Vol. X

NOTE FROM THE FIELD
On the Indivisibility of Rights: Truth Commissions, Reparations, and the Right to Development by Lisa J. Laplante
Abstract | PDF

NOTE
Development, Reform, and the Rule of Law: Some Prescriptions for a Common Understanding of the "Rule of Law" and its Place in Development Theory and Practice by Thom Ringer
Abstract | PDF

ARTICLES
Rethinking the Procreative Right by Carter J. Dillard
Few principles are as universally accepted in legal scholarship today, but based on such scant support, as the fundamental nature and broad scope of the right to procreate. What is perceived as a vague but nonetheless justified legal and moral interest to procreate freely wihtout regard to others is, upon closer examination, based on little more than misconstrued or inapposite case precedent and blurry statements in non-binding international law. By relying on this authority, conflating procreation with conceptually distinguishable behaviors, presuming its intrinsic value, and ignoring competing rights and duties, lawyers have largely overlooked procreation and its legal and normative limits.
Interpreting U.S. constitutional and international law sources, and finally employing Locke's model of natural rights, this Article redefines the right in law and practice as satiable and narrow, acknowledging the competing rights and duties that both qualify and justify the right. It posits that the procreative right, properly stated, includes at least the act of replacing oneself and at most procreation up to a point that optimizes the public good.

Bilateral Agreements and Fair Trade Practices: A Policy Analysis of the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (2006) by Kevin J. Fandl
This Article brings to the attention of those public servants involved in the design and negotiation of free trade agreements between the United States and developing countries, such as Colombia, the potential benefits and drawbacks of negotiating in a bilateral forum. Rather than critiquing the free trade agreement for its particular provisions, the Article examines the U.S. policy of negotiating bilaterally with developing countries as opposed to multilaterally in the world trade system and what effects such an approach might have on the economic development of the latter. Using an incremental policy analysis, the Article critiques the bilateral approach in terms of economic development and fair trade negotiations using the recent Colombia-U.S. trade agreement as a case study. The Article concludes that a bilateral approach that is disconnected from a broader multilateral context may be detrimental to developing countries and recommends increased oversight of such agreements by the World Trade Organization to ensure a higher degree of fairness.

Liability of Secondary Actors under the Alien Tort Statute: Aiding and Abetting and Acquiescence to Torture in the Context of the Femicides of Ciudad Juárez by William Paul Simmons
Since 1993, more than 400 women have been murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Few, if any, of these crimes have been solved, largely because local Mexican officials have failed to adequately investigate them. This Article aruges that femicide victims could hold those officials civilly liable as third parties for these femicides in U.S. federal courts under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). Although aiding and abetting liability is the most common form of third-party liability sought in ATS cases, several high profile cases have challenged whether it should exist under the ATS. The author agrees with many courts and scholars that aiding and abetting liability should be sustained. However, the author argues that none of the previously proposed standards for aiding and abetting would reach the Mexican officials. Instead, the author proposes "acquiescence to torture" as an innovative form of third-party liability. Acquiescence to torture, as it has been defined in U.S. non-refoulement cases, would broaden the scope of the ATS to allow a suit against Mexican officials for their failure to adequately prevent or investigate the femicides in Ciudad Juárez.

NOTE FROM THE FIELD
On the Indivisibility of Rights: Truth Commissions, Reparations, and the Right to Development by Lisa J. Laplante
While academics debate the ranking of rights, information from the field demonstrates their indivisibility. This Article explores how truth commissions provide rich documentation of the interrelation between violations of Civil and Political Rights (CPR) and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR), using Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as an example. The TRC's findings show how social and economic inequalities contributed to the eruption of political violence, which further exacerbated these conditions. This revelation challenged the TRC to develop a reparation plan that adequately responded to the needs of victim-survivors, while maintaining a causal link with damage caused by the conflict. Ultimately, the TRC focused narrowly on repariing damage caused by CPR violations. Yet now, almost four years later, the government confuses development with traditional reparation measures, generating criticism. The author proposes that Peru's post-conflict recovery may need to accept the overlap between reparations and development to improve the "well being" of its intended beneficiaries.

NOTE 
Development, Reform, and the Rule of Law: Some Prescriptions for a Common Understanding of the "Rule of Law" and its Place in Development Theory and Practice by Thom Ringer
In spite of the ubiquity of the phrase in contemporary development discourse and policy, there exists no generally, or even substantially, agreed-upon definition of the "rule of law" for the purposes of development. This Note investigates the intellectual and normative tensions created by the conceptual conflict surrounding the rule of law in development theory and practice. Drawing on both moral and economic understandings of human development, I attempt strenuously to identify the obstacles to consensus on the meaning of the rule of law. I conclude that the rule of law must be construed as a means of development rather than one of its fully-fledged ends. I also advocate greater attention to the dynamic character of institutions in the developing world, and theoretical moderation in specifying the normative goals of the rule of law.

VOL. 10 MASTHEAD

JUNIOR EDITORS

Ligia Abreu, Mytili Bala, Prithika Balakrishnan, Laurie Ball, Kimberly Lacee Bass, Leah Belsky, Erin Evers, Brian Frazelle, Stacie Jonas, Jessica Karbowski, Zachary D. Kaufman, Stephen M. Kerr, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Martha Lovejoy, Rubina Madni, Amy Meek, Sarah Mehta, Chavi Keeney Nana, Julianne Prescop, Diana Rusk, Marcus Smith, Visudha Talla, Andrew Verstein