Law Commons^™

Why We Do The Things We Do? The Role Of Ethics In Water Resource Planning, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Water provides a natural framework in the role of ethics because ethical issues are present in every facet of water management. The value of water and the creation of ethics dictate decisions regarding water resource management. Value can be assessed from factors including happiness, well-being, or intrinsic value. Once a value is assessed, obligations that dictate actions regarding this issue are generated, and an ethic is created.

Various domestic and international policies have, both explicitly and implicitly, called for a human right to water. The presence of domestic and international policies that recognize or protect a person’s right to water …

Panel: Ethics-Based Decision-Making In Societal Water Management, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

There is an ethical overlay to water-related decision-making and management, frequently drawing on personal experiences with water and the ubiquitous need for water. The modern South African Bill of Rights, ensuring its people’s access to water; the movement towards recognizing water as a basic human right; and even occurrences in Texas, including the passage of “environmental flows legislation” and the efforts to preserve and protect the Edwards Aquifer, reflect the presence of ethics in decision-making with respect to water management. Ethics are a part of water management decision-making.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Water: Evaluating Water As A Human Right And The Duties And Obligations It Creates, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

The Right to Water should be an independent, explicit human right. As such, the status of the right to water would be raised to the status of customary international law (jus cogens), imposing an affirmative, obligatory duty an all nations. Historically the right to water has been included in the right to life, limiting the right; however, that approach undermines the essential importance of water and causes enforcement problems that would be avoided by regarding water as an independent right.

Landmark international agreements, treatises, and the work of various international entities and other non-governmental organizations have made tremendous strides in …

A Special Forces Human Rights Policy, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

The use of the United States military to promote human rights values in foreign militaries has taken on a much added significance in the post-Cold War era. Emerging democracies often look to American soldiers to assist them in establishing a law-based military whose policies, rules, and practices are rooted in respect for human rights.

Major General Kenneth Bowra, United States Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) (USASFC(A)), has made the promotion of human rights in the militaries of the emerging democracies a top priority for the Army Special Forces. With regard to America’s desire to inculcate human rights values in friendly …

Legal Training Handbook For The Ukrainian Military, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

In May of 1995, a democracy building project between The Judge Advocate General of Ukraine and United States Army lawyers was completed in Kiev. Over the course of this eight-month project, from September 1994 to May 1995, United States Army judge advocates from the International and Operational Law Division, Office of The Judge Advocate General, worked directly with Colonel Alexander Bokov, Chief, Legal Service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in developing a legal training handbook for Ukrainian soldiers.

The handbook, entitled “Code of Conduct for Participants in Military Operations,” now serves as the primary training guide for instructing …

Jag Corps Poised For New Defense Missions: Human Rights Training In Peru, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

The National Command Authority has cited the dissolution of the Soviet Union as cause for the United States Military to expand its role. In addition to its traditional role of fighting wars, the military will take on new nontraditional roles promoting human rights and the rule of law throughout the world. These new military missions will include peacekeeping operations, humanitarian interventions, disaster relief missions, counter-drug activities, and nation-building activities.

As part of this initiative, the United States Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAGC) provides legal assistance to the militaries of several emerging and struggling democracies. A number of foreign armies and …