The information age provides novel tools for case management. While technology plays a crucial role, the way in which courts are structured is still critical in ensuring effective case management. The correlation between court structure and case management is a pivotal topic. The existing debate concentrates predominantly on the micro and case-specific aspects of case management, without further inquiry into the relationship between court structure, court management, and case management. The contributions within this volume fill this gap from a comparative perspective, undertaking a macro/structural and sub-macro perspective of procedure and case management.

The current situation in Argentina is unprecedented. In compliance with prescribed timings and procedures, the crimes committed by the state in recent history are being prosecuted and penalized. This book traces the path of the trials for crimes against humanity in Argentina, from the Trial of the Juntas that began during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín to current developments under Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, analysing the ideas of memory, truth and justice. In the volume, judges, lawyers, historians, journalists and witnesses from the era of terror give a lucid and critical reconstruction of the last thirty years. The contributors also point to other states where crimes against humanity are still being committed on a daily basis, despite being notionally proscribed. This book is translated from Spanish, originally appearing under the title Juicios por crímenes de lesa humanidad en Argentina (2011).

The occurrence in some criminal cases of "cultural defenses" on behalf of "minority" defendants has stirred much debate. This book is the first to illuminate how "cultural evidence" - i.e., "evidence" regarding ethnicity - is actually negotiated by attorneys, expert/lay witnesses, and defendants in criminal trials. Caroline Braunmuhl demonstrates that this has occurred, overwhelmingly, in ways shaped by colonialist and patriarchal discourses common in the Western world. She argues that the controversy regarding the legitimacy of a "cultural defense" has tended to obscure this fact, and has been biased against minorities as well as all women from its inception, in the very terms in which the question for debate has been framed. This study also breaks new ground by analyzing the strategies, and the failures, in which colonialist and patriarchal constructions of cultural evidence are resisted or - more commonly - colluded in by opposing attorneys, witnesses, and defendants themselves. The constructions at hand emerge as contradictory and unstable, belying the notion that cultural evidence is a matter of objective "information" about another culture, rather than - as Braunmuhl argues - of discourses that are inevitably normatively charged. Colonial Discourse and Gender in US Criminal Courts moves the debate about cultural defenses onto an entirely new plane, one based upon the understanding that only in-depth empirical analyses informed by critical, rigorous theoretical reflection can do justice to the irreducibly political character of any discussion of "cultural evidence," and of its presentation in court.

This collection explores the analytical, empirical and normative components that distinguish socio-legal approaches to international economic law both from each other, and from other approaches. It pays particular attention to the substantive focus (what) of socio-legal approaches, noting that they go beyond the text to consider context and, often, subtext. In the process of identifying the 'what' and the 'how' (analytical and empirical tools) of their own socio-legal approaches, contributors to this collection reveal why they or anyone else ought to bother--the many reasons 'why' it is important, for theory and for practice, to take a social legal approach to international economic law.

This book explores the objectives pursued in donor programs, the methods used to advance them, and the underlying assumptions and strategies. It emphasizes the unexpected and sometimes unpleasant consequences of ignoring not only political and societal constraints but also advances in our technical approaches to performance improvement, the one area where the First World has a comparative advantage. The geographic scope of the work is broad, incorporating examples from Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region as well as from several First World nations. Justice Reform and Development examines First World assistance to justice or "rule of law" reforms in developing and transitional societies, arguing that its purported failure is vastly exaggerated, largely because of unrealistic expectations as to what could be accomplished. Change nonetheless is needed if the programs are to continue and would be best based on targeting specific performance problems, incorporation of donor countries' experience with their own reforms, and greater attention to relevant research. While contributing to an on-going debate among practitioners and academics involved in justice programs, this book will also be accessible to readers with little exposure to the topics, especially advanced undergraduate and graduate students in law, political science and areas studies.

Der von der Gesellschaft fur arabisches und islamisches Recht herausgegebene Band enthalt die Vortrage, die auf der Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft 2012 in Heidelberg gehalten wurden. Erganzt werden diese durch eine Reihe von Vortragen, die ebenfalls die Veranderungen der rechtlichen Strukturen nach dem Arabischen Fruhling in den betroffenen Landern und im gesamten Rechtskreis islamisch beeinflusster Rechtsordnungen zum Gegenstand haben. Die Beitrage spannen dabei einen Bogen von den islamischen Einflussen auf die agyptische Verfassung uber Chancen der Rechtsentwicklung im Arabischen Fruhling und Strukturen des Vereins- und Versicherungsrechts bis hin zu aktuellen Fragen der Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit in Saudi-Arabien.

This cutting-edge piece of scholarship studies the invisibility of the black migrants in popular consciousness and intellectual discourse in the United States through the interrogation of actual members of this community.

Street protests in the 'Arab Spring' countries have illustrated that public demand for recovering stolen assets has grown exponentially, as have expectations by concerned populations and governments. From a topic discussed in expert forums, it has thus become a topic of the people. The question is: Have practitioners and policy makers delivered on these expectations? Clearly, since the ratification of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) ten years ago, much progress has been made in streamlining respective legal and institutional frameworks. On the other hand, we also find that practical successes on the ground remain few and far apart, and largely limited to a handful of countries. This book asks why and, through the voice of renowned practitioners from a broad range of affected countries, analyses challenges that remain, identifies new stumbling blocks that have cropped up, and discusses practical solutions that are being tested with a view to overcoming these. The book is published by the Basel Institute on Governance's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR).

"War Crimes: Japans' World War II Atrocities" demands a prominent place in military history. Mr. Thurman and his daughter, Christine Sherman, bring to life the atrocities which the tribunal was formed to prosecute. War crimes remain a part of world history, and the world should know about them.

This volume contains the scientific papers presented at the 2nd International Conference Perspectives of Business Law in the Third Millennium that was held on November 2, 2012 at Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania. The scientific studies included in this volume are grouped into three chapters: Recent developments and perspectives in the regulation of business law at European Union level; Transposition of European Union directives into national law; Recent developments and perspectives in the regulation of international business law. The present volume is addressed to practitioners and researchers in juridical sciences, who are interested in recent developments and prospects for development in the field of business law at European and international level.

This book examines recent attempts at reform within the United Nations in the wake of the institutional crisis provoked by the invasion of Iraq. It contends that efforts at reform have foundered owing to fundamental and bitter political disagreements between the nations of the global North and South. Following profound discord in the Security Council in the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, this book considers the ambitious programme of reform instigated by then serving UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The author of this highly topical work, Spencer Zifcak, subjects six of Annan's principal proposals for reform to scrutiny: the reform of the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council, and suggested alterations to international law with respect to the use of force in international affairs, the 'responsibility to protect', and UN strategies to counter global terrorism. On the basis of these detailed case-studies, the book demonstrates why so few proposals for reform were eventually adopted. It argues that the principal reason for this failure was that nations of the North and South could not agree as to the merits of the reforms proposed, exposing the sharply differing visions held by member states for a future and improved United Nations. Founded upon extensive interviews with diplomats at the United Nations, the book provides a rare 'insider' account of UN politics and practice. It will be of vital interest to students, scholars and practitioners of International Relations, International Law, and International Institutions.

In a moment where the EU is facing an important number of challenges, there is growing interest in understanding how parties influence the way Europe evolves as a political issue, notably how parties structure domestic competition over European issues and they mobilise sentiments in referenda over European integration . This book examines the views of national parties towards the European Union and the different facets of a supranational citizenship. It provides an in-depth investigation into the variations to the cross-national patterns in ten countries, including old and new member states and different EU regions. Using original and innovative concepts, data and research techniques the authors: Explore whether parties formulate specific positions and preferences on the most particular aspects of the EU process. Investigate whether the party's stance could be inserted into more pro-European, or more Eurosceptical attitudes. Illustrate patterns of party contestation of the EU issues in the member states and explains these patterns in the light of the main theoretical arguments. Making an important contribution to party attitudes towards the EU and the Europeanisation of party politics, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, sociology, comparative politics, government and party politics

Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade: Remedying the 'Past'? Addresses how reparations might be obtained for the legacy of the Trans Atlantic slave trade. This collection lends weight to the argument that liability is not extinguished on the death of the plaintiffs or perpetrators. Arguing that the impact of the slave trade is continuing and therefore contemporary, it maintains that this trans-generational debt remains, and must be addressed. Bringing together leading scholars, practitioners, diplomats, and activists, Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade provides a powerful and challenging exploration of the variety of available - legal, relief-type, economic-based and multi-level - strategies, and apparent barriers, to achieving reparations for slavery.

The Dynamics of Transitional Justice draws on the case of East Timor in order to reassess how transitional justice mechanisms actually play out at the local level. Transitional justice mechanisms - including trials and truth commissions - have become firmly entrenched as part of the United Nations 'tool-kit' for successful post-conflict recovery. It is now commonly assumed that by establishing individual accountability for human rights violations, and initiating truth-seeking and reconciliation programs, individuals and societies will be assisted to 'come to terms' with the violent past and states will make the 'transition' to peaceful, stable liberal democracies. Set against the backdrop of East Timor's referendum and the widespread violence of 1999, this book interrogates the gap between the official claims made for transitional justice and local expectations. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including extensive in-depth interviews with victims/survivors, community leaders and other actors, it produces a nuanced and critical account of the complex interplay between internationally-sponsored trials and truth commissions, national justice agendas and local priorities. The Dynamics of Transitional Justice fills a significant gap in the existing social science literature on transitional justice, and offers new insights for researchers and practitioners alike.

The technology of offshore carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is likely to be deployed on a commercial scale soon. CCS technology could be used to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 DegreesC above the pre-industrial level. However, such projects entail many environmental risks, and their effectiveness for the mitigation of climate change is disputed. This book tries to clarify open legal questions regarding European offshore CCS projects in the context of international and regional maritime and climate protection law as well as relevant European legislation. Taking the remaining scientific uncertainty into account, this book concludes that the permission and encouragement of offshore CCS projects is highly problematic from an international environmental law perspective.

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a recent example of an external EU policy drawn up explicitly with the objective of achieving coherence in the external policies of the EU and its Member States. Positioning the ENP in the legal-historical context of political union, this book explains why coherence has become a substantive issue in EU external relations, and why law is integral to attaining the ever-enigmatic single voice of the European Union. The text examines the role of EU external relations law in attaining a coherent neighbourhood policy and goes on to undertake an in depth analysis of the ENP, arguing that the innovative nature of the ENP in regard to coherence lies beyond the narrowly defined legal sphere, and stems primarily from its hybrid composition of hard legal, soft legal and non-legal policy instruments. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach by integrating elements of law, history and political science, EU External Relations Law and the European Neighbourhood Policy is unique in its approach to the subject. This book will be of particular interest to academics and students of EU Law, Political Science, History and International Relations as well as to practitioners engaged in the process of drafting coherent external policy.

This book is concerned with how we can make sense of the confusing landscape of individualistic explanation in international law. Arguing that international law lacks the vocabulary to deal with the collective dimension and therefore perpetuates an individualistic vocabulary, the book develops and articulates a more appropriate collective approach for public international law. In doing so, it reframes longstanding problems such as the conflict between self-determination and the integrity of states and the effects and the limits of state sovereignty in an increasingly globalized world. Presenting fresh perspectives on a range of contemporary issues in international law, the book draws on the work of major contributors to legal and political theory.

This title will explore China's strategic interests in the South China Sea, with a specific emphasis on power projection and resource security. China's regional actions and reactions are reshaping the power dynamics in East and South-East Asia, while economic and geopolitical futures depend on the variegated outcomes of these complex relationships with neighbours and the West. An introductory section will be complemented by four case studies (Japan, Vietnam, the USA and the Philippines) and the concluding chapter will discuss the importance of the South China Sea to China as its new leadership deals with growing economic and military might.

The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, the result of 14 years of negotiation, was accepted by 159 nations. It was, however, rejected by the Reagan administration, a position which was quite at odds with the widespread international support that the treaty enjoyed from other nations. First studied is the customary law of the sea and efforts to negotiate a stable, legal regime, focusing on seaward expansion of coastal-state jurisdiction. The book also looks at the United Nations efforts to regulate the exploitation of deep-sea mineral deposits, the conflict between developed and developing states at the Third United Nations Conference for the Law of the Sea, and the decision by the United States to proceed unilaterally with seabed mining. An in-depth analysis is given of US objections to the convention and of the legal status of deep seabed resources, concluding with an evaluation of the convention's importance to the United States. Extensive notes, bibliography and index conclude the text.

To what extent does the constitution-making process matter? By focusing on three central aspects of constitution-making; the nature of the constitution-making body, how it reaches decisions and the way in which a new constitution is legitimized and by examining a wide range of case studies, this international collection from expert contributors provides answers to this crucial question. Bridging the gap between law and political science this book draws together divergent research on the role of constitution making in conflict resolution, constitutional law and democratization and employs a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to unfold and explore the political frameworks of the states affected. Comparative analysis is used to investigate potential causal chains between constitution-making processes and their outcomes in terms of stability, conflict resolution and democracy. By focusing on both procedure and context, the book explores the impact of constitution-making procedures in new and established states and unions in Europe, South America and Africa.

It is often argued that international financial regulation has been substantially strengthened over the past decades through the international harmonization of financial regulation. There are, however, still frequent outbreaks of painful financial crises, including the recent 2008 global financial crisis. This raises doubts about the conventional claims of the strengthening of international financial regulation. This book provides an in-depth political economy study of the adoptions in Japan, Korea and Taiwan of the 1988 Basel Capital Accord, the now so-called Basel I, which has been at the center of international banking regulation over the past three decades, highlighting the domestic politics surrounding it. The book illustrates that, despite banks' formal compliance with the Accord in these countries, their compliance was often cosmetic due to extensive regulatory forbearance that allowed their real capital soundness to weaken. Domestic politics thus ultimately determined national implementations of the Accord. This book provides its novel innovative study of the Accord through scores of interviews with bank regulators and analysis of various primary documents. It suggests that the actual effectiveness of international financial regulation relies ultimately on the domestic politics surrounding it. It implies as well that the past trend of international harmonization of financial regulation may be illusory, to at least some extent, in terms of its actual effectiveness. This book may interest not only political economists but also scholars working on the intersection of law, economics and institutions.

This book is the first to address the multi-faceted influence of the global financial crisis on the national constitutions of the countries most affected. By tracing the impact of the crisis on formal and informal constitutional change, sovereignty issues, fundamental rights protection, regulatory reforms, jurisprudence, the augmentation of executive power, and changes in the party system it addresses all areas of the current constitutional law dialogue and aims to become a reference book with regard to the interaction between financial crises and constitutions. The book includes contributions from prominent experts on Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the USA providing a critical analysis of the effects of the financial crisis on the constitution. The volume's extensive comparative chapter pins down distinct constitutional reactions towards the financial crisis, building an explanatory theory that accounts for the different ways constitutions responded to the crisis. How and why constitutions formed their reactions in the face of the financial crisis unravels throughout the book.

This book examines the process of norm development and knowledge creation in international politics, and assesses these processes in case studies on protection from torture, intellectual property rights and climate change. Drawing on the theories of constructivism and the sociology of scientific knowledge, author Preslava Stoeva demonstrates that international norms are a product of a sequence of closures and consensus reached at different social levels. She contends that it is this process which makes norms permeate the social and political fabric of international relations even before they become official principles of state behaviour. Proposing a theoretical model which indicates the stages of the development of norms, she studies the roles that various actors play in that process, together with the interplay of various types of power. Through this endeavour, this book succeeds in providing the reader with a better understanding of the social processes that lead to normative change in international relations. New Norms and Knowledge in World Politics will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of international relations, comparative politics, globalization, sociology and anthropology.

In 1949 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its first judgment in the Corfu Channel Case. In diffusing an early Cold War dispute, the Court articulated a set of legal principles which continue to shape our appreciation of the international legal order. Many of the issues dealt with by the Court in 1949 remain central questions of international law, including due diligence, forcible intervention and self-help, maritime operations, navigation in international straits and the concept of elementary considerations of humanity. The Court's decision has been cited on numerous occasions in subsequent international litigation. Indeed, the relevance of this judgment goes far beyond the subject matter dealt with by the Court in 1949, extending to pressing problems such as trans-boundary pollution, terrorism and piracy. In short, it was and remains a thoroughly modern decision - a landmark for international law; and one which today warrants reconsideration. Taking a critical approach, this book examines the decision's influence on international law generally and on some fields of international law like the law of the sea and the law of international responsibility specifically. The book collects the commentary of a distinguished set of international law scholars, including four well-known international judges. The contributors consider not only the history of the Corfu Channel Judgment and its contribution to the development of international law, but also its resonance in many contemporary issues in the field of international law. This book will be of particular interest to academics and students of International Law, International Relations and Legal History

Although there is no international government, and no global police agency enforces the rules, nations obey international law. In this provocative study, Franck employs a broad range of historical, legal, sociological, anthropological, political, and philosophical modes of analysis to unravel the mystery of what makes states and people perceive rules as legitimate. Demonstrating that virtually all nations obey most rules nearly all of the time, Franck reveals that the more legitimate laws and institutions appear to be, the greater is their capacity for compliance. Distilling those factors which increase the perception of legitimacy, he shows how a community of rules can be fashioned from a system of sovereign states without creating a global leviathan.