Law Commons^™

A Name Of One's Own: Gender And Symbolic Legal Personhood In The European Court Of Human Rights, Yofi Tirosh

Yofi Tirosh

Legal regulation of surnames provides a fascinating venue for examining how women negotiate their interests of autonomy and of stable personhood vis a vis a patriarchal naming structure. This is a study of 25 years of adjudication of surnames and personal status at the European Court of Human Rights. It explores the intricate ways in which legal norms governing surnames (and their judicial interpretation) sustain, shape, and reify social institutions such as gender, family, and citizenship.

As a pan European court, the adjudication of the ECHR operates within the framework of human rights. The universal characteristics of human rights principles …

Plural Vision: International Law Seen Through The Varied Lenses Of Domestic Implementation, D. A. Jeremy Telman

D. A. Jeremy Telman

This essay introduces a collection of essays that have evolved from papers presented at a conference on “International Law in the Domestic Context.” The conference was a response to the questions raised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Medellín v. Texas and also a product of our collective curiosity about how other states address tensions between international obligations and overlapping regimes of national law.

Our constitutional tradition speaks with many voices on the subject of the relationship between domestic and international law. In order to gain a broader perspective on that relationship, we invited experts on foreign law to …

Human Rights Approach To Land Rights In Ethiopia, Belachew M. Fikre

Belachew M Fikre

No abstract provided.

Brief On The Merits-Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: Fleury V. Haiti, Andrea P. Capellán, Smita Rao, Meetali Jain

Andrea Pestone Capellán

This is a brief on the merits authored by my co-counsel, Smita Rao, and I to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Lysias Fleury v. Haiti (Case No. 12.459). This case was recommended to the Inter-American Court by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The brief was filed on behalf of Lysias Fleury, a Haitian human rights defender, by the Washington College of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic.

Brief On The Merits-Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: Fleury V. Haiti (French), Andrea P. Capellán, Smita Rao, Meetali Jain

Andrea Pestone Capellán

FRENCH VERSION. This is a brief on the merits authored by my co-counsel, Smita Rao, and I to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Lysias Fleury v. Haiti (Case No. 12.459). This case was recommended to the Inter-American Court by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The brief was filed on behalf of Lysias Fleury, a Haitian human rights defender, by the Washington College of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic.

Immigration Law: Nowhere To Turn—Illegal Aliens Cannot Use The Freedom Of Information Act As A Discovery Tool To Fight Unfair Removal Hearings, Larry R. Fleurantin

Larry R. Fleurantin

This Article challenges the authority of the Attorney General and the DHS Secretary to withhold information from an alien after a FOIA request under Exemption (b)(5), to use that same withheld information to impeach the alien’s testimony during an individual hearing on the merits, and to use that as grounds for the Immigration Court to deny an applicant’s request for asylum. This Article takes the position that the USCIS needs to change its unfair practice to avoid the harsh and pervasive injustice that aliens facein removal proceedings.

Towards Accountability For Mass Crimes: A Report Of The Indian Campaign On International Criminal Court 2000-2007, Saumya Uma, Pouruchisti Wadia

Saumya Uma

This contains a detailed narrative on the activities undertaken by ICC-India - an anti-impunity campaign on mass crimes and international law, from 2000 to 2007. The publication elaborates the work of the campaign on information dissemination, campaign and advocacy, research and publication, alliance-building and media outreach. It includes 16 pages of colour photographs, as well as illustrations in the form of graphs, tables and maps. Published by Women's Research & Action Group, 2008, English, 90 pages.

Water Is Security, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Reasonable and equitable water resource decision-making is at the core of good governance around the world. Sustained water collaboration is an antidote to foreign relations disintegration. Lack of water quality and quantity policies can lead to water insecurity for everyone, yet bureaucratic obstacles such as inertia and corruption must be averted in altering water governance schemes. There are multiple ways to lower transaction costs and strive for optimal water use. Several ingredients of good water governance include: (1) broad participation through the entire decision-making process; (2) transparent flow of information; (3) equitable opportunities to increase well-being; (4) accountability from governments, …

A People Betrayed-The Darfur Crisis And International Law: Rethinking Westphalian Sovereignty In The 21st Century, Jackson N. Maogoto, Kithure Kindiki

Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto

This Article uses the Darfur Crisis in Sudan as a case study. It argues that rather than eliminating sovereignty as a political ideology, a more productive enterprise would be to refocus the discourse away from the traditional structural understanding of the term, which only serves to accentuate the level of discrepancy between the theological and the political definitions of the term and which ultimately leaves the false impression that absolute sovereignty is somehow realizable in the international political sphere. This refocus would constitute a shift toward a functional conception of sovereignty, wherein the purpose that State sovereignty would serve in …

Interview With Mahmoud Akkam, Syria, Marcel Stuessi

Marcel Stüssi

This is a previously unpublished interview with Mahmoud Akkam, Mufti of Aleppo, Syria

Report Of The 1st National Consultation On International Criminal Court & India, Saumya Uma

Saumya Uma

This publication contains a detailed report of each session of the 1st National Consultation on the ICC & India, held in Delhi on 8-9 December 2005.

The Political Economy Of Violence: Toward An Understanding Of The Gender-Based Murders Of Ciudad Juarez, Deborah M. Weissman

Deborah M. Weissman

This article provides an interpretive account of the political economy of violence localized in Cd. Juarez, Mexico. It examines the socioeconomic conditions attending decades during a period of rapid transformation to an export economy as the environment in which violence against women has assumed endemic proportions. The serial murders of women have been alternately problematized as deeds of criminal deviants, as a reactionary gendered responses to women replacing men in the wage labor force, and as the failure of the state to exercise local authority. This article argues for a more comprehensive analysis that includes the above theories without bracketing …

The Human Rights Dilemma: Rethinking The Humanitarian Project, Deborah M. Weissman

Deborah M. Weissman

This Article provides an interpretive account of the human rights discourse at a time when the U.S. legal community is deepening its relationship with these issues. It maps the context of the human rights project over the past one hundred years, with a critical eye and as a cautionary tale. It reviews the historical circumstances and the ideological framework in which human rights have been appropriated as an instrument of national policy, often to the detriment of humanitarian objectives. It considers the role of law, not only as an instrument by which colonial rule was maintained but as a system …

Intimidated Victims & Witnesses: Treated With Hostility, Saumya Uma

Saumya Uma

This article advances the need for an Indian legal regime for protecting the interests of victims and witnesses. It draws from international standards and experiences of other countries, grounding the same in the contemporary Indian context.

The Birth Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Michael Cooper

Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

This short article, written for an audience of U.S. based social science teachers, reviews the historical circumstances surrounding the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted on December 10, 1948. The narrative focuses attention on the negotiating process and, in particular, Eleanor Roosevelt’s role as Chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which drafted the landmark document.

Dehumanising The Human Rights, Maurya Vijay Chandra

Maurya Vijay Chandra

Two submissive souls appearing docile to the core--one 14 year old Manoj with his wrist in one of the hand cuffs while another wrist locked up with that of Jawahir, a 30 year old lean and thin man. These unusual mates stepped down from an Auto with a constable. I say mates because they were sharing the load of the iron chain wrapped around in layers. We could not believe ourselves that all this could happen in the heart of the capital, at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Delhi.