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Matthew S. Weinert On Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle For Social Justice By Geoffrey Robertson. New York: The New Press, 1999 (Revised 2002). 658pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Social Justice by Geoffrey Robertson. New York: The New Press, 1999 (revised 2002). 658pp.

Atca, Doe V. Unocal: A Paquete Habana Approach To The Rescue, John Haberstroh

ExpressO

The article's centerpiece is the Ninth Circuit litigation (Doe v. Unocal) charging Unocal Corp. with complicity in the Burma’s government’s use of forced labor. The article first examines the Alien Tort Claims Act, under which the action is brought, through an exploration of that statute’s original purpose and historical context. The article then looks at the modern revival of ATCA in international human rights claims, and finally closely considers the Unocal litigation, in particular the September 18, 2002 decision favoring the plaintiffs. (The 2002 decision is undergoing review by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, with the panel’s …

What Have We Learned From The Wars Of The Twentieth Century?, Winston Langley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Relative deprivation (RD) and its associated twin, the “othering” of human groupings, together became the root cause of the wars of the twentieth century. By examining the thirty-years of war between 1914 and 1945 and the Cold War that prevailed for the rest of the half-century, the author explores the way in which relative deprivation may be seen to have expressed itself through nationalism, liberalism, and Marxism — the three great ideologies of the twentieth century that have competed against each other and have contributed to the perception of groups and individuals that they are relatively deprived. He investigates the …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this and the next issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy we will look at issues of war in the twentieth century; at how the nature and purpose of war have changed; at how evil stalks the human condition, how we forget, most likely because we want to forget. Some truths are too terrible to bear. They require us to ask questions of ourselves that our psyches are not equipped to answer and so they close down for the sake of our survival. Had we slaughtered dumb animals in the manner in which we slaughtered ourselves during …

Reconciling Human Rights And Sovereignty: A Framework For Global Property Law, Christopher Saporita

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Non-Judicial Mechanisms In Protecting Individual Rights : The China And Hong Kong Experiences, Ren Yue

CAPS Working Paper Series

This study intends to examine, from a socio-legal perspective, the different ways of individual rights protection in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong. The common misperception is that as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is allowed to maintain its legal system inherited from the British colonial times, its residents enjoy more and wider individual freedoms than their Mainland compatriots. However, a comparison of relevant individual rights provisions of both Chinese Constitution and Hong Kong Basic Law finds that there is virtually no significant difference between them. The true differences of individual rights protection lie in various non-judicial mechanisms rooted in …

The Echr And States Of Emergency: Article 15 - A Domestic Power Of Derogation From Human Rights Obligations, Mohamed M. El Zeidy

San Diego International Law Journal

This study is divided into two sections. The first section is further divided into two subsections. The first subsection examines the problems in defining emergencies; in the second subsection, we will examine the preconditions required for a valid derogation. The second section determines the Strasbourg machinery for the protection of human rights. This section is also divided into four subsections. Each subsection examines separate case laws from the European Court of Human Rights. Finally, a conclusion will be deduced in the light of the former reviews.

Nigeria Since May 1999: Understanding The Paradox Of Civil Rule And Human Rights Violations Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Philip C. Aka

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article seeks to understand why much of the hope for improved human rights has remained unrealized. It has four parts, in addition to this introduction and a conclusion. Part II provides a definition of human rights, the history of these rights in Nigeria, and the machinery that has evolved over the years, all the way up to the Obasanjo presidency, for the enforcement of these rights. Part III describes the practice of human rights in Nigeria before 1999. The section integrates General Obasanjo's role and it points to the legacy of British colonialism in Nigeria as a major factor …

Finding Fundamental Fairness: Protecting The Rights Of Homosexuals Under European Union Accession Law, Travis J. Langenkamp

San Diego International Law Journal

In tackling the issue of sexual orientation discrimination, the European Union must make significant efforts to conform or, perhaps, eradicate incongruous legislation within Applicant Countries. The difficulty of this endeavor is two-fold: first, in terms of the number and complexity of the laws of each Applicant Country; and, second, in the absence of any detailed and systematic documentation of sexual orientation discrimination within those same Applicant Countries. Compounding, if not confounding, such legitimate endeavors are the inconsistent anti-gay legislation prevalent within the present Member States. The stakes are high for Member States and Applicant Countries alike. Thus, the European Union's …

The Dark Ages Of Islam: Ijtihad, Apostasy, And Human Rights In Contemporary Islamic Jurisprudence, David A. Jordan

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Jonathan I. Charney--Mourning And Celebration, Louis Henkin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Here, today, I wish to speak with you about Jon Charney, his good life, and his remarkable achievements. On this occasion I am pleased to add that I knew Jon Charney "professionally" before he began on the road to eminence. I was "present at the creation," as Jon Charney took his first steps toward becoming a world authority on the international Law of the Sea, and an eminent, prominent, lawyer and scholar in international law generally.

Jonny was still a law student when he spent a summer as my research assistant, when both of us learned that there was an …

Novartis And The U.N. Global Compact Initiative, Lee A. Tavis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The U.N. Global Compact initiative evolved from a challenge posed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the business community at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 1999. "I call on you--individually through your firms, and collectively through your business associations--to embrace, support, and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards and environmental practices." His vision is "to give a human face to the global market." Over a year of intense interaction among business chief executive officers and associations, non-governmental organizations, labor unions, and four U.N. agencies led to the formulation of nine …

American Judges And International Law, A. M. Weisburd

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This article addresses an issue with which federal courts have been forced to deal with increasing frequency: How ought a judge go about determining the content of customary international law? The article seeks to demonstrate, using the example of the treatment of the concept of "jus cogens" by the courts of appeals, that federal courts have come to rely on doubtful sources in addressing questions of international law. More specifically, it sets out to show that courts frequently do not rely on the actual practice of governments to determine the content of customary international law, which would seem to be …

International Human Rights Dimensions Of Intimate Violence: Another Strand In The Dialectic Of Feminist Lawmaking, Rhonda Copelon

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Assessing Legislative Restrictions On Constitutional Rights: The Russian Constitutional Court And Article 55(3), Peter Krug

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

How We Should Think About The Constitutional Status Of The Suspected Terrorist Detainees At Guantanamo Bay, Akash R. Desai

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the United States has held suspected terrorist detainees captured during the military campaign in Afghanistan indefinitely at the United States military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among those currently detained are members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group and the Taliban. Currently the detainees are in the peculiar situation of generally being outside the scope of protections offered by both the international humanitarian law and the Unites States criminal law regimes.

This Note examines the extraterritorial scope of the United States Constitution as it applies to the suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay. …

Symposium Introduction: Law, Religion, And Human Rights In Global Perspective, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Journal Articles

The essays and articles in this Symposium highlight the importance of religion for properly understanding the nature of law, feminism, globalization, human rights, international legal history, and judicial decision making. These essays and articles also challenge the academy to accept a more sophisticated understanding of religion and to understand its importance for all academic inquiry.

Surprised By Sin: Human Rights And Universality, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Faculty Publications

International human rights law's claim to universality, at the level of normative formation, has been shaped by conceptions of the self over time. The metaphysical reconfigurations of the self, from the Enlightenment to the present, have marked the human rights narrative in particular ways. This essay will suggest that since World War II, a conception of the self within a narrative of rights has been replaced, or at least countermanded, by a conception of sacral evil, with profound implications for the normative claim to universality of the human rights discourse. The essay begins with a synoptic analysis of the rise …

Ballot Boxes Behind Bars: Toward The Repeal Of Prisoner Disenfranchisement Laws, Debra Parkes

All Faculty Publications

This paper takes seriously the objection that allowing prisoners to vote may have an impact on the outcome of elections or on the development of law and policy, given the extraordinarily high incarceration rate currently a reality in the United States. The reality that prisoners may have an impact on the outcome of elections is an argument in favour of allowing them to vote rather than against it. A progressive critique or constitutional challenge of prisoner disenfranchisement should call attention to the instrumental, as well as symbolic and constitutive functions of voting, and must defend the importance of having the …

Advancing The Language Of Human Rights In A Global Economic Order: An Analysis Of A Discourse, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Human rights language is particularly attuned to setting out the goals of protecting the worlds least protected people. As human rights advocates have entered negotiations with international economic institutions and transnational corporations (TNCs), such negotiations have often resulted in an alternative language to describe the necessity of protecting and promoting human rights. After describing the progressive inclusion of human rights ideas by TNCs, the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO, this Article argues that, while such inclusion is a benefit to the human rights movement, the creation of an alternative language to describe human rights goals is potentially detrimental. …

Bi-Polar And Polycentric Approaches To Human Rights And The Environment, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Within the well-established human rights system, there exist at least three ways to promote environmental ends (each of which is discussed further in Section III below): (1) mobilizing existing rights to achieve environmental ends; (2) reinterpreting existing rights to include environmental concerns; and (3) creating new rights, such as the right to a clean environment. To justify engaging in any one of these processes, an advocate must recognize both their moral legitimacy and legal utility. As one author has argued, "the justification for rights is to be found in the way in which they enable us to address a key …

"They Are Our Brothers, And Christ Gave His Life For Them": The Catholic Tradition And The Idea Of Human Rights In Latin America, Paolo G. Carozza

Journal Articles

Through the language of human rights, law can both reflect and constitute some of our most basic ideas about the requirements of human dignity and the human desire for freedom. It captures certain culturally embedded understandings about the nature of the human person in society and carries them forward in time through an institutionalized discourse and practice. This is especially so in those legal traditions that have inherited Western law’s historically consistent orientation toward the individual. Law never makes those sorts of claims in a systematically theoretical way, however. Instead, it is a form of praxis, combining theory and practice, …

Is There A New World Court?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

I am pleased to introduce our conference on Human Rights and the Law of War: New Roles for the World Court? Why this conference? And why now? Our conference is prompted by two contrasting phenomena: The caseload of the ICJ seems to have been transformed in the post-Cold War period. The World Court is now busier than ever. It has more cases, increasingly involving questions of human rights or ongoing armed conflict. Yet these three inter-related phenomena—increased caseload, and more cases involving human rights or armed conflict—have been little analyzed or studied. Our purpose is to contribute to public and …

Functional Democracy: Responding To Failures Of Accountability, Molly K. Land

Molly K. Land

No abstract provided.