AUTONOMY in the Law
Ius Gentium Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice VOLUME 1 Series Editor Mortimer Sellers (University of Baltimore) Board of Editors Myroslava Antonovych (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) Nadia de Araujo (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro) Jasna Bakšić-Muftić (University of Haifa) David L. Carey Miller (University of Aberdeen) Loussia P. Musse Felix (University of Brasilia) Emanuel Gross (University of Haifa) James E. Hickey Jr. (Hofstra University) Jan Klabbers (University of Helsinki) Claudia Lima Marques (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) Eric Millard (Paris-Sud University) Gabriël Moens (University of Notre Dame Australia) Raul C. Pangalangan (The University of the Philippines) Ricardo Leite Pinto (Lusíada University of Lisbon) Mizanur Rahman (University of Dhaka) Keita Sato (Chuo University) Poonam Saxena (University of New Delhi) Gerry Simpson (London School of Economics) Eduard Somers (University of Ghent) Xinqiang Sun (Shandong University) Tadeusz Tomaszewski (University of Warsaw) Jaap W. de Zwaan (Netherlands Inst. of Intrntl. Relations, Clingendael)
AUTONOMY in the Law Edited by MORTIMER SELLERS
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008920072 IsBN 97-1-4020-24-9 (HB) IsBN 97-1-4020-649-0 (PB) ISBN 97-1-4020-6490-6 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved 2007/200 M.N.s. sellers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission fron the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
To the Student Fellows of the Center for International and Comparative Law, past, present and future, with gratitude and affection.
contents Preface Notes on Contributors An Introduction to the Value of Autonomy in Law M.N.S. Sellers Autonomy to Choose What Constitutes Family: Oxymoron or Basic Right? June Carbone Approaches to Autonomy in Capital Punishment and Assisted Suicide Kandis Scott Courts in Search of Legitimacy: the Case of Wrongful Life Marc A. Loth The Autonomy of Defense and Defense Counsel Philip Traest and Tessa Gombeer Checks and Balances in the Law of International Organizations Jan Klabbers Index ix xi 1 11 55 73 97 141 165 vii
PREFACE The collection of essays in this volume is first in the series Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, published by Springer Verlag in cooperation with the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law. This book series replaces the journal Ius Gentium, which concluded with volume 12 in 2006. The essays in this collection are based on papers originally presented at the fifth meeting of the European-American Consortium for Legal Education (EACLE), held at American University in Washington, D.C. in May, 2006. EACLE has published several previous collections of essays in the journal Ius Gentium. For a list of past volumes, see http://law.ubalt.edu/ cicl/ilt. EACLE is a transatlantic consortium of law faculties dedicated to cooperation and the exchange of ideas between different legal systems and cultures. Each year the EACLE colloquium considers a specific legal question from a variety of national perspectives. The 2006 initiative on Autonomy was coordinated by Professor Robert Dinerstein of the American University School of Law. I would like to thank those who attended the 2006 meeting for their insightful remarks, and for their inspiration, suggestions, and encouragement in making this volume and the EACLE consortium so effective in fostering greater transatlantic cooperation on law and legal education. Thanks are also due to the faculty, staff and students of the Center for International and Comparative Law who prepared this volume for publication, and particularly to Morad Eghbal, James Maxeiner, Kathryn A. Spanogle, Natalie J. Minor, Renee L. Bailey, P. Hong Le, Thomas Pilkerton III, David schaffer, Pooja Shivangi, Katherine simpson, Catherine Wahl, Ryan Webster and Cheri Wendt-Taczak. ix Mortimer Sellers Baltimore, Maryland
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS June Carbone is the edward A. smith/missouri Chair in Law, the Constitution and society at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Tessa Gombeer is an Assistant in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Ghent. Jan Klabbers is the Director of the Center of Excellence in Global Governance Research and Professor of International Organizations Law at the University of Helsinki. Marc A. Loth is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Kandis Scott is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law. Mortimer Sellers is Regents Professor of the University System of Maryland and the Director of the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law. Philip Traest is Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Ghent. xi