Law Commons^™

Religiosity In Constitutions And The Status Of Minority Rights, Brandy G. Robinson

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Minority rights and religion have never been topics that are simultaneously considered. However, arguably, the two have relevance, especially when combined with the topic and theory of constitutionalism. Historically and traditionally, minorities have been granted certain rights and have been denied certain rights under various constitutions. These grants and denials relate to cultural differences and values, arguably relating to a culture’s understanding and interpretation of religion.

This article explores the relationship and status of minority rights as it relates to religiosity and constitutionalism. Essentially, there is a correlation between these topics and research shows where certain nations have used religion …

Anthropology, Human Rights, And Legal Knowledge: Culture In The Iron Cage, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

In this article, I draw on ethnography in the particular zone of engagement between anthropologists, on the one hand, and human rights lawyers who are skeptical of the human rights regime, on the other hand. I argue that many of the problems anthropologists encounter with the appropriation and marginalization of anthropology's analytical tools can be understood in terms of the legal character of human rights. In particular, discursive engagement between anthropology and human rights is animated by the pervasive instrumentalism of legal knowledge. I contend that both anthropologists who seek to describe the culture of human rights and lawyers who …

Introducing Discipline: Anthropology And Human Rights Administrations, Iris Jean-Klein, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

Anthropologists engage human rights administrations with an implicit promise that our discipline has something unique to offer. The articles in this special issue turn questions about relevance and care so often heard in the context of debates about human rights outside in. They focus not on how anthropology can contribute to human rights activities, but on what anthropological encounters with human rights contribute to the development of our discipline. They ask, how exactly do we render the subject relevant to anthropology? Reflecting on some ways anthropologists in this field have dispensed care for their subjects, the authors highlight two modalities …

Rights Inside Out: The Case Of The Women's Human Rights Campaign, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This essay traces the relationship between activists and academics involved in the campaign for “women’s rights as human rights” as a case study of the relationship between different classes of what I call “knowledge professionals” self-consciously acting in a transnational domain. The puzzle that animates this essay is the following: how was it that at the very moment at which a critique of “rights” and a reimagination of rights as “rights talk” proved to be such fertile ground for academic scholarship did the same “rights” prove to be an equally fertile ground for activist networking and lobbying activities? The paper …

Roper V. Simmons - Supreme Court's Reliance On International Law In Constitutional Decision-Making, Jessica Mishali

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indefinite Detention And Antiterrorism Laws: Balancing Security And Human Rights, Joanne M. Sweeny

Pace Law Review

This article does more than describe British and American anti-terrorism laws; it shows how those laws go through conflicted government branches and the bargains struck to create the anti-terrorism laws that exist today. Instead of taking these laws as given, this Article explains why they exist. More specifically, this article focuses on the path anti-terrorism legislation followed in the United States and the United Kingdom, with particular focus on each country’s ability (or lack thereof) to indefinitely detain suspected non-citizen terrorists. Both countries’ executives sought to have that power and both were limited by the legislatures and courts but in …

Federal Appeals Court Spares Mentally Ill Man From Execution -- For Now, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Global Laws, Local Lives: Impact Of The New Regionalism On Human Rights Compliance, Stephen J. Powell, Patricia Camino Pérez

Stephen Joseph Powell

Continuation of the brisk pace of international economic growth with its necessarily increased use of natural resources—often at unsustainable levels—and its higher levels of pollution—often at the cost of citizen health—combine with the rules of the global trading system to threaten human rights to health, to freedom from forced or child labor, to non-discrimination, to a fair wage, to a healthy environment, even to democratic governance and participation in the political process. As a result, in recent years a growing number of economists begrudgingly acknowledge the incontrovertible—although presently dysfunctional—linkage between trade and human rights and the need to integrate these …

Should Or Must?: Nature Of The Obligation Of States To Use Trade Instruments For The Advancement Of Environmental, Labour, And Other Human Rights, Stephen J. Powell

Stephen Joseph Powell

This article examines whether customs, treaties, and historical facts have caused the ethical human rights obligations of economically powerful states to assume a legal quality. The author argues that the legal quality of these obligations may arise from the global harm principle of international law and human rights obligations found in treaties. As a consequence, states may be held accountable for the human rights violations of transnational corporations. Further, the author examines the possibility of pursuing claims under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute for torts committed in violation of international treaties as another avenue for enforcing human rights obligations.

Protecting Human Rights: The Approach Of The Singapore Courts, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

The Constitution is the supreme law of Singapore, but have the courts unnecessarily limited their role of upholding the Constitution? This article is based on a speech delivered at an event at the Conrad Centennial Singapore on 4 December 2014 entitled The Role of the Judiciary in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights organized by the Delegation of the European Union to Singapore to commemorate Human Rights Day.

Justice Or Peace? A Proposal For Resolving The Dilemma, Kenneth Williams

Pace International Law Review

This article will address the question of how the international community should respond when the pursuit of justice and the attainment of peace are incompatible. It begins with an overview of the international human rights movement prior to World War II, a period when there was almost no effort to hold human rights violators accountable. The article then discusses how Nuremberg transformed international human rights law and created the framework for holding individuals accountable for committing egregious human rights violations. In the next section there is a discussion of how, despite Nuremberg, there was an era of impunity as a …

Us Policies In Mexico Have Made Bad Situation Worse, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Children And Immigration: International, Local, And Social Responsibilities, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Justin Luna

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

This essay focuses on the human rights of immigrant children, regardless of the legality of their presence within U.S. borders, especially with respect to health, education, and welfare. In that context, the work explores, as the title suggests, the international, local, and social/cultural normative standards that structure the responsibilities -- independently and collectively, that proverbial village -- with respect to children's well-being. We develop these ideas in three parts. First, we address the foundations of the human rights idea and specifically enumerate the particular normative notions, including international treaties that govern children's lives. Next, we discuss immigration in the United …

On Disposable People And Human Well-Being: Health, Money And Power, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

The foundational premise of this essay is that health and well-being are human rights issues. My focus on this theme, specifically within the human rights paradigm, is new, passionate, and personal. On December 15, 2005, just three months before the conference that prompted the writing of this essay, I lost my partner of over 20 years. She fought a valiant, strong, and dignified fight against cancer--a journey I traveled with her. During that time I learned much about health systems and health care. Most saliently, notwithstanding the reality of the extraordinarily good care she ultimately received, I realized there is …

Sexual Labor And Human Rights, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Jane E. Larson

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

In this Article, we engage the current human rights debate that dichotomizes prostitution either as a modern form of slavery or as the exercise of the right to work. This framework effectively sets up a coercion/consent polarity. These poles raise fundamental human rights issues; both the prohibition against slavery and the right to work are matters addressed by and central to the international human rights paradigm. Yet we argue in this Article that the human rights issues raised by prostitution cannot properly be studied nor moved towards meaningful resolution in the context of the prevailing polarity. Prostitution in its current …

María Lugones's Work As A Human Rights Idea(L), Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Mariana Ribeiro

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

The work of Maria Lugones can be utilized to focus on the same ideas of human reality articulated in the human rights framework. She engages the complexity of humans -- the indivisibility of their identity components -- through her concepts of hybridity/multidimensionality. Similarly, Lugones captures the human need for self-determination -- a right embedded in the human rights framework -- in her work on autonomy, agency, and self-care. Finally, her quest for an antisubordination ideal, like the human rights mandate for equality and nondiscrimination, comes to life in her call for the recognition of and respect for the equality of …

Sex And Globalization, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

For some time now, I have focused on a mission to bring together the separate discourses of the human rights and trade fields -- certainly not to blend them, but to raise awareness of their myriad interconnections. Indeed, human rights and trade are interlocking pieces of the puzzle we call international law and cannot possibly remain sequestered in the "splendid isolation" in which they have existed since their inception as disciplines. In any study of globalization, especially if one endeavors to pursue its benefits for all persons, not just the elite around the world, one must be aware of and …

China's Human Rights Record Since Tiananmen 1989 And The Recent Mixed Response Of The United States, Daniel C. Turack

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Preventing Interethnic Conflict And Promoting Human Rights Through More Effective Legal, Political, And Aid Structures: Focus On Africa, Paul J. Magnarella

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Principles For Establishment Of A Rule Of Law Criminal Justice System, William M. Cohen

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Meeting Summary Of Colloquium On Policy, Law, Contracts, And Sustainable Development, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In November 2014, CCSI and the Institute for Human Rights and Business co-convened a colloquium on policy, law, contracts, and sustainable development, with a particular focus on large-scale investments in the extractive industries and the agriculture sector. The colloquium provided an opportunity for practitioners to share information on their related work, as well as to reflect on current practices and remaining gaps regarding efforts to embed sustainability and human rights into large-scale deals. This outcome document provides a summary of the discussion, while its annex includes information on participants’ relevant programs, initiatives, and tools.

Toward Win-Win Sustainable Development, Linda Moon

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

An interview with Lisa Sachs, Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment.

The Global Slavery Index - Seduction And Obfuscation, Anne T. Gallagher Ao

Anne T Gallagher

Critique of the Global Slavery Index. For published version see http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/nov/28/global-slavery-index-walk-free-human-trafficking-anne-gallagher

Coercing Justice? Exploring The "Aspirations And Practice" Of Law As A Tool In Struggles Against Social Inequalities, Karen Schucher

PhD Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of law as a tool in struggles against social inequalities, by tracing the history of Ontario’s human rights legislation and enforcement from the enactment of fair practices statutes in the 1950s through the restructuring of the enforcement regime in 2006. Ontario was the first Canadian province to pass anti-discrimination legislation and to establish a human rights commission enforcement process. This legislation and the commission enforcement process were the models for all other Canadian jurisdictions.

The dissertation approaches the role of law through the framework of tensions between the “aspirations” and the “practices” of law. On …

Does The European Convention On Human Rights Protect Refugees From "Safe" Countries?, Kathleen M. Whitney

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Structural Weaknesses In The Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women, Julie A. Minor

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Regional Human Rights Law, Gabriel M. Wilner

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Status Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights In National And International Law, Hurst Hannum

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Dead Man's Hand: Reshuffling Foreign Sovereign Immunities In U.S. Human Rights Litigation, David J. Bederman

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The "Blank Stare Phenomenon": Proving Customary International Law In U.S. Courts, Paul L. Hoffman

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.