Established in 2015, the MJIL Blog presents writing from MJIL’s Associate Editors, who come to the journal with varied and diverse interests in and experience with International Law. The Blog provides students with a robust platform to express their views on relevant and contemporary topics, with each new associate publishing at least one piece of high-quality short-form scholarship per volume.
This blog contains opinion pieces by members of the Journal’s editorial staff, academics and practitioners on issues germane to the Journal’s area of focus. The views expressed in an individual post represent the views of the post’s author only.
Dec 2020
Grace Brody
Vol. 42 Executive Editor
Much has been made of the recent rise of Islamophobia in Europe, and rightly so.[1] In February of this year, nine people were killed in Hanau, Germany, in what has widely been described as an Islamophobic attack.[2] According to a study conducted by Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Religion
Michael Williams
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Space and the sea have long been paralleled, each seen as a type of res communis. There has been a push to try to understand the former through a similar lens as the latter. Space, however, provides new and complex issues that do not lend themselves
Zoe Goldstein
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Although a number of tools exist to hold individuals criminally accountable for human rights violations under international law, they do not extend to corporations. To address this enforcement gap, this post argues that states should extend the principle of universal jurisdiction to corporations for directly aiding
Nov 2020
Allison Fleming
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
As the number of transnational-corporations (TNCs) climbs, legal recourse for wrongs committed by corporations is increasingly limited by the narrow focus of domestic courts, representing a slap on the hand for multi-billion-dollar entities. This brief blog post examines the possibility of holding TNCs criminally liable on
Nathanael Ham
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Over the last eleven years Ørsted has executed perhaps the most dramatic transition towards social responsibility of any company during the same period. The Danish oil and gas company has increased its green energy production from fifteen percent of its total production volume in 2009 to
Kunal Jhaveri
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
As the global population continues to rise and our planet consequently faces increasing resource scarcity, a potential solution can be found in the last frontier – outer space.[i] Metals, minerals, water, and energy sources have been found to exist in substantial and in even unlimited quantities
Tyler VanderMolen
Vol. 42 Online Content Editor
In 2010 a malicious computer worm, now known as Stuxnet, infiltrated the supervisory control and data acquisition systems of Iran’s nuclear program, inflicting significant damage to its uranium enriching centrifuges.[1] In 2015, Russian hackers compromised the information systems of several Ukrainian energy companies and shut
Lauren Taiclet
Vol. 42 Executive Editor
The notorious al-Hol camp, located in northeastern Syria, has a fraught role as a hybrid space that offers residents none of the legal rights of a wartime detention facility, nor the services or protection of a displaced persons camp.[1] Built for 10,000 people but now housing
Emilia Truluck
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Since the classification of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Assembly have called for “equitable access to and fair distribution” of all health technologies required to combat the virus.[1] The World Health Organization (WHO) has been leading the
Emeline Kong
Vol. 42 Executive Editor
As COVID-19 continues to be a global threat, each country has taken unique measures to protect the health of its citizens. This variance in response is reflected in international trade policies. Notably, China has implemented testing requirements of meat and seafood imports and suspended trade from
Julian McIntosh
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proliferated at a breakneck pace, with the United States and China at the vanguard.[i] AI is often thought of in the context of massive supercomputers.[ii] However, advancement has grown so widely that AI is seeping down to the personal level.[iii] With any
Lorena Balic
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”), the world’s governing soccer body, is notorious for corruption[1] and, increasingly, for exacerbating human rights abuses. Murderers ran FIFA’s 1978 World Cup;[2] slave labor now builds its 2022 World Cup.[3] One hope for reform? Make FIFA a publicly traded
James Moser, Jr.
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Humanitarian crises that provoke refugee crises also may impact the survivability of the cultures of asylum-seeking groups - particularly where they become a minority group in their new country.[1] More state involvement is necessary to protect and maintain the cultures of these refugee groups.[2] Simply
Rachelle Kredentser
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
A common critique of international law and intervention, especially in cases of human rights violations, is that international decisions lack the weight of enforcement. It becomes a question of “who will make us?” or “will this actually do anything?” when an international court imposes judgments or
Alec Richards
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Across the world, honeybees are dying out – and no one knows why. Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, occurs when worker bees in a hive unexpectedly disappear or forever leave the hive, leaving their queen and immobile offspring behind to die.[1] Its causes have yet to
Joe Fiorile
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Data is likely to soon be subjected to protective trade barriers, not unlike those erected to control the flow of tangible goods across borders. This post will first explore the existing international data protection regime (or lack thereof). Next, it will highlight the inadequacies of the
Tiffany Chung
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Explicitly politically targeted anti-corruption enforcement is contrary to American OECD convention obligations. However, in a stunningly political move, the DOJ announced the China Initiative in November 2018, which explicitly targeted Chinese entities and individuals for investigation and prosecution under multiple regulations, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices
Christopher Zepf
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
A federal judge ruled in early September, 2020, that former Green Beret Michael Taylor, and his son, Peter Taylor, could be extradited to face criminal proceedings in Japan for their role in the dramatic escape of former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.[1]
Japanese prosecutors accused the Taylors of
Amanda Ibrahim
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Your new Instagram post, the Hot 100’s playlist you’re streaming on your device right now as you’re reading this, the T.V. show you’ve been following for the greater part of your life hoping it ends so you can move on to something new, none of these
Tina Al-khersan
Vol. 42 Associate Editor
Human Rights Abuses in XUAR
Since the mid to late 1900s, the Chinese government has inflicted human rights abuses on the Turkic Muslim community in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).[1] These abuses intensified in 2014 when the Chinese government launched the “Strike Hard Against Violent Terrorism