Restoring America’s Human Rights Reputation

Where does the United States\u27 human rights reputation stand six years after September 11? In releasing the State Department\u27s 2006 Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Barry Lowenkron called 2006 the year of the pushback. As the worldwide push for greater personal and political freedom grows stronger, he noted, it is being met with increasing resistance from those who feel threatened by change. What he did not fully analyze, however, is precisely why that pushback is occurring

Why Transnational Law Matters

What is transnational law and why does it matter? Transnational law represents a hybrid of domestic and international law that has assumed increasing significance in our lives. Let me address why transnational law is important, and then turn to some emerging trends, which I call transnational legal process, transnational legal substance, and the rise of transnational public law. I will close by considering ways in which legal education and American law schools should act to keep pace with the ascendancy of transnational law

The Haitian Refugee Litigation: a Case Study in Transnational Public Law Litigation

In reading about the history behind this lecture series, I was struck by how Lawrence I. Gerber is described: as a man born in New York City of immigrant parents who went on to attend City College and NYU Law School, who loved the law and remained faithful to it through 60 years of practice. His, in short, was the story of the American dream, a dream that all of us have shared-of a nation of immigrants and law, of hope, struggle, and ultimately, promise fulfilled

The Gants Principles for Online Dispute Resolution: Realizing the Chief Justice\u27s Vision for Courts in the Cloud

The late Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants was many things to many people: a beloved friend and family member, a visionary judge, an advocate for the vulnerable, and a forward-looking thinker. This Article recalls both personal and professional aspects of Ralph to illuminate an area of law where his judicial legacy will endure: online dispute resolution (ODR). Well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Justice Gants recognized the significance of online, cloud-based courts and articulated key principles for developing these courts to improve the lives of those who appear before them. This Article assesses the status and trends governing the recent explosion of ODR in both international and domestic settings. It closes by presenting four “Gants Principles,” which Ralph championed and urged us toward, to govern how ODR systems can develop more equitably and efficiently

A Law Unto Itself?

In an uncertain world, crisis demands executive action. And so 2005, a year of crisis, became a year of executive muscle-flexing, in response to crises ranging from Hurricane Katrina to avian flu to the Global War on Terror. In many ways, the legal debates generated were déjà vu all over again. Exorbitant claims of executive power in the War on Terror triggered the strongest clash since the Iran-Contra Affair between a constitutional vision of unchecked executive discretion bottomed on sweeping dicta in United States v. Curtiss- Wright Export Corp. and a counter-vision of shared institutional powers symbolized by Justice Jackson’s canonical concurrence in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: a clash of visions I discussed more than fifteen years ago