An annotation by Morgan Lucey, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction Since taking office, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has enacted policies that favor agriculture and industry over the protection of Brazil’s forests. This policy is rooted in the…
An annotation by Philip Dalgarno, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction Among the canonical sources of international law listed in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, General Principles of Law (GPLs) have long…
An annotation by Paula Ajumobi, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction In the past couple of years, Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain with approximately 7.5 million people,[1] has come to the forefront of international news because of its…
PDF Version available here. Martin Kwan* I. Introduction Professor Frank He, in his thought-provoking article “(Non)legality as Governmentality in China,” argues that “China remains far from a rule-based society,” and that the rule of law may not be China’s ultimate goal…
An annotation by Nicolas F. Runnels, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction Since 1978, China has formally pursued a policy of “reform and opening-up” in an effort to attract foreign investment into its economy.[1] Over the past forty years, the…
An annotation by Suzie Park, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction The rising number of mega-preferential trade agreements (mega-PTAs) has signaled a trend of major economies looking to build on existing World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements to address new…
An annotation by Harrison Meyer, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction When a defective medical product injures a consumer, she can retain counsel and file a claim against its manufacturer. What if it injures eighty million consumers across multiple…
An annotation by Avi Mediratta, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction The Council of the European Union (the Council) recently proposed a directive that seeks to expand the availability of compensation for groups of consumers.[1] The proposed directive mandates what…
An annotation by James Janison, Staff Editor PDF version available here. I. Introduction Substantive law has a way of creeping into federal courts’ statutory interpretation techniques,[1] and international law is no exception. The presumption against extraterritoriality is an interpretive principle whereby federal…
Essay by Ashley S. Kinseth
On the heels of the Holocaust, the then-nascent United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide—its first-ever international human rights treaty. As such, the Convention is arguably the most sacred text in modern international law—but also the most disregarded. The reasons for this indifference are largely political, yet typically explained away under the guise of law: governments routinely argue that it is impossible to know whether mass atrocities were intentional, as is required in the legal definition of genocide. The present Rohingya crisis, for which ample evidence of genocidal intent has emerged, provides a clear example of this blatant disregard for international law. As one of the worst genocides in the past century continues to unfold in Myanmar, nearly all states sit on their hands.