Yale Law Library - Foreign and International Blog

UNdata - a New Portal for UN Statistical Data

Evelyn Ma — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:08:00 GMT

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the statistical arm of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), has launched a new web-based data service UNdata. Instead of clicking through data sets scattered in the websites of different UN agencies, users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system through a single entry point.

The new portal provides useful features such as Country Profiles, Advanced Search and Glossaries to aid research. Currently, there are 14 databases and 6 glossaries containing over 55 million data points and covering a whole range of statistics relating to Population, Industry, Energy and the Environment, Trade and National Accounts. The UNdata wiki provides links to the sources' homepages and includes information about the methodology by which data sets are collected.

Finders keepers? Spain claims sunken treasure

Teresa Miguel — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:23:00 GMT

NPR reported this morning on Spain's battle to reclaim the treasure from a sunken Spanish vessel recovered in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean by Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, FL. The 19th century shipwreck contained some 17 tons in silver coins, cuff links and other personal items, and other artifacts; it may be the most valuable treasure ever discovered. Exact details of the discovery have yet to be revealed.

A Federal District Court in Tampa is reviewing Spain's claim to the treasure that Odyssey recovered. Spain insists that Odyssey's claim to the warship Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes is immoral and illegal. Spain compares the Nuestra Señora site to the grave sites of Gettysburg and the U.S.S. Arizona, as the sinking of Nuestra Señora precipitated Spain's entry into the Napoleonic wars. Odyssey maintains, however, that they found no vessel and no human remains, just the cargo, and there is nothing to prove that it is the cargo of La Senora. In PACER, the federal court's password-protected electronic filing database (which is available free to the public in several federal depository libraries), you can review court filings for this case (8:07-cv-00614-SDM-MAP) as well as several others in which the Kingdom of Spain has filed a claim (ask a reference librarian for assistance if needed).

So just what is the law pertaining to sunken treasures? Finders keepers? Return to rightful owner?

The Yale Law Library has several books pertaining to the law of sunken treasure and cultural patrimony. See, for example, Legal Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National and International Perspectives. This book compares the laws, traditions, and perspectives of various countries, including the United States and Spain. Note the Subject Headings at the bottom of the record: Cultural property -- Protection -- Law and legislation; Shipwrecks; Salvage; Treasure-trove; Underwater archaeology -- Law and legislation. Click on any of them to find more works pertaining to that topic.

In comparison, see, The Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National Perspectives in Light of the UNESCO Convention 2001, for an international law focus and analysis. Under the Subject Heading, underwater archaeology - law and legislation, you will find books in several languages other than English, including French German, Spanish, Russian and Italian. Admiralty law also comes into play, specifically the Supplementary Admiralty Rules. See also, Admiralty and Maritime Law, available in print and electronically.

There are several international law databases you might try as well to find case law and law review articles. See our Foreign and International Resources page for the plethora of electronic resources at your fingertips, or ask a reference librarian for assistance.

Israel Turns 60

Teresa Miguel — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:42:00 GMT

Joe Hodnicki, Associate Director for Library Operations at the University of Cincinnatti Law Library, has written and excellent and informative documentary history of Israel on his Law Librarian Blog

Myanmar

Teresa Miguel — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:38:00 GMT

Cyclone Nargis has thrust Myanmar into the public spotlight, as pressure increases to allow foreign aid to help cyclone victims.

In February, Myanmar had announced its intention to hold a democratic referendum on a draft constitution this month, and to hold democratic elections in 2010. Immediately prior to the cyclone, on May 2, 2008, the U.N. had taken official notice of Myanmar's intent and encouraged an open process. However, today the U.N. is urging Myanmar to delay this process.

Myanmar is being monitored by the United Nations for human rights violations. On March 18, 2008, the UN Security Council held a meeting during which Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Myanmar, reported on his March 6 - 10, 2008 visit to Myanmar. Mr. Kyaw Tint Swe, the government representative from Myanmar, was present and also spoke at the meeting. The meeting was transcribed in S.PV/5854, the provisional record of the public briefing.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has spoken many times to the human rights situation in Myanmar. Most recently, on March 28, 2008, the Council adopted resolution A/HRC/7/L.36 wherein the Council strongly deplored the "ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar" and extended the mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. In a separate but related resolution A/HRC/7/L.37, the HRC, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1992/58 and 2005/10 of 14 April 2005, extended for one year the the Special Rapporteur's mandate, and urged, inter alia, the Government of Myanmar to "cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur and to respond favourably to his requests to visit the country and to provide him with all information and access to relevant bodies and institutions necessary to enable him to fulfill his mandate effectively."

Watch the U.N. Human Rights Council, 7th Session UN Webcast on the two resolutions: the "Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" (A/HRC/7/L.36), and "Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" (A/HRC/7/L.37). both from March 28, 2008 at the Palais de Nations in Geneva. See also, an archived video of "The Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" from October 2, 2007 at the Palais de Nations in Geneva.

Find Security Council and other UN documents related to Myanmar on the website of the Security Council Report - Myanmar. SCR is an NGO headquartered in New York City.

The Yale Law Library collects human rights and interdisciplinary materials pertaining to Myanmar; they are cataloged and located with other human rights publications or social science materials on the Upper East Side rather than in the Myanmar/Burmese legal collection (KNL) on the Lower East Side. If you conduct a Morris Subject Heading search: Human Rights - Burma, you'll return 26 hits. You can then sort Newest First and you'll find several books written in the last few years, including a 2008 publication entitled Promoting Human Rights in Burma: A Critique of Western Sanctions Policy.

The Yale Law Library has a 2005 volume of Myanmar Laws, our most current compilation of laws from Myanmar. This is an English translation of the yearbook of Myanmar laws originally published in Burmese. You will find older materials if you do a Subject Heading search on Morris: Laws - Burma. Note that the laws of Myanmar are still cataloged by Library of Congress using Burma rather than Myanmar. Why is that? During a 2006 interview, Barbara Tillett, chief of the Library of Congress Cataloging Policy and Support Office, explained: "The Library of Congress is the national library for the United States and to some extent we reflect US policy (for example using Burma not Myanmar)." Read the BBC's take on this issue. You will see that our collection of law from Myanmar is quite small; there is not a lot being published nor do we heavily collect from this country. See our Country-by-Country guide to foreign legal research: Myanmar, for more print and electronic resources.

For assistance researching Myanmar law, please contact the reference team.

Brandeis Institute for International Judges

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:46:00 GMT

The Brandeis Institute for International Judges (BIIJ) "provides international judges with the opportunity to meet and discuss critical issues concerning the theory and practice of international justice. Institutes are held approximately every 18 months, bringing together judges serving on international courts and tribunals around the world to reflect on both the philosophical aspects and practical challenges of their work. The most recent Institute was held from July 23-28, 2007, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA. The next Institute is scheduled for January 4-9, 2009, in Trinidad."

The BIIJ website has reports for each of the previous institutes along with a group photo of each year's participants. The BIIJ is just one of the Brandeis Programs in International Justice and Society, which is part of the The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University.

The Old Bailey Proceedings, 1674-1913, Go Online

Evelyn Ma — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:39:00 GMT

London's Old Bailey Criminal Court cases 1674-1913 are now searchable online. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey,1674-1913 include transcripts of 197,745 criminal trials held at London's Central Criminal Court between the years 1674-1913. Other than chronicling a string of sensational trials in London in the period, the free website was also billed as "the largest single source of searchable historical information about British lives that has ever been published". See full story here.

The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal

Teresa Miguel — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:58:00 GMT

NPR reported this morning that Tariq Aziz, former Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein, begins trial today for the execution of forty-two food merchants in 1992. Aziz, 72, has been in prison for over 5 years and is challenging the charges. In the Anfal Campaign Trial, Gen. Ali Hassan Majeed, aka Chemical Ali for his use of poisonous gas against villagers, has already been sentenced to death by hanging for the mass killings of Kurds during the Sadaam era. Here you can find an English translation of the Anfal Campaign Judgment. Of course, Saddam Hussein was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by the Iraqi Special Tribunal on December 30, 2006.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal, also known as the Iraqi High Tribunal or the Special Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (SICT), was initially created in 2003 by the Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (also found here), issued by the now-dissolved Coalition Provisional Authority and enacted by the Iraqi Governing Council. Due to legitimacy questions raised as a result of the Tribunal being established by an occupying force, the Iraqi Interim Government passed a new statute (pdf) in 2005 creating the current Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (SICT). The SICT, like its predecessor, is an independent tribunal located in Baghdad devoted to the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and the leaders of his regime for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other crimes committed between 1968 and 2003.

The Law Library of Congress has an excellent website on the trial of Saddam Hussein. The site includes primary documents and secondary resources pertaining to Saddam Hussein's trial, the creation of the Special Tribunal and appeal, and the laws, treaties, and resolutions related to the Tribunal and relevant trials.

The Yale Law Library has many books written on the Hussein trial, the Tribunal, and Iraq generally. See, for example, Saddam on Trial: Understanding and Debating the Iraqi High Tribunal. Also try a Subject Heading serach: Hussein, Saddam. All Iraqi foreign law is classified under KMJ and can be found on the Lower East Side. For electronic resources pertaining to Iraqi law, see our Country-by-Country guide to legal research. Finally, for research assistance, don't hesitate to contact the reference team.

Open CRS and New CRS Reports on Tibet and East Asian Monetary Policies

Evelyn Ma — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:37:00 GMT

Congressional Research Service, funded by taxpayers' dollars, provides members of Congress with reports on current political, legal and socio-economic issues. Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to make all CRS Reports available in the open source. Recent CRS Reports of interest to those following current affairs relating to Asia include East Asia's Foreign Exchange Rate Policies and Tibet: Problems, Prospects, and U.S. Policy.

Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal

Teresa Miguel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:10:00 GMT

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, established on January 19, 1981 and located in the Hague, was created in an effort to resolve the crisis between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America arising from the detention of 52 United States nationals at the United States Embassy in Tehran which commenced in November 1979, and the subsequent freeze of Iranian assets by the United States of America.

The Tribunal has jurisdiction to decide claims of United States nationals against Iran and of Iranian nationals against the United States which arise out of:

debts, contracts, expropriations or other measures affecting property rights;
certain "official claims" between the two Governments relating to the purchase and sale of goods and services;
disputes between the two Governments concerning the interpretation or performance of the Algiers Declarations; and,
certain claims between United States and Iranian banking institutions.

The Official website of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal is in both English and Persian. It contains background information, governing documents, and a searchable database of tribunal decisions, awards, and other documents. You must register for the database; it is free and login information will be emailed to you within a week or so.

Yale Law Library also has the complete collection of decisions and awards in the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Reports - KZ238.I7 I73 on L1. We also have monographs on L1 analyzing the tribunal and the decisions of the tribunal. See, for example:

The Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at 25: the cases everyone needs to know for investor-state & international arbitration - KZ238.I7 D72 2007
The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and the process of international claims resolution: a study by the Panel on State Responsibility of the American Society of International Law - KZ 238.I7 I733 2000
UNCITRAL arbitration rules as interpreted and applied: selected problems in light of the practice of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal - KZ238.I7 P45 1994

Spain's New Cabinet

Teresa Miguel — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:21:00 GMT

Spain's re-elected Prime Minister José Luís Zapatero recently named his new 17-member cabinet, of whom 9 are female. The cabinet member getting the most attention and causing the most controversy, both domestic and international, is 37-year old Defense Minister Carme Chacón, who is 7 months pregnant. Hailing from Catalunya, Ms. Chacón, who was head of the Housing Ministry during P.M. Zapatero's first term, is credited with garnering support from her powerful region during last month's election.

P.M. Zapatero also created two new ministries: the Equality Ministry, headed by 31-year old Andalusian Bibiana Aido, Spain's youngest Cabinet member ever; and the Science and Innovation Ministry, headed by Basque molecular biologist Cristina Garmendia. Is Spain closing the gender gap?

Yale Law Library has an impressive collection of Spanish legal materials: historical and current, monographs and serials, print and electronic. The Spanish collection of monographs resides with the rest of our foreign law on the Lower East Side, LC Call No. KKT, and in the Rare Book Room, where you can examine Las Siete Partidas from 1550, for example. In addition to monographs, you will also find legislation and jurisprudence, such as Repertorio de Jurisprudencia. There are also several serial publications on the Upper East Side, such as Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional and Revista Española de Derecho Internacional. The library also subscribes to vLex, a Spanish database of laws, jurisprudence, and legal literature (IP access). For more electronic resources related to Spanish law, see Spain in our Country-by-Country Guide to foreign legal research, part of our larger Foreign and International Law Resources webpage. You'll find links to other sources, as well, such as La Constitución Española de 1812.

Photo and caption from The Independent article:

JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images

The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero poses on the steps of the Moncloa palace in Madrid with his female cabinet ministers (left to right) Science and Innovation minister Cristina Garmendia, Transport and Development minister Magdalena Alvarez, Education, Social Affairs and Sports minister Mercedes Cabrera Calvo, Defence minister Carme Chacon, deputy prime minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Public Administration minister Elena Salgado, Equality minister Bibiana Aido, Housing minister Beatriz Corredor and Agriculture and Environment minister Elena Espinosa

Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:31:00 GMT

On February 14, 2005, Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 other were killed in a bomb attack in Beirut. The act was immediately condemned as a "terrorist bombing" in a formal statement by the President of the United Nations Security Council. Shortly thereafter, the U.N. appointed an international independent investigation Commission. About one year later, on May 29, 2006, pursuant to Security Council resolution 1664, the United Nations and the Lebanese Republic negotiated an agreement on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Further, pursuant to Security Council resolution 1757 (Annex and Statute included) of May 30, 2007, the U.N. Security Council held, inter alia, that the Statute of the Special Tribunal, would enter into force on June 10, 2007.

The U.N. Special Tribunal website has a complete list of documents relating to the creation of the Special Tribunal. There is also a timeline of events and a factsheet explaining the procedures and applicable law of the Special Tribunal.

Lebanese criminal law relating to the prosecution and punishment for acts of terrorism and crimes and offenses against life and personal integrity will apply to the Special Tribunal; the death penalty and forced labor have been excluded as possible punishments for those found guilty.

The Law Library of Congress has created a report, the Hariri Assassination Legal Commentary, also available in pdf, that "explains some of the legal issues relevant to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by discussing:

the jurisdictional basis for international judicial bodies;
examining the jurisdictional reach of mixed tribunals;
exploring the legal nature of the February 14, 2005 bombing; and
identifying a number of legal questions for which the final answers may shape radically the jurisdictional reach of international criminal law."

Ulrich Mans and Lisette Sinkeler of the Hague Center for Strategic Studies express their opinion on the Special Tribunal (also in pdf). The report notes that eight anti-Syrian politicians have been killed since 2004, and acknowledges that the Hague will become, for Lebanese and Syrians, a place of "public accusation of the most influential elites in Syria."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad repeatedly denies that his country had anything to do with the murder of Prime Minister Hariri. (See, CNN interview, among many other news reports in the BBC, NYT, and others).

Security Council Report, a non-profit working with Columbia University's Center on International Organization, has monthly reports on Lebanon as well as key U.N. documents referenced in their reports.

New China-related Acquisitions

Evelyn Ma — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:48:00 GMT

For those interested in the recent legal developments in China, here's a list of new China-related library acquisitions in Chinese, English and Italian. They include commentaries on the new Property Law and Labor Contract Law. Two titles may be of interest to those doing empirical research: Zhu Jingwen's work with statistical data on the Chinese court system (in Chinese) and China Development Review, a publication by the Development Research Council, the policy research arm of the PRC State Council (in English and Chinese).

Children’s Rights: International and National Laws and Practices

Teresa Miguel — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:51:00 GMT

The Library of Congress has launched a series of multinational, comparative legal studies on the rights of children.

"Children’s Rights examines sixteen nations, across five continents: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, and the United Kingdom (England and Wales). For each nation, the study focuses on the domestic laws and policies that affect child health and social welfare, education and special needs, child labor and exploitation, sale and trafficking of children, and juvenile justice. Children’s Rights also lists which pertinent international treaties the nation has ratified and implemented."

The reports, as well as an overview (providing a summary of relevant global and regional legal instruments, including human-rights related instruments and international agreements on child protection and placement), are available in both html and pdf format, with footnotes and hyperlinks. The overview and the country reports, as they become available, can be accessed from the project's main page.

Recueil des Cours - online!

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:11:00 GMT

Finally! It's online and searchable! The Hague Academy of International Law's Recueil des Cours de l'Academie de la Haye. One can search this entire collection of international law articles by volume, year, author, or keyword. Although we do not subscribe to full-text access to the articles, once you have found a relevant article, you can locate it in our complete print collection in the Yale Law Library on L1, Call No. KZ 3092 .R43.

New Chinese government restructuring plan unfolds

Evelyn Ma — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:47:00 GMT

The PRC National People's Congress in March approved a government reorganization plan that consolidated several ministries and appointed new officials to top leadership posts. See the latest analysis from the US-China Business Council. For an interesting commentary on the developments of the Chinese party leadership, see CRS Report "China's 17th Communist Party Congress 2007: Leadership and policy implications".