Olympic ideal demolished: how forced evictions in China related to the 2008 Olympic Games are violating international law.

(119.) See Loren A. Smith, Life, Liberty & Whose Property?: An Essay on Property Rights, 30 U. RICH. L. REV. 1055, 1055-56 (1996) (interpreting James Madison's concept of property).

(120.) See id. at 1056 (arguing The Federalist Papers make it clear that each objective enumerated in the Preamble of the Constitution involved the protection of citizens' property rights).

(121.) Perhaps at the most basic level, property rights are special because people identify themselves through their possessions. See Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, reprinted in ROBERT C. ELLICKSON ET AL., PERSPECTIVES ON PROPERTY LAW 1 (Aspen Law & Business 3d ed., 2002) (analyzing asylum inmates and their attachment to objects).

(122.) See, e.g., Council of Europe, Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, May 18, 1954, CETS No.: 009, available at http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/treaties/Html/009.htm (entitling every person to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions and preventing deprivation thereof except in the public interest and subject to the general principles of international law).

(123.) See Alsen, supra note 25, at 19-20 ("All societies impose at least some limitation on what may be owned privately and on what may be the proper use or disposition of private property."). For example, American law contains numerous property right restrictions such as zoning, covenants, equitable servitudes, nuisance laws, rent control laws, historical preservation laws, and endangered species laws. Moore v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 793 P.2d 479, 510 n.6 (Cal. 1990) (Mosk, J., dissenting) (describing in his famous dissent common property restrictions in the United States).

(124.) International law encompasses both international agreements and customary international law. JORDAN J. PAUST ET AL., INTERNATIONAL LAW & LITIGATION IN THE U.S. 35 (West Group 2000). International agreements are technically only binding upon their signatories. Id. Customary international law, on the other hand, is universally binding. Id.

(125.) Eminent domain is "[t]he inherent power of a governmental entity to take privately owned property, esp. land, and convert it to public use, subject to reasonable compensation for the taking." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 562 (Bryan Garner ed., 8th ed. 2004).

(126.) Davis, supra note 8, at 18.

(127.) See, e.g., CONST. ARG. [section] 17 (Argentina), available at http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/ar00000_.html ("Expropriation for reasons of public interest must be authorized by law and previously compensated."); SAUDI ARABIA CONST. art. 18, available at http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/sa00000_.html ("No one is to be stripped of his property except when it serves the public interest, in which case fair compensation is due.").

(128.) U.S. CONST. amend. V (" ... nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."); see also Haw. Hous. Auth. v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984) (holding an act that created a mechanism for transferring ownership of land from a few owners to existing lessees to eliminate a land oligopoly was a legitimate public purpose, and condemnation was not an irrational power to achieve that purpose); Nollan v. Cal. Coastal Com., 483 U.S. 825 (1987) (holding a building permit upon a grant of a public easement constituted a taking of appellants' property and required the state to compensate appellants).

(129.) Alsen, supra note 25, at 20; Moore v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 793 P.2d 479, 509 (Cal. 1990) (Mosk, J., dissenting) (citing Union Oil Co. v. State Bd. of Equal, 386 P.2d 469 (Cal. 1963)) ("Ownership is not a single concrete entity but a bundle of rights and privileges as well as of obligations.").

(130.) See Alsen, supra note 25, at 3 (explaining private ownership of production means is incompatible with Communist philosophy).

(131.) Id.

(132.) See, e.g., Council of Europe, supra note 122.

(133.) UDHR, supra note 22; ICESCR, supra note 22; ICCPR, supra note 22.

(134.) See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties art. 26, May 23, 1969, S. TREATY DOC. NO. 92-12, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331 [hereinafter Vienna Treaty Convention] (binding the signatories of agreements to their provisions).

(135.) Cara S. O'Driscoll, The Execution of Foreign Nationals in Arizona: Violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 32 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 323, 328 (2000) (asserting the Vienna Treaty Convention is the pre-eminent source of law on treaties); see also RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF THE FOREIGN RELATIONS LAW OF THE UNITED STATES: PART III INTRODUCTORY NOTE (1987) (accepting the Vienna Treaty Convention as a codification of' the customary international law governing international agreements); PAUST, supra note 124, at 55 (explaining that even though the United States has not adopted the Vienna Treaty Convention, U.S. courts still cite it as customary international law).

(136.) O'Driscoll, supra note 135, at 328. Pacta sunt servanda is "[t]he rule that agreements and stipulations, esp. those contained in treaties, must be observed." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 1140 (Bryan Garner ed., 8th ed. 2004).

(137.) Vienna Treaty Convention, supra note 134, art. 26.

(138.) O'Driscoll, supra note 135, at 328; MARK JANIS, AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW 15 (1988).

(139.) Vienna Treaty Convention, supra note 134, art. 18.

(140.) Id. art. 27.

(141.) See, e.g., Kenp [Constitution] art. 98, para. 2 (Japan) (requiring faithful observance of treaties concluded by Japan); 1958 CONST. art. 55 (Fr.) (providing "[t]reaties or agreements duly ratified or approved shall ... prevail over Acts of Parliament"); 1975 Syntagma [SYN][Constitution] 28 (Greece) ("The generally recognised rules of international law, ... as well as international conventions[,] ... shall be an integral part of domestic Greek law and shall prevail over any contrary provision of the law.").

(142.) See generally Core Document Forming Part of the Reports of States Parties paras. 49-53, U.N. Doc. HRI/CORE/1/Add.21/Rev.1 (Feb. 25, 1999) available at http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord 1999/documentation/coredocs/ hri-core-1-add21-rev1.htm (recognizing that international human rights agreements are superior to domestic law).

(143.) Id. para. 51.

(144.) Id.

(145.) Id. para. 52.

(146.) Id.

(147.) China was one of the original 51 Member States, admitted to the U.N. on October 24, 1945. List of Member States, United Nations, http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html (last visited Oct. 14, 2006).

(148.) Kitty Arambulo, Drafting an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Can an Ideal Become Reality?, 2 U.C. DAVIS J. INT'L L. & POL'Y 111, 112 (1996).

(149.) Id.

(150.) Id. at 113; see United Nations World Conference on Human Rights: Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action art. III, June 25, 1993, 32 I.L.M. 1661 ("The World Conference on Human Rights calls upon States to refrain from any unilateral measure not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that creates obstacles to trade relations among States and impedes the full realization of the human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."; Locked Doors: The Human Rights of People Living with HIV/AIDS in China, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, VOL. 15, NO. 7, at 22 (2003), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/china0803/5.htm ("China has promised to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights....")

(151.) See Jiangyu Wang, supra note 7, at 152. In April 1994, the Minster of the Foreign Affairs of the Chinese government, Qian Qichen, declared, "China respects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Proclamation of Teheran, the Declaration on the Right to Development, and other international documents related to human rights...." INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE P.R.C., THE PROGRESS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA pt. X, paras. 1 & 2 (1995), available at http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/phumanrights19/p-11.htm.

(152.) Clinton and Jiang in Their Own Words: Sharing a Broad Agenda, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 30, 1997, at A20.

(153.) INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE P.R.C., PROGRESS IN CHINA'S HUMAN RIGHTS CAUSE IN 2000 pt. VII, para. 1 (2001) [hereinafter INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL 2000] available at http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/2000renquan/a8.htm. The 2004 report acknowledges the importance of international conventions on human rights and notes China is a member of 21 such conventions. INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE P.R.C., CHINA'S PROGRESS IN HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2004 pt. VII, para. 2 (2005) [hereinafter INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL 2004] available at http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/20050418/index.htm.

(154.) UDHR, supra note 22, art. 17.

(155.) Id. art. 12.

(156.) Arambulo, supra note 14, at 113. "There are arguably two types of rights in property: civil and political rights and social and economic rights." John McClung Nading, Property Under Siege: The Legality of Land Reform in Zimbabwe, 16 EMORY INT'L L. REV. 737, 786 (2002). "The right to land for survival [and] the right to development ... are social and economic rights," whereas "the right to [actual] ownership of land is a civil and political right. Id. These rights are found in the two conventions, respectively. See ICESCR, supra note 22, arts. 1, 11; ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 1.