Law Commons^™

Missouri's Innocent Citizens: An Examination Of Missouri's Response To Domestic Violence Incidents Against Children And Teens, Keith P. Freie

Keith P Freie

In 2010 the Missouri Attorney’s General’s Office created a Domestic Violence Task Force for the purpose of analyzing Missouri’s Domestic Violence laws. In 2011, the Missouri General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 320 which included several changes to Missouri’s domestic violence laws stemming from several recommendations from the Attorney General’s Task Force. While Missouri’s 2011 domestic violence law is a comprehensive solution to the many unaddressed needs of child and teen domestic violence victims, additional solutions need to be considered to fully address the problem. Those solutions may include creating special domestic violence and child abuse courts and creating educational programs …

The Holocaust And Mass Atrocity: The Continuing Challenge For Decision, Winston Nagan, Aitza Haddad

Winston P Nagan

This article begins with an appraisal of a report published by the United States Institute for Peace and authored by the former Secretary of State, Albright, and former Secretary of Defense, Cohen. This Report generated a great deal of interest and reaction from scholars across the globe. The article will introduce the broad outline of this Report and provide a summary of the principal criticisms that it has generated. This sets the stage for approaching the problem that is sensitive to the issue that this phenomenon be explore with a view to developing usable insights and data as well as …

The Holocaust And Mass Atrocity: The Continuing Challenge For Decision, Winston P. Nagan, Aitza M. Haddad

Winston P Nagan

This article begins with an appraisal of a report published by the United States Institute for Peace and authored by the former Secretary of State, Albright, and former Secretary of Defense, Cohen. This Report generated a great deal of interest and reaction from scholars across the globe. The article will introduce the broad outline of this Report and provide a summary of the principal criticisms that it has generated. This sets the stage for approaching the problem that is sensitive to the issue that this phenomenon be explore with a view to developing usable insights and data as well as …

The Politics Underpinning The Non-Realisation Of The Right To Development, Belachew M. Fikre

Belachew M Fikre

No abstract provided.

Imperial Ignition: Ecological Debt, Greenhouse Development Rights And Climate Change, Jonathan Stribling

Jonathan Stribling

This paper argues for legal principles to remedy the harm done to those least responsible for yet most affected by climate change. It examines approaches to developing the concepts of ecological and climate debt in U.S. law. This paper argues for the importance of understanding ecological debt and particularly “climate debt” in order to sustainably remedy climate change. The paper also argues that the principles of capacity and responsibility, which are the basis of the Greenhouse Development Rights (GDR) framework, are critical to remedying climate debt and should be included in global climate negotiations and U.S. environmental law.

On “Waterboarding”: Legal Interpretation And The Continuing Struggle For Human Rights , Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

While some aspects of the “waterboarding” debate are largely political, the practice also implicates deeply normative underpinnings of human rights and law. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has steadfastly declined to declare waterboarding illegal or to launch an investigation into past waterboarding. His equivocations have generated anguished controversy because they raise a fundamental question: should we balance “heinousness and cruelty” against information that we “might get”? Mr. Mukasey’s approach appears to be careful lawyering. However, it portends a radical and dangerous departure from a fundamental premise of human rights law: the inherent dignity of each person. Although there is some lack …

Legal Lines In Shifting Sand: Immigration Law And Human Rights In The Wake Of September 11, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

In March of 2004, a group of legal scholars gathered at Boston College Law School to examine the doctrinal implications of the events of September 11, 2001. They reconsidered the lines drawn between citizens and noncitizens, war and peace, the civil and criminal systems, as well as the U.S. territorial line. Participants responded to the proposition that certain entrenched historical matrices no longer adequately answer the complex questions raised in the “war on terror.” They examined the importance of government disclosure and the public’s right to know; the deportation system’s habeas corpus practices; racial profiling; the convergence of immigration and …

Sharpening The Cutting Edge Of International Human Rights Law: Unresolved Issues Of War Crimes Tribunals, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

International criminal tribunals have emerged as the most tangible and well-known mechanism for seeking justice in the wake of atrocious human rights violations. As the enterprise has developed, the need to ask fundamental questions is obvious, compelling, and essential. In March, 2006, the Boston College International and Comparative Law Re-view, together with The Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College and the Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project convened a diverse and impressive group of speakers from academia, the judiciary, and legal practice to evaluate: the development of “common law” of the tribunals, the function and limits …

What Should Guide Determinations Of Foreign Official Immunity In Us Courts After Samantar?, Chris C. Morley

Chris C Morley

In the recent Samantar decision, the Supreme Court held that individual foreign officials were not covered by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act but might still be covered by common law immunity. This article analyzes the extent of that common law immunity and discusses whether more recent developments in domestic and international human rights law should impact the availability of immunity for officials accused of torture, extra-judicial killings, and other violations of the law of nations.

Although the bulk of authority from US and foreign courts suggests that foreign officials should enjoy immunity for acts committed within the scope of their …

Justice, The Bretton Woods Institutions And The Problem Of Inequality, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

The Bretton Woods Institutions are, together with the WTO, the preeminent international institutions devoted to managing international economic relations. This mandate puts them squarely in the center of the debate concerning development, inequality and global justice. While the normative analysis of the WTO is gaining momentum, the systematic normative evaluation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is comparatively less developed. This essay aims to contribute to that nascent inquiry. How might global justice criteria apply to the ideology and operations of the Bank and Fund? Political theory offers an abundance of perspectives from which to conduct such …

The Global Market And Human Rights: Trading Away The Human Rights Principle, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

No abstract provided.

Review: A Philosophy Of International Law, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

No abstract provided.

Right To Information Identity, Elad Oreg

Elad Oreg

Inspired by the famous Warren&Brandeis conceptualization of the "right to privacy", this article tries to answer a modern conceptual lacuna and present the argument for the need to conceptualize and recognize a new, independent legal principle of a "right to information-identity". This is the right of an individual to the functionality of the information platforms that enable others to identify and know him and to remember who and what he is. Changes in technology and social standards make the very notion of identity increasingly fluid, transforming the way it is treated and opening new and fascinating ways of relating to …

Community Recovery Lawyering: Hard-Learned Lessons From Post-Katrina Mississippi, Bonnie Allen, Barbara Bezdek, John Jopling

Barbara L Bezdek

No abstract provided.

Here, There And Everywhere: Human Dignity In Contemporary Law And In The Transnational Discourse, Luis Roberto Barroso

Luis Roberto Barroso Professor

ABSTRACT: Over the past several decades, human dignity has become an omnipresent idea in contemporary law. This Article surveys the use of human dignity by domestic and international courts and describes the concept’s growing role in transnational discourse, with special attention paid to the case law of the United States Supreme Court. The Article then examines the legal nature of human dignity, finding it to be a constitutional principle rather than a freestanding fundamental right, and develops a unifying and universal identity for the concept. At its core, human dignity contains three elements - intrinsic value, autonomy and community value …

The Holocaust And Mass Atrocity: The Continuing Challenge For Decision, Winston P. Nagan, Aitza M. Haddad

Winston P Nagan

This article begins with an appraisal of a report published by the United States Institute for Peace and authored by the former Secretary of State, Albright, and former Secretary of Defense, Cohen. This Report generated a great deal of interest and reaction from scholars across the globe. The article will introduce the broad outline of this Report and provide a summary of the principal criticisms that it has generated. This sets the stage for approaching the problem that is sensitive to the issue that this phenomenon be explore with a view to developing usable insights and data as well as …

''Here, There And Everywhere'': Human Dignity In Contemporary Law And In The Transnational Discourse, Luis Roberto Barroso

Luis Roberto Barroso Professor

ABSTRACT: Over the past several decades, human dignity has become an omnipresent idea in contemporary law. This Article surveys the use of human dignity by domestic and international courts and describes the concept’s growing role in transnational discourse, with special attention paid to the case law of the United States Supreme Court. The Article then examines the legal nature of human dignity, finding it to be a constitutional principle rather than a freestanding fundamental right, and develops a unifying and universal identity for the concept. At its core, human dignity contains three elements - intrinsic value, autonomy and community value …

''Here, There And Everywhere'': Human Dignity In Contemporary Law And In The Transnational Discourse, Luis Roberto Barroso

Luis Roberto Barroso Professor

ABSTRACT: Over the past several decades, human dignity has become an omnipresent idea in contemporary law. This Article surveys the use of human dignity by domestic and international courts and describes the concept’s growing role in transnational discourse, with special attention paid to the case law of the United States Supreme Court. The Article then examines the legal nature of human dignity, finding it to be a constitutional principle rather than a freestanding fundamental right, and develops a unifying and universal identity for the concept. At its core, human dignity contains three elements - intrinsic value, autonomy and community value …

''Here, There And Everywhere'': Human Dignity In Contemporary Law And In The Transnational Discourse, Luis Roberto Barroso

Luis Roberto Barroso Professor

ABSTRACT: Over the past several decades, human dignity has become an omnipresent idea in contemporary law. This Article surveys the use of human dignity by domestic and international courts and describes the concept’s growing role in transnational discourse, with special attention paid to the case law of the United States Supreme Court. The Article then examines the legal nature of human dignity, finding it to be a constitutional principle rather than a freestanding fundamental right, and develops a unifying and universal identity for the concept. At its core, human dignity contains three elements - intrinsic value, autonomy and community value …

Human Rights Treaty Body Reform: New Proposals, Andrew Kloster

Andrew Kloster

“Reform” in international human rights law has become a narrow concept. A survey of the literature reveals that nearly any suggestion for reform concerns greater enforcement of international human rights substantive norms.

It is the purpose of this article to address the neglected question of treaty body role. Section II provides a nuts-and-bolts guide to the treaty body mandates for United Nations delegates, States Parties, and international lawyers. This section sketches the proper and improper actions for treaty bodies to take. It is our contention that if treaty bodies were limited to their proper role, they could more effectively use …

The Geography Of Sexuality, Yishai Blank, Issi Rosen-Zvi

Yishai Blank

Who regulates sexuality in America? Given the high salience of federal laws and policies such as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, and states’ legal activism regarding same-sex marriage, it would seem that sexuality is mostly a federal and a state matter, and that cities play a secondary, if not insignificant role. This Article argues that in fact the opposite is true: the regulation of sexuality has been decentralized, with cities being the main locus where the most important issues pertaining to the lives of gays and lesbians are decided. This “localization …

Two Sides Of The Combatant Coin: Untangling Direct Participation In Hostilities From Belligerent Status In Non-International Armed Conflicts, Geoffrey S. Corn, Christopher Jenks

Geoffrey S. Corn

TWO SIDES OF THE COMBATANT COIN: UNTANGLING DIRECT PARTICIPATION IN HOSTILITIES FROM BELLIGERENT STATUS IN NON-INTERNATIONAL ARMED CONFLICTS

GEOFFREY CORN& CHRIS JENKS

ABSTRACT:

Determining who qualifies as a lawful object of attack in contemporary military operations against non-state belligerents is an increasingly demanding challenge. While it is axiomatic that only persons who qualify as either belligerents or civilians taking a direct part in hostilities fall into this category, the nature, and indeed goal, of counter-insurgencies blurs the line between civilians protected from deliberate attack and belligerents subject to attack.

The difficulty in distinguishing the protected (civilians) from the unprotected (belligerents …

Committing Crimes One Bill At A Time; From The White House To The Jail House, Enacting Rational Laws In An Irrational World, Lanessa Owens

Lanessa L. owens

Committing Crimes One Bill At Time; From The White House To The Jail House, Enacting Rational Laws In An Irrational World.

From Masters’ and Slaves’, to Gays’ and Straights’, you think they are different; I will convince you they are the same. I will demonstrate how legislatures have historically and continually abused their power to enact laws. Under the disguise of some governmental interest, legislatures continue to create, enact, and enforce bias laws. This article imports Criminal Procedure into Constitutional Law to create a proactive solution to the ongoing problem of law making. It is this author contention that the …

Committing Crimes One Bill At A Time; From The White House To The Jail House, Enacting Rational Laws In An Irrational World, Lanessa Owens

Lanessa L. owens

Committing Crimes One Bill At Time; From The White House To The Jail House, Enacting Rational Laws In An Irrational World. From Masters’ and Slaves’, to Gays’ and Straights’, you think they are different; I will convince you they are the same. I will demonstrate how legislatures have historically and continually abused their power to enact laws. Under the disguise of some governmental interest, legislatures continue to create, enact, and enforce bias laws. This article imports Criminal Procedure into Constitutional Law to create a proactive solution to the ongoing problem of law making. It is this author contention that the …

Committing Crimes One Bill At A Time; From The White House To The Jail House, Enacting Rational Laws In An Irrational World, Lanessa Owens

Lanessa L. owens

Committing Crimes One Bill At Time; From The White House To The Jail House, Enacting Rational Laws In An Irrational World. From Masters’ and Slaves’, to Gays’ and Straights’, you think they are different; I will convince you they are the same. I will demonstrate how legislatures have historically and continually abused their power to enact laws. Under the disguise of some governmental interest, legislatures continue to create, enact, and enforce bias laws. This article imports Criminal Procedure into Constitutional Law to create a proactive solution to the ongoing problem of law making. It is this author contention that the …

Vietnam, China, And The United States: The Regulatory Framework Of Mining Pollution And Water Quality, Heather Whitney

Heather Whitney

This paper compares the environmental, mining, and water quality policy and regulatory framework of three countries: Vietnam, China, and the United States. There are many similarities between China and Vietnam’s legal framework and environmental protection mechanisms, by virtue of the fact that they are both socialist countries, both authoritarian governments, and both in the midst of an industrial revolution. The United States intersects in some areas of water quality standards and technological controls of effluents with both countries, as well as certain enforcement measures. This is true especially in China, where the EPA has actively consulted the Chinese government in …

Who Are Refugees?, Matthew Lister

Matthew J. Lister

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are unable to meet their needs on their own, and do not receive adequate protection or support from their home states. These people, if they are to be provided for, need assistance from the international community. If we are to meet our duties to these people, we must have ways of knowing who should be eligible for different forms of relief. One prominent proposal from scholars and activists has been to classify all who are unable to meet their basic needs on their own as "refugees," and to extend to them the …

Suicide Killing Of Human Life As Human Right - The Continuing Devolution Of Assisted Suicide Law In The United Kingdom, William Wagner

William Wagner

SUICIDE KILLING OF HUMAN LIFE AS A HUMAN RIGHT

The Continuing Devolution of Assisted Suicide Law

in the United Kingdom

PROF. WILLIAM WAGNER, PROF. JOHN KANE, AND STEPHEN P. KALLMAN

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of time, divine, natural, and positive law traditions of the United Kingdom reflected an inviolable standard that people should not assist in the killing of human life. This article reviews and analyzes the ancient inviolable benchmark, explaining why the common and statutory law of Britain historically reflected its moral reference point to prohibit assisted suicide. We then proceed to analyze a contemporary jurisprudential shift in Britain’s …

Religious Freedom In Private Lawsuits: Untangling When Rfra Applies To Suits Involving Only Private Parties, Sara Lunsford Kohen

Sara Kohen

Religious Freedom in Private Lawsuits: Untangling When RFRA Applies to Suits Involving Only Private Parties, for publication discusses when courts should apply the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) in cases in which the federal government is not a party. Congress passed RFRA in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith. The Court held in Smith that the Constitution does not require religious exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws—those that do not target religion and cover non-religious conduct to the same extent as religious conduct. By contrast, RFRA allows a federal law to substantially burden a religious …

Use Of Unmanned Systems To Combat Terrorism, Raul A. "Pete" Pedrozo

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.