SELECCIÓN DE TEXTOS.

Este trabajo de compilación contiene los

textos que se utilizarán para el dictado de
la materia. Los textos ilustran los distintos
ejes temáticos abordados para la
enseñanza de las técnicas de comprensión
lectora en lengua extranjera

LECTOCOMPRENSIÓN
– INGLÉS
MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO
ALUMNOS
UNIDAD 12

DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS
 UNIDAD 12:
DERECHO INTERNACIONAL
PRIVADO

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 ÍNDICE DE CONTENIDOS

Texto 1: International Law

Texto 2: International Trade Law: An Overview
Texto 3 : The Importance of Private International Law for Family Issues
in an Era Of Globalization: International Child Abduction
Texto 4: What is the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child
Abduction?

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Texto 1: International Law
Fuente: http://www.hg.org/international-law.html

International Law, unlike most other areas of law, has no defined

area or governing body, but instead refers to the many and varied
laws, rules and customs which govern, impact and deal with the legal
interactions between different nations, their governments,
businesses and organizations, to include their rights and
responsibilities in these dealings.

The immense body that makes up international law encompasses a

piecemeal collection of international customs; agreements; treaties;
accords, charters (i.e. the United Nations Charter); protocols;
tribunals; memorandums; legal precedents of the International Court
of Justice (aka World Court) and more. Without a unique governing,
enforcing entity, international law is a largely voluntary endeavor,
wherein the power of enforcement only exists when the parties
consent to adhere to and abide by an agreement.

Due to the diverse legal systems and applicable histories of different

countries, laws addressing international law include both common
law (case law) and civil law (statutes created by governing bodies).
Their application covers all the facets of national law, to include
substantive law, procedure, and remedies.
There are three main legal principles recognized in much of
international law, which are not required, but are based chiefly on
courtesy and respect:

- Principle of Comity - in the instance where two nations share

common public policy ideas, one of them submits to the laws and
judicial decrees of the other.

- Act of State Doctrine - respects that a nation is sovereign in its own

territory and its official domestic actions may not be questioned by
the judicial bodies of another country. It dissuades courts from
deciding cases that would interfere with a country’s foreign policy.

- Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity - deals with actions brought in the

court of one nation against another foreign nation and prevents the
sovereign state from being tried in court without its consent. In the
U.S., this is governed by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
(FSIA) of 1976.

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To be determined a sovereign state a nation must run its own
government, with its own territory and population.

There are both national laws and international agreements which

govern/regulate international business transactions, which include
investments, offshore banking, contracts, imports/exports, tariffs,
dumping, trade and more.

Although there is no definitive governing body overseeing

international law, the United Nations is the most widely recognized
and influential international organization and the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) is its judicial counterpart.

International law may further be broken down as public or private.

Public International law covers the rules, laws and customs that
govern and monitor the conduct and dealings between nations
and/or their citizens. The UN deals largely with public international
law. Private International law (Conflict of laws) handles disputes
between private citizens of different nations.

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Texto 2: INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW: AN OVERVIEW
Fuente: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/international_trade

INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW: AN OVERVIEW

International trade is “the exchange of goods [or] services” “between

nations.” Black’s Law Dictionary 285, 1529 (8th ed. 2004).

SOURCES OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW

Constitutional, federal, and international laws govern international trade between

the United States and foreign nations (or persons or entities therefrom). Federal and
international laws address a wide range of trade issues, such as customs duties,
dumping, embargoes, free trade zones, intellectual property, quotas, and subsidies.

The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to “regulate

commerce with foreign nations,” U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 3, while other Article I
provisions empower Congress to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
excises,” id. at Art. I, § 8, cl. 1, and prohibit states from doing the same without
congressional approval, id. at Art. I, § 10, cl. 2. Pursuant to this authority, Congress
has enacted numerous federal statutes, including the Tariff Act of 1930, the Trade
Act of 1974, and the Trade Agreements Act of 1979.

Article II of the U.S. Constitution empowers the President, “by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of Senators present
concur.”U.S. Const. Art. II, § 2, cl. 2. Pursuant to this authority, presidents have
negotiated numerous international treaties and trade agreements, including
the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization,
the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (regarding trade in goods),
the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (regarding
intellectual property), and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Currently, the
United States has free trade agreements in force with 17 nations.

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INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION

The International Trade Administration ("ITA"), a bureau of the U.S. Department of

Commerce, aims to "strengthen[] the competitiveness of U.S. industry, promote[]
trade and investment, and ensure[] fair trade through rigorous enforcement of [U.S.]
trade laws and agreements." ITA, About the International Trade Administration (last
visited Oct. 23, 2010). The ITA is comprised of four distinct business units: (1) U.S.
and Foreign Commercial Service, (2) Manufacturing and Services, (3) Market Access
and Compliance, and (4) Import Administration. Id.

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

The United States is a member of the World Trade Organization ("WTO"). The WTO is
an international organization that only recently (1995) came into being, succeeding
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT"). WTO, The Multilateral Trading
System — Past, Present and Future (2010). The WTO provides a forum and a "legal
and institutional framework" for its member to negotiate, implement, monitor, and
resolve disputes relating to international trade agreements.

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Texto 3: The Importance Of Private International Law For Family
Issues In An Era Of Globalization: International Child Abduction
Source: http://www.hofstra.edu/PDF/law_lawrev_silberman_vol32no1.pdf

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR FAMILY

ISSUES IN AN ERA OF GLOBALIZATION: INTERNATIONAL CHILD
ABDUCTION

I. CROSS-BORDER CUSTODY DISPUTES

Disputes over and about children are some of the hardest issues in the transnational context.
First, these issues are so personal and strike such emotional chords that the stakes become
quite high. Questions about custody go to the very core of people’s lives, and parties are
often willing to go to extraordinary lengths to obtain what they want and need. Second, the
traditional judicial process—whether in a common law or civil law regime—is a very poor
mechanism for settling the kinds of issues that arise in these disputes. The questions that
authorities are asked to resolve in these cases, e.g., what particular custodial arrangements
would be in the best interests of a particular child, should a parent be permitted to relocate
with a child, when and how should a parent be permitted to exercise rights of access, do not
turn on the kinds of fact/law determinations that characterize other types of litigation. Nor is
a judicial proceeding, with its formal rules, likely to produce an accurate snapshot of the real
family dynamic. Resolution of these matters is part of a value-laden decision-making process
that necessarily brings into play differences in culture, attitudes, and moral standards. […]

The role of culture and values—and stereotypes—is magnified even more dramatically in
the transborder context. Consider, for example, the Bahamian court order that gave custody
to a Saudi father rather than an American mother, explaining that the decision was taken in
order to avoid the risk of the children becoming “little Americans,” of “losing the cultural
heritage of Saudi Arabia,” and of “losing the inheritance of royalty.” How one overcomes
these kinds of cultural biases—whether in the United States or elsewhere—is well beyond
the scope of this Article or the parameters of this Conference. Nonetheless, legal systems
must be sensitive to legitimate cultural norms and values, particularly in disputes involving
children. Private international law principles do play an important role here, and two
multilateral treaties reflect private international law norms in this area. Similar principles in
United States law make the same assessment, although not entirely without criticism. An
example comes from a case that arose in the United States. The mother and father in the case
were both Pakistani, and the child was born in Pakistan. When the daughter was eight years
old, the mother, Joohi, left the marital home and moved in with her parents in Pakistan.
When she realized that her husband, Anwar, had filed custody proceedings in Pakistan, she
fled to the United States with her daughter. Nonetheless, the custody case proceeded in the
Pakistani court. The mother was represented by counsel but refused to appear in the
proceeding; she also refused to obey a court order that the child be produced in Pakistan.
The Pakistani judge considered a written statement submitted by the mother detailing
certain unsavory aspects of the husband’s character, but nonetheless awarded custody to the
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father. Using private detectives, the father located the mother and child in Maryland some
two years later. The mother then brought suit in Maryland requesting custody while the
father sought enforcement of the Pakistani order that had granted him custody. Under
United States law—in this case, state law—(and state law today is either the Uniform Child
Custody Jurisdiction Act (“UCCJA”) or the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and
Enforcement Act (“UCCJEA”))—it is clear that Pakistan would be the “home state” of the
child. Under the Uniform Act provisions—as well as general principles of private
international law—it is the home state or state of habitual residence that is the appropriate
court to hear a custody jurisdiction case; moreover, under those Acts, the decree of the state
or country of habitual residence is entitled to recognition and enforcement. By way of
resistance to enforcement, the mother attempted to show that the Pakistani court did not
apply the “best interests” of the child test in awarding custody and, thus, that the order of
the Pakistani court should not be enforced on public policy grounds. Under the new
UCCJEA, now in force in most U.S. states, enforcement of foreign country custody orders is
required unless the “child custody law of a foreign country violates fundamental principles
of human rights.” […] the Maryland court explained: “a Pakistani court could only determine
the best interest of a Pakistani child by an analysis utilizing the customs, culture, religion,
and mores of the community and country of which the child and—in this case—her parents
were a part, i.e., Pakistan.” Thus, the Maryland court refused to rehear the custody issues
and enforced the Pakistani judgment. The court believed that to do otherwise would be to
encourage circumvention of the laws of the home state through the abduction of children to
a place that would award custody on a basis more in harmony with the fugitive’s interests.
The court’s decision in Hosain adopts a strict rule of deference and enforces the decree of the
court of a country that was both the child’s habitual residence and the country of citizenship
of all the parties involved. Although one is always moved to take account of the child’s
interests and to protect the child at all costs, “best interests” is an amorphous concept
filtered through the customs and mores indigenous to a particular society; cultural
relativism cannot be completely ignored. Those who would look to the United Nations’
Convention on the Rights of the Child for guidance will not find any clear solution.

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TEXTO 4: What is the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of
Child Abduction?
Fuente:http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/family-court/what-family-court-does/hague-convention#fc53

What is the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction is an international treaty that aims to
ensure that children who are abducted or wrongfully retained by a parent will be returned as quickly
as possible to the country in which they habitually reside so that issues of parental responsibility can
be resolved by the courts in that country.

The basic principles of the Convention are that:

 The rights of the child are the primary consideration;

 Custody of the child (which includes day to day care) should be determined in the country where
the child usually lives;
 Children should not be taken or kept overseas without the prior agreement of other people who
are entitled by law to give their consent. If these people refused to consent, the correct thing
would have been to seek the consent of the Court in New Zealand BEFORE the child was taken
overseas.

If a child is abducted from New Zealand, the child is returned to New Zealand so that issues of
parental responsibility can be resolved by the Family Court. If a child is wrongfully retained in New
Zealand, the child is returned to their country of habitual residence.

The Hague Convention assumes that the courts in the child's country of habitual residence are best
able to make decisions about the best interests of the child.

The Convention sets up a Central Authority in each country to deal with applications for the return of
children taken to or from each country. The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Justice is the Central
Authority for New Zealand.

What are the aims of the Hague Convention?

 The Convention allows parents to seek the return of children who are wrongfully retained in
another country, for example at the end of a contact visit.
 Further, the Convention allows parents to seek assistance in obtaining contact with their children
who live with another parent overseas

What are the requirements for a successful application for the return of my Child?

To ensure that a child can be returned from another Hague Convention Country the following
requirements must be met:

 Your child must be under 16 years old;

 You must have had "rights of custody" over the child; (It is not always necessary for you to have
a Court order giving you day-to-day care of (custody) or contact with (access), or guardianship of
your child. However you must have a right to determine where the child is to live). Most natural
parents in New Zealand automatically have rights to guardianship. Even if you do not have day-

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 to-day care of your child, you may still have enough rights under the Hague Convention to ask for
your child to be returned to New Zealand.)
 You must have been exercising the rights you had in relation to your child when the child was
taken out of New Zealand. (For example, if you had contact (access) rights, you were using these
rights to spend time with your child, and you can no longer do this);
 Your child must have been habitually resident in New Zealand right before the child was taken
overseas;
 Your child has been taken to or retained in a country which is a party to the Hague Convention;
 Your child must have been taken or retained out of New Zealand without your prior consent or
the consent of the Court.

If these conditions are satisfied, you may be able to ask for your child to be brought back to New
Zealand through the government authorities.

In some cases, the person who took your child out of New Zealand will oppose the child being
returned to New Zealand, and the Court will consider their reasons for doing this.

If you want to seek the return of your child, it is important to take action as soon as you discover that
the child has been taken from New Zealand or kept overseas. Any delay may later be seen as a lack of
concern about the child being overseas.

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