ZiefBrief

Nuclear Non-Proliferation — A New Way Forward from Prof. Jack Garvey

Addressing acknowledged flaws in the consensual regime of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, USF's Professor Jack I. Garvey calls for a New Architecture for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The keystone of the new architecture would be a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring nuclear weapons proliferation to be a "threat to peace" and engaging the sanctions regime of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. The proposed new regime would be mandatory, and would apply to non-state actors as well as to states. It would also seek to formalize and strengthen the inspection and verification role of the IAEA. Professor Garvey presents evidence that the political will exists to move toward the new architecture.

This is Professor Garvey's second article on nuclear proliferation issues. The first, also published in the Journal of Conflict and Security Law, was The International Institutional Imperative for Countering the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Proliferation Security Initiative.

United Nations Treaty Series - Online and Free

The United Nations has quietly eliminated all access fees for its online U.N. Treaty Series.

The U.N. Publications office offers this free access via a generic username and password:

Username: treaties

Password: 12345

To search the treaties, visit the United Nations Treaty Collection, select "Access to Databases"  (near the bottom of the page), then select "United Nations Treaty Series." Results include full text and exact page images.

[Thanks for the tip to U.N. research expert Wiltrud Harms of the U.C. Berkeley Law Library!]

[Update, January 30,2008]  Wiltrud Harms brings more news from the U.N. Treaty Section on the status of the online U.N. Treaty Series. The Treaty Section confirms that access is now free, but also writes:

But at the same time, we need to alert you to the fact that the website that you see will be abolished and replaced by a new website, which is currently under construction.

As the opening page of the current site mentions: the site was frozen per 15 November. This means that the status of the multilateral treaties has not been updated since. The Depositary Notifications have been added since then.

Stay tuned for further updates once the new U.N. treaty web site is up.

Life Without Parole for Juvenile Offenders: A Human Rights Report

Today ZiefBrief celebrates Human Rights Day by featuring Sentencing our Children to Die in Prison: Global Law and Practice [PDF; 51 pages], a newly-released report from the Center for Law and Global Justice here at USF.

The report, co-authored by Professor Connie de la Vega and Michelle Leighton, the Center's Director for Human Rights Programs, deals with the practice of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole ("LWOP"). It surveys the countries where juvenile LWOP sentences are or may be imposed, argues that international law prohibits such sentences, and explores alternative juvenile justice and rehabilitation models. And for legal researchers, the report's appendix contains a 50-state survey, complete with citations and annotations, on juvenile LWOP laws.

Law Library of Congress Gets a New Look, Maintains Useful Research Tools.

In honor of the 175th anniversary of their creation, the Law Library of Congress unveiled a newly redesigned web page. ZiefBrief would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the LLOC on their anniversary and to remind our readers about what a useful research destination they can be. Two useful resources of special note are:

Guide to Law Online:
This is a very useful list of links maintained by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division designed to provide a portal of Internet sources of interest to legal researchers. In addition to providing links to the full text of cases, codes, regulations the pages of the Guide provide useful links for lay people interested in the law.

The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)
GLIN is a searchable online database containing laws, judicial decision, legislative records and legal literature for jurisdictions spanning the globe. Contributors are governmental agencies and international organizations that add original-language, officially published, full text documents in electronic format. Unofficial summaries (generally in English) accompany each document. Full texts of materials in the GLIN are available as PDF files.

What's New on GlobaLex

We've posted several times about GlobaLex, the website dedicated to providing research guides on international, comparative, and foreign law.  You can check out GlobaLex research guides by category at these pages:  foreign law research guides; international law research guides; and comparative law research guides. The site has just posted several new and updated guides, including the following:

• Guide to Legal Research in Honduras by José Miguel Álvarez and Jessica Ramos
• Researching Icelandic Law by Rán Tryggvadóttir and Thordis Ingadóttir
• A Guide to the Singapore Legal System and Legal Research by Tzi Yong Sam Sim
• The Law in Zimbabwe by Otto Saki and Tatenda Chiware
• Guide to Caribbean Law Research (updated Feb. 2007) by Yemisi Dina

Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for reminding us to check out the latest on GlobaLex!

Judging the Killing Fields of Cambodia - Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force

Cambodia has taken another step closer to trying former Khmer Rouge officials on charges of genocide, according to reports in today's news: Judges sworn in for Khmer Rouge (BBC); and Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal judges sworn in at Cambodia royal palace (Jurist Paper Chase).

Trials may begin in 2007, and will cover events that took place during 1975-1979.

Official information is available from the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force web site, which includes relevant legislation, indictments, a chronology, and an introduction to the trials.

Law and Terrorism - A Scholarly Survey of Sources

If you're researching any legal issue — domestic or international, criminal or non-criminal — involving terrorism, make Andrew Grossman's Research Guide to Cases and Materials on Terrorism one of your first stops.

The author, a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer and lawyer, writes in his introduction:

The point of this survey is not so much to list sources — many of these could be found with a search engine and legal database; others by using some of the better bibliographic sites listed here. It is rather to provide some assistance in planning research and in formulating issues to address — to examine the range of issues and provide links, first to sources that are considered reliable and unbiased, then to specimen law cases and scholarly articles and, finally, to opinions and arguments not otherwise adumbrated which, even if they are in support of a particular agenda are coherent, plausible and forthright in their advocacy or apologia. Collected here are many of the major court cases involving terrorism and terrorists of the modern era, as well as a sampling of issues related to terrorism.

Mr. Grossman's guide is hosted by New York University's GlobaLex, which publishes top-quality guides to researching foreign, comparative and international law. More information is available at the About GlobaLex page.

[A virtual hat-tip to GlobaLex editor Mirela Roznovschi.]

Blogging the Saddam Hussein Trial - Experts' Perspectives

In Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog, leading experts in public international law discuss and debate issues raised by the war-crimes trial of Iraq's deposed president. Grotian Moment bloggers include law professors from the U.S. and abroad, practitioners, and lawyers with IGOs such as the UN. At this writing they have contributed substantive essays on over 30 issues ranging from "The Right to Self Representation" to "Head of State Immunity" to "The Crime of Aggression" to "Lessons from the Milosevic Trial" to "Judge Amin's Resignation" to "Responding to Saddam’s Hunger Strike." In the latest post, Issue #34: Show Trial or Real Trial?, Michael P. Scharf and Gregory S. McNeal take a look at the evidence presented by the prosecution.

Grotian Moment also links to breaking news and to background information on the trial.

Grotian Moment is co-sponsored by the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and by the Public International Law & Policy Group. Its title derives from the term "Grotian moment," which the blog defines as "a legal development that is so significant that it can create new customary international law or radically transform the interpretation of treaty-based law."

[A tip of the hat to Cornell Law Library's InSITE!]

Human Rights in 2005 - The State Department's Report

Today the United States Department of State released the 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.  Under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and Trade Act of 1974, the State Department is required to issue these annual reports on countries receiving foreign aid and on other U.N. member nations.

Previous reports, starting from 1999, are available on the State Department's human rights reports page. Reports from 1993 to 1998 are available via the Democracy and Human Rights section of the State Department archive maintained by the Federal Depository Library at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In due time a print copy of the 2005 report will arrive in the Zief Library, where it will be shelved on the lower level at call number JC 571 .U48a Law Stacks.

Codifying Public International Law - A New International Law Commission Site

The International Law Commission, a United Nations body whose object is nothing less than "the  promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification," has a new, content-rich web site.

Since its beginnings in 1948, the ILC has addressed: the law of treaties; the succession of states; state jurisdiction and immunity from jurisdiction; the law of international organizations; the position of the individual in international law; international criminal law; the law of international spaces (including the law of the sea); the law of international relations; and the settlement of disputes.

The new ILC web site features background information, a research guide, a topical summary of the areas of international law the ILC has considered or is considering, and a fully-searchable and nearly-complete collection of all ILC documents from 1948 to the present.

[A tip of the hat to the reference librarians at the UN's Dag Hammarskjöld Library and their UN Pulse blog.]