Suchergebnisse

The study of international law is increasingly important with Canada's growing role in foreign affairs, but it has until now been neglected in Canadian law schools, and no comprehensive Canadian textbook or casebook has been available to teachers of international law. This work will fill the need for such a text

SummaryWith the end of the Cold War, the United States has emerged as the sole remaining superpower whose ambition is to create a new open and integrated world order based on principks of democratic capitalism. To ensure its hegemony, the United States is prepared to resort to military action with or without UN approval when its international and national security interests are at stake. The intervention in Iraq by the Coalition of the Willing is a good example of this policy and raises the question of its legality and legitimacy under contemporary international law. May or must a state resort to military intervention against a state sponsoring terrorism or depriving its nationals of their internationally recognized human rights? The so-called "Bush doctrine" of anticipatory or preventive self-defence against a state accused of supplying weapons of mass destruction to a foreign terrorist organization, which was one of the reasons advanced by the Coalition of the Willing for intervening in Iraq, meets neither the conditions laid out in Article 51 of the UN Charter nor those of customary international law. Thus, at the present stage of development of international law, the Bush doctrine is not even lege ferenda. It is not an extension of the customary international law right of pre-emptive self-defence. Only with the approval of the Security Council pursuant to Chapter VII of the UN Charter or when it takes place within the strict confines of self-defence, can armed intervention be legitimate.The second reason for intervening in Iraq given by the Coalition of the Willing is based on humanitarian considerations, which raises the question whether the protection of human rights can be assured from the outside. Here, international law is evolving in the right direction since the international community is prepared to adopt the concept of responsibility to protect, which justifies the use of force to protect and enforce human rights as an exception to Article 2(4) and (7) of the UN Charter. Again, such intervention is legal only when approved by the Security Council acting pursuant to Chapter VII on the ground that human right crises do not fall "essentially within the jurisdiction of any state." However, the international community, with the exception of the Coalition of the Willing, is not yet prepared to support a right of unilateral military intervention as a last resort when the Security Council is incapable and unwilling to do so. This includes intervention motivated by the non-democratic form of government of the targeted state. Although the primary responsibility to deal with human right crises rests with the United Nations based on the responsibility to protect, it is argued that one should not rule out unilateral military action based on a customary international law right of intervention to meet the gravity and urgency of the situation provided the intervening state fully observes the necessary precautionary principles governing such type of intervention. The conclusion is that terrorism and human rights abuses can only be effectively challenged through a concerted multilateral collective approach not through the politics of unilateralism.

SummaryThis article addresses the problems related to the use of the Internet in Canada in an international context. Does international law allow Canada to regulate the Internet and its actors even if they are located abroad? Under the constitution, which level of government has the authority to do so? In which circumstances have the courts in Québec and in the common law provinces personal jurisdiction over persons using the Internet in an international context and which law do these courts apply? When are Canadian courts prepared to recognize and enforce foreign judgments involving the Internet and its actors? The author deals with these questions and is of the opinion that in most situations the federal Parliament has the jurisdiction to prescribe and the Canadian courts have the jurisdiction to adjudicate with respect to the Internet and its actors in an international context without violating international law. However, to avoid conflicts of jurisdiction, it would be better to adopt an international convention covering the various aspects of the Internet.

On January 2, 1988, the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada signed the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It was implemented by appropriate legislation in both countries and came into force on January 1, 1989. This Agreement is the most comprehensive of a series of projects and treaties on free trade between Canada and the United States over the last 135 years.

SommaireL'auteur soutient que les États des États-Unis d'Amérique violent le droit international lorsqu'ils imposent les sociétés qui font affaires chez eux sur la base du revenu global du groupe de sociétés auxquelles elles appartiennent. Une formule spéciale permet d'attribuer un certain montant de ce revenu global à la société qui fait affaires dans un État qui a adopté ce système et qui en tiendra compte pour l'imposer. Le système de répartition des revenus imposables aboutit à une double imposition contraire aux traités signés par les États-Unis avec un grande nombre de pays y compris le Canada. Dans une certaine mesure, il est aussi contraire à la Constitution des États-Unis et aux règles coutumières du droit international se rapportant à la compétence législative des États. Sans aucun doute, le système unitaire constitue un obstacle aux investissements étrangers.