Law Commons^™

Collective Data Rights And Their Possible Abuse, Asaf Lubin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Constructing Citizenship Through War In The Human Rights Era, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

War's historical relationship to the creation of territorial nation-states is well known, but what empirical and normative role does war play in creating the citizen in a modern democracy? Although contemporary theories of citizenship and human rights do not readily acknowledge a legitimate, generative function for war - as evidenced by restrictions on aggression, annexation of occupied territory, expulsions, denationalization, or derogation of fundamental rights - an empirical assessment of state practice, including the interpretation of international legal obligations, suggests that war plays a powerfully transformative role in the construction of citizenship, and that international law and norms implicitly accept …

Transnational Constitution-Making: The Contribution Of The Venice Commission On Law And Democracy, Paul Craig

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission. While part of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission is much less understood than the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), notwithstanding the existing literature. This chapter therefore seeks to explicate and evaluate. It begins by explicating the organizational foundations of the Venice Commission, followed by analysis of its remit and role. The focus then shifts to triggering and working methodology.

The remainder of the article is concerned with evaluation of the Commission’s role in relation to constitution-making as broadly conceived, the analysis being situated within the literature …

Le Concept Dé Dignité Le Droit Américain, Elisabeth Zoller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Making The World In Atlanta's Image: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Morris Abram, And The Legislative History Of The United Nations Race Convention, H. Timothy Lovelace

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

State Court International Human Rights Litigation: A Concerning Trend?, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The brief symposium contribution explores human rights litigation in U.S. state courts under state law. Faced with higher hurdles to successfully asserting Alien Tort Statute claims in U.S. courts and reluctant to re-embrace more traditional international lawmaking, human rights advocates have begun to experiment with alternative strategies for redressing human rights violations. One strategy involves state court litigation. Some commentators believe that state courts may prove more amenable to enforcing and advancing human rights. This symposium contribution explores the parallels between the recent willingness to consider state court litigation to remedy human rights violations occurring abroad and other state court …

The Human Rights Potential Of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Christiana Ochoa, Patrick Keenan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In April, 2008, World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, called for sovereign wealth funds to invest one percent of their capital in Africa. The result will be the International Finance Corporation's Sovereign Funds Initiative and is an attempt to nurture the potential of sovereign wealth funds to contribute to economic development and improved well-being in a number of countries in Africa and elsewhere. This article explores the actual potential of the Sovereign Funds Initiative to realize its desired goals. After exploring and demonstrating the disappointing effects of natural resource wealth, development aid and foreign direct investment on some developing countries, the …

The 2008 Ruggie Report: A Framework For Business And Human Rights, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In June 2008, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie, submitted the final report of his initial three-year mandate. The Report, titled Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights, provides a governance-based set of findings and recommendations on the issue of business and human rights. This essay provides a concise description and brief analysis of the Report.

Changing Territoriality, Fading Sovereignty, And The Development Of Indigenous Group Rights, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For much of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the international community resisted the notion of indigenous peoples' rights. In recent years, however, this has changed. The emergence of indigenous rights in international law may finally be upon us. At the very least, the language of international instruments and certain court decisions indicate a new era is emerging in which international law is beginning to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples. And the public seems increasingly aware of the challenges facing indigenous groups. Despite a past where victories for indigenous peoples' rights have been few, scholars are cautiously optimistic for the …

The Individual And Customary International Law Formation, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A state monopoly on customary international law formation was once required and acceptable, given the status states enjoyed as the sole subjects of international law. Since the drafting of the most commonly cited doctrinal sources of customary international law, legal personhood has been extended to individuals. During this same time period, individuals have come to participate in treaty-making in some key areas of international law, including human rights. The customary international law of human rights, no less than treaty law, has direct effects on individuals. It sees them as the subjects protected by those provisions that have attained the status …

Towards A Cosmopolitan Vision Of International Law: Identifying And Defining Cil Post Sosa V. Alvarez-Machain, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, future Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) litigants seemingly will be asked to demonstrate that the norms giving rise to their actions are violations of clearly established Customary International Law (CIL). Given the mutable character of CIL, especially in the area of human rights, this will surely fuel the already voluminous literature on the content of the CIL of human rights.

While debate will certainly arise over the norms that have been become CIL, significant attention must be also be devoted to the problems inherent in the CIL of …

Book Review. Companies, International Trade And Human Rights By Janet Dine, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This is a book review of Janet Dine's Companies, International Trade and Human Rights (2005). While this 9-page review is quite positive, it does offer some criticisms of Dine's analysis and views.

Remembering Sudetenland: On The Legal Construction Of Ethnic Cleansing, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

What is the true shape of our commitment to prohibit ethnic cleansing? This Article explores that question by considering a case observers have almost universally decided does not constitute ethnic cleansing. It examines the recent controversy in the European Union, when Sudeten Germans demanded that the Czech Republic apologize for having expelled them after WWII before being admitted to the EU. Their demands were almost universally rejected and the legality of the expulsions was reconfirmed by all relevant actors. So what is the consequence for customary international law's rules on ethnic cleansing?

The Article derives the customary legal norms logically …

Book Review. Journal Of The National Human Rights Commission, India, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Fighting The Axis Of Illness: Hiv/Aids, Human Rights, And U.S. Foreign Policy, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Advancing The Language Of Human Rights In A Global Economic Order: An Analysis Of A Discourse, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Human rights language is particularly attuned to setting out the goals of protecting the worlds least protected people. As human rights advocates have entered negotiations with international economic institutions and transnational corporations (TNCs), such negotiations have often resulted in an alternative language to describe the necessity of protecting and promoting human rights. After describing the progressive inclusion of human rights ideas by TNCs, the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO, this Article argues that, while such inclusion is a benefit to the human rights movement, the creation of an alternative language to describe human rights goals is potentially detrimental. …

Book Review. Perceptions And Interpretations Of Law From Past To Present In The Subcontinent, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Personal Law And Human Rights In India And Israel, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Marc Galanter

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law, Common Market Law, And The European Human Rights Convention, Elisabeth Zoller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalism In The Global Era, Elisabeth Zoller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Right To Education As An International Human Right, Jost Delbruck

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments: The European Convention For The Prevention Of Torture And Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Human Rights, U.S. Foreign Policy, And Haitian Refugees, John Scanlan, Gilburt Loescher

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Anti-Social Exercise Of Rights, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.