Law Commons^™

Origins Of Russian Membership In The Council Of Europe And The Seeds Of Russia's Expulsion, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The story of Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe now has a beginning, a middle, and an end. What can we learn about the values of this international organization, and its preeminent human rights convention, from Russia’s inclusion in them? Was Russia’s membership “worth it”? Any attempted answer must produce more questions: from which perspective – Russia’s, the Council’s, other Member States’ – should the effects of Russian membership be evaluated? How did the Council of Europe change Russia (if Russia was, indeed, changed) and how did Russia change the Council of Europe?

This paper examines the beginning of …

A Martin Luther King Jr. Amendment To The U.S. Constitution: Toward The Abolition Of Poverty, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prescribed that we add an economic bill of rights to the U.S. Constitution. A King-Inspired bill of rights should include a constitutional amendment that enumerates a natural human right to be free from economic poverty, and appropriate enforcement legislation.

For the sake of abolishing slavery, the Thirteenth Amendment says:

(Section 1) Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

(Section 2) Congress shall have power to enforce this article by …

Post-Kiobel Procedure: Subject Matter Jurisdiction Or Prescriptive Jurisdiction?, Anthony J. Colangelo, Christopher R. Knight

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This essay evaluates whether Alien Tort Statute (ATS) cases involving foreign elements raise questions of prescriptive jurisdiction or subject matter jurisdiction after the Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. It concludes that the lower court trend treats Kiobel as going to subject matter jurisdiction, and that this trend is probably correct. It would have been helpful for the Supreme Court to clearly provide guidance on this question — which has major doctrinal and procedural consequences for the law and litigants. The procedural implications of viewing challenges based on Kiobel as going to judicial subject matter jurisdiction are …

Monitoring, Reporting, And Fact-Finding: Does The Human Rights Council Report On Human Rights In North Korea Provide A Template For The Sri Lankan Investigation?, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

2014 has already heralded two significant developments related to monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding (MRF) mechanisms for collecting information on alleged international law violations. First, the Human Rights Council (HRC) published their “Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in February. This report may provide a roadmap for the second important development, the HRC’s decision in March to investigate alleged international law violations during the final phase of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. More broadly, both these efforts offer lessons for any group or body participating in …

Kiobel: Muddling The Distinction Between Prescriptive And Adjudicative Jurisdiction, Anthony J. Colangelo

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This brief symposium Essay addresses whether and in what ways the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) constitutes an exercise of prescriptive jurisdiction by the United States to regulate conduct or an exercise of adjudicative jurisdiction by U.S. courts to entertain suit, as well as the implications of that classification. The Essay begins with a central and hotly contested focal point in ATS suits — most prominently, in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum recently decided by the Supreme Court. Namely: how to conceptualize the applicable law in ATS suits and, more specifically, whether courts apply international law directly or some form of …

Not Child's Play: Revisiting The Law Of Child Soldiers, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This brief commentary discusses child soldiers in general and Omar Khadr, a 15 yr old whom the United States military captured during armed conflict in Afghanistan, in particular. I suggest the conversation should be broadened and to move past misperceptions of the applicable law and norms concerning detention and prosecution of child belligerents.

Justice In Africa: Rwanda's Genocide, Its Courts, And The Un Criminal Tribunal, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.