Understanding the Helms-Burton Act

Abstract

In this article we study the Helms-Burton Act in the intersections of foreign policy, American law, and international law. We provide an explanation of the making of the law through the lenses of policymaking, and the core variables that drove the process, as we consider that it was an act of foreign policy, and that foreign policy is a particular form of public policy. We discuss the legality of the statute within American law, and point out its inconsistencies and open contradictions with the constitutional framework of the United States, as it violates some of its core principles and provisions. We examine the legality of the Helms-Burton according to international law, and determine that it violates several fundamental principles included in the Charter of the United Nations and other major international treaties and charters of international organisations, of which the United States is a signatory.