Sara Shea Volume 39 Associate Editor The Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh was home to five garment factories that manufactured goods for European and North American retail companies.[1] In 2013, this eight-story building collapsed, killing more than one-thousand people and injuring thousands more.[2] The building was unfit for the garment industry: the construction’s poor quality and the swampy land it stood on could not withstand the massive, heavy equipment weighing on each of the floors.[3] The disaster is one of many that highlights the human rights abuses that go unnoticed throughout global supply chains, including apparel and footwear brands. And these abuses are not limited to poor and hazardous working conditions; they range from the more direct forced overtime and anti-union abuses to indirect violations, such as corporate land deals that resettle local communities into areas where water and food are scarce.[4] Until the UN adopts binding due diligence obligations for companies, human rights abuses will continue to flourish throughout global supply chains. <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/human-rights-and-business-the-path-to-binding-corporate-human-rights-responsibility/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Cite: Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Altera, the Arm’s Length Standard, and Customary International Tax Law, 38 MJILOpinioJuris 1 (2017), https://www.mjilonline.org/altera. (PDF) ALTERA, THE ARM’S LENGTH STANDARD, AND CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL TAX LAW Reuven S. Avi-Yonah* Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law, the University of Michigan Abstract The recent Altera case in the US Tax Court (on appeal to the Ninth Circuit) raises interesting issues in regard to the much-debated topic of whether customary international tax law (CITL) exists. Altera involved the question whether the cost of employee stock options should be included in the pool of costs that must be shared under a cost sharing agreement. In Xilinx, the Ninth Circuit held under a previous version of the regulations that these costs should not be included because unrelated parties operating at arm’s length would not have agreed to include them. Treasury then amended the regulation to state specifically that “all” costs includes the cost of stock options but did not carve out an exception from the arm’s length standard. In Altera, the Tax Court sitting en banc invalidated the new regulation on the ground that it was inconsistent with the arm’s length standard (ALS). This article-in-abstract discusses the implications of Altera for the long-running debate about whether CITL exists and whether it is binding on the United States. <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/altera/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Julie Gulledge Vol. 39 Associate Editor Today, human trafficking remains the fastest-growing criminal activity in the world, generating billions of dollars annually and enslaving an estimated 46 million people.[1] States have been working together to combat slavery and human servitude for over two centuries: Sovereign states began to… <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/international-treaty-law-modern-slavery/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Christopher Linnan Vol. 39 Associate Editors The 1957 Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community—the forerunner of the European Union (EU).[1] The treaty’s first proclamation was that it was “determined to lay the foundations of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe.”[2] The “ever-closer union” language has become a mainstay of European Union treaties and declarations.[3] Broadly speaking, Europe has become closer.[4] In 1993, the EU became a single market—which allowed the free movement of goods, services, and people within the EU.[5] In 1999, eleven (today it is nineteen) EU states adopted a uniform currency, the Euro.[6] But today the idea of an ever-closer union is threatened. In fact, it appears it is breaking apart. <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/immigration-and-the-tension-between-an-ever-closer-union-and-sovereignty/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Maya Jacob & Hunter Davis Vol. 39 Associate Editors In June 2017, Bangladesh’s Deputy Consul General in New York, Mohammed Shaheldul Islam, was charged in a 33–count indictment for crimes related to labor trafficking and assault.[1] Islam brought another Bangladeshi man, Mohammed Amin, to the United States in… <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/human-trafficking-diplomatic-immunity-or-impunity/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Jack Heise Vol. 39 Associate Editor If Carles Puigdemont, President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, gets his way, Barcelona will no longer be part of Spain.[1] While the kingdom created by the union of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in the 15th century included Catalunya,[2] there has existed a lingering sense of separateness, visible both through the retention of autonomous political institutions and the use of the Catalan language. Catalan nationalists, in fact, point to a different historical moment as the genesis of the country: the conquest by the army of Philip V of Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession was, in their eyes, the moment Catalunya lost its independence.[3] <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/catalan/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Katrin Cassidy-Ginsberg Vol. 39 Contributing Editor On March 1, 2017, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic released its report on the events in Aleppo and the “alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law.”[1] Based on extensive evidence gathered through interviews and reviewing data that included satellite imagery, photographs, and medical records, the Commission concluded all parties involved had committed war crimes that had resulted in civilian deaths.[2] <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/reports-on-syria/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Cite as: James C. Hathaway, The Michigan Guidelines on Refugee Freedom of Movement, 39 Mich. J. Int'l L. 1 (2017). THE MICHIGAN GUIDELINES ON REFUGEE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT English / French Freedom of movement is essential for refugees to enjoy meaningful protection against the risk of being persecuted, and enables them to establish themselves socially and economically as foreseen by the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Convention”). <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/freedom-of-movement/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Jose-Ignacio Saldana Vol. 39 Notes Editor The exit of the UK from the EU has raised concerns amongst foreign investors amid the uncertainty of the future of the UK’s investment relationships. The UK maintains one of the largest bilateral investment treaty (BIT) networks in the world[1]—the international community is interested in the UK’s position on the possible continuation, modification, suspension, or termination of these treaties. Although the UK has not stated its official position,[2] it is likely that the UK will maintain its current foreign investment relationships with the EU and other non-member states, including international arbitration as the dispute settlement mechanism. <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/a-snapshot-of-the-status-of-the-uks-bilateral-investment-treaties-and-related-international-arbitration-after-brexit/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
Francis Tom Temprosa LLM Candidate & Clyde Alton DeWitt Fellow The recent series of expressions to withdraw from the Rome Statute, including Burundi’s successful withdrawal,[i] is not surprising to legal scholars who have closely watched events unfolding before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prosecutions at the ICC have raised deeper questions about complementarity, and whether the ICC is biased in its selection of situations to investigate and individuals to indict.[ii] Under a neo-colonialist critique of the court, many African leaders and intellectuals have argued that the ICC is a Western imperialist attack especially on Africans.[iii] Yet, the ICC has operated against a backdrop of non-ratification of signatures to the treaty and looming intentions to withdraw for many years now. In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush notified UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the United States had “no legal obligations arising from its signature” made during Clinton’s time.[iv] Russia, a signatory to the Statute, announced in November 2016 that it will distance itself from its signature after the court criticized it for actions in Crimea. Russia reasoned that the ICC “failed to meet the expectations to become a truly independent, authoritative international tribunal.”[v] But this recent spate of intentions to withdraw brings concerns about the legitimacy of the court to a whole new level. First, states parties to the treaty, not mere signatories to it, had initiated steps to dissociate from the entire enterprise that is the ICC. <a href="https://www.mjilonline.org/withdrawals-from-the-rome-statute-continuing-the-saga-of-institutional-illegitimacy/" class="read-more">Read More</a>
