Human Rights Law Commons^™

Special Coverage Of The 140th Period Of Sessions Of The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights, Sarah Mazzochi, Jess Portmess, Alexandra Haney

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

International Legal Updates, Aimee Mayer, Jessica Lynd, Christopher Tansey, Molly Hofsommer, Misty Seemans, Kaitlin Brush, Leah Chavla

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Ivan Carpio, Lindsay Roberts, Zsofia Young, Christopher Tansey, Paul Rinefierd, Slava Kuperstein

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The Regional Human Rights Systems, Sarira Sadeghi, Christopher Tansey, Michael Becker, Emilyrose Johns, Carson Osberg

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

United Nations And Ngo Updates, Thomas Avery, Sikina S. Hasham

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

International Human Rights Law In Japan: The View At Thirty, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

Japanese courts have become increasingly open to the use of international human rights law in the past two decades. This paper examines several of the key decisions that reflect the judiciary's embrace of international law, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure and minority rights. I argue that the judiciary has eclipsed the other branches of government as the primary disseminator of human rights norms in Japan.

Rethinking International Women's Human Rights Through Eve Sedgwick, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Since the death of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, I have wanted to honor her memory, and this panel is the perfect venue. Sedgwick's foundational understandings of sexuality, gender, and identity set the stage for much of my work and that of those I admire. My own work looks at how the state regulates gender in the “public” sphere. I attempt to challenge the tensions and intersections among international and comparative notions of equality and identity. Group identity constructions vary across cultural lines and conflict with liberal notions of universalist constitutionalism and equality. My current work, Unsex CEDAW: What's Wrong with Women's …

From Kosovo To Catalonia: Separatism And Integration In Europe, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

In July 2010 the International Court of Justice rendered its Advisory Opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence and the Constitutional Court of Spain rendered an opinion concerning the autonomy of Catalonia. Two very different cases, from very different places, decided by very different courts. Nonetheless, they each provide insights on the issue of separatism in the midst of European integration. Does the Kosovo opinion open the door for other separatist groups? Does the process of European integration increase or undercut separatism? In addressing these questions, this article proceeds in three main parts. Part A briefly recaps the …

Constitution, Human Rights And Republic: A Necessary Dialogue Between Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics And Boaventura De Sousa Santos's Diatopic Heremeneutics, Jania Maria Lopes Saldanha, Jose Luis Bolzan De Morais

Nevada Law Journal

When we think about the concept of human rights—including all the possible ways of its realization, and considering the complementarities and also the unity of different dimensions of the concept—we confront several difficult questions. In particular, in an age when constitutions and constitutional doctrine have already incorporated a substantive body of human rights law, we must address how some of the constitutional promises regarding individual rights have not been fulfilled. Additionally, we must consider how rights that foster solidarity in the economic, social, and cultural spheres have not been recognized.

This article operates on two levels. On one level, we …

The Veil That Covered France's Eye: The Right To Freedom Of Religion And Equal Treatment In Immigration And Naturalization Proceedings, Kendal Davis

Nevada Law Journal

In June 2008, France’s highest administrative court upheld a decision to deny citizenship to a Muslim woman because, essentially, she was ‘not French enough.’ This decision incited both praise and outrage in the international human rights arena regarding considerations such as the right to freedom of religion, gender equality, and citizenship.

This Note examines relevant French domestic law and international human rights instruments, and argues that while immigration and naturalization decisions remain an exercise of broad sovereign powers, the emerging human rights norm to be free from discrimination should apply in naturalization proceedings. Furthermore, despite judicial deference and flexibility to …

Human Rights For Hedgehogs?: Global Value Pluralism, International Law, And Some Reservations Of The Fox, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

This essay, a contribution to the Boston University Law Review’s symposium on Ronald Dworkin’s forthcoming book, Justice for Hedgehogs, critiques the manuscript’s account of international human rights on five grounds. First, it is vague: it fails to offer much if any guidance relative to many of the most difficult concrete issues that arise in the field of international human rights law and policy - precisely the circumstances in which international lawyers might benefit from the guidance that moral foundations supposedly promise. It is also troubling, and puzzling given Dworkin’s well-known commitment to the right-answer thesis, that his account of human …

International Idealism Meets Domestic-Criminal-Procedure Realism, Stephanos Bibas, William W. Burke-White

All Faculty Scholarship

Though international criminal justice has developed into a flourishing judicial system over the last two decades, scholars have neglected institutional design and procedure questions. International criminal-procedure scholarship has developed in isolation from its domestic counterpart but could learn much realism from it. Given its current focus on atrocities like genocide, international criminal law’s main purpose should be not only to inflict retribution, but also to restore wounded communities by bringing the truth to light. The international justice system needs more ideological balance, more stable career paths, and civil-service expertise. It also needs to draw on the domestic experience of federalism …

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The Global Law Of The Land, Amnon Lehavi

University of Colorado Law Review

Are we witnessing the gradual universality of national land laws, which have traditionally been considered to be the paradigm of legal idiosyncrasy by virtue of their reflection of place-specific society, culture, and politics? This Article offers an innovative analysis of the conflicting forces at work in this legal field, based on a historical, comparative, and theoretical study of the structures and strictures of domestic land laws and current cross-border phenomena that dramatically affect national land systems. The central thesis of this Article is that, irrespective of our basic normative viewpoint regarding the opening up of domestic land laws to the …

Singapore And The Universal Periodic Review: An Unprecedented Human Rights Assessment, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore will soon submit a national report to and subsequently appear before the UN Human Rights Council for a universal periodic review of its human rights laws and practices. This review will elicit a rare and unprecedented expression of whether and how Singapore feels it has adhered to international human rights law, and ways in which it may further refine or calibrate its domestic practices. This article seeks to identify Singapore’s human rights achievements; highlight challenges it should be prepared to address; and recommend measures it should adopt to promote human rights.

Paradigm Shifts In International Justice And The Duty To Protect; In Search Of An Action Principle, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article places the emerging “responsibility to protect” within the historical development of international human rights and criminal law, while also attempting to more fully theorize the responsibility to ensure that it can be a basis for action in the face of a state’s commission of atrocities against its citizens. The main point of departure concerns the issue of “right authority” at that point in time when a coercive intervention is justified. Rather than rely solely on the Security Council in these situations, this article contends that unilateral and multilateral action must be countenanced by a fully theorized “responsibility to …

The Case For Social Rights, Virginia Mantouvalou

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is part of the book Debating Social Rights (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2010) where I am making the case for social rights and Professor Conor Gearty (LSE) is making the case against social rights. This paper argues that social and economic rights, defined as rights to the satisfaction of basic needs, are constitutional essentials at domestic level and claims of the highest priority at supranational level. Their inadequate legal protection in national and supranational orders is not justified. Social rights have common foundations with civil and political rights, but have been neglected in law because of Cold War ideologies. The …

Making Social Rights Conditional: Lessons From India, Madhav Khosla

Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have witnessed important advancements in the discussion on social rights. The South African experience with social rights has revealed how such rights can be protected without providing for an individualized remedy. Comparative constitutional lawyers now debate the promise of the South African approach, and the possibility of weak-form judicial review in social rights cases. This article considers the Indian experience with social rights, and explains how it exhibits a new form of social rights adjudication. This is the adjudication of a conditional social right; an approach that displays a rare private law model of public law adjudication. This …

Treaties As Law And The Rule Of Law: The Judicial Power To Compel Domestic Treaty Implementation, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, federal statutes, and ratified treaties part of the "supreme law of the land." Despite the textual and historical clarity of the Supremacy Clause, some courts and commentators have suggested that the "non-self-executing treaty doctrine" means that ratified treaties must await implementing legislation before they become domestic law. The non-self-executing treaty doctrine has in particular been used as a shield to claims under international human rights treaties.

This Article does not seek to provide another critique of the non-self-executing treaty doctrine in the abstract. Rather, I suggest that a determination that a treaty is non-self-executing …

Elusive Equality: The Armenian Genocide And The Failure Of Ottoman Legal Reform, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to deliver some remarks this morning. By way of background, I am not a historian or genocide scholar, but a law professor with an interest in comparative law and religion. Comparative law and religion is a relatively new field. It explores how different legal regimes reflect, and influence, the relationships that religious communities have with the state and with each other. My recent work compares Islamic and Christian conceptions of law, a subject that has engaged Muslims and Christians since their first encounters in the seventh century.

When I approach …

Embedded International Law And The Constitution Abroad, Sarah H. Cleveland

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay explores the role of "embedded" international law in U.S. constitutional interpretation, in the context of extraterritorial application of the Constitution. Traditional U.S. understandings of the Constitution's application abroad were informed by nineteenth-century international law principles of jurisdiction, which largely limited the authority of a sovereign state to its geographic territory. Both international law and constitutional law since have developed significantly away from strictly territorial understandings of governmental authority, however. Modern international law principles of jurisdiction and state responsibility now recognize that states legitimately may exercise power in a number of extraterritorial contexts, and that legal obligations may apply …

Loving Humanity While Accepting Real People: A Critique And A Cautious Affirmation, Daniel Kanstroom, David Hollenbach

Daniel Kanstroom

No abstract provided.

Perspectives On Fundamental Rights In South Asia, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

This symposium issue of the Drexel Law Review marks the anticipated launch of a proposed new section on Law and South Asian Studies of the Association of American Law Schools, including several contributions that were initially presented during a session of the proposed section at AALS Annual Meeting for 2010. The proposed AALS section comes at a moment of heightened interest in the region among lawyers, policymakers, and the public at large in the United States, and is part of a rapidly growing constellation of scholarly initiatives on law in South Asia that have emerged internationally in recent years. In …

Economic Harm As A Basis For Refugee Status And The Application Of Human Rights Law To The Interpretation Of Economic Persecution, Kate Jastram

Kate Jastram

No abstract provided.

A Dark Descent Into Reality: Making The Case For An Objective Definition Of Torture, Michael W. Lewis

Michael W. Lewis

The definition of torture is broken. The malleability of the term “severe pain or suffering” at the heart of the definition has created a situation in which the world agrees on the words but cannot agree on their meaning. The “I know it when I see it” nature of the discussion of torture makes it clear that the definition is largely left to the eye of the beholder. This is particularly problematic when international law’s reliance on self-enforcement is considered. After discussing current common misconceptions about intelligence gathering and coercion that are common to all sides of the torture debate, …

Statutes Undermine The Progress Made: The Criminalisation Of Positive Women, Aziza Ahmed, Beri Hull, Alice Welbourn, Emma Bell, Heidi Nass

Aziza Ahmed

Criminalisation laws have a specific and nuanced impact on women living with HIV. An understanding of the consequences of such laws will help positive women and other advocates to combat negative uses of such laws, and to frame and advocate for effective alternatives for HIV prevention. This article helps tease out some of the ways that criminalisation can negatively impact the lives of positive women in particular: the explicit sex discrimination in the laws, the gender bias in courtrooms, the impact on marginalised women, and the increase in stigma and discrimination through criminalisation laws.

Should There Be Remote Public Access To Court Filings In Immigration Cases?, Daniel Kanstroom, David Mccraw, Eleanor Acer, Elizabeth Cronin, Mark Walters

Daniel Kanstroom

No abstract provided.

Winterthouhgts, Matilda Arvidsson

Matilda Arvidsson

No abstract provided.

Aking Prevention Seriously: Developing A Comprehensive Response To Child Trafficking And Sexual Exploitation, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

Millions of children are victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation each year. Governments have responded with a range of measures, focusing primarily on seeking to prosecute perpetrators of these abuses and offering assistance to select victims. These efforts, while important, have done little to reduce the incidence of these forms of child exploitation. This Article asserts that a central reason why efforts to date may not be as effective as hoped is that governments have not oriented their approaches properly toward prioritizing prevention - the ultimate goal - and addressing these problems in a comprehensive and systematic manner. Instead, …

The Relevance Of International Law To The Domestic Decision On Prosecutions For Past Torture, Bartram Brown

Bartram Brown