A Legal Herstory of WWII ‘Comfort Women’ — Chapters: Past, Present, and Beyond

This paper delves into the legal accountability and historical narrative, which go hand in hand, surrounding the comfort women system implemented by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII. These women, including my late grandmother from South Korea, were forced into sexual slavery, servicing Japanese soldiers across the Asia-Pacific. Despite being one of the most significant atrocities in history, with victims from 10 countries and between 20,000 to 500,000 individuals, the plight of comfort women remains relatively unheard of. The politicization of the comfort women movement has been a barrier to both acknowledgment and justice. My grandmother\u27s silence for 80 years reflects the complex interplay of shame, fear, and the manipulation of survivors’ narratives by political agendas. This politicization has led to the marginalization of survivors in monumental historical and legal discourses, including treaty negotiations and any relevant discussions with Japan. Central to my grandmother\u27s concerns were the possibilities for legal redress and acknowledgment of individual criminal responsibility at the post-WWII tribunals and the outcome of a hypothetical ICC trial. These questions anchor the scholarship presented in this paper, which seeks to expand the criminal responsibility record of WWII Japanese government and military leaders regarding the comfort women system. This research unfolds across several sections. Initially, it explores the emergence of the comfort women reparation movement, the delayed public recognition of these atrocities, and the global litigation efforts to secure justice for survivors. Subsequently, it argues that a substantial body of evidence exists capable of establishing the systematic and bureaucratic nature of the system. Despite the limitations of international criminal law during the Nüremberg and IMTFE eras, this paper posits that the IMTFE could have feasibly extended arguments that crimes against humanity had been committed by Japanese leaders for their role in the enslavement of comfort women. Further, the paper examines the WIWCT\u27s successful attribution of criminal responsibility to Japanese officials, enabled by advancements made during the ICTY and ICTR towards the legal understanding of sexual violence and slavery, as well as shifts in societal attitudes towards women in the 1990s. Additionally, it considers how the Rome Statute\u27s detailed provisions on crimes against humanity could hypothetically be relied upon by comfort women survivors to pursue justice if any perpetrators remained alive today. Essentially, this paper is a granddaughter\u27s effort to reconcile her grandmother\u27s lingering questions with the evolving landscape of international criminal law. It highlights the enduring relevance of the comfort women narrative in discussions on gender equality, sexual subjugation, and legal redress for wartime atrocities. This effort advocates for continued scholarship and legal scrutiny to properly understand the mechanics of the comfort women system and the socio-political dynamics involved, to prevent the recurrence of similar atrocities, and to honor the legacy of comfort women

Black Girls Youth Participatory Action Research & Pedagogies

More than a decade ago, as a group of anti-racist and feminist researchers, including one of the authors, set out to survey the landscape of the schooling experiences of Black girls, we encountered a pronounced knowledge desert that threatened research-informed policy interventions that served to protect Black girls. Most research at the time focused on the educational experiences of male, female, or Black students. There was hardly any readily available data on the school-based outcomes of Black girls as a specific group of students with a unique set of experiences. In Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, & Underprotected (Crenshaw, Ocen, & Nanda, 2015), qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized to examine the lived experiences of Black girls and other girls of color. Scholars and activists across disciplinary fields conducted in-depth interviews, surveys, focus groups, and town hall meetings to better comprehend Black girls\u27 lived realities. The Black Girls Matter (BGM) report served as an intervention that filled a knowledge gap, and it brought to light the unique experiences that Black girls and other girls of color experienced in their quest to seek a free and appropriate education

D-Hacking

Recent regulatory efforts, including Executive Order 14110 and the AI Bill of Rights, have focused on mitigating discrimination in AI systems through novel and traditional application of anti-discrimination laws. While these initiatives rightly emphasize fairness testing and mitigation, we argue that they pay insufficient attention to robust bias measurement and mitigation — and that without doing so, the frameworks cannot effectively achieve the goal of reducing discrimination in deployed AI models. This oversight is particularly concerning given the instability and brittleness of current algorithmic bias mitigation and fairness optimization methods, as highlighted by growing evidence in the algorithmic fairness literature. This instability heightens the risk of what we term discrimination-hacking or d-hacking, a scenario where, inadvertently or deliberately, the selection of models based on favorable fairness metrics within specific samples could lead to misleading or non-generalizable fairness performance. We term this effect d-hacking because systematically selecting among numerous models to find the least discriminatory one parallels the concept of p-hacking in social science research of selectively reporting outcomes that appear statistically significant resulting in misleading conclusions. In light of these challenges, we argue that AI fairness regulation should not only call for fairness measurement and bias mitigation, but also specify methods to ensure robust solutions to discrimination in AI systems. Towards the goal of arguing for robust fairness assessment and bias mitigation in AI regulation, this paper (1) synthesizes evidence of d-hacking in the computer science literature and provides experimental demonstrations of d-hacking, (2) analyzes current legal frameworks to understand the treatment of robust fairness and non-discriminatory behavior, both in recent AI regulation proposals and traditional U.S. discrimination law, and (3) outlines policy recommendations for preventing d-hacking in high-stakes domains

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Annual Report 2023

This year the Sabin Center for Climate Change introduces its first annual report, which highlights and synthesizes our cutting-edge research and innovative engagements in 2023

Climate Litigation in the Global South: Mapping Report

In recent years, climate litigation has undergone a notable transformation globally, witnessing a surge in cases across diverse jurisdictions. While scholarly interest has predominantly focused on cases from the Global North, attention to litigation originating in the Global South has been more limited. Nonetheless, understanding the distinct legal grounds, remedies sought, and objectives of plaintiffs in the Global South is crucial. This report addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive insight into the current landscape of climate litigation in the Global South. The report utilizes data from the Sabin Center’s Global Climate Change Litigation databases, which has seen an influx of new cases in recent years, thanks to enhanced data collection efforts and more cases being filed, especially in the past four years. By analyzing key metrics such as case numbers, statuses, trajectories, and legal decisions, the report offers concise analyses of climate litigation within each jurisdiction. It acknowledges the challenges and opportunities unique to the Global South’s legal landscape. As of March 2024, the databases encompass close to 2,629 cases, spanning 54 jurisdictions (excluding international or regional courts, tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies, or other adjudicatory bodies). Of these jurisdictions, 21 are from the Global South, accounting for 40.7% of those covered. However, despite this representation, Global South cases in the database are proportionally lower in number. Global South cases represent only 8.3% of the total cases documented

The Missing Half: Revisiting Monetary Remedies To Redress Racial Segregation

This Essay considers whether courts should have awarded monetary remedies in housing desegregation cases. By examining the relief awarded in public housing desegregation cases brought in United States federal courts between 1966 and 1994, this Essay reveals the limitations of the almost exclusive reliance on forward-looking integration relief as a remedy. The Essay argues that there is a “missing half” of remedies that courts never awarded: compensatory damages for the loss of wealth and opportunity caused by housing segregation. Forward-looking remedies that promised integration have often gone unfulfilled. Understanding these “missing” damages is crucial given recent Supreme Court rulings on race-conscious programs, as well as political and cultural debates about how to provide a remedy for the harms done by structural racism. The Essay encourages a greater focus on the role of monetary relief as compensation for racial harm going forward, while also urging that commentators and advocates move beyond calcified debates about integration versus equalization (or “place-based” approaches) as a remedy for housing segregation. As a legal and policy matter, redress for housing segregation should include a spectrum of remedies including individual compensatory damages, community-based compensation, and forward-looking injunctive relief. The Essay also has implications for the current discussions in the United States about how and whether to provide reparations for Black Americans. The Essay suggests that repair should include individual payments, given what we learn from the mixed success of injunctive relief remedies in litigation

Regulating Shipping of Carbon Dioxide for Sequestration

A number of facilities intended for permanent sequestration of carbon dioxide are being developed in the United States. Several will be located on or near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, making them easily accessible to ships. Meanwhile, in Europe there is substantial interest in capturing carbon dioxide from industrial operations, but currently inadequate sequestration facilities, and growing interest in shipping carbon dioxide for sequestration in the United States. This Article reviews the main U.S. federal laws applicable to transportation and geologic storage of carbon dioxide, including laws enacted to implement relevant international treaties. The Article also contextualizes its main findings in light of the National Environmental Policy Act’s application to projects involving transportation and related storage of carbon dioxide. Finally, it considers paradigmatic state laws on the topic, namely those from Louisiana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Texas

The End of Consent: Data and the Corporate-Consumer Relationship

Consumer data is largely regulated through the notice-and-choice approach in the United States, which relies on consumer consent. The notice-and-choice approach is rooted in the control theory of information privacy. This paper will argue that the control theory is limited due to its reliance on property law, its breadth, as well as it reinforcing the ‘no privacy in public’ concept. Further, the notice-and-choice approach relies on consent being both free and informed. However, consent cannot be considered free due to the lack of choice and the manipulation exerted on the consumer. Also, consent is not informed as the consumer lacks adequate understanding of the privacy policies, as well as the consumer\u27s cognitive limitations. Additionally, the technological innovation: both the dissemination of data-tracking technology as well as the developments in data science — data collection, data analysis, and data aggregation have had serious implications on the role of consent. Namely, the conception of information must involve a contextual and de-abstracted notion. Contemporary data practices have allowed corporations to infer new data about the individual, and consequently construct a data double of the consumer. The data double is the digital mirroring of the consumer, which is developed through pervasive data tracking. While traditional corporate practices rely on the consumer to consensually divulge information, the corporation is now able to circumvent consent through inferring data from the data double. Therefore, corporations are able to circumvent consent by relying on inferred-generated data, made possible via algorithmic inferences and large-language models

Climate Allocation Compass, a Framework for Real-World Decarbonization (Compass-FRWD)

Climate finance currently falls far short of what\u27s required to achieve net-zero targets. In a collaboration with the Man Group, we offer a framework setting out how investors can help to close this gap. Key takeaways: To address the global climate finance gap,CCSI and Man Group have developed the Climate Allocation Compass, a Framework for Real-World Decarbonization (‘Compass-FRWD’). Compass-FRWD is a six-step asset allocation framework designed to guide strategic capital investment across multiple portfolios. It does so by setting financing targets relative to real-world emission gaps, thereby prioritizing sectors and geographies according to decarbonization needs. Compass-FRWD provides a cyclical, investor-level framework, taking a multi-asset class approach to achieving optimal capital allocation through continuous adaptation and learning. Overcoming investment barriers also requires collaboration across financial services, with asset owners, policymakers and multilateral development banks. It requires bolstering issuers’ corporate transition strategies, addressing data reliability issues, and enlarging the universe of investable opportunities

The Will to Chaos and Disorder: The Behemoth as a Model of Political Economy

The history of political economy is tormented by beasts. The most famous is the Leviathan, the giant serpentine monster that figures in Hobbes’s masterpiece of modern political theory. Robert Fredona and Sophus Reinert spotlight another sea monster, the Kraken, that giant octopus or squid with a particular morphology (i.e., its tentacles) that so fittingly describes the grip of multinational corporations, stateless financial capital, social media, and tech giants today. But there are still other monsters in the bestiary of political economy. In this essay, I highlight the Behemoth, a land monster that captures another critical dimension of political economy: the willful and intentional deployment of chaos and disorder as a way of governing. Franz Neumann, political and legal theorist and lawyer, Columbia University professor, and member of the Frankfurt School in exile, placed the Behemoth at the heart — and in the title — of his analysis of Germany’s political economy under the Nazi regime. Alongside the Leviathan surveillance state and the many tentacular grips of multinational, social media, and tech Krakens, the Behemoth remains a key model to better understand current forms of capitalism