Zephyr Teachout

Extraterritorial Electioneering and the Globalization of American Elections

This paper reviews the laws governing foreign involvement in American elections and their limitations in the face of modern technologies. Using examples of cross-border volunteering, phone banking, and electioneering from recent history, it suggests that we are on the verge of truly globalized local election contests. Without any neat conclusion, it presents the paradox facing the country: the value of a free globalized communication system is too great a sacrifice to maintain the integrity of elections, but the integrity of elections may not be able to withstand globalized communications.

Defining and Punishing Abroad: Constitutional Limits on the Extraterritorial Reach of the Offenses Clause

The Offenses Clause is unlike other constitutional clauses because it refers to a body of law independent of federal or state law and the American democratic process: the law of nations. This Note concludes that this unique reference implies unique limitations. Since the Offenses Clause incorporates principles of customary international law into the Constitution, Congress must abide by those principles when it relies on the Offenses Clause as the sole source of authority for legislation.