The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in the Context of Transnational Law

The development of exceptions in the Rules of Civil Procedure and federal statutes that apply only to litigants outside the US is explored. The Rules should not make exceptions on a blanket basis, as some proposals indicate

Long, paired A'A/Pahoehoe flows of Mauna Loa: Volcanological significance and insights they provide into volcano plumbing systems

The long lava flows of Mauna Loa, Hawaii have been cited as Earth's closed analogs to the large Martian flows. It is therefore important to understand the flow mechanics and characteristics of the Mauna Loa flows and to make use of these in an attempt to gain insights into Martian eruptive processes. Two fundamentally different kinds of long lava flows can be distinguished on Hawaiian volcanoes as in Martian flows. The two kinds may have identical initial viscosities, chemical compositions, flow lengths, and flow volumes, but their flow mechanisms and thermal energy budgets are radically different. One travels a distance set by the discharge rate as envisaged by Walker and Wadge, and the other travels a distance set mainly by the eruption duration and ground slope. In the Mauna Loa lavas, yield strength becomes an important flow morphology control only in the distal part of a'a lavas. The occurrence of paired flows on Mauna Loa yields insights into the internal plumbing systems of the volcano, and it is significant that all of the volume of the a'a flow must be stored in a magma chamber before eruption, while none of the volume of the pahoehoe needs to be so stored. Differentiation between the two kinds of flows on images of Martian volcanoes is possible and hence an improved understanding of these huge structures is acquired

The First Great Common

There are two, and perhaps three great common areas – outer space, the deep seabed, the Area; and (at least philosophically) cyberspace – available to humankind today. The first great commonwas, and remains in large part, the high seas. Part I traces the early history of the law of the sea, the customary law of the high seas, and the freedom of the seas principle from the Renaissance to the mid-twentieth century. Part II analyzes the freedoms of the high seas as negotiated in the 1958 and 1982 law of the sea conventions, with reference to similar concepts in space law and for certain land areas, notably Antarctica. Part III relates the law of the sea to the law of maritime warfare and neutrality, a lex specialis alongside general oceans law, discusses special treaty rules under the conventions, the impact of customary law and jus cogens on treaty and customary norms, and the place of the law of international organizations, in particular U.N. Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, contrasting lawmaking for space activities. Part IV notes other factors in law of the sea issues for this century: small wars, often noninternational in nature, e.g., insurgencies and civil wars; non-state actors like pirates or terrorists, the growing influence of nongovernmental organizations, and “lawfare,” often waged in instant media like the Internet Part of my inquiry is to ask whether problems and issues that have come with high seas uses in past centuries might be revisited for space and seabed issues. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote that “a page of history is worth a volume of logic” and that “the life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” George Santayana warned that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, perhaps including past mistakes. Might these thoughts, among others that follow, be useful in analysis

Information Warfare and Neutrality

This Article examines Information Warfare--that is, actions taken to affect adversary information and information systems conducted during a crisis or conflict to achieve or promote specific objectives against the adversary. The Article begins with an explanation of the development and structure of the Internet. It then cites examples of the use of information strategies in recent conflicts. Next, the Article turns to a discussion of the principles of neutrality in the U.N. Charter era. Specifically, the Article examines neutrality in the context of land warfare, naval warfare, aerial warfare, and outer space. Next, the Author discusses application of principles from each of these neutrality contexts to Information Warfare, including additional analysis of the principles of self-defense, reprisals, and retorsions. The Author continues by exploring the difficulties in analogizing principles of neutrality, customary law, as well as treaty law to the information warfare context. Finally, the Author describes additional considerations that must be addressed in determining guiding principles of international law in the information age