Law Commons^™

Restricting The Rights Of Poor Mothers: An International Human Rights Critique Of "Workfare", Shruti Rana

Shruti Rana

In every society, the work that women do is undervalued and unrecognized. Political and social tensions behind conceptions of work, motherhood, and equality can ignite movements that threaten the human rights of women. One such movement is underway in the United States where recent “Workfare” provisions specifically target and punish the most vulnerable members of society under the guise of reform and morality. This critique of Workfare aims to demonstrate some of the dynamism and power of a human rights framework, and to lay the groundwork for effective action to improve the plight of the single mothers who rely on …

Global Feminism: Feminist Theory’S Cul-De-Sac, Elora Halim Chowdhury

Elora Halim Chowdhury

Global feminism has been critical of the earlier notion of "global sisterhood" and its uncritical attachment to commonalities of women's oppression around the world. However, in this article I argue that global feminism curiously remains inadequately accountable for its differential attitude toward issues of difference and inequality among communities within the U.S. versus those alleged differences and inequalities across the U.S. borders. Consequently, global feminism, using a universal human rights paradigm, constructs for itself the role of the heroic savior, reminiscent of colonialist civilizing mission (Abu-Lughod 2002) and in line with current U.S. imperialist interventions. Strategies for countering this newly …

Fair Trial Guarantees Before The Court Of Arbitration For Sport, Jernej Letnar Cernic

Jernej Letnar Černič

The right to a fair trial is one of the backbones of the rule of law and a conditio sine qua non for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. This article examines whether fair trial guarantees also exist before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It attempts to identify whether the Court of Arbitration for Sport follows the fair trial guarantees developed in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. This article thereafter tries to draw out an understanding of fair trial guarantees in sports arbitration.

International Human Rights Are Taking Hold In U.S. States, Cities, And Towns, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

New York, NY (December 10, 2012) – Incorporating human rights into local policies and decision-making leads to effective, sustainable, and responsive policies, according to a new report released today by Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute.

Bringing Human Rights Home: How State And Local Governments Can Use Human Rights To Advance Local Policy, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

State and local governments play an essential role in promoting and protecting human rights. Within the United States, agencies and officials at the municipal, city, county and state levels can help fulfill human rights by ensuring dignity, equality and opportunity for everyone in their jurisdiction.

Recognizing the value of human rights, state and local agencies and officials across the United States are incorporating international human rights standards in their daily work. As illustrated by examples throughout this report, integrating human rights into local law, policy and practice can enhance government decision-making and respond directly to local needs. It also allows …

United States’ Compliance With The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, Human Rights Institute, American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu)

Human Rights Institute

The U.S. government is engaged in targeted killings through drone strikes (and other aircraft) in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, which have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. U.S. practice is characterized by secrecy and an unwillingness even to engage directly with concerns about civilian harm, let alone to provide accountability for civilian deaths and injury. Despite calls for disclosure from UN experts and non- governmental organizations, the U.S. government uses vague and shifting legal standards, and fails to disclose the basis for strikes or the steps it takes to minimize harm to civilians and investigate reported violations …

Impediments To Human Rights Protection In Nigeria, Jacob Abiodun Dada

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

The promotion and protection of human rights have engaged the attention of the world community, and though the African country of Nigeria has subscribed to major international human rights instruments, violations continue to occur with disturbing frequency and regularity in that nation. Why is this so? This article examines the multifarious and multidimensional impediments which have hamstrung meaningful enjoyment of human rights in Nigeria. It points out the shortcomings of the dualist model under the Nigerian Constitution and stresses the objectionable wide amplitude of the derogation clauses. It also makes suggestions for reform.

Cite as: 18 Annl. Survey Int'l. Comp. …

Human Rights And The Evolution Of Global Environmental Law, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

Environmental problems that jeopardize the health of humans increasingly implicate concerns that have played an important role in the development of international human rights. While some have questioned the wisdom or effectiveness of focusing human rights concerns on environmental problems, it seems an inevitable response to the failure of many countries to protect their citizens adequately from harm caused by environmental degradation. This paper reviews efforts to apply human rights concerns to environmental problems. It describes how these developments illustrate the growth of a kind of “global environmental law” that blurs traditional distinctions between domestic and international law and public …

Ancient Legal Maxims And Modern Human Rights, Dr. J. Stanley Mcquade

J. Stanley McQuade

No abstract provided.

Litigating The Holocaust: A Consistent Theory In Tort For The Private Enforcement Of Human Rights Violations , Derek Brown

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Succession By Estoppel: Hong Kong's Succession To The Iccpr, Peter K. Yu

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminalizing Hate Speech: A Comment On The Ictr’S Judgment In The Prosecutor V. Nahimana, Et Al., Diane F. Orentlicher

Diane Orentlicher

No abstract provided.

Corruption And Human Rights: Exploring The Relationships, Berihun Adugna Gebeye

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Corruption is a global phenomenon which every society faces though its degree of severity varies from country to country. Despite its long history, there is no single universally agreed upon definition of corruption. Moreover, its causes, forms and impacts are diverse and multi-faceted. Understanding corruption by itself is a complex undertaking. However, it is agreed that corruption is inimical to public administration, undermines democracy, degrades the moral fabrics of the society and violates human rights. The pain of corruption touches all the human family but it disproportionately affects the vulnerable sections of the society. It reinforces discrimination, exclusion and arbitrariness. …

October Roundtable: Un Secretary-General Report On “Responsibility To Protect: Timely And Decisive Response”, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Responsibility to Protect: Timely and Decisive Response” Ban Ki-moon, July 2012.

Responsibility To Regulate: How The ‘Responsibility To Protect’ Expands State Power, Philip Cunliffe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Like most UN reports, particularly those concerned with the doctrine of the "responsibility to protect" (RtoP), the latest report of the UN Secretary-General is filled with plenty of pious guff mixed in with the platitudes that engulf UN diplomacy. But buried within the blathering are also some disturbing prescriptions for how the UN envisages rolling out RtoP around the world. I want to draw attention to three specific points in order to consider what these tell us about RtoP as a political model. First, I will look at the treatment of media and speech in the report; second, how the …

Politics As Usual At The Un: Implementing Pillar Three Of Rtop, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's most recent report on RtoP seeks to evaluate the various ways that Pillar Three of RtoP can be implemented. As anyone familiar with RtoP is aware, the commitment is understood to have three separate but interrelated pillars. The first pillar says that states have the primary responsibility to protect their own citizens from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Pillar Two says that the international community should assist states in fulfilling this responsibility, while Pillar Three says that if the state fails in its primary responsibility to protect its citizens from these crimes, …

“The Rtop And Responsibility While Protecting: The Secretary-General’S Timely And Decisive Report On Timely And Decisive Responses”, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The United Nations Secretary-General's report on pillar three of the responsibility to protect (RtoP), "Responsibility to Protect: Timely and Decisive Response," is the most interesting, timely, and decisive of his four reports thus far on the RtoP. To start with, the subject matter of pillar three – the international community's potentially coercive responses to humanitarian crises, including humanitarian intervention – is the most controversial part of the RtoP doctrine and the area that has attracted the most criticism from skeptics. Previous reports, such as Implementing the Responsibility to Protect(2009), gave pillar three, and humanitarian intervention in particular, fairly short shrift, …

Strategies & Decisiveness: What Is Implied By A “Timely And Decisive Response” For Rtop Situations, H. M. Roff

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Reflecting upon United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's recent report concerning the third pillar of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP), on the "timely and decisive response," two items become clear to me. First is that the third pillar is inherently coercive in nature, even though the report and many RtoP pundits stress that it entails more than merely sanctioning the use of force. Second is that this is unsurprising if we recall that the purpose of RtoP is to ensure the protection of particular human rights (rights against: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing) and that having a …

From Oblivion To Memory: A Blueprint For The Amnesty, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This Review Essay examines Mark Freeman’s thoughtful book, Necessary Evils: Amnesties and the Search for Justice. One of the book’s core arguments is that amnesties from criminal prosecution, however unpalatable to liberal legalist sensibilities, should not be entirely purged from the toolbox of post-conflict transitions. Although advancing this argument, Freeman also struggles with it, and ultimately builds a very restrained and heavily technocratic defense of the amnesty. This Review Essay weighs this argument, among others, on its own terms and also within the context of recent events that post-date the book’s publication. The result is a vibrant exposition of …

International Human Rights And United States Law: Predictions Of A Courtwatcher, Martha F. Davis

Martha F. Davis

No abstract provided.

Occupy Wall Street And International Human Rights, Martha F. Davis

Martha F. Davis

This article employs a human rights lens to examine the extreme economic inequality targeted by Occupy Wall Street (OWS). First, I look at the fundamental question of whether such economic inequality constitutes a human rights violation. To analyze that question, I begin by examining the extent to which poverty has been deemed to raise international human rights concerns, finding that international human rights institutions have generally addressed poverty by focusing on the ways in which poverty frustrates the exercise of substantive and procedural human rights. I then use a similar lens to examine the issue of economic inequality, concluding that …

Civilian Impact Of Covert Drone Operations Overlooked, Human Rights Clinic

Human Rights Institute

WASHINGTON, DC Sept. 30, 2012 — As US covert drone strikes become more entrenched as an accepted counterterrorism strategy, the US government needs to conduct a thorough accounting of the impact on civilians, said a new report released today by Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Clinic and Center for Civilians in Conflict.

The Boston Principles: An Introduction, Hope Lewis, Rachel E. Rosenbloom

Hope Lewis

This commentary introduces the Draft Boston Principles on the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of Noncitizens. The Draft Boston Principles are the outcome of "Beyond National Security: Immigrant Communities and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights," an institute held at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts (United States of America) on October 14-15, 2010. Convened by the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) with the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation and the Human Rights Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, the institute brought together leading immigrants' rights attorneys, human rights advocates, and scholars …

What Have We Learned From The Wars Of The Twentieth Century?, Winston Langley

Winston E. Langley

Relative deprivation (RD) and its associated twin, the “othering” of human groupings, together became the root cause of the wars of the twentieth century. By examining the thirty-years of war between 1914 and 1945 and the Cold War that prevailed for the rest of the half-century, the author explores the way in which relative deprivation may be seen to have expressed itself through nationalism, liberalism, and Marxism — the three great ideologies of the twentieth century that have competed against each other and have contributed to the perception of groups and individuals that they are relatively deprived. He investigates the …

Proportionality In Interpreting Constitutional Rights: A Comparison Between Canada, The United Kingdom And Singapore And Its Implications For Vietnam, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

Proportionality In Interpreting Constitutional Rights: A Comparison Between Canada, The United Kingdom And Singapore And Its Implications For Vietnam [Thuyết Cân Đối Trong Vấn Đề Giải Thích Các Quyền Về Hiến Pháp: So Sánh Giữa Canada, Liên Hiệp Các Vương Quốc Anh Và Singapore Và Kinh Nghiệm Cho Vìệt Nam], Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

Few rights that are guaranteed by constitutions and bills of rights are expressed to be absolute. In many jurisdictions, the legislature is permitted to impose restrictions on rights for specified reasons and under particular conditions. However, constitutional or bill of rights text often do not expressly indicate how the courts should determine that applicants’ rights have been legitimately restricted. To this end, courts in jurisdictions such as Canada and the United Kingdom have adopted the European doctrine of proportionality. Essentially, this requires them to balance opposing types of public interests – the interest sought to be protected by the rights …

Human Rights And The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct: Intersection And Integration, Martha F. Davis

Martha F. Davis

The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct nowhere mention human rights as either a means or an end to ethical lawyering. The origins and history of the modern ABA Code, framed at a time when the ABA leadership was hostile to universal human rights norms, suggest possible explanations for this omission as an initial matter. But the Model Rules are frequently revised, and the ABA is now a leader in the promulgation and implementation of human rights worldwide. Still, the model ethics rules remain silent on human rights. State ethics codes, largely drawn from the ABA model, are …

Human Rights In The Trenches: Using International Human Rights Law In "Everday" Legal Aid Cases, Martha F. Davis

Martha F. Davis

No abstract provided.

Background Paper For Second Workshop On Contract Negotiation Support For Developing Host Countries, Vale Columbia Center On Sustainable International Investment, Humboldt-Viadrina School Of Governance

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance (HSVG) have initiated a process to discuss the desirability and feasibility of mechanisms to provide negotiation support for developing host countries in their negotiations with major investors.

At a first workshop held in October 2011, participants agreed on the need for an expansion of support for developing countries in their contract negotiations.

A second workshop was held at Columbia University in July 2012 that undertook a gap analysis between the existing sources of support for developing countries in relation to complex contracts and the countries’ needs for …

Remarks At The Launching Of The Anti-Trafficking Review, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

Remarks delivered by Dr Anne Gallagher, Guest Editor, at the launch of the new journal: Anti-Trafficking Review.