Law Commons^™

Meaning's Edge, Love's Priority, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Michigan Law Review

The story is told of an American wending his way through the British Museum. Reaching the Rosetta Stone, he reached right over the railing, touched the scarred slab, and lamented: "It doesn't feel meaningful." Whereupon an old Briton was heard to mumble: "The poor American's got this old thing confused with the Blarney Stone." A bully presses his case, but meaning is much more modest. Powerless to insist upon itself, meaning lies in wait of discovery. What distinguishes the Rosetta Stone from other rocks of the same kind and size is that it was someone's - or rather a group's …

The American Rejection Of Economic Rights As Human Rights And The Declaration Of Independence: Does The Pursuit Of Happiness Require Basic Economic Rights?, Linda M. Keller

NYLS Journal of Human Rights

This article explores the economic dimension of the Pursuit of Happiness in the Declaration of Independence and how it undercuts the notion that economic and social rights under international human rights law are somehow un-American. The United States government seems to believe that economic rights are not truly human rights, but rather radical Cold War era entitlements advocated by communists. The minimum-needs conception of the pursuit of happiness suggests that economic rights are enshrined in a document considered part of the foundation of democracy.

Part I evaluates the rejection of economic rights in the United States, focusing on international commitments. …