Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Current State Of Abortion Law In Virginia Leaves Victims Of Domestic And Sexual Violence Vulnerable To Abuse: Why Virginia Should Codify The Right To Abortion In The State Constitution†, Courtenay Schwartz

University of Richmond Law Review

All people must have access to safe and legal reproductive health care—especially victims of sexual and domestic violence who can and do become pregnant because of the violence they experience. This year, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In doing so, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion. Though abortion access is currently protected in Virginia, this could change with each new General Assembly session. To guard against the danger that this poses to …

Legal Representation Of Parents In Child Dependency Cases In Virginia, Eric J. Reynolds

University of Richmond Law Review

Virginia’s current system of providing court-appointed legal counsel for parents involved in child dependency cases is unsustainable and inadequate, requiring swift and dramatic action from the state government. Inadequate legal representation for parents often leads to poor outcomes for children and a lack of protections for the parents’ due process rights. While attempts to improve the system have been made in recent years, they are often quickly dismissed. The largest hindrances in the current system, this Article suggests, is that court-appointed attorneys for parents are typically underpaid, undertrained, and consequently unable to meaningfully advocate for their client. Due to the …

Going The Extra Mile: Expanding The Promoting Affordable Housing Near Transit Act, Emily R. Casey

University of Richmond Law Review

The Promoting Affordable Housing Near Transit Act (“Act”), introduced in Congress in June 2021 and signed into law six months later, proposes a goal of balancing the disproportionately-high costs of housing and transportation felt by lower-income families by combining these resources in one project: transit-oriented housing developments. Middle-income and wealthy suburbanites have ready access to cities by car, but lower-income urbanites lack access to the suburbs without a private vehicle. While the goal of the Act recognizes this disparate outcome, the Act’s failure to include expansion of mass transit into the suburbs will continue to restrict low-income minorities to urban …

With A Wink And A Nod: How Politicians, Regulators, And Corrupt Coal Companies Exploited Appalachia, Patrick C. Mcginley

University of Richmond Law Review

Environmental regulators treated America’s leading coal companies like Wall Street’s mismanaged banks leading to the “Great Recession”—big coal companies that produced millions of tons of coal were simply too big to fail. With a wink and a nod, federal and state regulators ignored a core provision of federal law that was intended to prevent coal companies from continuing their past practices of plundering Appalachia’s mineral wealth while ravaging her environment.

This Article examines how the coal industry successfully evaded compliance with that law. The consequences of this evasion include mass bankruptcies, thousands of acres of mined land laying unclaimed, …

The Legal Ethics Of Family Separation, Milan Markovic

University of Richmond Law Review

On April 6, 2018, the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy for individuals who crossed the U.S. border illegally. As part of this policy, the administration prosecuted parents with minor children for unlawful entry; previous administrations generally placed families in civil removal proceedings. Since U.S. law does not allow children to be held in immigration detention facilities pending their parents’ prosecution, the new policy caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents. Hundreds of families have yet to be reunited.

Despite a consensus that the family separation policy was cruel and ineffective, there has been minimal focus …

“Fundamental Fairness”: Finding A Civil Right To Counsel In International Human Rights Law, Meredith Elliott Hollman

University of Richmond Law Review

Every other Western democracy now recognizes a right to counsel in at least some kinds of civil cases, typically those involving basic human rights. The World Justice Project’s 2021 Rule of Law Index ranked the United States 126th of 139 countries for “People Can Access and Afford Civil Justice.” Within its regional and income categories, the United States was dead last. The United Nations and other international treaty bodies have urged the United States to improve access to justice by providing civil legal aid. How did we fall behind, and what can we learn from the rest of the world? …

Traumatic Justice, Teri Dobbins Baxter

University of Richmond Law Review

In the recent past, allegations of police misconduct have periodically led to widespread community protests, but usually only when the incident is sufficiently high-profile and the harm is severe, such as when a police officer beats or kills an unarmed Black person. More often the spotlight and outrage have faded quickly, as victims were discredited and no charges were brought, or no convictions obtained. But citizens have increasingly harnessed the power of cell phone videos and social media to bring attention to acts of racial violence and hold accountable those who are responsible, particularly in cases of alleged police misconduct. …

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor (Unless They Are From “One Of Three Mexican Countries”): Unaccompanied Children And The Humanitarian Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border, Samantha R. Bentley

University of Richmond Law Review

This Comment argues that the United States’s response to the humanitarian crisis at its border is wholly inadequate. It argues that the government chose to advance two policies, Zero Tolerance and Family Separation, that exacerbated the humanitarian crisis at the border. These policies facilitated practices that violated domestic and international law. Most importantly, this Comment argues that the United States government traumatized one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the world: children.

Transitional Equality, Suzanne A. Kim

University of Richmond Law Review

Legal discussions of inequality often focus on the virtues of one legal status or regulatory structure over another, but a guarantee of the right to a particular legal status does not ensure a lived experience of equality in that status. In moments of legal change, when a person or class of persons obtain a new status or gain rights that had previously been denied to them, the path from one legal status to another becomes critically important and may itself be impacted by race, gender, age, and other factors. The process of transitioning to a new status can be complex …

Reconsidering Selective Conscientious Objection, Andrew J. Haile

University of Richmond Law Review

In 1971, in the midst of the Vietnam War, the United States Supreme Court decided that to qualify as a conscientious objector (“CO”) one must oppose all war, and not just a particular war. The Court’s decision in Gillette v. United States turned on its interpretation of section 6(j) of the Military Selective Service Act. Section 6(j) provided, in relevant part, that no person shall “be subject to combatant training and service in the armed forces of the United States who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form.” According to …

Separate But (Un)Equal: Why Institutionalized Anti-Racism Is The Answer To The Never-Ending Cycle Of Plessy V. Ferguson, Maureen Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Involuntarily Committed Patients As Prisoners, Matt Lamkin, Carl Elliott

University of Richmond Law Review

Part I relates several stories of involuntarily committed patients who were recruited into studies posing serious risks. Part II draws on these cases to argue that the involuntary commitment of these patients leaves them vulnerable to unethical treatment by researchers. Their inherently coercive circumstances present an overwhelming obstacle to voluntary consent, and their captive status makes them attractive targets for research that could be performed using less vulnerable subjects.

Part III argues that most research on this patient population is improper under generally applicable principles of informed consent and fair subject selection. However, existing protections have proved insufficient to prevent …

The Future Of The Death Penalty In The United States, Richard C. Dieter

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Essence Of Human Rights: A Religious Critique, Gordon Butler

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Rights In China And The Rule Of Law, Xu Wenli

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Leaving Guantánamo: The Law Of International Detainee Transfers, Robert M. Chesney

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reforming U.S. Immigration Policy In An Era Of Latin American Immigration: The Logic Inherent In Accommodating The Inevitable, Ryan D. Frei

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sell V. United States: Involuntary Administration Of Antipsychotic Medication To Criminal Defendants, Brandy M. Rapp

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Human Rights And Civil Liberties In Light Of The United Kingdom's Human Rights Act 1998, Conor Gearty

University of Richmond Law Review

It seems at times as though the entire world has become ad- dicted to human rights. The United States has, of course, had its famed Bill of Rights for generations. The United Kingdom's Human Rights Act has recently come into force. That measure also applies to Northern Ireland, with human rights issues appearing in the Good Friday Agreement. Both Britain and Ireland have adopted the model of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, a charter agreed to on November 4, 1950, by western European nations emerging from a dark age of fascist totalitarianism. The body which gave …

Command Responsibility In The Former Yugoslavia: The Chances For Successful Prosecution, Christopher N. Crowe

University of Richmond Law Review

On 22 February 1993, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 808 calling for the establishment of an international tribunal for the prosecution of persons responsible for "serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of former Yugoslavia." The resolution also asked the Secretary-General to submit to the Security Council for consideration a report on aspects of the tribunal considering "suggestions put forward in this regard by Member states." In May, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali issued his report and proposed the Statute of the International Tribunal ("Statute"), designed to govern the tribunals establishment and operation.

Human Rights And Peace-Keeping Operations, Diego Garcia-Sayan

University of Richmond Law Review

The purposes of the United Nations, as specified in Article 1 of the United Nations Charter, are to "maintain international peace," to promote and encourage "respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion" and to "achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character."

Defender Or Offender: America's Role In The Protection Of International Human Rights?, Kimberly Satterwhite

University of Richmond Law Review

The recent caning of an eighteen year old American student by officials in Singapore sparked much debate over the appropriateness of corporal punishment in criminal cases. Many Americans question the humaneness of criminal penalties imposed in foreign lands. While quick to identify human rights violations around the world, the United States government has been reluctant to concede that abuses occur within the American-criminaljustice system.

Subsidiarity And/Or Human Rights, Daniel T. Murphy

University of Richmond Law Review

The post-Maastricht world of the European Union is only about two years old. Within that new world, however, few concepts are as important, and yet as elusive or unsettled, as the doctrine of subsidiarity. On the other hand, the European Community has for many years evidenced concern over human rights. The purpose of this essay is to consider the implications of the concept of subsidiarity for human rights law and enforcement within the European Community and the European Union.

Is The Idea Of Human Rights Ineliminably Religious?, Michael J. Perry

University of Richmond Law Review

The name of the state where I was born and raised-Kentucky-derives from a Native American word meaning "the dark and bloody ground." Were there an Indian word for "the dark and bloody time," it would aptly name this century, a century as unrelentingly dark and bloody as any in human history. In the midst of all the terrible inhumanity of the twentieth century, however, there is a hopeful story: the emergence in international law of the idea of human rights.