Law Commons^™

The Fiduciary Constitution Of Human Rights, Evan Fox-Decent, Evan J. Criddle

Faculty Publications

We argue that human rights are best conceived as norms arising from a fiduciary relationship that exists between states (or statelike actors) and the citizens and noncitizens subject to their power. These norms draw on a Kantian conception of moral personhood, protecting agents from instrumentalization and domination. They do not, however, exist in the abstract as timeless natural rights. Instead, they are correlates of the state’s fiduciary duty to provide equal security under the rule of law, a duty that flows from the state’s institutional assumption of irresistible sovereign powers.

Public Interest Litigation In India: Overreaching Or Underachieving?, Varun Gauri

Varun Gauri

Public interest litigation has historically been an innovative judicial procedure for enhancing the social and economic rights of disadvantaged and marginalized groups in India. In recent years, however, a number of criticisms of public interest litigation have emerged, including concerns related to separation of powers, judicial capacity, and inequality. These criticisms have tended to abstraction, and the sheer number of cases has complicated empirical assessments. This paper finds that public interest litigation cases constitute less than 1 percent of the overall case load. The paper argues that complaints related to concerns having to do with separation of powers are better …

Human Rights Approach To Land Rights In Ethiopia, Belachew M. Fikre

Belachew M Fikre

No abstract provided.

Improvement On The Commission?: The Un Human Rights Council’S Inaction On Darfur, Rosa A. Freedman

Rosa A Freedman

The UN Human Rights Council was established in 2006 to overcome the perceived politicisation of its predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission. This article provides initial observations of its work, based on heretofore unpublished accounts of its proceedings. Using the example of Council inaction on Darfur, evidence is examined to confirm initial fears that the Council would fail to avoid the politicisation that had undermined the Commission. A major cause of the Council’s inaction on Darfur was the collective determination of politically allied states to shift attention away from Sudan and to weaken any resolution that might be passed. This …

The United States And The Un Human Rights Council: An Early Assessment., Rosa A. Freedman

Rosa A Freedman

The United States assumed membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2009. That move reversed its decision, taken only a few months earlier under George W. Bush, to withdraw America’s official observer mission. President Obama’s new openness may suggest a fresh start to American foreign policy, but the US has not altered its basic objections to the Council’s procedures and decisions. Failures of the Council’s predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, had been attributed to politicisation and bias. Since the Commission’s dissolution, the US had warned against a repeat of the Commission’s failures. Disgruntled that those warnings were ignored, …

Music And Genocide: Harmonizing Coherence, Freedom And Nonviolence In Incitement Law, Gregory S. Gordon

Gregory S. Gordon

Can singing a song constitute incitement to genocide? A recent decision by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in the case of Hutu extremist pop singer Simon Bikindi said it can. But in convicting Bikindi, it failed to apply, much less develop, the incitement law framework it had established, albeit in a piecemeal fashion, through a string of prior opinions (most notably in the famous "Media Case"). That framework asks judges to consider the purpose, text, context, and relationship between the speaker and subject to determine if a speech constitutes criminal incitement. Critics have pointed to the test's piecemeal …

Devilry, Complicity, And Greed: Transitional Justice And Odious Debt, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

The doctrine of odious debts came into its full in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century to deal with the financial injustices of colonialism and its stalking horse, despotism. The basic rule, as articulated by Alexander Sack in 1927, is that debts incurred by an illegitimate regime that neither benefit nor have the consent of the people of a territory are personal to the regime and are subject to unilateral recision by a successor government. While the traditional doctrine focused on the nature and circumstances of individual debts, it has been expanded in recent years, moving the focus from the …

Making The Case For Conflict Bifurcation In Afghanistan: Transnational Armed Conflict, Al Qaida, And The Limits Of Associated Militia Concept, Geoffrey S. Corn

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Is Human Rights Law Of Any Relevance To Military Operations In Afghanistan?, Francoise J. Hampson

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Global Responsibility For Human Rights: World Poverty And The Development Of International Law, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Legal Issues In Forming The Coalition, Alan Cole

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Scholarly Works

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …

The Hijab In Educational Institutions And Human Rights: Perspectives From Nigeria And Beyond, Abdulmumini A. Oba

Abdulmumini A Oba

Islam places much emphasis on modesty and chastity. Islam makes it compulsory for all Muslims to dress with great modesty. The modest dressing for females is referred to as the hijab. The exact ambit of the hijab is subject of controversies. Over the years, in compliance with this divine injunction, Muslim women have adopted all or one or more combination of these: loose outer garment (jilbab), headscarves (khimar), face veil (niqab), and stockings to cover their feet. Any pious Muslim woman would feel strongly, the imperative to adopt these.

Teeming numbers of students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria are now …

Repressive Laws In India, Saumya Uma

Dr. Saumya Uma

International Treaties On Human Rights, Saumya Uma

Dr. Saumya Uma

Unpackaging Human Rights: Concepts, Campaigns & Concerns, Saumya Uma

Dr. Saumya Uma

Human Rights And The Global Economy: The Centrality Of Economic And Social Rights, Marley S. Weiss

Marley S. Weiss

No abstract provided.

Schisms In Humanitarianism: The Khmer Rouge Tribunal's First Hearing, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mass atrocity invokes humanitarian impulses in all of us. But when a genocidaire casts himself as a victim, the right response is less straightforward. This article analyzes a recent hearing of one of Cambodia's most feared Khmer Rouge cadres who stands trial before a newly established hybrid tribunal and suggests the consequences of responding to war crime trials with polemics rather than principle.

Policy Options For The Obama Administration: The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act As A Tool Against State Sponsors Of Terrorism, Steve Perles, Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, as amended in 2008, may provide an exploitable policy lever for the Obama administration as it seeks to deal with threats posed by state sponsors of terror such as Iran and Syria. Supporting private causes of action by victims of terror is both just and good policy.

Killing History: The Effect Of Slavery And Wwii On The Death Penalty In America And Europe, Julie Turley

Global Honors Theses

The author examines the cultural and social factors that have impacted the United States’s and European Union’s opposing stances on capital punishment. Particular focus is paid to the United States’s history of race relations and views on economic inequality and to the influence of World War II on the EU’s human rights and welfare policies. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the US may enact its own path to abolition.

Water Privatization Trends In The United States: Human Rights, National Security, And Public Stewardship, Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Title: Attributes Of Successful Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos)—Sixty Years After The 1948 Universal Declaration Of Human Rights., George E. Edwards

george e edwards

Title: Attributes of Successful Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)—Sixty Years After the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Despite human rights NGOs’ omnipresence and contributions to global human rights, the human rights community cannot agree on what constitutes a “human rights NGO”, how tidily to categorize them, or what framework to use to vet them. With the proliferation of non-state groups with nefarious intent, some of which claim human rights NGO status, it is difficult to distinguish between groups deserving support and groups deserving disbandment.

Inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union need to know which …

Transcript: Advocacy Before Regional Human Rights Bodies: A Cross-Regional Agenda, Victor Abramovich, Charlotte De Broutelles, Santiago Canton, Paolo Carozza, Andrew Drzemczewski, Jonathan Fanton, Leonardo Franco, Felipe González, Claudio Grossman, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Bahame Tom-Mukirya Nyanduga, Diane Orentlicher, Fatsah Ouguergouz, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzón, Sergio Garcia Ramirez, Manuel Ventura Robles, Pablo Saavedra

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brief On The Merits-Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: Fleury V. Haiti, Andrea P. Capellán, Smita Rao, Meetali Jain

Andrea Pestone Capellán

This is a brief on the merits authored by my co-counsel, Smita Rao, and I to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Lysias Fleury v. Haiti (Case No. 12.459). This case was recommended to the Inter-American Court by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The brief was filed on behalf of Lysias Fleury, a Haitian human rights defender, by the Washington College of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic.

Brief On The Merits-Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: Fleury V. Haiti (French), Andrea P. Capellán, Smita Rao, Meetali Jain

Andrea Pestone Capellán

FRENCH VERSION. This is a brief on the merits authored by my co-counsel, Smita Rao, and I to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Lysias Fleury v. Haiti (Case No. 12.459). This case was recommended to the Inter-American Court by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The brief was filed on behalf of Lysias Fleury, a Haitian human rights defender, by the Washington College of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic.

Derogations And Restrictions On The Right To Strike Under International Law: The Case Of Nigeria, O. V. C. Okene

Dr. O. V. C. OKene

No abstract provided.

Prologue , Claudio Grossman

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Panel 2: How Are Laws Applied And Detention Practices Reformed? Question & Answer Session , Steven Watt, Claudio Grossman, James Ross, Eugene Fidell

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel 3: Transparency And Access Of Independent Experts To All Places Of Detention Experience In Latin America, Santiago Canton

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of International Armed Conflict, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …