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The War on Gangs: El Salvador’s Playground for International Human Rights Violations
Get PDFInternational human rights law was developed with the underlying philosophy that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. However, since its development, we have seen a vast number of human rights violations persist with no recourse. The War on Gangs in El Salvador is just one example of this. This Note examines the history of the War on Gangs in El Salvador, the tumultuous political landscape that has spurred as a result, and how political efforts to address gang violence have been used as a tactic to strip Salvadorans of their fundamental rights and dignity. This Note goes on to analyze the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to El Salvador’s War on Gangs. In doing so, this Note highlights the fundamental inadequacy of international human rights law in preventing, mitigating, and remedying human rights violations
Winning the Imitation Game: Setting Safety Expectations for Automated Vehicles
Get PDFThis article suggests that legislatures amend existing law to create a new legal category of computer driver to allow a plaintiff to make a negligence claim against an automated vehicle manufacturer for loss proximately caused by any negligent driving behavior exhibited by the driving automation systems which it produced. Creating this new legal category will allow a status quo approach to attribution and allocation of liability, including permitting defendants to take advantage of contributory negligence and comparative fault rules. Creation of the category also allows for continued functioning of the structure of our existing liability laws and regulations for motor vehicles in which the federal government regulates automotive equipment, and the state governments regulate drivers, driving, licensing and registration.
The law often needs a statute to address changes in technology for which existing law understandably fails to provide answers. Creating the category of computer driver avoids the conceptual difficulties caused by an uncertain boundary between regulation of equipment and regulation of drivers the very disruptive situation created by the new technologies of driving automation in which computer drivers replace human drivers. It prevents shifting regulatory responsibility for liability attribution to the federal government and away from state governments when the human driver is replaced by equipment in the form of certain sophisticated driving automation systems which we capture with the legal fiction of a computer driver
The Future of Anti-Poverty Legislation
Get PDFThe era of big-government COVID relief is over. The initial pandemic relief legislation, followed by two years of Democratic control in Washington, seemed to herald the expansion and modernization of the U.S. safety net. But sustained reform proved elusive. Now that this window of opportunity has closed, it\u27s time to step back and take stock. For those who focus on anti-poverty programs, one question persists: The next time there is such an opportunity to strengthen anti-poverty programs through legislation, how should federal law change?
This Article suggests the answer to that question lies in lessons from recent experience, including, but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic. Crisis-induced lawmaking often arises after little deliberation or careful research. It can be ill-timed and badly targeted. When Congress lurches from crisis to crisis, legislation-and the programs that legislation creates-can go for years without being updated. As those laws drift, they become less effective, especially when it comes to alleviating poverty.
How can the federal law that governs and structures social assistance in the United States become more dynamic? This Article answers that question by proposing that legislators incorporate legislative triggers and indexing what we call automatic fiscal policies -to make means-tested programs more responsive to changing economic and social circumstances. Legislating in ways that promote automatic fiscal policies makes anti-poverty programs more responsive not only to economic downturns, but also to more gradual changes such as the changing nature of work, regional economic fluctuations, and climate change. This Article envisions a future of anti-poverty legislation where anti-poverty programs are dynamic-not succumbing to policy drift and primed to withstand and adapt to future challenges
Trade Policing
Get PDFAt the core of U.S. economic governance, there is a novel and under-noticed phenomenon that challenges longstanding frameworks of international law and corporate compliance. This practice, which this Article terms the new trade policing, has extraordinary reach. Recent regulatory makeovers and pathbreaking statutes empower our trade agencies to target, for the first time, companies, rather than foreign governments, as used to be their purview. Trade police now pursue companies wherever they may be in the world, not just for violating U.S. law but also for violating foreign law in areas as diverse as labor rights and environmental protections. Such a regime may sound untenable, defying basic principles of jurisdictional authority. But new corporate trade policing is increasingly entrenched in international trade law. This repurposing of our trade enforcement system has the power to transform dramatically the global commercial system, the bargains it manages, the procedures applicable to it, and the rights and obligations of all involved.
Drawing on a diverse set of agency communications, new legislation, and interviews with government officials, this Article surfaces this subtle but critical pivot in our cross-border commercial governance. It maps the institutional ascent of this revealed practice and argues that the practice was the product of disillusionment with the Intellectual pedigrees of conventional trade law and developed in response to calls for more effective tools to combat vast corporate wealth and economic marginalization.
The Article then evaluates trade policing in light of the progressive aims that policymakers have set for it, taking into account the many constituencies on whom the burdens fall unevenly. Through numerous examples across different regulatory policies, the Article shows not only that trade policing is happening, but also that it matters. This excavation exposes how our trade police do not operate like other forms of law enforcement or bureaucracy. Rather, trade policing occurs in considerable shadow and lacks hallmarks traditionally associated with administrative law. Still more troubling is that tactics like those in the U.S. arsenal bear close resemblance to the practices of authoritarian governments that seek to provoke acquiescence without process. The Article\u27s assessment prescribes lessons for the several disciplines that trade policing touches, including for the way scholars and lawmakers conceive of which bodies of law, tools, and actors are best suited to manage international corporate behavior.
Taken together, the Article makes four contributions. First, it identifies and illustrates the rise of the new trade policing. Second, it unpacks the distinct features of this novel corporate targeting and draws conclusions about its functions for the way we think about compliance with a wide range of public policies. Third, the Article offers a guarded defense of this complex work by our foreign commercial bureaucrats and analyzes the implications for trade law, administrative procedure, and governance. Finally, the Article demonstrates that, as a corporate accountability system, trade policing has leapfrogged efforts by fields with similar aims, and the policing tools we have so far are just the tip of the iceberg
Haiti’s Legal Claim for Restitution: The Political Context for the Recovery of the Double-Debt
Get PDFThis article discusses Haiti’s efforts to seek restitution from France for the “Double-Debt” imposed in 1825. After Haiti gained independence in 1804 following a slave revolt, France threatened to invade and re-enslave the Haitian people if they did not pay compensation to French slave owners for their lost “property.” This became known as the Double-Debt, as French and American banks profited by converting the debt into high-interest loans. In 2003, on the 200th anniversary of Haitian hero Toussaint Louverture’s death, Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide announced his intention to demand repayment from France. This sparked retaliation from France and Haiti’s elite, who sought to undermine Aristide’s government. A legal team developed arguments that the 1825 agreement was unlawful given the threat of re-enslavement. A draft complaint was prepared but the 2004 coup against Aristide halted the legal proceedings. The article argues that the restitution claim remains legally valid and an important symbol in Haiti’s fight for justice, despite political opposition
Haitian Climate Migrants: Heralds of the United States’ Unprepared Immigration System
Get PDFThis note explores the complex relationship between climate change and Human migration, and the ensuing complications for the United States immigration scheme. Climate change can both directly and indirectly contribute to human migration, yet the United States’ regulatory scheme is unprepared for this reality and its consequences. Through analyzing several separate migratory events in Haiti, the specific failures of the United States status quo immigration systems become clearer. Further, the note will identify frameworks that could offer relief to climate-related migrants
Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and the Judicial Strike Zone - Home Run or Foul on the Play?
Get PDFBabe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Micky Mantle, and Shoeless Joe Jackson—There are many well-known baseball legends, but perhaps less well-known is the story of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a judge turned baseball commissioner who inspired not only baseball fans, but also the American Bar Association’s first Judicial Canon of Ethics. The parallel stories of baseball’s greatest scandal, the judge appointed to be the first baseball commissioner, and the development of the judicial canons, provide context for the current controversial judicial prohibition--the appearance of impropriety
The Power of the Purse: Instigating Social Change Through Strategic Municipal Bond Investments
Get PDFMunicipal bonds are generally understood as mutually beneficial for both issuer and holder—they allow cities to secure capital for local improvements and investors to earn reliable and tax-exempt profits. It turns out, however, that the lack of disclosure for issuing general obligation bonds presents the perfect camouflage for cities to secure funding despite their local social responsibility inadequacies.
Cities quietly shell out millions of dollars in settlements to the victims of police-misconduct. Largely unreported and untracked, many municipalities fund such settlements through general obligation bonds, which are colloquially termed police brutality bonds. As a result, and often unbeknownst to the layperson, the burden of accountability for police misconduct lies with the taxpayer. Moreover, and in many cases, the lack of required disclosure for general obligation bonds renders the bondholders themselves unaware that their financial gain is tied to police brutality. Emerging data shows that police brutality bonds aid the transfer of “wealth from communities—especially over-policed communities of color—to Wall Street and wealthy investors.” Under increased public scrutiny for socially responsible investing, large financial institutions purchasing municipal bonds risk catastrophic reputational implications. Environmental, social, and governance criteria (“ESG”) have become the modern threshold of investment decision making, and many large banks are revising their strategies in accordance with ESG. But, absent the requisite knowledge of police misconduct to invest in accordance with ESG criteria, investors face risks when sourcing funds to municipalities.
As lawmakers’ efforts to reform policing are often thwarted by barriers like qualified immunity, financial limitations, and political disputes, incremental solutions may offer hope. By demanding information or withholding funds, large investors in the municipal bond market hold the power of the purse that can bring pressure for policy reform from all sides