The role of international and transnational law in U.S. courts is one of the most hotly contested debates in legal scholarship. From the question of the use of comparative legal materials by the Supreme Court, to the question of what effect, if any, judgments of international tribunals such as the… Read More »
When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of American class actions? The question is not a new one. Judge Friendly first raised it thirty-five years ago in Bersch v. Drexel Firestone, Inc. Since Bersch, courts have tied the answer to res judicata and the recognition of judgments:… Read More »
Is international law law? Though leading scholars have said that it is “futile” whether international law is law in fact matters a great deal. Most fundamentally, it matters from the moral point of view. Law’s moral import follows from a basic truth accepted by… Read More »
Although courts and commentators have offered a wide range of theories regarding the Alien Tort Statute(ATS), the original meaning of the statute has remained elusive. As enacted in 1789, the ATS provided that “the district courts . . . shall [ ] have cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several States, or… Read More »
When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of American class actions? The question is not a new one. Judge Friendly first raised it thirty-five years ago in Bersch v. Drexel Firestone, Inc. Since Bersch, courts have tied the answer to res judicata and the recognition of judgments:… Read More »
Game theory has transformed international law scholarship. Recent accounts have harnessed alleged lessons learned from game theory in service of a new brand of realism about the field. These skeptical accounts conclude that international law loses its normative force because states that “follow” international law are simply participants in a… Read More »
“As a moth is drawn to the light, so is a litigant drawn to the United States.” Notwithstanding Lord Denning’s widely cited aphorism, this editorial and the article on which it is based suggest that the draw may no longer be as strong as it once was. Using a combination… Read More »
Security is not free. To be marginally safer from any external threat, a state often must be willing to pay billions of dollars. The full cost of security goes beyond military budgets: When military action is taken—for example, through a campaign or an embargo—national wealth is often sacrificed in opportunity… Read More »
Introduction
Scholarship on arbitral behavior and decision making has theorized that, as utility maximizers who wish to increase their chances of reappointment in future disputes, arbitrators will tend to satisfy both parties by rendering compromise awards. Although empirical studies on arbitral behavior have focused on the arbitrators’ tendency to… Read More »
For years, experts have debated whether the U.S. should spearhead reform of the United Nations (U.N.) framework for authorizing the use of force to counter the threats of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In this debate, some scholars argue that the permanent members of the U.N.… Read More »