Digital Commons Network^™

Some Reflections On The Fourth Chilean-German-Tanzanian Legal Talk, James M. Cooper

Faculty Scholarship

On December 3, 2021, the Heidelberg Center for Latin America convened a group of academicians from around the world to explore the way legal pluralism contests values (including the protection of universal human rights), disrupts our national legal systems, and provides for self-determination. The transnational webinar was co-sponsored by the University of Heidelberg and University of Bayreuth of Germany, Universidad de Chile, University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, Faculdades de Campinas in Brasil, as well as California Western School of Law/Proyecto ACCESO in the United States, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The webinar brought together participants with …

Valuing Life: A Human Rights Perspective On The Calculus Of Regulation, William J. Aceves

Faculty Scholarship

How much is a human life worth? This is both a puzzling and subversive question for human rights advocates to consider. The concept of human rights is premised on the sanctity and inviolability of human life as well as the equality of all human beings. Indeed, the right to life and the corollary right to be free from the arbitrary deprivation of life constitute the defining human right. To place a price on the value of human life is, thus, unsettling. And yet, monetary valuation of human life occurs frequently. Governments use cost-benefit analysis and calculations regarding the value of …

Interrogation Or Experimentation? Assessing Non-Consensual Human Experimentation During The War On Terror, William J. Aceves

Faculty Scholarship

The prohibition against non-consensual human experimentation has long been considered sacrosanct. It traces its legal roots to the Nuremberg trials although the ethical foundations dig much deeper. It prohibits all forms of medical and scientific experimentation on non-consenting individuals. The prohibition against non-consensual human experimentation is now well established in both national and international law.

Despite its status as a fundamental and non-derogable norm, the prohibition against non-consensual human experimentation was called into question during the War on Terror by the CIA's treatment of "high-value detainees." Seeking to acquire actionable intelligence, the CIA tested the "theory of learned helplessness" on …

Cost-Benefit Analysis And Human Rights, William J. Aceves

Faculty Scholarship

This Article considers whether cost-benefit analysis can provide the human rights movement with the answers it seeks. It offers an instrumentalist and empirical approach to complement the normative arguments that are most often used by the human rights movement. If human rights could be fully monetized, states could consider the full range of benefits that arise from protecting rights and the costs that occur when rights are violated. This approach could provide states with a more accurate methodology for making decisions that affect human rights. In fact, protecting human rights may prove to be cost-effective, particularly when second order costs …