Law Commons^™

There Is But One Sword That Defends The Rights Of Man- Bringing Lgbt Rights Out Of The Closet, Jonathan M. Bhagan

Jonathan m Bhagan

Introduction. International norms of human rights are a powerful force for interpreting, protecting and growing rights on the domestic plane. Courts throughout the Commonwealth already look to international norms to flesh out rights, whether they are found in the constitutional jurisprudence of other common law states in Treaties or Treaty based case law. While some schools of jurisprudence claim that International and Domestic law are two separate spheres , throughout the paper it will be shown that judges have consistently looked to foreign and International Law as inspiration and support for their decisions in key human rights cases. This trend …

June Roundtable: International Criminal Court, Peace, And Justice, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Peace Must Not Be the Victim of International Justice” New York Times. March 16, 2012.

From Retribution To Reconciliation, From Spoiler To Peace Envoy, Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Is there a tension between justice and peace? That debate I leave to my co-panelists, because the most interesting and important thing about this month's centerpiece, without a doubt, is not its well-judged (if slightly ill-informed) take on the ICC, but the name of the author at its end.

“Slippery Slopes: On Why We Need The Icc”, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Peace, reconciliation, and restorative justice: these are the albatrosses that international criminal law (ICL) must (unfairly) bear. Ian Paisley, MP from Northern Ireland and former United Nations and European Union peace envoy, echoes in a New York Times op-ed contribution the aspirations heaped onto the International Criminal Court (ICC). In March, the ICC convicted Thomas Lubanga for war crimes and the conscription of children as soldiers; justice has been done, Paisley claims. Yet the ICC was "intended as an instrument of peace," and "there is no peace" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On this ground he concludes, …

“Seeking Justice, Strategically”, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In his opinion piece, Ian Paisley takes to task the International Criminal Court (ICC) for, as he sees it, intervening in domestic processes of reconciliation at the expense of long-term prospects for peace. The "peace versus justice" paradox is not a new one and Paisley expresses a common criticism of justice mechanisms as disruptive of post-conflict, societal healing and the overwhelming hurdle of governing in the aftermath of violence. Missing from his analysis is a broader understanding of trends in international justice and accountability, of which the ICC is only one component. While the ICC is certainly not immune from …

Detainment And Torture In Guantanamo Bay: Events, Legality And Effectiveness, Samuel Fein

Honors Theses

The first chapter found that following September 11th, the Bush Administration implemented policies allowing the indefinite detainment and torture of suspected terrorists. Many detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, as well as other detention facilities, were tortured, both physically and psychologically. The second chapter concluded that the Bush Administration was incorrect in claiming that the detainees were not subject to any protections under international law. According to international law, detainees are protected by either IHL (international humanitarian law) or by international human rights law. It was found that whether or not the prisoners can be held indefinitely and tried by military …

Measuring The Success Of Counter Trafficking Interventions In The Criminal Justice Sector: Who Decides - And How?, Anne T. Gallagher Ao, Rebecca Surtees

Anne T Gallagher

Global concern about human trafficking has prompted substantial investment in counter-trafficking interventions. That investment, and the human rights imperatives that underpin counter-trafficking work, demand that interventions demonstrate accountability, results and beneficial impact. How this can happen in practice is complicated and contested. This article, which considers success measurements with respect to criminal justice interventions, seeks to cut through the complexities presented by multiple theories and elaborate methodologies by focusing on one key issue: who decides success, and how? A review of evaluation reports and interviews with practitioners confirm that determinations of success (or failure) will vary according to: (i) who …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Jewish Law And The Secular Perspective On International Human Rights (Part Of The Article, “Human Rights In The Bible, An Exchange Of Ideas”)., Richard Klein, Chaim Povarsky

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Addressing Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation Through Insurance For Overseas Investments: The Example Of The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In 2008, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) estimated that investments of between US$540–570 billion in physical assets and other financial flows will be needed to adequately reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change; additionally, tens and possibly hundreds of billions of dollars may be necessary to enable countries to adapt to the phenomenon’s challenges. Through climate negotiations under the UNFCCC in Copenhagen and Cancun, developed country governments committed to provide developing countries roughly US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012 and to mobilize approximately US$100 billion per year by 2020 for climate change activities. …

Indigenous Communities In Peru And The Peruvian Nation State, Jenna Rose Scanlon

Honors College Theses

In today’s society there are indigenous communities that live and thrive the way that their ancestors did. These people try and maintain their culture while modern society tries to impose their beliefs and practices on them. Peru is a country that is quickly developing and westernizing. These indigenous communities in Peru are considered citizens but do not receive the rights that are granted to them by their constitutions. They have their land unlawfully seized, they are forced into menial jobs where they are abused and exploited, they do not receive adequate education if any, and they are excluded from the …

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …

Reforming The Right To Legal Counsel In Singapore, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

This is an opinion prepared for the Criminal Law Committee of the Law Society of Singapore on an arrested person’s right to legal counsel in Singapore. Specifically, it deals with the following: (1) it summarizes pertinent aspects of the law relating to the right to legal counsel in Singapore; (2) it surveys a number of ASEAN and Commonwealth jurisdictions to determine how long after apprehension the right to counsel is generally accorded to arrested persons, and compares the legal position in these jurisdictions to the situation in Singapore; and (3) it examines two rights ancillary to the right to legal …

The Fate Of "Unremovable" Aliens Before And After September 11, 2001: The Supreme Court's Presumptive Six-Month Limit To Post-Removal-Period Detention, Megan Peitzke

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Paradigm For The Alien Tort Statute Under Extraterritoriality And The Universality Principle, Jason Jarvis

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Total Eclipse Of Human Rights-Illustrated By Mohamed V. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., John P. Blanc

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Note: Aimed At Protecting Ethnic Groups Or Women? A Look At Forced Pregnancy Under The Rome Statute, Alyson M. Drake

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Climate Change: Human Rights In The Times Of Climate Displacement, Shakeel Kazmi

Dissertations & Theses

The increasing numbers of climate migrants caution that the dilemma of climate refugees is a well-substantiated concern of today not tomorrow. In 2011 large-scale flooding and landslides affected more than one million people in the Philippines. More than twenty million people were displaced after massive floods in Pakistan in 2010. A significant number of future projections show that climate change will lead tens, and perhaps hundreds, of millions of people to leave their homes and in some cases their countries. The crisis of human displacement, which entails immediate actions, raised the questions of legal and moral obligations to protect the …

The Paradox Of Impartiality: A Critical Defense Of The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda, Daniel Koosed

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Intellectual Property, And The Scope Of Human Rights Obligations, Kavita Kapur

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Bride-Burning: The "Elephant In The Room" Is Out Of Control , Avnita Lakhani

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article is an attempt to answer the question of why the practice of bride-burning continues and propose alternative ways to not only look at the problem, but also to define workable solutions. It is only via a thorough conflict analysis of this complex issue that the world might rein in a problem that is clearly out of control in this day and age. Section II examines the origins of bride-burning, its continued practice, and societal ramifications. Section III analyzes some of the current and proposed efforts in place for banning bride-burning and punishing those who illegally engage in this …

The Gacaca Experiment: Rwanda's Restorative Dispute Resolution Response To The 1994 Genocide, Jessica Raper

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Since its rise to power in July of 1994, the Rwandan government has been committed to prosecuting all those accused of genocide. To prosecute the approximately 130,000 defendants, Rwanda has adopted a program called gacaca, based on Rwanda's traditional customary dispute resolution system. The gacaca law provides a reconciliation component that allows defendants to trade confessions of past genocide crimes for indemnification, as well as a prosecution component that holds the most serious offenders accountable in a Western style prosecution in a formal court of law. One of the main goals of gacaca is to end the so-called "culture …

Who Killed The Friendly Settlement? The Decline Of Negotiated Resolutions At The European Court Of Human Rights , Gregory S. Weber

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The "Friendly Settlement"--the negotiated settlement of cases at the European Court of Human Rights--is on the decline. The Friendly Settlement's decline will likely provoke mixed sentiments in the international human rights camp. Some may applaud the development, including those who believe that only judgments by the Court are likely to chastise member states sufficiently and to announce standards of conduct for other states to follow. But others may shed more than a few mournful tears. An active settlement program can help reduce the Court's huge case backlog and give complaining parties a faster, and often more generous, measure of resolution …

“Thinking Through, And Beyond, Triumphalism”, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The humanitarian crisis in Syria has instigated calls to activate the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine to stop the Assad regime from its murderous rampage. Armed with a failed UN Security Council resolution that would have endorsed an Arab League peace plan, thanks to Russian and Chinese vetoes, David Rieff reproves widespread liberal consensus for intervention in a February 2012 Foreign Policy article.

March Roundtable: Responding To Syria, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Save Us from the Liberal Hawks” by David Rieff. Foreign Policy, February 13, 2012.

Who Let The Dogs Out? R, R2p, Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

As a long-time human rights advocate I find myself uncomfortably sharing Rieff's central concern over the link between military intervention and human rights advocacy, forged through the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. This common concern is uncomfortable because I don't share his broader sentiments. However, it is also uncomfortable because it involves me swimming against the human rights tide, which seems to have embraced R2P.

"Moral Ambivalence Is No Recipe For Engagement", Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The bottom line is that the crisis in Syria is tragic and extremely complicated. Some of its more complex issues include the threat of ethnic conflict, refugee flows, Iran's regional influence, and the impact of this uprising on other protests in the Arab world, ongoing and in the future. However, there are also several incontrovertible facts: the regime of Bashar al-Assad, in the name of putting down a protest movement that turned violent, is responsible for at least 7,500 deaths and shows no signs of relenting.

Constitutional Democracy, Human Dignity, And Entrenched Evil, Mark A. Graber

Pepperdine Law Review

The following essay pays tribute to Sandy Levinson's thoughts on constitutional compromises by paying tribute to the thoughts on constitutional compromises by our common mentor, Walter Murphy. Rather than directly engage in a dialogue with Compromise and Constitutionalism, the analysis below joins the preexisting dialogue between Professors Levinson and Murphy on how to construct a decent polity among people who have deep disputes over what constitutes political decency. Walter Murphy is unfortunately largely known to legal audiences only through the work of such outstanding mentees as Sandy Levinson, Jim Fleming, Christopher Eisgruber, Andrew Koppelman, Jennifer Nedelsky, and Robert George. Walter …

A Sea Change In Security: How The ‘War On Terror’ Strengthened Human Rights, Michael Galchinsky

English Faculty Publications

In many ways the Bush administration's "war on terror" weakened states' respect for their human rights obligations, and the UN Security Council's initial response to 9/11 seemed to follow the Bush administration's lead. In keeping with its historical lack of engagement with human rights questions, the SC in 2001-2003 did little to ensure that the counter-terrorism measures it demanded of states would take their obligations under human rights and humanitarian law into account. However, starting in 2002, a backlash against the perceived excesses wrought by the SC’s counter-terrorism measures gained momentum. Other UN bodies, as well as NGOs, regional intergovernmental …

January Roundtable: Crime And Human Rights In Brazil: The Police Pacification Units, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Brazil slum raids impress, but what's the impact?” By Bradley Brooks. Huffington Post, November 14, 2011.

Making Peace Or Pacifying?, Therese O'Donnell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Notions of a culture of impunity surrounding the violence perpetrated by the Brazilian police have lingered ever since the largely unsuccessful prosecutions of those suspected to be involved in the notorious Candelária massacre of 1993. Eight young people, six of whom were under eighteen, were killed by an adult group comprised of several members of the police. Despite the security forces coming under increasing scrutiny ever since, the 2005 Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee on Brazil's Periodic Report made disheartening reading. The Committee expressed its continuing concerns regarding the widespread use of excessive force by Brazilian law enforcement …