials. The authors posit that the fictitious and hyperbolic nature of rap lyrics are misrepresented by prosecutors as autobiographical confessions that document illegal activity and violent character traits of defendants. The authors compare rap to other musical genres and conclude that racism is the underlying cause for why the genres are treated differently in court. The authors also advocate for evidence nullification and argue for a complete ban on all rap-related evidence at trial. This Article assesses both the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence presented to support these claims. Furthermore, this Article discusses pragmatic issues such as how the author’s advocacy for their more extreme proposals may be counterproductive to enacting their more reasonable proposals
Why States Should Now Consider Expanding Sales Taxes to Services, Part 1
Get PDFStates are facing a severe budget crisis as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. And with the federal government unlikely to pass a relief bill to address those state budget issues,1 states will need to play a significant role in making up revenue shortfalls.
This is the first in a three-part series, which is a contribution to Project SAFE: State Action in Fiscal Emergencies. This essay will lay out the general case for why states should consider expanding their sales tax bases to more services as a response to the COVID-19 crisis. The follow-ups will discuss further mechanics and details of how best to accomplish this goal. In particular, the second essay will argue that there are low-hanging reforms that could raise substantial revenue, would represent good tax policy, and might be politically possible even during the current crisis. In the third essay we will then introduce reforms to help with the critical problem of tax pyramiding
Improving Taiwan\u27s Civil Procedure by Citizen Participation: Focusing on Expert Testimony in Public Interest Cases
Get PDF“The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”
United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr\u27s famous quotation adequately explains the institutional purpose of citizen participation in important trials. Court decisions require both logical reasoning and a practical adherence to the reality of citizens’ experiences. Currently, the Taiwanese public believes that judicial decisions are often not in line with national perceptions of law. In addition, judges’ limited social experiences often cause the public to distrust their verdicts. The life experiences of citizens can properly fill in the gaps in judicial knowledge and supplement the viewpoints and contents of court decisions.
Adoption of a National Judge System, i.e. a lay judge system, in Taiwan, can enhance a party’s procedural justice in public interest civil cases such as those concerning food safety, environmental hazards, and public nuisance. Under such a system, the parties would have the right to select their adjudicators, and citizens could participate in the processes of trial and deliberation, and render a verdict accordingly. Such citizen participation would increase the dialogue between the judicial system and citizens, thereby enhancing public trust of the justice system.
In 2017, the Taiwanese government pushed for judicial reform, attempting to enhance public trust. The first draft of the National Judge proposal (A) includes laypeople from diverse and representative social groups; (B) grants all parties the right of peremptory challenges, so they can select their adjudicators without being compelled to provide any reason; and (C) allows these laypeople to render verdicts through discussion and deliberation with the judge, so as to return judicial power to the people. In these respects, the national judges serve the role of traditional jurors, checking on governmental power, enhancing civic consciousness, and strengthening public trust in the judicial system.
Most studies of citizen participation focus on criminal courts, but in this thesis, I advocate for national judges to participate in civil cases of public interest. In recent years, Taiwan has been undergoing several crises regarding food safety, including incidents involving gutter oil in 2014 and plasticizer use in food products in 2011. This article focuses on the plasticizer incident, using it as a model example of a toxic tort issue, for which lay judges could determine important aspects of public policy. In doing so, this study engages with American scholarships on the civil jury and focuses on expert testimony, which is often a key element in public policy civil cases
The Changing Face of Terrorism and the Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Get PDFIn this Article, I take up one slice of what should be a broad re-examination of
U.S. law and policy. I argue that the new attacks have been undertaken by entities
that can and should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Doing this would
permit prosecutors to target those who support these entities with tools that are not
currently available. This Article is both a doctrinal argument that directly addresses
the many legal hurdles that make designating groups, such as foreign hackers and
troll farms, terrorist organizations a complicated endeavor, and a policy argument
about how U.S. law and policy should respond to new modes of terrorism.
To make this case, I make two principal claims. First, on the doctrinal front, I
argue that my proposed reconsideration of the kinds of entities that may be
designated as terrorist organizations is consistent with existing law and with the
purposes of 8 U.S.C. § 1189, the statute permitting designation. Making this case
requires consideration of what it means for an entity to be an “organization,” what
activities constitute terrorism, and how this activity is similar to activity that is
currently considered terrorism. Although the context is different, new organizations
have similar structures and characteristics as organizations that have been designated
already. With respect to what constitutes terrorism, I argue that a harms-based
approach is appropriate. The magnitude and type of harm done by the new
organizations are similar to harm done by existing organizations.16 Second, on the
policy side, I argue that the problem of the entities that are threatening U.S.
economic, governmental, and social infrastructure can be more effectively addressed
if they are designated as terrorist organizations. Despite the attention paid to
counterterrorism law and policy in the past two decades, the area of law is far from
fully developed and has struggled to keep up with changes in the world. Designating
these entities as foreign terrorist organizations would amount to an updating of law
and policy to better combat an evolving threat
Implicit Racial Bias and Students\u27 Fourth Amendment Rights
Get PDFTragic acts of school violence such as what occurred in Columbine, Newtown, and, more recently, in Parkland and Santa Fe, provoke intense feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and helplessness. Understandably, in response to these incidents (and for other reasons), many schools have intensified the manner in which they monitor and control students. Some schools rely on combinations of security measures such as metal detectors; surveillance cameras; drug-sniffing dogs; locked and monitored gates; random searches of students’ belongings, lockers, and persons; and law enforcement officers. Not only is there little empirical evidence that these measures actually make schools safer, but overreliance on extreme security measures can create prisonlike environments that are inconsistent with students’ best interests. Specifically, overreliance on intense surveillance measures often engenders distrust and discord among members of the school community in the long term, leading to increased disorder and dysfunction. Extreme security measures also play a role in pushing more students out of school and into the criminal justice system, which can have devastating consequences on students and their families. Although all schools do and should monitor students to some extent, empirical evidence demonstrates that not all students experience these intense, prisonlike conditions. Rather, schools serving higher concentrations of students of color are more likely to rely on coercive surveillance measures than schools serving primarily white students. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that legitimate safety concerns do not fully explain these racial disparities, but that implicit racial bias influences school officials’ decisions to rely on intense surveillance methods to some degree. Indeed, empirical studies repeatedly document that many people unconsciously and unfairly associate minorities, particularly African Americans, with aggression, violence, crime, and danger.
Recognizing that our current constitutional jurisprudence establishes prime conditions for these racial disparities to develop, this Article proposes a reformulated legal framework to evaluate the constitutionality of coercive surveillance methods that is firmly grounded in the U.S. Supreme Court’s current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Applying this reformulated framework in connection with other strategies will ameliorate the effects of implicit racial bias,help address the disproportionate application of coercive security measures on students of color, and motivate school officials working in majority-minority schools to rely on alternative, evidence-based methods to enhance school safety without harming the learning climate