International Law [IL] Suggested Paper/Presentation Topics

Note: You are free to propose your own topic, as long as it is about the
contemporary application of IL and can be discussed in a short paper
Human Rights Law
1. The International Criminal Court and sovereignty.
2. Should the death penalty be banned in China?
3. IL and racial discrimination in Hong Kong.
4. Suing multi-national corporations for human rights violations.
5. Does the ban on Falung Gong in China violate IL?
6. IL and the right to food
7. Can national laws on free speech be enforced on the internet?
8. Deprivation of the rights of refugees in Hong Kong
9. Rendering: sending suspected terrorists to another country to be tortured
10. Can (and should) states ban the advocacy of secession?
11. Suing foreign officials who have committed crimes against humanity
12. What does cognitive science tells us about natural law theories?
Environmental Law
1. Should the ban on the ivory trade end?
2. The proposed treaty to control sales of tobacco.
3. Can an international timber organization save the worlds forests?
4. Obstacles to implementing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
5. The continuing battle over the Bhopal chemical disaster of 1984
6. IL affecting the diversion of rivers in China and Southeast Asia
7. The problem of foreign electronic waste deposited in China.
8. Chinas obligations to curb pollution under IL
9. Dealing with rising sea levels through IL
10. The illegal ivory trade between Africa and China.
11. Problems affecting Antarctica under IL
12. Depleted uranium and IL.
Sea, Air & Space Law
1. IL and the problem of sea pirates in East Asia.
2. The Hainan spy plane incident of 2001
3. Do governments have a duty to warn of an impending tsunami?
4. Providing a share for poor countries from the riches of the seabed.
5. The US-Hong Kong quarrel about open skies
6. The US weaponization of space
7. Remote sensing from space and the right to privacy
8. The U.S. and the Law of the Sea Treaty
9. Updating compensation for air passengers death, injury or lost baggage
10. The China-Japan East China Sea exclusive economic zones quarrel.
11. IL and problems of protection of narrow sea passages.
12. Tsunami work of the UNs Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
Law of the Use of Force and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

1. Should all states ratify the treaty against land mines?

2. IL and the development of nuclear weapons by N. Korea (or Iran).
3. Is the pre-emptive use of force against terrorism lawful?
4. The US use of civilian contract employees to circumvent the laws of war
5. IL and the US detention of enemy combatants in the war on terrorism.
6. Are Taiwan and Tibet states under IL?
7. The failure to comply with the IL against torture in post-war Iraq
8. Israels 2006 invasion of Lebanon and IL
9. Israels assassinations of Palestinian terrorism suspects.
10. US attempt to change the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
11. The US/Canada dispute about sovereignty over Arctic waterways
12. IL and the dispute about Irans nuclear development.
Miscellaneous
1. The role of IL in the suppression of the drug trade
2. Drug patents, AIDS and IL
3. May states suppress international broadcasts?
4. How much can states restrict freedom of speech on the internet?
5. Problems of the immunity of diplomats from prosecutions.
6. The idea of an Asian Union and Asian Currency Unit
7. Is electronic surveillance of foreign diplomatic missions lawful?
8. IL and the protection of intellectual property in China
9. Chinas use of extradition to catch corrupt officials who have fled abroad
10. International lawsuits to obtain compensation for Japanese war crimes.