Legal Studies Research Paper Series Vol. 16, No. 2

The Faculty has distributed Volume 16 Number 2 of the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series on SSRN.

This issue includes the following articles:

Markus Gehring & Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger: Climate Justice through International Courts and Tribunals: Advisory Opinions in the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) (4/2025)

Climate change is the justice challenge of our century, and the increasingly serious impacts of climate change on human societies and ecosystems are raising important international legal challenges. States and stakeholders are appealing to international courts for clarity concerning their responsibilities in the global response to climate change, as well as their accountability for climate-related loss and damage. Through advisory proceedings, these institutions are being asked to clarify the legal obligations of States in addressing climate change, including the prevention of ocean impacts, the protection of human rights, and in international law more broadly. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are at the forefront of such proceedings with the potential to reshape international climate law and governance. In this article, expert legal scholars highlight the significance of climate advisory proceedings in these tribunals, briefly underlining the legal reasoning of the ITLOS advisory opinion, its implications for international climate governance, and the questions and arguments before the IACtHR and the ICJ. The article explores, in the context of global efforts to implement the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other climate litigation including in international courts and tribunals, the transformative potential of recent advisory opinions sought from the ITLOS, the IACtHR and the ICJ. In their responses to the pressing need for legal clarity in a world grappling with unprecedented climate challenges, the article suggests, courts are offered an historic opportunity to shape the contributions of international law to global sustainability, justice and the survival of life on Earth.

Matthew H. Kramer: On the Non-Equivalence of Norms and Norm-Formulations: Hart Versus Kelsen, and Kelsen Versus Kelsen (5/2025)

In the final main section of his essay “Kelsen Visited,” H.L.A. Hart grappled with some of Hans Kelsen’s reflections on deontic conflicts and logical contradictions. Hart’s discussion was not entirely free of missteps, but most of his criticisms of Kelsen’s lines of thought are sound. As for Kelsen, his frequently deep confusion on the matters of deontic conflicts and logical contradictions was accompanied by some deep insights. Although the present paper is philosophical rather than a contribution to intellectual history, it will engage to some degree with the ruminations of each of these great legal philosophers on this matter.

Brian R. Cheffins & Bobby V. Reddy: Deconstructing the "Anglo-American" Corporate Model (6/2025)

While approaches to corporate law and corporate governance vary globally, often the U.S. and the U.K. are placed into a single bucket-the "Anglo-American" corporate model. In this paper, we deconstruct this model with the first wide-ranging comparison of fundamental corporate law concepts in the two countries for decades. We undertake our analysis from both a black-letter "law in books" perspective and a functional "law in action" perspective. We draw upon these to offer intriguing insights regarding corporate law in the U.S., which we canvass by reference to Delaware law and applicable federal and listing rule regulations, and the U.K. Our "law in books" analysis shows the two jurisdictions employ corporate law mechanisms that often differ substantially, meaning that there is no single, unified "Anglo-American" approach. Still, from a "law in action" perspective, ultimately there are many functional similarities. Given these similarities, we do not make claims that either jurisdiction has "better" corporate law than the other, but do argue that if policymakers are seeking to change outcomes by transposing corporate governance features between the two jurisdictions reforms may well fail to have the anticipated beneficial impact.

Matilda Gillis: Call it Torture: Sexual Offences, Human Rights and the Metropolitan Police (Forthcoming in Public Law) (8/2024)

In her victim impact statement, Sarah Everard’s mother, Susan Everard said: “I am repulsed by the thought of Wayne Couzens and what he did to Sarah. I am outraged that he masqueraded as a policeman in order to get what he wanted”. But Wayne Couzens did not masquerade as a police officer. He was a police officer, and he used the power and knowledge that came with that role to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard, a crime for which he was convicted on 30 September 2021. David Carrick similarly used his role as a police officer to commit severe and aggravated sexual offences against 12 different women over 17 years, crimes for which he was convicted on 7 February 2023. These two extreme examples sit against a backdrop of numerous reports and investigations which have found the Metropolitan (Met) police to be a sexist and misogynistic institution – one in which police officers feel invincible and immune from detection in using their positions to commit sexual offences. Criminal law alone is not working effectively to stop this nor, it will be argued in this article, can it do so. This article demonstrates that both proper acknowledgment of victims’ suffering and desperately needed institutional and cultural change in the Met police can potentially be achieved by bringing human rights litigation against the police under the UK Human Rights Act 1998. The argument is made on the basis that sexual offences committed by police officers can constitute “torture” within the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights.

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