Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication Year
Articles 1 - 17 of 17
Full-Text Articles in Law
Revisiting Immutability: Competing Frameworks For Adjudicating Asylum Claims Based On Membership In A Particular Social Group, Talia Shiff
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) defines a refugee as any person who has a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” An emerging issue in U.S. asylum law is how to define the category “membership of a particular social group.” This question has become ever-more pressing in light of the fact that the majority of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border are claiming persecution on account of their “membership in a particular social group.” The INA does not define the meaning of “particular social group” and …
Distant Voices Then And Now: The Impact Of Isolation On The Courtroom Narratives Of Slave Ship Captives And Asylum Seekers, Tara Patel
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Part I compares the nineteenth century cases of the Antelope and the Amistad to identify why they resulted in different outcomes despite having similar fact patterns. The Antelope concerned the fate of approximately 280 African captives discovered on a slave trade ship upon its interception by a U.S. revenue cutter. Since the slave trade in the United States was illegal at the time, the captives were transported to Savannah for trial through which their status—free or slave—would be determined. After a lengthy trial and appeals process in which Spain and Portugal laid claim to the captives, the Supreme Court determined …
Gender Discrimination And Statelessness In The Gulf Cooperation Council States, Betsy L. Fisher
Gender Discrimination And Statelessness In The Gulf Cooperation Council States, Betsy L. Fisher
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
Using the Gulf Cooperation Council countries as a case study, this Article outlines the ways in which gender and birth status discrimination create new cases of statelessness. These occur when women are legally unable to convey their nationality to their children. This Article studies gender and birth status discrimination in nationality laws and in civil registration, family, and criminal law in each GCC state: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Ending statelessness will require these states to end discrimination against women and non-marital children in all of its forms in law and practice.
An Evaluation Of The Prospects For Successful Implementation Of The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities In The Islamic World, Brenton Kinker
An Evaluation Of The Prospects For Successful Implementation Of The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities In The Islamic World, Brenton Kinker
Michigan Journal of International Law
This note will examine the CRPD’s aspirations in light of Islamic law, comparing whether the two are—or can be—consistent. Part I will provide background on the CRPD, including the intent of the treaty, the negotiations leading to the final wording, and the solid obligations it contains for state parties. Part II examines the background of Shari’a and its provisions regarding disability. Part III compares the treatment of the disabled under Islamic law with that required by the CRPD in order to gage consistency. Where tensions exist, alternative interpretations of both Islamic law and the CPRD are proposed that might facilitate …
Substantive Equality In The European Court Of Human Rights?, Dr. Rory O'Connell
Substantive Equality In The European Court Of Human Rights?, Dr. Rory O'Connell
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") has a distinguished track record. Established under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 ("ECHR"), it was the world's first international human rights court. It decides thousands of cases every year, and its opinions are cited world-wide. For most of its history, the Court's jurisprudence on equality was uninspiring, as it was based on a formal conception of equality. In recent years, however, the ECtHR has begun to give equality more substantive content.
Militating Democracy: Comparative Constitutional Perspectives, Ruti Teitel
Militating Democracy: Comparative Constitutional Perspectives, Ruti Teitel
Michigan Journal of International Law
Can constitutional review by judges save democracy? This Article identifies and discusses the rise of "militant constitutional democracy" by exploring diverse approaches to the role of constitutional and transnational judicial review in rights protection and the challenges that these approaches present to the workings of democracy, the possibilities of compromise, consensus, and conciliation in political life, and the challenge to other constitutional values as well. "Militant constitutional democracy" ought to be understood as belonging to transitional constitutionalism, associated with periods of political transformation that often demand closer judicial vigilance in the presence of fledgling and often fragile democratic institutions; it …
Technological Advancement And International Human Rights: Is Science Improving Human Life Or Perpetuating Human Rights Violations?, Christine A. Khalili-Borna
Technological Advancement And International Human Rights: Is Science Improving Human Life Or Perpetuating Human Rights Violations?, Christine A. Khalili-Borna
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note assesses the practices of pre-implantation and prenatal genetic screening and sex-determination through an international human rights framework founded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Universal Declaration), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George
Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article argues that the international community's gender equality targets will not be realized by 2015 because the problems associated with sexual violence against girls in schools are situated at an intersection of contested conceptual divides between human rights (civil and political liberties) and development aims (social and economic needs). Cracks in the conceptual foundations of both the liberal and utilitarian theories of justice and equality, which support traditional human rights advocacy and economic development plans, respectively render each approach inadequate to fully identify and address the grave danger sexual violence and harassment in schools pose to educational equality. In …
Foreword: Why Retry? Reviving Dormant Racial Justice Claims, Martha Minow
Foreword: Why Retry? Reviving Dormant Racial Justice Claims, Martha Minow
Michigan Law Review
Two familiar arguments oppose lawsuits and legislative efforts to address racial injustices from our national past, and a third tacit argument can be discerned. "Why open old wounds?": this question animates the first argument. The evidence is stale - this expresses the second argument. The third, less explicit objection reflects worries that exposing some gross and unremedied racial injustices from the past will reveal the scale of imperfections in the systems of justice and government and thereby undermine the legitimacy of those systems. To introduce the meticulous and passionate essays in this Colloquium, I elaborate and respond to each of …
Dueling Fates: Should The International Legal Regine Accept A Collective Or Individual Pradigm To Protect Women's Rights?, Michigan Journal Of International Law
Dueling Fates: Should The International Legal Regine Accept A Collective Or Individual Pradigm To Protect Women's Rights?, Michigan Journal Of International Law
Michigan Journal of International Law
Transcript for Symposium held at the University of Michigan Law School on Saturday, April 6, 2002.
Apartheid As A Crime Against Humanity: A Submission To The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Ronald C. Slye
Apartheid As A Crime Against Humanity: A Submission To The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Ronald C. Slye
Michigan Journal of International Law
The question of whether apartheid is a crime against humanity might seem an odd one for many people living outside South Africa-and indeed for the vast majority of people living inside South Africa. With the recent demise of legalized apartheid in South Africa, one might ask if apartheid's status under international law has any contemporary relevance beyond a small group of legal academics. The status of apartheid under international law-in particular whether apartheid constitutes a crime against humanity-is a question that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission ("TRC") was obligated to address in its final report.
International Human Rights And Feminism: When Discourses Meet, Karen Engle
International Human Rights And Feminism: When Discourses Meet, Karen Engle
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this article, the author brings some of the issues identified and discussed in domestic law into public international law, through an analysis of that area of human rights law pertaining to women. Although she is inspired by the domestic debate, her purpose here is not specifically to critique or defend rights. Rather, to explore the various ways that advocates of international women's rights have deployed, and at the same time critiqued, existing rights frameworks in order to achieve change for women. In doing so, the author analyzes the multiple roles that rights discourse plays in the advocacy of women's …
Note, The Convention For The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women: Radical, Reasonable, Or Reactionary?, Sarah C. Zearfoss
Note, The Convention For The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women: Radical, Reasonable, Or Reactionary?, Sarah C. Zearfoss
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note will explore the merits behind these positions and attempt a resolution. If the potential effect of the Convention can only be to freeze and enshrine sex equality law as it currently exists, one who is interested in achieving changes in the law for the purpose of benefiting women will not want to put her energy into lobbying for ratification. It is therefore important to get past political strategies and determine what promise the Convention might hold for women in the United States. If the United States were to ratify the Convention, what changes, if any, would result?
Safeguarding Due Process In A Hostile Environment: Foreign Lawyers In South Africa, David S. Abramowitz
Safeguarding Due Process In A Hostile Environment: Foreign Lawyers In South Africa, David S. Abramowitz
Michigan Journal of International Law
Part I of this note briefly describes the effect of apartheid on human rights in South Africa. It then examines how liberal South African attorneys use procedural due process, as defined by the rule of law, to counter these effects. Part II discusses the methods used by foreign attorneys to support South African human rights lawyers. In particular, this section focuses on the activities of the International Commission of Jurists and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The note concludes that infusing fair process into the South African legal order is the most significant contribution foreign lawyers can …
Justice At War: The Story Of The Japanese American Internment Cases, Michigan Law Review
Justice At War: The Story Of The Japanese American Internment Cases, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases by Peter Irons
Equality And Discrimination Under International Law, Michigan Law Review
Equality And Discrimination Under International Law, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Equality and Discrimination Under International Law by Warwick McKean
The Right To Religious Freedom And World Public Order: The Emerging Norm Of Nondiscrimination, Myres S. Mcdougal, Harold D. Lasswell, Lung-Chu Chen
The Right To Religious Freedom And World Public Order: The Emerging Norm Of Nondiscrimination, Myres S. Mcdougal, Harold D. Lasswell, Lung-Chu Chen
Michigan Law Review
Discrimination based upon religious beliefs and expressions forms the basis for some of the most serious deprivations of civil and political rights. The religious beliefs and expressions that are commonly the ground for discrimination include all of the traditional faiths and justifications from which norms of responsible conduct--that is, judgments about right and wrong--are derived. These beliefs may be theological in the sense that they refer to a personalized transempirical source of an unchallengeable message or metaphysical in the sense that they are grounded upon nonpersonalized transempirical conceptions; sometimes they are more empirical, based upon varying conceptions of science or …