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Listed below is only a brief synopsis of some of the thousands of insightful articles published in Verdict magazine. To read the full articles, contact NCCLP. You can also join as a member, volunteer, become a subscriber or participate in a myriad of other ways to help advance our cause.
Trial Monitoring, A Tool for Legal Recourse
By Zoë Bourne
October 2021
In 2011 an Ecuadorian Court awarded 30,000 indigenous plaintiffs $9.5 billion against Chevron Oil Company for decades of massive oil contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Chevron’s response was to move its assets out of Ecuador and attack Steven Donziger, the lead Plaintiffs’ attorney, claiming that he had obtained the judgment through fraud. The case against Steven Donziger has sparked global outrage among attorneys, legal organizations, Nobel Prize winners, NGOs and members of the U.S. Congress, among others. This article discusses the Donziger case in the context of trial monitoring: a method to provide transparency and facilitate due process for those at risk of receiving an unfair trial
Justice for Indigenous Leader Milagro Sala
By Matías Duarte, Argentinean Attorney
April 2021
In 1999, indigenous leader Milagro Sala founded Túpac Amaru Neighborhood Organization in Argentina’s Jujuy province in response to extreme poverty in the region. Its highly successful collective project built housing and implemented social policies to benefit the most vulnerable. The author details the illegality and injustice in the multiple prosecutions mounted against Ms. Sala, directed at stopping the organizing of the largely indigenous population.
Fighting for the Rule of Law
By Dr. Eugenio Raul Zaffaroni, Argentinian judge emeritus
October 2020
International law is not something most Americans know well; yet certain fundamentals are central to the values upon which our nation was built. The idea of tyrannical rule, where people are afraid for their lives from the government, is abhorrent. Dr. Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni, the preeminent Argentine jurist, analyzes the misuse of power in Bolivia in the actions surrounding the November 2019 coup d’etat. Seven top officials of the ousted government were granted political asylum in Mexico, but the coup regime illegally refused them safe passage out of the country. Dr. Zaffaroni declares that recovering, restoring and developing the Rule of Law in Bolivia constitutes a critical task in Latin America.
The U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo: A Violation of International Law
By Dr. Dorys Quintana Cruz
April 2018
The author outlines numerous grounds in international law for voiding U.S. possession of territory within the confines of Cuba. She argues that the treaties through which the United States established the naval base at Guantánamo are so vitiated that they have become invalid as legal instruments and U.S. possession should be ended.
Unjust Migratory Policy in the European Union
By Dr. Leyla Carrillo-Ramirez
October 2016
The European Union’s Schengen Agreements provide for free travel within the Union. With an unprecedented flood of refugees entering Europe due to manmade and natural disasters, Dr. Carrillo documents the EU’s violations of both EU founding principles and numerous international laws and treaties, depriving refugees of fundamental human rights
It is the Time for Deeds ...
By Ambassador Robert Van Lierop
October 2016
The author’s presentation at the United Nations on June 30, 2016 to the High-Level Global Migration Group (GMG) Multi-Stakeholder Meeting spoke to the need to act according to law and humanity on the refugee plight caused by war, climate change and other disasters.
“Vulture” Loans Threaten Developing Nations
By Amanda Reid, Esq.
October 2015
When an individual, a corporation, a city, or even a state is unable to pay its debts, it can file for bankruptcy and restructure the debt. Not so for nations. When Argentina defaulted in 2001 and then successfully issued new debt for old, a handful of well-connected investors swooped in, bought the old debt for pennies on the dollar and obtained a judgment giving them a 1600+% profit and forcing what one U.S. judge called a default, while a British court has declared the U.S. judge and bank responsible. The Argentineans called the investors “vultures” for obvious reasons. Less obvious is the fact that, as the U.S. government has argued, this court decision undermines the dollar itself as currency for international trade, and it threatens the U.S. economy itself. Find out why.
Will There Be Any Process Servers Left in New York City?
By Irving Botwinick
October 2014
A master of the art of process serving, the author reflects on the impact of New York City regulations governing process servers, which increase their burdens.
Will Charter Cities Force a Third Middle Passage For the Garífuna People?
By Cesar Rochez-Reyes, Honduran attorney
October 2013
The author details the struggle of the Garífuna peoples in Honduras to preserve their homeland and culture. Public-private collusion has led to the supplantation of representative government and forceable uprooting of Garífuna from their coastal homelands. Investor-controlled “Charter Cities” now pave the way for multinational corporate resort development schemes…at what cost to principles of governance and indigenous rights?