Digital Commons Network^™

Life Without Parole: An Eighth Amendment Analysis, Alexis Dicarlo

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

This Article will analyze the constitutionality of life without parole under the U.S. Supreme Court’s test for categorical bans on sentencing practices. This article first addresses the cruelty of prison and how that affects individuals with life sentences specifically. Next, it will analyze life without parole under the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment analysis, starting with examining evolving standards of decency. In doing so, this article will address how the U.S. operates with respect to sentencing compared to the rest of the world. Importantly, it will engage in a culpability analysis, following the Supreme Court’s logic, that ultimately favors abolition of …

Addressing Root Causes: The Need For Ex-Ante Regulation In Business And Human Rights, Vidhya Karnamadakala

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

With the rise of mandatory human rights due diligence (HRDD) laws across various jurisdictions, governments are turning to regulatory tools to tackle the transnational challenges of business and human rights. Yet, the dominant focus on an ex-post standard such as mandatory HRDD may not adequately address the root causes of rights abuses in commercial activities. The individualized ex-post enforcement model which underpins HRDD has limited potential to address the systemic infrastructure of exploitative business practices. The upstream purchasing and contracting practices which lead to human rights violations in supply chains are overlooked, and even reinforced, in such a model. Without …

Hate Speech, Historical Oppressions, And European Human Rights, Eva Nave

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Today, around 5 billion people communicate through the Internet. While the benefits of online communication are undeniable, we also witness the proliferation of online hate speech, often associated with an increase in offline violence. Internet intermediaries and public bodies have developed frameworks to counter online hate speech. However, current frameworks lack a standardized approach to the conceptualization of hate speech. Some conceptualizations are overbroad, and others are underinclusive; overbroad because they lead to the removal of legal content (e.g. removal tools deleting legal content posted by marginalized communities), and underinclusive as the context of posts by linguistic minorities is often …

Solidarity As A Constitutional Value, Tamar Hostovsky Brandes

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Considering Rehabilitation Of Minors Sentenced In Juvenile Military Courts - Initial Proposals And Thoughts For The Future, Shai Farber, Sharon Rivlin Achai

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reparations For Slavery: A Productive Strategy?, Makau Wa Mutua

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 1 in Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective, Jacqueline Bhabha, Margareta Matache & Caroline Elkins, eds.

The Refugees We Are: Solidarity, Asylum, And Critique In The European Constitutional Imagination, Paul Linden-Retek

Journal Articles

This Article aims to reimagine post-national legal solidarity. It does so by bringing debates over Habermasian constitutional theory to bear on the evolving use of mutual recognition and mutual trust in the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ), particularly in the context of European asylum law and reforms to the Dublin Regulation. Insofar as critiques of Habermasian “constitutional patriotism” apply to the principle of mutual trust, the Article suggests why post-national solidarity requires fallibilism and dynamic responsiveness that exceed formalized rules of forbearance and respect.

On this revised view, legal solidarity guarantees a particular form of adjudication through …

Open Record Laws: Balancing The "Right To Know" With The Safety Of Reproductive Health Care Service Providers, Rebecca Bentley

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Asylum Under Attack: Is It Time For A Constitutional Right?, Stephen Meili

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Human Rights: The Legal Status Of The Individual In International Law. By Anne Peters. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. Xxxv, 602. Index, Tara J. Melish

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Broken Promises: The Hollow Dreams Of Human Trafficking, Philip H. Pierre

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cash Rules Everything Around The Money Bail System: The Effect Of Cash-Only Bail On Indigent Defendants In America's Money Bail System, Nicholas P. Johnson

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Temptation's Page Flies Out The Door: Navigating Complex Systems Of Disability And The Law From A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Perspective, Michael L. Perlin, Mehgan Gallagher

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Make Sure You Belong!": A Critical Assessment Of Integration Requirements For Residential And Citizenship Rights In Europe, Tamar De Waal

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Whole Wide World: Recognizing Jus Cogens Violations Under The Alien Tort Statute, Ursula Tracy Doyle

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Caged In: The Devastating Harms Of Solitary Confinement On Prisoners With Physical Disabilities, Jamelia N. Morgan

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Putting “Human Rights” Back Into The U.N. Guiding Principles On Business And Human Rights: Shifting Frames And Embedding Participation Rights, Tara J. Melish

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 4 in Business and Human Rights: Beyond the End of the Beginning, Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito, ed.

Compensatory Women's Rights Legal Education In Eastern Europe: The Women's Human Rights Training Institute, Isabel Marcus

Journal Articles

To compensate for the absence/minimization of women's rights in the law faculty curriculum in post-socialist states, in 2002 a coalition of women's rights NGOs, funded by OSI, developed a Women's Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI) in Sofia, Bulgaria. Now embarking on its sixth cycle and having graduated more than 100 lawyers (mostly working in NGOs in post-socialist states), WHRTI has developed a women's rights legal education and training program triad consisting of feminist legal theory, women's rights legal practice, and feminist legal pedagogy. The goal of the program is to educate and train lawyers to understand and use various domestic, …

A Legal Pluralist Approach To The Use Of Cultural Perspectives In The Implementation And Adjudication Of Human Rights Norms, Valeska David, Julie Fraser

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Modem Day Slavery: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Slavery-Like Offences In Charismatic Cults, Hava Dayan

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Rest For The Wicked: Civil Liability Against Hotels In Cases Of Sex Trafficking, Gallant Fish

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice In Dire Straits: Unlawful Pretrial Detainees, Family Members And Legal Remedies, Danushka S. Medawatte

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The North Korea Human Rights Act: South Korean And International Efforts And The Necessity For The Law, Shinbum Han

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Brennan And The Foundations Of Human Rights Federalism, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In a well-known and widely cited 1977 law review article, Justice William J. Brennan called on state courts to “step into the breach” and use their authority as independent interpreters of state constitutions to continue on the state level the expansion of individual liberties begun on the national level by the Warren Court. Justice Brennan was right about the importance of independent state constitutional law, but he was wrong about the reason. The benefits of independent state constitutional law have little to do with expanding human rights and everything to do with federalism. The confusion is understandable; both individual rights …

Genocide Denial And The Law: A Critical Appraisal, Paul Behrens

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Genocide denial carries particular relevance for international law: it is the negation of international crimes, and it can prepare the ground for new crimes of this kind. But its criminalization raises concerns as well. The danger of a clash with human rights, particularly with the freedom of ex- pression, cannot be dismissed lightly. This article explores reasons for and repercussions of the criminalization of denial. It also investigates alterna- tives, including the use of truth and reconciliation, and evaluates methods that focus on direct confrontation of the deniers.

Human Rights In Nigeria's External Relations: Exigency, Methods, And Rebuttable Objections, Philip C. Aka

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aiding Transitional Justice In Solomon Islands, Nicole Dicker

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Overall in Solomon Islands, foreign aid donors have neither engaged effectively with transitional justice itself nor leveraged transitional justice in support of broader development outcomes. Transitional justice in Solomon Islands responds to the five-year period of violent civil conflict, the Tensions, which devastated the Pacific Island nation of Solomon Islands from 1998 to 2003. The Tensions resulted in the deaths of an estimated 200 people and left some 35,000 people displaced; many suffered abductions, illegal detentions, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and property violations. To remedy past human rights abuses, several transitional justice measures have been implemented in Solomon Islands, …

What Is The Future Of Transitional Justice?, Makau Wa Mutua

Journal Articles

This piece explores and critiques the project of transitional justice. It has been more than a quarter of a century since transitional justice burst onto the global stage. Over the years it has come to be billed as a panacea for addressing deeply embedded social and political dysfunction after periods of mass repression and violence. Many theorists and policy makers have argued that it is a key bridge to sustainable peace, democracy and human rights. But the historical record is not clear about a direct causal relationship between transitional justice mechanisms and specific outcomes in post-conflict societies. In some cases, …

What Do Human Rights Lawyers Do: Examining Practice And Expertise In The Field, Elizabeth Bruch

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Abu Ghraib Convictions: A Miscarriage Of Justice, Robert Bejesky

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.