Jenny S. Martinez
Court Proceedings
Like British admiralty courts and courts in many civil law countries, the international slave trade courts did not rely on live, in-court testimony, but instead on written depositions from witnesses taken in advance of the hearing. The registrar of the court would administer a detailed, fixed list of questions to the witnesses and record their answers. Ships documents, such as...
Antislavery Courts
In my article Antislavery Courts and the Dawn of International Human Rights Law in the January edition of this Journal, I discuss the role of international courts in the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century. As the article explains, between 1817 and 1871, bilateral treaties between Britain and several other countries (eventually including the United States)...
Antislavery Courts and the Dawn of International Human Rights Law
117 Yale L.J. 550 (2008). Between 1817 and 1871, bilateral treaties between Britain and several other countries (eventually including the United States) led to the establishment of international courts for the suppression of the slave trade. Though all but forgotten today, these antislavery courts were the first international human rights courts. Over the lifespan of the treaties, the courts heard...
Inherent Executive Power: A Comparative Perspective
115 Yale L.J. 2480 (2006) In light of recent debates regarding the scope and basis of inherent executive power, particularly with regard to foreign affairs and national security, this Essay examines different conceptions of executive power in five modern democracies. The Essay's study of British and German parliamentary systems, the semi-presidential French system, and the presidential Mexican and South Korean...