The Work of an International Lawyer

By: Ian Brownlie

This speech was presented by Ian Brownlie upon receiving the Wolfgang Friedmann Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of International Law. The speech was given at the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law Friedmann Award Dinner on February 1, 2006.

When Do Treaties Create Individually Enforceable Rights? The Supreme Court Ducks the Issue in Hamdan and Sanchez-Llamas

By: David Sloss

In both Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon, government briefs asserted that there is a “long-established presumption” that treaties do not create judicially-enforceable individual rights. In his dissent in Sanchez-Llamas, Justice Breyer challenged this...

Using Law for a Righteous Purpose: The Sun Zhigang Incident and Evolving Forms of Citizen Action in the People’s Republic of China

By: Keith J. Hand

The Chinese government’s rule of law campaign has created greater awareness of legal issues and generated bottom-up pressure for legal change. This dynamic was highlighted in April 2003, when Chinese media reports on the death of a young man named Sun Zhigang while in...

Reflections on US—Zeroing: A Study in Judicial Overreaching by the WTO Appellate Body

By: Roger P. Alford

This Essay discusses the role of the WTO Appellate Body through the lens of its decision in United States—Laws, Regulations, and Methodology for Calculating Dumping Margins. The author argues that the Appellate Body ignored textual obligations to defer to...

The Rule(s) of Trade and the Rhetos of Development: Reflections on the Functional and Aspirational Legitimacy of the WTO

By: Tomer Broude

This essay critically analyzes the role of development and poverty alleviation in the legal and institutional workings of the World Trade Organization (WTO). By analogy to Joseph Weiler’s analysis of the dynamics of internal and external legitimacy in WTO dispute...

Enforcing International Norms in the United States After Roper v. Simmons: The Case of Juvenile Offenders Sentenced to Life Without Parole

By: Vincent G. Lévy

Dorsey & Whitney Student Writing Prize in Comparative and International Law Best Note Award Winner This Note criticizes the argument against incorporating international norms through federal common law in the context of sentencing juvenile offenders to life...

China’s Share-Structure Reform: An Opportunity to Move Beyond Practical Solutions to Practical Problems

By: Sandra P. Kister

The “share-structure reform” currently underway in China’s stock market aims to resolve the so-called “split-equity structure,” wherein the Chinese securities regulator prohibits two-thirds of shares technically listed on the market from actually trading. This Note...