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Full-Text Articles in Law
Foreign Sovereign Immunity And Domestic Officer Suits, Curtis A. Bradley, Jack L. Goldsmith
Foreign Sovereign Immunity And Domestic Officer Suits, Curtis A. Bradley, Jack L. Goldsmith
Faculty Scholarship
Under international law, official-capacity suits brought against a foreign state’s officers are treated as suits against the state itself and thus as subject to the state’s immunity, even in suits alleging human rights abuses. This immunity regime differs from the immunity regime that applies in the United States in suits brought against state and federal officials for violations of federal law. Despite the federal government’s sovereign immunity and the immunity of state governments under Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence, courts often allow suits against federal and state officers for their official actions. This essay attempts to explain why the immunity rules differ …
Human Rights For Hedgehogs?: Global Value Pluralism, International Law, And Some Reservations Of The Fox, Robert D. Sloane
Human Rights For Hedgehogs?: Global Value Pluralism, International Law, And Some Reservations Of The Fox, Robert D. Sloane
Faculty Scholarship
This essay, a contribution to the Boston University Law Review’s symposium on Ronald Dworkin’s forthcoming book, Justice for Hedgehogs, critiques the manuscript’s account of international human rights on five grounds. First, it is vague: it fails to offer much if any guidance relative to many of the most difficult concrete issues that arise in the field of international human rights law and policy - precisely the circumstances in which international lawyers might benefit from the guidance that moral foundations supposedly promise. It is also troubling, and puzzling given Dworkin’s well-known commitment to the right-answer thesis, that his account of human …
A Lucky Child: A Memoir Of Surviving Auschwitz As A Young Boy, Lori Fisler Damrosch
A Lucky Child: A Memoir Of Surviving Auschwitz As A Young Boy, Lori Fisler Damrosch
Faculty Scholarship
Many readers of this Journal would readily identify the young boy in lederhosen, hands tightly clasped by his mother, who is in turn enfolded in the father's embrace – all three smiling on what is perhaps the child's third birthday – in the cover photograph of the American edition of the book under review. In this memoir he is Tommy, Tom, Tomek, or Tommyli; in later life he is known to us (and recognized worldwide) as Thomas Buergenthal, judge of the International Court of justice since 2000 and honorary president of the American Society of International Law from 2001 to …
Embedded International Law And The Constitution Abroad, Sarah H. Cleveland
Embedded International Law And The Constitution Abroad, Sarah H. Cleveland
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay explores the role of "embedded" international law in U.S. constitutional interpretation, in the context of extraterritorial application of the Constitution. Traditional U.S. understandings of the Constitution's application abroad were informed by nineteenth-century international law principles of jurisdiction, which largely limited the authority of a sovereign state to its geographic territory. Both international law and constitutional law since have developed significantly away from strictly territorial understandings of governmental authority, however. Modern international law principles of jurisdiction and state responsibility now recognize that states legitimately may exercise power in a number of extraterritorial contexts, and that legal obligations may apply …
United States Detention Operations In Afghanistan And The Law Of Armed Conflict, Matthew C. Waxman
United States Detention Operations In Afghanistan And The Law Of Armed Conflict, Matthew C. Waxman
Faculty Scholarship
Looking back on US and coalition detention operations in Afghanistan to date, three key issues stand out: one substantive, one procedural and one policy. The substantive matter – what are the minimum baseline treatment standards required as a matter of international law? – has clarified significantly during the course of operations there, largely as a result of the US Supreme Court’s holding in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The procedural matter – what adjudicative processes does international law require for determining who may be detained? – eludes consensus and has become more controversial the longer the Afghan conflict continues. And the …
Rethinking "Effective Remedies": Remedial Deterrence In International Courts, Sonja Starr
Rethinking "Effective Remedies": Remedial Deterrence In International Courts, Sonja Starr
Faculty Scholarship
One of the bedrock principles of contemporary international law is that victims of human rights violations have a right to an “effective remedy.” International courts usually hold that effective remedies must at least make the victim whole, and they sometimes adopt even stronger remedial rules for particular categories of human rights violations. Moreover, courts have refused to permit departure from these rules on the basis of competing social interests. Human rights scholars have not questioned this approach, frequently pushing for even stronger judicial remedies for rights violations. Yet in many cases, strong and inflexible remedial rules can perversely undermine human …
Dual Subordination: Muslim Sexuality In Secular And Religious Legal Discourse In India, Aziza Ahmed
Dual Subordination: Muslim Sexuality In Secular And Religious Legal Discourse In India, Aziza Ahmed
Faculty Scholarship
Muslim women and Muslim members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community face a specific form of dual subordination in relation to their gender and sexuality. A Muslim woman might seek solace from India's patriarchal religious judicial structures only to find that the secular system's patriarchal structures likewise aid in their subordination and create a space for new forms of such subordination. Similarly, a marginalized LGBT Muslim might attempt to reject an oppressive religious formulation only to come to find that the secular Indian state might criminalize a particular form of sexuality. This analysis explores how Indian laws …
Between Rogues And Liberals: Towards Value Pluralism As A Theory Of Freedom Of Religion In International Law, Peter G. Danchin
Between Rogues And Liberals: Towards Value Pluralism As A Theory Of Freedom Of Religion In International Law, Peter G. Danchin
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Universal Rights And Wrongs, Michael E. Tigar
Universal Rights And Wrongs, Michael E. Tigar
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Wall And The Law: A Tale Of Two Judgements, Susan M. Akram, S. Michael Lynk
The Wall And The Law: A Tale Of Two Judgements, Susan M. Akram, S. Michael Lynk
Faculty Scholarship
The seminal rulings in 2004 by the International Court of Justice and the Israeli High Court on the legality of the wall/barrier that Israel is building through the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem provide a study in contrast. While both judgements were critical of the wall/barrier, their judicial approaches and legal conclusions were strikingly divergent, particularly given that the two courts were purporting to rely upon the same principles of international law. The judgements also elicited quite different political and diplomatic reactions, especially among the parties most involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict. This article explores the legal analysis and …
Safe-Conduct Theory Of The Alien Tort Statute, The, Thomas H. Lee
Safe-Conduct Theory Of The Alien Tort Statute, The, Thomas H. Lee
Faculty Scholarship
In this Article, Professor Lee introduces a novel explanation of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) - a founding-era enactment that has achieved modern prominence as a vehicle for international human rights litigation. He demonstrates how the statute was intended to address violations of something called a "safe conduct" - a sovereign promise of safety to aliens from injury to their persons and property. The safe-conduct theory advances a new modern role for the ATS to redress torts committed by private actors - including aliens - with a U.S. sovereign nexus, and not for international law violations committed by anyone anywhere. …
International Human Rights Standards In International Organizations: The Case Of International Criminal Courts, Kenneth S. Gallant
International Human Rights Standards In International Organizations: The Case Of International Criminal Courts, Kenneth S. Gallant
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Agora (Continued): Future Implications Of The Iraq Conflict: Editors' Note, Lori Fisler Damrosch, Bernard H. Oxman
Agora (Continued): Future Implications Of The Iraq Conflict: Editors' Note, Lori Fisler Damrosch, Bernard H. Oxman
Faculty Scholarship
This Agora continues the discussion of future implications of the Iraq conflict begun in the previous issue of the Journal. While the contributions to the first installment of the Agora concentrated mainly on the decision to initiate combat against Iraq in spring 2003 and the implications thereof for the restraints on use of force in the UN Charter and customary international law, the present pieces shift the focus to the management of the transition within Iraq in the aftermath of the military intervention.
The Japanese International Law 'Revolution': International Human Rights Law And Its Impact In Japan, Kenneth L. Port
The Japanese International Law 'Revolution': International Human Rights Law And Its Impact In Japan, Kenneth L. Port
Faculty Scholarship
Some observers have argued that because of a lack of enforcement powers, international law has relatively little impact on the conduct of nations and, in fact, may not be "law" at all. Others have inquired whether legal norms which underlie international human rights law have any influence on the domestic law of signatory nations. This article argues that international law can profoundly influence the development of the domestic laws of nations regardless of the lack of coercive enforcement powers. This point becomes clear through a consideration of Japan's experience in adopting and internalizing international law norms.
Nicaragua: United States Assistance To The Nicaraguan Human Rights Association And The Nicaraguan Resistance, Suzanne B. Goldberg, Lee Crawford, Kevin Reed, John Tennant
Nicaragua: United States Assistance To The Nicaraguan Human Rights Association And The Nicaraguan Resistance, Suzanne B. Goldberg, Lee Crawford, Kevin Reed, John Tennant
Faculty Scholarship
The question of providing aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance has been significant to United States human rights policy throughout the Reagan Administration. Although events have changed repeatedly during the winter of 1988, including a truce between the Nicaraguan Government and the Resistance and a Congressional decision not to provide military aid to the Resistance, the underlying policy issues remain constant. The Harvard Human Rights Yearbook presents two notes, infra, discussing the Military Construction Appropriations Act of 1987, which granted $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Resistance. The first note discusses the Nicaraguan Human Rights Association (Asociacidn Nicaraguense Pro-Derechos Humanos …