Human Rights Law Commons^™

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Based upon a political compromise, in which « democratic socialists » and « social democrats » were the main protagonists, the ideology of Portuguese Constitution of 1976 was discrete, subtle. And ulterior constitutional revisions confirmed that fondamental aspect. Of course, utopia was present. But, even more present was the « hope principle ». We believe that the Brazilean constituent assembly, with the original importance of popular contributions, also had hope principle’s decisive influence. But the dinamics of the constituent assembly moderated, since the very beggining, the verbal signs of less discret ideologies. Utopia, neverthless, is very present in the aim …

International Treaties On Human Rights, Saumya Uma

Dr. Saumya Uma

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

Dr. Saumya Uma

O Que É Uma Universidade?, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Pouca gente sabe hoje o que é uma Universidade, a sério. Confunde-se muito Universidade e super-mercado de aulas, ou fábrica de « investigação » ou « pesquisa », assim como se confunde serviço público com negócio, vocação com interesse pessoal, etc. É a própria essência da Universidade que está em causa. A confusão é grande no público, que vê a Universidade sobretudo como uma forma de promoção social, pelos diplomas. A confusão não é menor na própria Universidade. Os universitários mais responsáveis interrogam-se sobre a sua função, o sentido do trabalho que fizeram e fazem, e a sua sorte na …

From Making Money Without Doing Evil To Doing Good Without Handouts: The Google.Org Experiment In Philanthropy, Shruti Rana

Shruti Rana

From its inception, Google has promoted itself as a company that dares to be different in its pursuit of innovation and information. The company’s new philanthropic arm, Google.org, promises to be just as pioneering in its search for social returns through the mechanism of profit. This Essay takes a closer look at the Google.org experiment in philanthropy. It argues that Google.org’s uniqueness lies not in its “hybrid” model that merges for-profit and charitable aims, but in the ways it seeks to use market mechanisms to harness the social benefits of information technology for the public good. Google.org also has enormous …

The Law Of Humanitarian Intervention: U.S. Policy In Cuba (1898) And In The Dominican Republic (1965), David S. Bogen

David S. Bogen

No abstract provided.

We're Still Not Doing Right By Our Vets, C. Peter Erlinder

C. Peter Erlinder

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Rights And The Right To Participate In Cultural Life, Molly Land

Molly K. Land

Although many contend that human rights law is a justification for intellectual property rights, precisely the opposite is true. Human rights law is far more a limit on intellectual property rights than a rationale for such regimes. In a variety of ways, human rights law requires states to take specific, concrete steps to limit the effects of intellectual property rights in order to protect international human rights. This powerful and emancipatory dimension of human rights law has unfortunately been overshadowed by those who claim human rights as a basis for granting exclusive rights.

The U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and …

Immigration, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

No abstract provided.

Catholic Social Teaching And Global Migration: Bridging The Paradox Of Universal Human Rights And Territorial Self-Determination, Vincent D. Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

In this essay, I will consider how law, religion, and democratic pluralism revolve around a particular issue: global migration. I use the term "global migration" to encompass a number of related issues that are often collapsed under the term "immigration." In nations that have constructed their identities around waves of settlers or migrants-places like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand-immigration involves the formal reception of foreigners into the host country as potential new citizens.' This is just one part of the migration of peoples around the globe. Migration also encompasses emigration, asylum, economic migration, and undocumented or irregular …

Inside Guantanamo, Peter J. Honigsberg

Peter J Honigsberg

In May 2007 I visited Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. What I saw and experienced then are fading away and will soon disappear, now that two-thirds of the nearly 800 detainees have been released and President Obama will close the detention centers within the year. Consequently, this essay provides a historical account of one person's media visit to Guantanamo, when it was a fully-operational prison violating human rights, due process and international law.

The essay describes not only the visit but also the application process -- a bizarre experience. The military's application concluded with two quotes from the New Testament and included …

Pedagogies Of Comparative Jurisprudence: On The Gleaning Of 'Trans-Cultural Perspectives' From The World's Legal Systems, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Maxwell O. Chibundu

No abstract provided.

Answering The Millennium Call For Maternal Health, Margaux Hall, Aziza Ahmed, Stephanie Swanson

Aziza Ahmed

Complications during childbirth and pregnancy are a main source of death and disability among women of reproductive age. Approximately 536,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications each year. Developing countries suffer most profoundly, accounting for 99% of deaths. The world's nations, by endorsing U.N. Millennium Development Goals, recognized that most deaths are preventable; they have pledged to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by 2015. This Article assesses the barriers presented by user fees — formal charges for health services still charged by many countries — to the attainment of MDGs. It shows that user fees hamper healthcare access, particularly in emergency …

Human Rights And Human Trafficking: Quagmire Or Firm Ground? A Response To James Hathaway, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

In a Fall 2008 article published in the Virginia Journal of International Law, James Hathaway questions whether the elimination of trafficking is a worthy objective and an appropriate focus for international law. Specifically he charges that while the elimination of trafficking is billed as the answer to contemporary slavery, the focus on trafficking has unfairly 'privileged' a small group of exploited individuals and diluted efforts that could have been better spent addressing the much broader problem of human enslavement. Hathaway also asserts that those human rights advocates and practitioners engaged on the issue of trafficking have been hoodwinked by preferred …

Who Is The "Human" In Human Rights? The Claims Of Culture And Religion, Peter G. Danchin

Peter G. Danchin

Modern critiques of international human rights law force us to confront at least two conceptual puzzles in the area of the claims of culture and religion. The first concerns the two concepts, often run together, of the secular (or secularism) and freedom, and the question of how rights—e.g. the right to freedom of conscience and religion—mediate between these purportedly universal or objective positions and the imagined subjective claims of particular religious or cultural norms. The second concerns the question of what we mean by “human equality” and how this idea relates to deeply-situated issues of collective identity and culture. Such …

The 21st Century Space Arms Race: Curtailing Heavenly Thunderbolts Through The Shield Of The ‘Peaceful Purposes’ Mantra, Jackson N. Maogoto, Steven Freeland

Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto

Because of its uniquely commanding height, outer space has gained even greater military and strategic value in the post-Cold War international strategic environment. This provides for the possibility – some say probability - that outer space will become a platform for warfare. This development can only have negative consequences in the long term. As the United States pursues a policy that incorporates the placing of weapons in outer space, the other major space faring powers have not been idly sitting by. Recent advances in space technologies have put the development of space weapons within the realm of possibility for several …

Politeia And Arete. Archeology Of Senses And Hellenic Legacy, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The idea of the Republic and its value is again the order of the day, not only due to Neorepublican theorists, but also because of many current debates, such as multiculturalism, the laicity of states and societies, transparency and corruption, etc. Along with Republican constitutional rules, principles and values, some proclaimed during the French Revolution (such as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité), the debate shows the importance of an even deeper question: the importance of virtues, and the Greek legacy of Republican virtues. In this paper, among other points, we remember Pericles’ funereal speech in Thucydides’ History of Peloponnesian War, and some …

Hermenêutica Constitucional Entre Savigny E O Neoconstitucionalismo, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Apontar para os novos rumos jurisfilóficos mas também práticos do Neoconstitucionalismo contrastando as suas aportações hermenêuticas com o legado de Savigny nesta matéria.

Neoconstitucionalismo: De Espectro A Realidade, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Prefácio da obra "Neoconstituionalismo", chamando a atenção para o papel desta nova perspectiva, novo paradigma da juridicidade, chamado a reforçar a centralidade do Direito Constitucional no mundo jurídico, e a desempenhar um papel de relevo no plano hermenêutico e da superação (?) de algumas querelas jurisfilosóficas.

Imagining Territories: Space, Place, And The Anticity, Jonathan Yovel

Jonathan Yovel

This essay explores the concept of "Territory" in some of its cultural forms, as well as looks into cultural and linguistic conditions for territories-talk. Initially, it engages territory as a pre-political representation and explores its formal relation to space and to place. It defines territory as the paradigmatic non-place and contrasts it with the concept of the city (in fact, an anticity), especially as reflected in renaissance and early modern art/architecture, with examples from Schedel, Bellini, Breugel and others, as well as from contemporary graphic works (Moebius, Qual, Nowak).

Moving from the cultural to the political, territories are then explored …