Human Rights Law Commons^™

Terrorist Detention: Directions For Reform, Benjamin Priester

Journal Publications

Counterterrorism efforts by the U.S. government since 2001 have produced numerous legal controversies. One of the most controversial subjects has been the detention of individuals allegedly involved with terrorist organizations or activities. Unlike traditional criminal detainees, such persons are not held pursuant to indictment on charges pending trial or to a verdict of conviction. Unlike traditional military detainees, they are not battlefield captives from combat in a war zone against the military forces of another nation. Rather, terrorist detainees are held based on the individual's alleged connections to terrorist organizations and activities, without more. Terrorist detention, so defined, is an …

Intention, Torture, And The Concept Of State Crime, Aditi Bagchi

All Faculty Scholarship

Notwithstanding the universal prohibition against torture, and almost universal agreement that in order to qualify as torture, the act in question must be committed intentionally with an illicit purpose, the intentional element of torture remains ambiguous. I make the following claims about how we should interpret the intent requirement as applied to states. First, state intent should be understood objectively with reference to the apparent reasons for state action. The subjective motivation of particular state actors is not directly relevant. While we focus on subjective intent in the context of individual crime because of its relation to culpability and blameworthiness, …

Feminist Debates On Civilian Women And International Humanitarian Law, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

International humanitarian law [IHL] provisions address the situation of civilian women caught in armed conflict today, but is this law enough? Feminist commentators have considered this question and have come to differing conclusions. This article considers the resulting debate as to whether female-specific IHL provisions are adequate but underenforced, or inadequate, outdated and in need of revision. One school of thought argues that the main impediment to the protection of female civilians during hostilities is lack of observance of existing IHL. A second school of thought believes that something more fundamental is needed to meet the goal of protecting civilian …

Book Review: Henry J. Richardson Iii, The Origins Of African-American Interests In International Law, D. A. Jeremy Telman

Law Faculty Publications

This short review evaluates Professor Richardson's book both as a contribution to the history of the Atlantic slave trade and as contribution to critical race theory.

Professor Richardson has read innumerable historical monographs, works of legal and sociological theory, international law and critical race theory. Armed with this store of knowledge, he is able to recount a detailed narrative of African-American claims to, interests in and appeals to international law over approximately two centuries spanning, with occasional peeks both forward and backward in time, from the landing of the first African slaves at Jamestown in 1619 to the 1815 Treaty …

Medellin And Originalism, D. A. Jeremy Telman

Law Faculty Publications

In Medellin v. Texas, the Supreme Court permitted Texas to proceed with the execution of a Mexican national who, in violation of the United States’ obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, had not been given timely notice of his rights of consular notification and consultation. It did so despite its finding that the United States had an obligation under treaty law to comply with an order of the International Court of Justice that Medellin’s case be granted review and reconsideration. The international obligation, the Court found, was not domestically enforceable because the treaties at issue were not self-executing. …

Multiculturalism And The Bretton Woods Institutions, Bartram Brown

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Internal Displacement, The Guiding Principles On Internal Displacement, The Principles Normative Status, And The Need For Their Effective Domestic Implementation In Colombia, Robert K. Goldman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Disability Rights In Cambodia: Using The Convention On The Rights Of People With Disabilities To Expose Human Rights Violations, Ulrike Buschbacher Connelly

Washington International Law Journal

In Cambodia, the percentage of the population living with disabilities is one of the highest in the world. At least 650,000 Cambodians live with a disability, and the exact count may be as high as 1.4 million. The incidence of disability is also expected to increase in the future. Despite the fact that many Cambodians have at least one disability, the country does not have adequate legal provisions to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. There are no comprehensive laws that address disability issues. The few existing laws provide only implicit protections and some directly discriminate against people …

Untold Truths: The Exclusion Of Enforced Sterilizations From The Peruvian Truth Commission's Final Report, Jocelyn E. Getgen

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the exclusion of enforced sterilization cases from the Peruvian Truth Commission's investigation and Final Report effectively erases State responsibility and decreases the likelihood for justice and reparations for women victims-survivors of State-sponsored violence in Peru. In a context of deep cultural and economic divides and violent conflict, this Article recounts how the State's Family Planning Program violated Peruvian women's reproductive rights by sterilizing low-income, indigenous Quechua-speaking women without informed consent. This Article argues that these systematic reproductive injustices constitute an act of genocide, proposes an independent inquiry, and advocates for a more inclusive investigation and final …

Human Persons, Human Rights, And The Distributive Structure Of Global Justice, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

It is common for economically oriented transnational legal theorists to think and communicate mainly in maximizing terms. It is less common for them to notice that each time we speak explicitly of maximizing one thing, we speak implicitly of distributing another thing and equalizing yet another thing. Moreover, we effectively define ourselves and our fellow humans by reference to that which we equalize. For it is in virtue of the latter that our global welfare formulations treat us as "counting" for purposes of globally aggregating and maximizing.

To analyze maximization language on the one hand, and equalization and identification language …

Untold Truths: The Exclusion Of Enforced Sterilizations From The Peruvian Truth Commission's Final Report, Jocelyn E. Getgen

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the exclusion of enforced sterilization cases from the Peruvian Truth Commission's investigation and Final Report effectively erases State responsibility and decreases the likelihood for justice and reparations for women victims-survivors of State sponsored violence in Peru. In a context of deep cultural and economic divides and violent conflict, this Article recounts how the State's Family Planning Program violated Peruvian women's reproductive rights by sterilizing low-income, indigenous Quechua-speaking women without informed consent. This Article argues that these systematic reproductive injustices constitute an act of genocide, proposes an independent inquiry, and advocates for a more inclusive investigation and …

Exorcising The Specter Of Development: Human Rights In The 21st Century, Frezzo, Farshad Araghi

Societies Without Borders

With the commodification of rights as private privileges under neoliberal capitalism, movements in the Global South have begun to reinterpret the human rights canon. Cosmopolitan notions of human rights have spread from the Global South only to face parochial resistance from postmodern intellectuals and neoliberal power structures in the Global North. In advancing a vision of “cosmopolitanism from below” as an antidote to neoliberalism, these alliances have articulated their demands in terms of economic and social rights. In the process, they have ruptured the connection - crucial to US hegemony from the late 1940s through the early 1970s - between …

Societies Without Borders: Human Rights & The Social Sciences, Welcome To Farshad Araghi - A Longer Title - More Issues Per Volume, Blau, Farshad Araghi

Societies Without Borders

The article introduces Professor Farshad Araghi as co-editor and offers information on the contents of the journal. Araghi is the chair of the Department of Sociology at Florida Atlantic University and writes about global sociology, social theory, sociology of agriculture and human displacement and world-historical analysis. He received numerous awards including the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. The journal is a multidisciplinary incorporating the universality and borderlessness of human rights as a main theme.

'Doing Religion' Overseas: The Characteristics And Functions Of Ghanaian Immigrant Churches In Toronto, Canada, Mensah

Societies Without Borders

While the importance of immigrants' transnational economic activities is readily acknowledged, the cultural factors that facilitate their initiation and sustenance of memberships in multiple locations have been overlooked. It is this lacuna that the present study addresses, using Ghanaian immigrant churches in Toronto as a case study. The paper examines how Ghanaian immigrant churches were founded; how they are organized; and the kinds of social services they provide. While the churches facilitate the settlement of Ghanaian immigrants, through the provision of social services, they seem to, inadvertently, undermine their eventual integration into the broader Canadian society.

Beyond Collapse: Reclaiming Rationality And Scientific Method From The Global Disorder, Mcmurtry

Societies Without Borders

This analysis explains why the currently instituted value-sets of “rationality” and “scientific method” select for unforeseen consequences of economic, social and ecological system collapse. Laying bare the era's unifying paradigm of “rational choice” across theory (e.g., game theory, contractarianism, prisoner's dilemma) and practice (global business, geostrategic analysis, armed war and mass-media sport), the analysis exposes the systematic disconnection of rationality and its lead vector of scientific method from the needs and capacities of life-systems. Only if rational and scientific standards are grounded in life-enabling purpose and means consistent with it, the argument shows, can they be made coherent with life …

Decent Society Index: A Research Note, Judith, Jenniffer Santos, Chelsea Sessoms

Societies Without Borders

People everywhere are discovering that their own views about a decent society are widely shared around the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights already made this clear in 1948 by referring to “a common understanding” of rights and freedoms and a “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” A challenge for social scientists is to develop dimensions for an index that measures variation in the extent to which societies are decent. Such an index would be useful in research for comparative and analytical purposes, and it could …

Discouragement Amongst Ageing Workers In Malta Within An Eu Context, Brown, Michael Briguglio

Societies Without Borders

This paper investigates perceptions of unemployed ageing workers in Malta, in relation to disadvantages in the labour market and to discouragement with regard to chances of finding stable employment. The principal results are that educational level and number of breadwinners in one's household significantly affect perceptions; and that there are cases manifesting the 'discouraged worker effect', even though they are still registering to find employment. This challenges traditional views arguing that this effect is present only among individuals who already gave up the job search completely. This paper concludes that the struggle for productive employment requires mass representation of trade …

Book Review Of A Brief History Of Neoliberalism, Keskin

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," by David Harvey.

Book Review Of Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction And Contested Citizenship: Immigration And Cultural Diversity In Europe, Ghoshal

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews two books about civil society and citizenship, including "Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction," edited by Srilatha Batliwala and L. David Brown and "Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe," by Ruud Koopmans, Paul Statham, Marco Giungi and Florence Passy.

Japan's Contribution To Global Constitutionalism, Kimijima

Societies Without Borders

In this paper I want to approach the theme of “globalization and Japan” from the standpoint of constitutional studies. Constitutions and constitutionalism are important means of reining in political power, and in the modern sovereign state system, constitutions and constitutionalism have been conceived on the level of single states. However, as many scholars have observed, one can see the global spread of power in, for example, the worldwide deployment of the US military using overseas bases throughout the world, and the worldwide activities of transnational corporations based in the US, Europe, and Japan. In sum, this is the global spread …

Note From The Editors, Blau, Farshad Araghi

Societies Without Borders

The article offers information on the journal "Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences" and the categories that editors will consider in accepting manuscripts for the journal.

Arguments For And Against Social Rights, Garrido Gómez

Societies Without Borders

I investigate the semantic and practical complexity of social rights, together with the obligations which correspond to the public authorities in terms of putting them into practice. I also discuss the role of meaningful economic equality in the discourse of social rights, explaining the points at which the two concepts interact, and the ways that formal equality can be improved. Finally, I reach the conclusion that there are two distinct meanings of the concept of discrimination, one which is equivalent to any violation of the general principal of equality, and another stricter one, which is the infringement of equality when …

Immigrants' Rights In The Public Sphere: Hannah Arendt's Concepts Reconsidered, San Martín

Societies Without Borders

Based on Arendt's concepts of public and private spheres, immigration issues can be approached from an emphasis on how the most fundamental of all human rights, which is being denied to immigrants, is the most basic constituent of the human condition: the ability to interact in the public realm through action and speech. The granting of this right would enable immigrants to become unique human beings, with the capacity for transformation. As they are presently deprived of these and other rights, they are confined to the most primitive sphere, that is, the one of pure survival. Therefore, a differentiation must …

Under A Global Mask: Family Narratives And Local Memory In A Global Social Movement In Japan, Nomiya

Societies Without Borders

The present paper examines motivational aspects of the global peace movement, using as a case the World Peace Now movement in Japan. This campaign, which has extensive international networks and synchronized actions with global “waves of protest”, is part of a global anti-war protest movement. Using data collected from interviews and a protest survey to gauge participation motives and attributed meanings to the participation, the paper argues that the campaign, despite its global outlook, is localized and historically idiosyncratic. Indifferent to the global, participants' motives are drawn from personal experiences and family narratives, and localized collective memory of the past. …

Windows On The Ninth World Social Forum In Belém, Velitchkova, Jackie Smith, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick

Societies Without Borders

This essay provides three windows on the Ninth World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil. We show the multiple ways in which the World Social Forum's plurality and reflexivity challenge traditional dichotomies to build the foundation for a new politics. We argue that the social forum process has developed mechanisms for remaining an open space while simultaneously creating opportunities for unified collective action. We show that the Forum produces complex analyses and comes up with strategies that correspond to these analyses. We provide some evidence for how the social forum process is trying to overcome organizational challenges related to resource distribution …

Domestic Violence And Women's Rights In Nigeria, Bazza

Societies Without Borders

Studies have shown that globally domestic violence accounts for nearly one quarter of all recorded crimes. Women have been subjected to various forms of violence ranging from rape, battering, trafficking and even murder. Although the degree differs from society to society, the occurrence has profound and destructive consequences including psychological, physical, emotional and social disorders. The fact that domestic violence prevails across all strata of the Nigerian society is no longer debatable. Despite the spirited efforts made by the world bodies such as the United Nations (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights) …

Women, Peace And Security: An Analysis Of The National Action Plans Developed In Response To Un Security Council Resolution 1325, Gumru, Jan Marie Fritz

Societies Without Borders

This research analyzes the 11 national action plans that were adopted between June 2005 and October 2008 as a response to the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1325. Resolution 1325, one of the most important UN resolutions within the field of peace and security, was adopted unanimously on 31 October 2000. The resolution highlights the consequences of violent conflict on women and girls and the important role of women in peacebuilding and post-conflict processes. In 2002 and again in 2004, UN member states were invited to prepare national action plans in order to take strong steps towards the implementation of …

Global Movement Coalitions: The Global South And The World Trade Organization In Cancun, Esparza

Societies Without Borders

A group of developing countries within the World Trade Organization, called the G22, formed in 2003 to bring attention to important economic concerns of the Global South. This coalition building at the global level is instructive to the literature on social movement coalition building and strategies in a transnational context. This article examines coalition building among nation-states within the context of the WTO. Drawing upon existing trading blocs, the G22 are able to leverage attention away from the WTO consensus. The declining significance of the global institution is a result of the breaking of this consensus.