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33 Korean J. Int'l & Comp. L. 1 (2005)
Trials & Errors: The Rights of the Korean Comfort Women and the Wrongful Dismissal of the Joo Case by the District of Columbia Federal Courts

handle is hein.journals/ktilc33 and id is 5 raw text is: TRIALS & ERRORS: THE RIGHTS OF THE
KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN AND THE
WRONGFUL DISMISSAL OF THE JOO CASE
BY THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FEDERAL
COURTS
L. David Nefouse *
Introduction
This paper will examine the legal and political plight of the Korean Comfort Women
under the scope of both US and international law. In particular, the paper will focus on
the recent Joo case brought in the US by former comfort women and will scrutinize the
legal analysis used by the District of Columbia Federal District Court and Court of
Appeals to deny both jurisdiction and justice to these women. Looking at the legal and
political considerations, as well as the faulty reasoning used by the federal courts to
dismiss the case, this paper will demonstrate how the comfort women, who at first had
nobody to hear their silent accounts of what had happened to them, now, more than
ever, need a forum to bring their claims against the Japanese government, and that
forum is the US federal courts because the District of Columbia Federal District and
Court of Appeals erred in dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction and standing.
This latter point is of the utmost importance especially in light of the fact that many
of these few surviving women will soon reach the end of their days, and their claims
against Japan, which include many allegations of violations of international law such
• Federal Law Clerk for the Honorable Thomas B. Russell; Adjunct Professor of Law,
American Justice School of Law; Juris Doctor, Duke University School of Law, 2005.

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