Law Commons^™

The Trafficking And Exploitation Victims Assistance Program: A Proposed Early Response Plan For Victims Of International Human Trafficking In The United States, Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Marisa S. Cianciarulo

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, ground-breaking legislation designed to punish traffickers and protect victims, is not reaching its full potential as a powerful tool against international human trafficking. A principal component of the Act - the availability of special T visas for trafficking victims who cooperate with law enforcement officials against their traffickers - is failing to reach its intended beneficiaries. According to U.S. government statistics, less than one percent of individuals trafficked into the United States have received protection in the form of a T visa. This article identifies weaknesses in the T visa system and proposes reforms designed …

Reparations For Cultural Loss, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Destruction, damage and dispossession of culture and heritage loom large in actions pursued by indigenous peoples at the international, regional and domestic levels. This chapter considers how the claims and remedies for cultural losses sustained by indigenous peoples, collectively and individually, push the existing boundaries of international law. First, it outlines how culture and its manifestations is conceptualized by indigenous peoples. Second, how claims for cultural loss are framed by expanding upon existing international human rights law and international humanitarian law is explained. Finally, it examines the application of recent developments at the international and regional levels to accommodate broader …

The Reception Of The Echr In National Legal Orders, Alec Stone Sweet, Helen Keller

Alec Stone Sweet

No abstract provided.

Assessng The Impact Of The Echr On National Legal Systems, Alec Stone Sweet, Helen Keller

Alec Stone Sweet

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property And Human Rights: Learning To Live Together, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

Intellectual property and human rights must learn to live together. Traditionally, there have been two dominant views of this “cohabitation,” namely a conflict view, which emphasizes the negative impacts of intellectual property on rights such as freedom of expression or the right to health and security, and a compatibility model, which emphasizes that both sets of rights strive towards the same fundamental equilibrium. This Chapter takes the dualist view that both are right, though there is, and should be, much more truth to the second approach in the coming years.

Human And Fundamental Rights And Duties In Portuguese Constitution. Some Reflections, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The Portuguese Constitution (1976) came after a period of 48 years of authoritarianism and a closed society, in which some happy few enjoyed great privileges while the great majority of people were charged with heavy duties So, by a very understandable "law of human nature", the constituent law givers could not reasonably impose constitutionally many obligations, in an autonomous way. As rights and duties are the twin sides of the same coin, the juridical formulation under the sign of rights also implies obligations, related to those same rights. This is kinder and more pleasant to do by a liberating Constitution...

Asset Freezing, Social Security, And Human Rights, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This case analysis discusses a recent decision of the Court of Appeal concerning restrictions placed on the payment of certain social security benefits in the context of the UN asset freezing regime. The case is an interesting example of the sort of new questions coming before the courts in the post-9 11 world and raises a number of issues worthy of note. In particular, it raises the question of the approach which national and supranational courts should adopt to balancing the implementation of anti-terrorism measures with the upholding of the principles of human rights (and their application in practice).

Home State Obligations For The Prevention And Remediation Of Transnational Harm: Canada, Global Mining And Local Communities, Sara L. Seck

Sara L. Seck

Globalización, Derechos Humanos Y Sociedad De La Información, Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes

Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes

Para nadie es ajeno que las nuevas tecnologías, y en especial el internet, en la llamada era de la sociedad de la información, constituyen una de las mayores posibilidades con las que se cuenta actualmente para la adquisición de nuevos conocimientos, contactos personales interactivos como el correo electrónico, el chat, el comercio electrónico, la diversión, los grupos de discusión y las redes sociales.Sin embargo, al lado de las infinitas posibilidades benéficas que la red de redes ofrece, coexisten algunos usos abusivos, inseguros, peligrosos o incluso delictivos que nos plantean nuevos retos a los juristas, acerca de los cuales es posible …

Toward A Substantive Theory Of Equality In Dayton’S Bosnia: Implications For Nations In Transition, Sheri P. Rosenberg

Sheri P. Rosenberg

The value of equality has little currency after genocide and ethnic cleansing. Restoring that value is no easy feat. Paramount, though not singular in this struggle for equality, is the role of the law. A state legitimates its common legal rights and duties through its legal institutions, which define the values and character of the nation. Equality and anti-discrimination jurisprudence is particularly important at the delicate moment of transition from genocide, because it grounds within society the normative shift in principles underlying and legitimating the cultural understanding and relationship to equality. Specifically, this Article addresses the question: what can equality …

Modern-Day Slavery And Cultural Bias: Proposals For Reforming The U.S. Visa System For Victims Of International Human Trafficking, Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Marisa S. Cianciarulo

The international trafficking of human beings has emerged as one of the most lucrative and far-reaching industries in the world, second only to trafficking in drugs and tied with trafficking in arms. Many victims of international human trafficking, including teenagers and young children, are forced to work in the sex trade. Others work in areas such as agriculture, restaurants and sweatshops. In 2000, in an effort to combat trafficking and encourage trafficking victims to assist in the prosecution of traffickers, the United States enacted the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA), which created a new visa, called the …

The Social Security Rights Of Transsexuals Under Eu Law And The, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The rights of transsexuals have gained important recognition in recent decisions by the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. Yet important conceptual issues remained to be clarified as to the precise implications of these decisions for the rights of transsexuals in areas such as social security and pensions entitlement. This article examines two important recent decisions which further develop the Courts’ caselaw. These cases also highlight the developing– and largely complementary - relationship between the two legal orders.

An Analysis Of The Legality Of Television Cameras Broadcasting Juror Deliberations In A Criminal Case, Daniel H. Erskine

Daniel H. Erskine

Recently, ABC News broadcast the deliberations of several juries in capital murder cases into the living rooms of the American public. The latest judicial opinion to confront the problem of televising jury room deliberations in a capital criminal case took place in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The article surveys the applicable federal constitutional and statutory law, as well as state jurisprudence, relevant to the intrusion of television cameras into the jury room. Additionally, this article discusses recent Scottish and European case law addressing jury deliberation as a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Universal Human Rights: A Generational History, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

The article outlines the generational theory of human rights evolving from first generation procedural individual freedoms from through second generation collective rights to into third generational aspirational goals. That model is generally true but womens rights and rights of non-white persons do not perfectly fit into that model being approximately one or even two generations delayed.

Freedom Of Expression (R): Overzealous Copyright Bozos And Other Enemies Of Creativity (Book Review), Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

Extraterritorial Corporate Criminal Liability: A Remedy For Human Rights Violations?, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

Examines the extraterritorial application of U.S. criminal law in the context of corporations.

Necessity Versus Legality: The United Kingdom’S 2001 Derogation Order And The European Convention On Human Rights, Ibrahim Sule

Ibrahim Sule

No abstract provided.

Waiting For Some Angel: Indigenous Rights As An Ethical Imperative In The Theory And Practice Of Human Rights, Sam Grey

Sam Grey

This article uses the stalled Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the impetus for an examination of arguments championing and opposing the framing of Indigenous rights as human rights. Failings both theoretical and practical – in the conceptualisation, promulgation and interpretation of human rights – have long left Aboriginal peoples at a disadvantage. The dual focus of Indigenous claims is unique in the rights lexicon, asserting the right to be simultaneously different from and equal to the majority population. Yet Indigenous rights are often perceived, by governments with the power to block their progress, as a threat …

No Longer Little Known But Now A Door Ajar: An Overview Of The Evolving And Dangerous Role Of The Alien Tort Statute In Human Rights And International Law Jurisprudence, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Human rights’ and other international law activists have long worked to add teeth to their tasks. One of the most interesting avenues for such enforcement has been the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). The ATS has become the primary vehicle for injecting international norms and human rights into United States courts – against nation-states, state actors, and even private individuals or corporations alleged to actually or in complicity or conspiracy been responsible for supposed violations of international law. This Symposium Article provides an overview of the ATS evolution (or revolution), discusses the most recent significant development in the evolution arising from …

The Place Of Human Rights Law In World Trade Organization Rules, Stephen Joseph Powell

Stephen Joseph Powell

WTO rules routinely are linked to the inability of nations to make meaningful progress in sharpening environmental and other human rights protections, for example, the failure of the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development to usher in any new treaties despite the bright promise of the Rio Earth Summit of the previous decade. The common brief of environmental, medical, and development interest groups is that the market principles of supply and demand, comparative advantage, and non-discrimination on which global trade rules are built have encumbered pursuit by nations of fundamental non-economic objectives that must in any reasoned legal hierarchy …

Current Maritime Labour Law Issues: An Internationally Uniform Identity Document For Seafarers, Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry

Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry

No abstract provided.

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

Molly K. Land

No abstract provided.

Post-Colonialism, Gender, And Customary Injustice: Widows In African Societies, Uche Ewelukwa

Uche Ewelukwa

By amending discriminatory laws and practices related to the treatment of widows in Africa, widows can gain new rights based on evolving international human rights standards on equality. In Nigeria, both common law and statutes perpetuate discrimination against widows by subjecting them to dehumanizing treatment. The current laws ignore the deep social changes that have been present in Africa since the onset of colonialism. Due to the piecemeal way in which African legal systems were constructed, patently discriminatory laws are routinely upheld by the courts. This is done despite constitutional provisions espousing the principles of equality and non-discrimination, thereby creating …

Equal Protection And Sexual Orientation, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

Equality is the thread running through the fundamental liberties enshrined in our Constitution. ... Equality, expressed in Art 12 of the [Singapore] Constitution, is also a specific right enforceable by the court. The difficulty comes in applying this deceptively simple concept to real-life situations. ... In considering the validity of legislation, Singapore and Malaysian courts have generally favored rational review, a modest conception of equal protection, unlike their American counterparts which have adopted a more expansive reading in the form of strict and intermediate review. This article examines how these three levels of equal protection review operate, and argues that …

Treaty Law: A Primer For Human Rights Lawyers, Perry S. Bechky

Perry S. Bechky

This short article introduces the law of treaties to domestic lawyers handling civil liberties cases.

Sensibility At Nuremberg: A Review Essay On Telford Taylor's The Anatomy Of The Nuremburg Trials, Kenneth Anderson

Kenneth Anderson

Finding A Mechanism To Enforce Women's Rights To Freedom From Domestic Violence In The Americas, Katherine Culliton

KATHERINE CULLITON-GONZÁLEZ

No abstract provided.

Action Specific Human Rights Legislation For El Salvador, Kenneth Anderson

Kenneth Anderson