Volume 32, Issue 2 (Spring 2025)
Prefatory Matter
Front Matter and Table of Contents
Articles
Free Speech, Assembly, and Labor Rights in Singapore and the United States
Tyler Smith
Standardizing Space Technologies as Admissible Evidence: Legal and Ethical Frameworks for U.S. Courts and the International Criminal Court
Tuana Yazici, University of Miami School of Law
Notes
Exploring Statehood Through the Lens of Palestine and Puerto Rico
Gabriela G. Ibáñez, University of Miami School of Law
Strategic Insights From Antarctic MPAs: Navigating the Future Framework for High Seas MPAs Under the BBNJ Agreement
Alyssa Huffman, University of Miami School of Law
Current area-based management systems regulate only about 1.18% of the high seas, leaving highly migratory fish species at risk of overexploitation. As a result, new legal mechanisms are essential for protecting and managing high seas fisheries. In recent decades, stakeholders have debated how to balance competing interests while ensuring equitable and sustainable access to areas beyond national jurisdiction. One proposed solution is the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). However, creating and managing high seas MPAs is a complex process. The Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources have undertaken this effort, establishing two MPAs under the treaty’s regulatory framework. More recently, UN member states adopted the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, which includes provisions for high seas MPAs, under the auspices of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This Comment evaluates this new agreement under the lens of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to identify the most effective strategies for establishing high seas MPAs, with a particular focus on their role in preserving high seas fish stocks.
Silent Shores: The ASEAN Human Rights Response to Refugee Protections
Lakshmi Sanmuganathan, University of Miami School of Law
Established on August 8, 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) emerged as the first intergovernmental organization dedicated to promoting peace, security, and regional unity in Southeast Asia. In 2009, ASEAN affirmed its commitment to human rights by founding the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (“AICHR”), the first regional human rights system in Asia. This note offers a critical evaluation of the ASEAN human rights system and its response to refugee rights, recognition, and protections in Southeast Asia. It begins by assessing the historical foundation that has shaped ASEAN’s contemporary constraints. Building on this historical analysis, the focus shifts to an in-depth case study on the Rohingya refugee crisis, a revealing display of ASEAN’s deficiencies in addressing urgent, regional humanitarian concerns. The discussion then expands to a comparative analysis of ASEAN in relation to the United Nations, European, Inter-American, and African human rights systems. Through a close exploration of the diverse international and regional frameworks addressing refugee issues worldwide, this note culminates in offering structural and substantive recommendations to strengthen refugee rights and protections under the ASEAN system.
