International Law

Examining competing notions of justice in Bosnia and Rwanda, award-winning Boston Globe correspondent Elizabeth Neuffer convinces readers that crimes against humanity cannot be resolved by talk of forgiveness, or through the more common recourse to forgetfulness. As genocidal warfare engulfed the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the international community acted too late to prevent unconscionable violations of human rights in both countries. As these states now attempt to reconstruct their national identities, the surviving victims of genocide struggle to come to terms with a world unhinged. Interviewing victims and aggressors, war orphans and war criminals, Serbian militiamen and NATO commanders, Neuffer explores the extent to which genocide erodes a nation’s social and political environment, just as it destroys the individual lives of the aggressor’s perceived enemies. She argues persuasively that only by achieving justice for these people can domestic and international organizations hope to achieve lasting peace in regions destroyed by fratricidal warfare.

Institutional Investors is the first and only comprehensive analysis of the global economic impact of the institutionalization of savings associated with the growth of pension funds, life insurance companies, and mutual funds. It charts the development and performance of the asset management industry and analyzes the implications of rising institutionalized saving for the development of the securities trading industry, the financial sector as a whole, and the wider economy.

How will the rapid growth of trade, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and international joint ventures alter antitrust enforcement? Can national antitrust enforcement guard against anticompetitive corporate practices in a globalizing world? Or will international friction increase as nations disagree over antitrust cases, like the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger? Recognizing the sheer volume of transatlantic commerce, the EU and U.S. have long cooperated on antitrust matters, but what has that cooperation achieved? And how far should such cooperation go in the future? This volume addresses these questions in the context of antitrust policies towards cartels, mergers and acquisitions, and vertical restraints. Leading experts elucidate the changing nature of antitrust enforcement on both sides of the Atlantic, with a keen eye to future multilateral, as well as bilateral, developments.

The international community will not make real headway in crisis prevention if private creditors—and particularly large commercial banks—can escape from bad loans to emerging economies at relatively low cost, according to this independent Task Force report. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should therefore return to smaller rescue packages for country crises that do not threaten the performance of the global financial system. In extreme cases, the IMF should also require as a condition for its own emergency assistance that debtors be engaged in serious and fair discussions on debt rescheduling with their private creditors. The Task Force believes that the primary responsibility for crisis prevention and management in emerging economies should be placed on emerging economies themselves and on the private lenders and investors that dominate today's international capital markets. Strengthening the international financial architecture in this and complementary ways would advance U.S. national interests, since the economy is now connected much more closely to the rest of the world than it was twenty or thirty years ago. The U.S. economy performed impressively throughout the Asian crisis because our domestic spending was strong and inflation was low. Next time the United States may not be so well-positioned to weather the storm.

The last of the six Balkan Wars of the twentieth century is over, but it is by no means certain that a durable peace is at hand. After vast death, destruction, and savagery lasting almost a decade, can the peoples of the former Yugoslavia live together again in peace? If so, the region will require sustained help and support from the West, which is in the midst of mustering the necessary resources and political will. The purpose of this report is to provide a broad political approach and to highlight the three key components of a comprehensive, long-term strategy that focuses on security, continental integration, and economic and political reform. Cochaired by the Honorable Morton I. Abramowitz and Albert Fishlow, this 1999 Independent Task Force considers the regions of Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, and Rumania in its assessment. Although they must all be dealt with separately, they also face a collective future. As the report contends, “the region will enjoy a lasting peace only if all its states leave the past behind and move decidedly to join the wider community.” The report, which addresses the long-term goals and the subsequent action needed to achieve those goals, recommends a three-fold approach: building security, integrating the region into the European Union, and fostering economic and political reform.