Digital Commons Network^™

Converging Welfare States: Symposium Keynote, Susannah Camic Tahk

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Susannah Camic Tahk, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, speaks to the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy. She addresses the following questions: To what extent do the particular advantages of the tax antipoverty programs persist as the tax antipoverty programs take center stage? Can tax programs, once distinguished from their direct-spending counterparts on the grounds of relative popularity and legal and administrative ease of access maintain those hallmarks as the tax-based welfare state grows …

Extra Law Prices: Why Mrpc 5.4 Continues To Needlessly Burden Access To Civil Justice For Low- To Moderate-Income Clients, R. Matthew Black

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Whether alternative business structures might improve access to justice for low- to moderate-income clients remains a contentious matter.8 Because alternative business structures are generally unavailable, lawyers rely on 501(c)(3) non-profit status and sliding-scale fee structures to reach an underserved market of low-to moderate-income clientele. Nevertheless, use of a sliding- scale fee structure is rare—perhaps because it fails to maximize law firm profits. A sliding-scale fee structure also does not assist clients who need legal services, but do not qualify for LSC-funded programs and are unable to pay even a portion of subsidized legal fees.

This Note addresses why using a …

Unsung Heroes In Sa And Beyond Help Immigrants Find Hope, Erica B. Schommer

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

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

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

“There’S Voices In The Night Trying To Be Heard”: The Potential Impact Of The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities On Domestic Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin, Naomi M. Weinstein

Brooklyn Law Review

This article carefully examines, through a therapeutic jurisprudence framework, the likely impact of the United States’ ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on U.S. society’s sanist attitudes towards persons with mental disabilities. Although the United Nations ratified the CRPD—the most significant historical development in the recognition of the human rights of persons with mental disabilities— in 2008, the United States has yet to ratify it. In this article, we consider whether the CRPD, if ratified, is likely to finally extinguish the toxic stench of sanism that permeates all levels of society. We …

Leveling The Playing Field: Advancing Free Legal Aid For The Family Law Claims Of Ethiopian Women, Maereg Tewoldebirhan Alemayehu

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Alternatives To Investor-State Dispute Settlement, Lise Johnson, Jesse Coleman, Brooke Güven, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Proponents often explain support for international investment agreements (IIAs) for their ability to: (1) promote investment flows; (2) depoliticize disputes between investors and states; (3) promote the rule of law; and (4) provide compensation for certain harms to investors – objectives of varying degrees of importance to multinational enterprises, home states, host states, and other stakeholders.

While each of these objectives may seem desirable, it is important to consider what exactly they mean and whether IIAs are optimally tailored to achieve them.

This two-part series aims to consider just that. In the first blog installment, we asked of investor-state dispute …

Europe & Central Asia Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Spring 2019 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Creative Lawyering For Social Change, Raymond H. Brescia

Georgia State University Law Review

Lawyers have long played an integral part in efforts to bring about social change. With an increasing desire to see change in the world, regardless of one’s political perspective, there is a growing interest in understanding the role that lawyers can play in bringing about such change. This type of lawyering is complex, however, and faces far more challenges than those the traditional lawyer faces in his or her work. Although all lawyers solve problems on behalf of their clients, the role of the social-change lawyer is more complex because the problems she seeks to address are more complex, mostly …

The New-Breed, “Die-Hard” Chinese Lawyer: A Comparison With American Civil Rights Cause Lawyers, James E. Moliterno, Rongjie Lan

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In times of social upheaval, lawyers can mark the way toward social change. In particular, when lawyers become more aggressive than traditional lawyers in the cause of fighting injustice, they face backlash from multiple sources, including government and their own profession. Such was the case during the U.S. civil rights movement. Unusually aggressive behavior by cause lawyers was met with hostility from their own profession and from government action. Those lawyers, while battered at times with physical violence, bar ethics charges, contempt of court, and state hostility, survived and changed social conditions at the same time they altered the culture …

Innovative Financing Solutions For Community Support In The Context Of Land Investments, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Communities affected by agricultural, forestry, and other resource investments urgently need increased funding for legal and technical support. Without support, communities risk losing access to critical land and resources, suffering human rights violations, or missing opportunities to benefit from investments. A lack of community support can also lead to conflict and challenges that are damaging for companies and host governments.

Donors and support providers have found ways to finance support for communities, but such efforts can only extend so far. Promising new opportunities exist for filling the financing gap, yet they will require sustained efforts by a range of actors. …

The Right To Migrate: A Human Rights Response To Immigration Restrictionism In Argentina, David C. Baluarte

Scholarly Articles

Within days of President Donald Trump’s 2017 Executive Orders on border security and immigration enforcement, President Mauricio Macri of Argentina issued a Decree to address what he declared was an urgent problem of immigrant criminality. The timing of the two Presidents’ actions triggered concerns that U.S.-style restrictionist immigration regulation was spreading to South America, a continent that has taken progressive steps towards recognizing the human rights of migrants in recent years. Until Macri’s 2017 Decree, Argentina was considered a leader in this regard, with its 2004 immigration law that boldly codified a “right to migrate” and included robust substantive and …

The International Law Commission's First Draft Convention On Crimes Against Humanity, Charles C. Jalloh

Articles

The UN General Assembly established the International Law Commission ("ILC") in 1947 to assist States with the promotion of 1) the progressive development of international law and 2) its codification. The ILC's first assignment from the General Assembly was to formulate the Nuremberg Principles, which affirmed the then radical idea that individuals can be held liable for certain international crimes at the international level. Since then, the ILC has played a seminal role in the development of modern international criminal law. In 2017, the ILC adopted on first reading a draft convention aimed at the prevention and punishment of crimes …

The Structural Underpinnings Of Access To Justice: Building A Solid Pro Bono Infrastructure, Latonia Haney Keith

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Privacy And Legal Automation: The Dmca As A Case Study, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, computing capacity, and big data analytics are creating exciting new possibilities for legal automation. At the same time, these changes pose serious risks for civil liberties and other societal interests. Yet, existing scholarship is narrow, leaving uncertainty on a range of issues, including a glaring lack of systematic empirical work as to how legal automation may impact people’s privacy and freedom. This article addresses this gap with an original empirical analysis of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which today sits at the forefront of algorithmic law due to its automated enforcement of copyright …

Celebrating 30 Years Of The Indigenous Blacks & Mi’Kmaq Initiative: How The Creation Of A Critical Mass Of Black And Aboriginal Lawyers Is Making A Difference In Nova Scotia, Naiomi Metallic

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Drawing on my own experience as alumni of the Indigenous Blacks & Mi’kmaq Initiative at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University—one of the only dedicated access program in a Canadian law school for Black and Aboriginal students—I argue that such programs create optimal conditions for fostering greater awareness of critical race issues within the legal profession. The reason for this is that such programs create a critical mass of Black and Aboriginal law students and alumni, who support and encourage each other and, as a result, acquire confidence and skill in raising, and educating others about, critical race …

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

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Human rights advocacy in foreign countries raises complex ethical, moral, and political questions. Legal scholars have challenged the legitimacy and accountability of international human rights activists that impose foreign agendas on local partners in the Global South. Development economists have raised related concerns about the impact of foreign assistance on government accountability. In this article, I use narrative storytelling techniques to illustrate the fraught strategic judgments and moral choices that permeate human rights advocacy. These narratives are drawn from my international human rights clinic’s twelve-year engagement in justice reform work in Malawi, where my students and I have been instrumental …

Table Of Contents, Public Interest Law Reporter

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice: The Law And Political Economy Of The Legal Services Corporation, Bobby Vanecko

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Overcoming Institutional And Legal Barriers That Prevent Abused Females From Accessing Justice In Fragile Nigerian Regions, Valentina Okaru-Bisant

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Business Case For Lawyers To Advocate For Corporate Supply Chains Free Of Labor Trafficking And Child Labor, E. Christopher Johnson Jr., Fernanda Beraldi, Edwin Broecker, Emily Brown, Susan Maslow

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Conversation With The Honorable Rosalie Silberman Abella And Dean Matthew Diller, Rosalie Silberman Abella, Matthew Diller

Fordham Law Review

DEAN MATTHEW DILLER: This year we are leading up to our celebration of 100 Years of Women at Fordham Law School. In September 1918, the Fordham Law faculty voted to admit women, and we are planning to celebrate that in style. But tonight perhaps is a bit of a teaser for that. Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella is a woman of firsts. She is the first Jewish woman to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court of Canada, and before the Supreme Court, when she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976, she became the first Jewish woman …

Re: Dhs Docket No. Iceb-2018-0002; Rin 1653-Aa75, 0970-Ac42; Comments In Response To Proposed Rulemaking: Apprehension, Processing, Care, And Custody Of Alien Minors And Unaccompanied Alien Children, Katherine Kaufka Walts Jd, Diane Geraghty

Center for the Human Rights of Children

No abstract provided.

Emerging Best Practices For The Management And Treatment Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, And Intersex Youth In Juvenile Justice Settings, Brenda V. Smith, Hayley Gorenberg, J. Rhodes Perry, Lisa Belmarsh, Shaena Johnson, Steven Jett, Rebecca Walters, Macarena Saez, Dana Shoenberg, Terry Schuster, Josh Delaney, Karen Bachar, Mykel Selph, Mark Seymour, Sharita Gruberg, Chris Daley, Mark Yarhouse

Research Reports & White Papers

In 2016 according to the U.S. Department of Justice, 856,130 youth were arrested and 45,567 juveniles were held in 1,772 residential juvenile facilities across the country. Detained and confined youth share many characteristics: most are from poor communities and lack access to quality health care. Mental illness and sexually transmitted infections are prevalent. Compared to their non-confined counterparts, incarcerated youth also experience higher rates of substance abuse and homelessness, are educationally behind their peers, are disproportionately identified as needing special education services, and are more likely to have had traumatic experiences (including sexual and emotional abuse) and injuries including traumatic …

"Les Droits Ne Sont Pas Respectés": A Study Of The Effectiveness Of The Moroccan Law In Protecting The Human Rights Of Sub-Saharan Female Migrants, Meghan Gragg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper aims to determine to what extent Moroccan law is protecting female Sub-Saharan migrants against human rights abuses and in the process, it attempts to determine what the Moroccan government needs to do differently to protect this population. Female migrant women from Sub-Saharan Africa are a population that suffers human rights abuses because of their dual positionality as both women and Sub-Saharan migrants: both of which are discriminated populations in Morocco. The research was carried out by communicating with lawyers and non-governmental organization (N.G.O.) team members who work with women to determine the common legal and social problems affecting …

Does Trade Trump Law In The Protection Of Human Rights? International Trade, Law, And Human Rights In South Africa And South Korea, Cristina Campo

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

International relations have become categorically dependent on the sophisticated trading systems that interconnect and empower sovereign states. Thus, a state’s focus on protecting the rights of its individuals comprising and affected by that system would appear to come secondary to the economic decisions involved in conducting trade agreements. This article asks whether the international trade regime can be used to further the protection of human rights or whether such protection should be better left in the hands of legal entities in international bodies and sovereign states. I analyze South Korea and South Africa’s legal and trade regimes—two of the world’s …

Cold Genocide: Falun Gong In China, Maria Cheung, Torsten Trey, David Matas, Richard An

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The article explores patterns of a cold genocide in the eradication campaign against Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that has been targeted for eradication by the Chinese regime since 1999. In comparison to the documented cases of genocide, the genocide of Falun Gong stands out as anomalous because it is virtually ignored. The article seeks to elucidate the multi-faceted nature of this concealed genocide from an interdisciplinary perspective encompassing social work, medicine and law, In particular, the article demonstrates that the eradication campaign against Falun Gong is distinguishable as a cold genocide as it is: (1) multi-dimensional …

Health And Human Rights Of Syrian Women And Children Refugees: Trafficking, Resettlement, And The United Nations Convention On Refugees Revisited, Lori Maria Walton Phd, Dpt, Mph(S), Clt

Journal of Health Ethics

In 2016, there were approximately 22.5 million refugees displaced outside their home country because of armed conflict, over half of whom are minors. Syria reported the highest number, with over eleven million refugees displaced, both internally and externally, from zones of conflict in 2017. Over five million Syrian refugees, between the years 2011 and 2017, have fled to other countries including: Lebanon (1.1 million), Jordan (660,000), Egypt (122,000), Turkey (2.9 million) and Iraq (241,000). Exposure to war, displacement, and violence deprives women and children of the basic right to health, including the “right to control one’s health and body” and …

On The Politics And Conceptualization Of Gender Non-Conformity : Exploring Thailand’S Kathoey Population., Macey E. Mayes

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the politics and conceptualization of gender in Thailand, drawing specifically on the Thai understanding of sex and gender with regard to the kathoey population. This work considers the solidification of a third-gender category and looks to the ways this solidification can inhibit the fluidity of gender and sexuality. It also analyzes the dangers of transnational advocacy and the superimposition of Western queer advocacy and theory on Thai gender identities. I approach this issue from an interdisciplinary framework that seeks to include historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives. In examining anthropological research, critiques of …

Due Process And The Right To Legal Counsel For Unaccompanied Minors, Marielos G. Ramos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Unaccompanied minors arriving to the United States fleeing violence and seeking protection are apprehended, detained in facilities, and placed in removal proceedings in accordance with U.S. immigration laws. Like adults, these children have to appear in immigration court to fight deportation and must apply for any form of legal relief for which they may be eligible. However, removal proceedings work as a civil and not a criminal process, and immigration laws have established that while noncitizens have the right to an attorney, they are not entitled to legal counsel at the government’s expense. This thesis examines how the denial of …