International Law Commons^™

Fighting The Resource Curse: The Rights Of Citizens Over Natural Resources, Leif Wenar, Jeremie Gilbert

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Respect for the rights of peoples over natural resources is crucial for the flourishing of communities and states. This article confirms that international law ascribes robust resource rights both to indigenous peoples and to citizens of independent states. These resource rights include indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent and citizens’ rights that resource revenues are never used corruptly but are used first to secure their means of subsistence. Resource rights are human rights, respect for which requires substantial reforms in the practices of corporations and investors as well as in the laws of resource-importing and resource-exporting states.

Debunking The Deathbed Analysis: Exploring A New Approach To Article 3 Health Cases, Meredith Heim

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

This essay will explore Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as it has been applied to deportation cases of persons in poor health, with the ultimate goal of answering the following question: Whether the deportation of a person to a place where she or he will not receive adequate health care should constitute a violation of ECHR Article 3. Further, this article will suggest how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the national courts below them can better review such cases in order to provide more meaningful protection to those inflicted. In doing so, …

Dusting Off The Law Books: Recognizing Gender Persecution In Conflicts And Atrocities, Lisa Davis

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

War-time abuses against women, girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ), non-binary and gender non-conforming persons are not new. They are as old as human history, appearing in modern international criminal law records as far back as World War II (WWII). In conflicts across the globe, from Iraq to Colombia, armed actors have perpetrated gender-based crimes amounting to persecution in an effort to reinforce oppressive, discriminatory gender narratives. Rarely documented when they happen, perpetrators are hardly ever held accountable for these crimes. As a result, the crimes are often excluded from consideration by international and domestic tribunals, and in …

Abandoning The Subjective And Objective Components Of A Well-Founded Fear Of Persecution, Grace Kim

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Current asylum law requires that asylum seekers prove that they have a “well-founded fear of persecution.” However, a “well-founded fear”—the evidentiary standard in asylum cases—has remained ambiguous and difficult to apply in asylum cases. In Cardoza-Fonseca, the Supreme Court held that an asylum seeker can establish a well-founded fear with less than a 50% probability of future persecution. Although the Supreme Court sought to clarify the meaning of a well-founded fear, the decision has complicated the evidentiary standard by implying that it consists of two parts: the subjective component and objective component. The “subjective” component—the asylum seekers’ subjective fear …

Introduction To Symposium, "Human Rights And Access To Justice In Ethiopia", Thomas Geraghty

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Remedies For Human Rights Violations: A Reform Proposal For Addressing Victims Of Criminal Proceedings In Ethiopia, Abdi Jibril Ali

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Conditions Of Human Rights In Ethiopia In The Aftermath Of Political Reform, Andinet Adinew Tesfaye, Endalkachew Abera Mekuriya

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Multiple Legal Orders In Ethiopia: An Impediment On The Enforcement Of Women Rights, Daniel E. Alemayehu

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Disability Rights Are Human Rights: Pushing Ethiopia Towards A Rights-Based Movement, Sirak Akalu Iyassu, Fiona Mckinnon

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Official estimates suggest that 95 percent of Ethiopia’s disabled live under the poverty line and are unemployed. To get by, many must beg or depend on family and friends. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the ministry responsible for enforcing rights of disabled people, is a paper tiger, toothless at that. Recent data suggest that only one percent of Ethiopian buildings and roads are fully accessible to the disabled. Yet accessibility is not only a physical, but also a social, cultural, and political sine qua non—and so a matter of human rights.

Rights of Ethiopia’s disabled have been …

Reform Of Regulation Of Legal Practice In Ethiopia: Does It Improve Access To Justice?, Tewodros Meheret

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Legal practice has been one of the focus areas of the reform agenda following the appointment of Abiy Ahmed (PhD) as the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018 following the resignation of his predecessor. As a response to public discontent which led to the change in leadership, he promised and commenced sweeping changes. Accordingly, working teams were formed under the Advisory Council organized under the auspice of the Attorney General and one of them has been working on regulation of legal practice. It submitted a draft bill to the Office of the Attorney General months back and …

Global Apathy And The Need For A New, Cooperative International Refugee Response, Emily Gleichert

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

While an increasing number of nations move toward isolationist, nationalist policies, the number of refugees worldwide is climbing to its highest levels since World War II. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the international body tasked with protecting this population. However, the office’s traditional solutions for refugees – local integration, resettlement in a third country, and voluntary repatriation – have mostly eluded refugees who spend an average of twenty years in exile. The limitations UNHCR’s structure imposes on the office, specifically in its ability to fund its operations and compel nations to act, have contributed to its …

Empowering Persons With Disabilities: Socio-Economic Rights As A Pathway To Personal Autonomy And Independence, Francesco Seatzu

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Recent years have witnessed a growing awareness of the importance of the status of persons with disabilities as right-holders, and increasing linkages being made between human rights and persons with disabilities’ vulnerabilities in the development context. Stimulated by mounting concerns about the impact of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 on persons with disabilities, these changes have unsurprisingly catalyzed attention on those rights of persons with disabilities that are most closely connected to ensuring persons with disabilities’ development needs—namely their social and economic rights. Focusing on the content of, and duties imposed by, persons with disabilities’ socio-economic rights, this article starts …

International Lawyers As Disrupters Of Corruption: Business And Human Rights In Africa’S Most Populous Country—Nigeria, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Be it bribery, embezzlement, or the abuse of public trust, corruption poses a major challenge to global security and democratic governance, along with undermining the rule of law, especially within the Global South. Key to this phenomenon is understanding how lawyers are enabling but also disrupting this epidemic. Unfortunately, the literature on this subject is lacking. This study, therefore, offers a nuanced story of globalization and the complicated role that lawyers play in corruption, by relying on the case study of Nigeria—a crucial Global South market that has the largest population on the African continent. While Nigeria has been able …

Chasing The Fruits Of Misery: Confronting The Historical Relationships Between Opioid Revenues, Offshore Financial Centers, And International Regulatory Networks, Stephen C. Wilks

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

As the opioid crisis continues to claim lives throughout the U.S., tort litigants have faced challenges pursuing Purdue Pharma – one of the drug makers responsible for aggressively promoting OxyContin while downplaying the drug’s addictive effects. Much of this litigation posture sought to recover billions in public health costs incurred responding to the crisis at federal, state and local levels. As the plaintiff class grew, Purdue Pharma petitioned for bankruptcy protection, at which point auditors discovered the entity’s beneficial owners had caused it to wire billions in opioid profits into offshore accounts – placing them beyond the reach of litigants. …

Mechanisms For Consultation And Free, Prior And Informed Consent In The Negotiation Of Investment Contracts, Sam Szoke-Burke, Kaitlin Cordes

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Investor-state contracts are regularly used in low- and middle-income countries to grant concessions for land-based and natural resource investments, such as agricultural, extractive industry, forestry, or renewable energy projects. These contracts are rarely negotiated in the presence of, or with meaningful input from, the people who risk being adversely affected by the project. This practice will usually risk violating requirements for meaningful consultation, and, where applicable, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and is particularly concerning when the investor-state contract gives the investor company rights to lands or resources over which local communities have legitimate claims.

This article explores how …

Elusive Justice: Reflections On The Tenth Anniversary Of Afghanistan's Law On Elimination Of Violence Against Women, Mehdi J. Hakimi

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The Taliban’s fall in 2001 elevated hopes for improving the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan. Those aspirations were bolstered with the promulgation of the country’s landmark Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) in 2009. The tenth anniversary of Afghanistan’s EVAW Law, however, offers little cause for celebration. This essay examines Afghanistan’s legal framework on combating gender-based violence against women, and the mounting challenges on the ground. The ongoing rampant violence against women, pervasive use of mediation in criminal cases, and violations perpetrated by State agents have made Afghan women’s quest for justice increasingly more elusive. …

A "Dignified Life" And The Resurgence Of Social Rights, Thomas M. Antkowiak

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The international human rights movement and its institutions have faced searing criticism that they have abandoned social, economic, and cultural rights (“social rights”). While favorable treaties and constitutions have proliferated over the last decades, grave poverty, inequality, and disease still run rampant across the globe. Many have attributed the latest rise of demagogues and terrorist groups to this widespread social disenfranchisement.

The supranational human rights courts have historically avoided social rights enforcement due to limited subject-matter jurisdiction. Yet more recently the Inter-American Court of Human Rights introduced a conceptual breakthrough to assess social rights, which was affirmed by the U.N. …

Paradox Of Hierarchy And Conflicts Of Values: International Law, Human Rights, And Global Governance, Jootaek Lee

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

In an international society, hierarchies are set up differently among different countries and societies based on different values, which are naturally conflicting and colliding with each other and result in unstable conditions. Is hierarchy really necessary in an international society? Does more hierarchical order in international society mean more peace? Do we need a supranational organization like the European Union whose laws can pierce state sovereignty and bind citizens of each member state? Does the United Nations need to be reformed to create an effective hierarchy, which will give international society more peace, security, and protection of human rights? This …

A Critical Reassessment Of The Role Of Neutrality In International Taxation, David Elkins

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Neutrality plays a central role in the literature on international taxation. In its most prevalent form, the concept of neutrality posits that in order to maximize aggregate global welfare, capital needs to flow to where it would produce the highest pretax return. The thesis of this Article is that neutrality is ordinarily inapplicable in the field of international taxation.

When considering neutrality in the international arena, the problem that one encounters is that the term “international taxation” is commonly used to describe a number of very different types of tax regimes (what the Article refers to as “intranational taxation,” “supranational …

Deliberation And Decision-Making Process In The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: Do Individual Opinions Matter?, Ranieri L. Resende

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The work is focused on the adjudicatory nature of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and investigates its model of deliberation, considering three basic schemes: per curiam, seriatim and hybrid. In order to identify an institutional pattern, the importance of individual opinions is analyzed through the quantitative performance of each category of judge (ad hoc and regular), as well as each type of adjudicative activity (judgments and advisory opinions). The quantitative data is also useful to better understand the explicit assimilation of separate opinions to the core reasoning of future cases. As a result, it has been possible to identify …

Navigating The Moral Minefields Of Human Rights Advocacy In The Global South, Sandra L. Babcock

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

North Korean Defectors In South Korea And Asylum Seekers In The United States: A Comparison, Emma Poorman

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

North Korean defectors are considered citizens of South Korea under the South Korean Constitution, while others that flee violence gain the legal status of “refugee.” North Korean defectors, who attempt to escape one of the worst human rights crises in the world, find themselves in a unique situation. What benefits does this status have? How are refugees typically treated abroad, such as in the United States? This Comment will explore this unique status, how it differs from refugee status in the United States, and the challenges North Korean defectors face in South Korea.

Challenging The Rhetorical Gag And Trap: Reproductive Capacities, Rights, And The Helms Amendment, Michele Goodwin

Northwestern University Law Review

This Essay argues that the battle over women’s autonomy, especially their reproductive healthcare and decision-making, has always been about much more than simply women’s health and safety. Rather, upholding patriarchy and dominion over women’s reproduction historically served political purposes and entrenched social and cultural norms that framed women’s capacities almost exclusively as service to a husband, mothering, reproducing, and sexual chattel. In turn, such social norms—often enforced by statutes and legal opinions—took root in rhetoric rather than the realities of women’s humanity, experiences, capacities, autonomy, and lived lives. As such, law created legal fictions about women and their supposed lack …

The Right To Education: An Analysis Through The Lens Of The Deontological Method Of Immanuel Kant, Kavana Ramaswamy

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The framework of categorical imperatives is one of the most famous deontological theories of rights that have been formulated. The framework has often been used to justify human rights policies all over the world. While they have been subject to several criticisms over the last two centuries, some of these include improvements to the original framework. This paper analyses the framework of the categorical imperatives and suggest certain modifications to improve internal coherence.

The paper then seeks to apply this framework to the right to education, a right that is under fire in the conservatively-charged political arena today. This is …

The Circumvention Of Uefa's Financial Fair Play Rules Through The Influx Of Foreign Investments, Patrick J. Sims

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

European football is undergoing rapid changes spurred on by enormous investments from around the globe. Although regulations exist to curtail teams buying their way to success, foreign investors have become ingenious at circumventing Financial Fair Play rules. The European football governing body needs to reevaluate existing rules and strengthen them by looking to outside examples. This article analyzes the current regulations established by the governing bodies of European football and details how foreign investors are able to circumvent these regulations. Further, this article articulates potential solutions to the current Financial Fair Play rules and how the spirit of the current …

The Complexities Of Human Rights And Constitutional Reform In The United Kingdom; Brexit And A Delayed Bill Of Rights: Informing (On) The Process, Katie Boyle, Leanne Cochrane

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The United Kingdom’s politicised and contested human rights framework has come under increasing pressure during recent periods of constitutional and political instability. The UK 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, the delayed repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the proposals to enact a British Bill of Rights have all shaped the discourse at the national level around decisions to retain rights (or not) rather than progressively improve the human rights structure. The European Union and Council of Europe human rights frameworks act as important pillars of human rights and democracy under the UK constitution and each …

The Security And Human Rights Dilemma: An Inquiry Into U.S.-Ethiopia Diplomatic Relations 1991-2012, Seife Ayalew

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

In the post-1991 U.S.-Ethiopian diplomacy, the use of foreign policy as a framework to advance the cause of human rights has faced several challenges rooted in the way human rights is defined and the intricate interests vested in the U.S. foreign policy establishment. This article elucidates the limitations and challenges of diplomatic machinery as a framework for advancing the cause of human rights. First, human rights in the U.S. foreign policy machine have been given a marginal or subordinate place in diplomatic priorities. Second, the Government of Ethiopia’s (GOE) resistance and tough diplomatic measures and Ethiopia’s strategic importance to the …

The Normalization Of Immigration Law, Mac Lebuhn

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

In “The Normalization of Foreign Relations Law,” Professors Ganesh Sitaraman and Ingrid Wuerth argue that the Supreme Court increasingly treats foreign relations law like other bodies of law—it has “normalized” this body of once-exceptional law. However, a subset of foreign relations law, immigration law, receives little attention in their account, which obscures the fact that immigration law, unlike the rest of foreign relations law, has not normalized in nearly the same fashion.

To understand the normalization of immigration law, this paper proposes a theory of rights normalization: the Court has been reluctant to normalize immigration law except where immigrants’ rights …

Transferring Away Human Rights: Using Human Rights To Address Corporate Transfer Mispricing, Monica Iyer

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

An estimated sixty percent of international trade happens within multinational enterprises. Transfer pricing occurs when one part of a firm sets a price in order to sell to another division in another country. When these prices are deliberately set at something other than market rate in order to minimize the firm’s tax liability, this is known as transfer mispricing, or abusive transfer pricing. These practices account for an enormous portion of global illicit financial flows. This paper will consider transfer mispricing as a violation of human rights, and will look at the ways in which various human rights instruments and …

Keynes, Sen, And Hayek: Competing Approaches To International Labor Law In The Ilo And The Wto, 1994–2008, Pascal Mcdougall

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

In discussions of recent human rights-driven developments in the International Labour Organization (ILO), as well as in other international legal debates, many scholars have suggested that human rights and “neoliberalism” intrinsically tend to converge. Such purported convergence is at once deplored by critics of “globalization” and applauded by its defenders. This article offers an empirical refutation of this convergence thesis by documenting the potential for systematic divergences between human rights, neoliberalism and a third omnipresent discourse, social legal thought (i.e. tropes associated with the welfare state and Keynesianism). I support this claim by taking as a case study three interrelated …