Law Commons^™

The Impact Of Racism On Maternal Health Outcomes For Black Women, Gabrielle T. Wynn

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Modest Proposal: The Federal Government Should Use Firing Squads To Execute Federal Death Row Inmates, Stephanie Moran

University of Miami Law Review

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment in the criminal justice system. As the federal government looks to reinstate the death penalty, this Note argues that it should include firing squad as an option for carrying out executions. While firing squads may shock the senses, this Note argues that they are in fact the only way to comport with the requirements of the Eighth Amendment.

Un Antagonism Towards The State Of Israel Resolution 2334 Of The Un Security Council: A Misinterpretation Of International Law, Jacob Dolinger

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bring Your Own Tampon Policy: Why Menstrual Hygiene Products Should Be Provided For Free In Restrooms, Elizabeth Montano

University of Miami Law Review

Like toilet paper, menstrual hygiene products, such as tampons and pads, are necessities for managing natural and unavoidable bodily functions. However, menstrual hygiene products widely receive separate treatment in restrooms across the globe. While it would be absurd today to carry a roll of toilet paper at all times, it is considered necessary and common sense for all menstruators to carry menstrual hygiene products at all times, for approximately forty years, in case of an emergency. This is the “Bring Your Own Tampon” (“BYOT”) policy and it is a violation of human rights and equal protection.

This Note seeks to …

U.N. Sovereign Immunity: Using The Haitian Experience To Transition From Absolute To Qualified Immunity, Brianna Sainte

University of Miami Law Review

The United Nations (“U.N.”) has been looked at globally and historically as an international organization that has given aid to millions of people in the hopes of promoting peace and reducing human rights violations. It is no surprise then that many countries have welcomed U.N. troops with open arms in the hopes of stabilizing communities. However, instead of receiving aid, imagine receiving a deadly disease. Imagine having the nearby river that has been your only source of water for drinking, laundry, and bathing for decades turned into a waste dump. It is from that river turned waste dump that you—and …

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 …

The Climate For Human Rights, Rebecca M. Bratspies

University of Miami Law Review

Climate change is the defining challenge of the 21st century. The United States government is currently ignoring the problem, but wishful thinking alone will not keep global mean temperature rise below 2ºC. This Article proposes a way forward. It advises environmental decision-makers to use human rights norms to guide them as they make decisions under United States law. By reframing their discretion through a human rights lens, decision-makers can use their existing authority to respond to the super-wicked problem of climate change

Limiting The National Right To Exclude, Katrina M. Wyman

University of Miami Law Review

This essay argues that the robust right to exclude that nation states currently enjoy will be harder to justify in an era of climate change. Similar to landowners, nation states have virtual monopolies over portions of the earth. However, the right of landowners to control who enters their land is considerably more constrained than the right of nation states to control who enters their territory. Climate change will alter the areas of the earth suitable for human habitation and the broad right of nation states to exclude will be more difficult to justify in this new environment.

Climate Change And Human Trafficking After The Paris Agreement, Michael B. Gerrard

University of Miami Law Review

At least 21 million people globally are victims of human trafficking, typically involving either sexual exploitation or forced labor. This form of modern-day slavery tends to increase after natural disasters or conflicts where large numbers of people are displaced from their homes and become highly vulnerable. In the decades to come, climate change will very likely lead to a large increase in the number of people who are displaced and thus vulnerable to trafficking. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 established objectives to limit global temperature increases, but the voluntary pledges made by nearly every country fall far short of …

Energy, Governance, And Market Mechanisms, Alice Kaswan

University of Miami Law Review

As climate modelers’ projections materialize through intense storms, catastrophic flooding, unprecedented heat waves, and more, the need for substantial decarbonization within the next few decades has become increasingly clear. Transitioning to clean energy will bring benefits and drawbacks and will create winners and losers. Who will decide how we transition? Our choice of policy tools will have significant implications for who controls the transition and how it unfolds.

Many economists promote the role of market-based mechanisms like carbon taxes or cap-and-trade, mechanisms that rely largely on private actors to make crucial decisions. Under this view, government measures would fill in …

Climate Change And The Challenges To Democracy, Marcello Di Paola, Dale Jamieson

University of Miami Law Review

This Article explores the uneasy interaction between climate change and democracy, particularly liberal democracy. Its central claim is that climate change and other problems of the Anthropocene—this new epoch into which no earthly entity, process, or system escapes the reach and influence of human activity—expose and exacerbate existing vulnerabilities in democratic theory and practice, particularly in their currently dominant liberal form; and that both democracies’ failures and their most promising attempts at managing these problems expose democracies to significant legitimacy challenges.

Severe Brain Injury, Disability, And The Law: Achieving Justice For A Marginalized Population, Megan S. Wright, Nina Varsava, Joel Ramirez, Kyle Edwards, Nathan Gueveremont, Tamar Ezer, Joseph J. Fins

Articles

Thousands of persons with severe brain injury who are minimally conscious or "locked in" are wrongly treated as if they are unconscious. Such individuals are unable to advocate for themselves and are typically segregated from society in hospitals or nursing homes. As a result, they constitute a class of persons who often lack access to adequate medical care, rehabilitation, and assistive devices that could aid them in communication and recovery. While this problem is often approached from a medical or scientific point of view, here we frame it as a legal issue amenable to legal remedies. This Article comprehensively explores …

The Silencing Of Human Rights Activists In Egypt Post-Revolution, Jennifer Helmy

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Transformation Of Human Rights Litigation: The Alien Tort Statute, The Anti-Terrorism Act, And Jasta, Stephen J. Schnably

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

A quarter century ago, the prospects for federal civil litigation of international human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) seemed bright. With the statute’s modern revival, a decade earlier in Filártiga, foreign nationals, often with no recourse in their own countries, had a forum for judicial vindication of a broad range of wrongs by state officials, multinational corporations, and even, in limited circumstances, foreign states themselves. The Supreme Court’s Kiobel decision in 2013, however, may signal the end of the Filártiga revolution, with Congress’s seeming acquiescence: Congress, after all, could amend the ATS if it disagreed with …

Labor Violations In Mexico: Can New Trade Agreements Effectuate Change?, Nicole Downey Moss

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Child labor and forced labor remain pervasive problems on Mexican farms. Millions of workers on these farms are forced to work and live in inhumane conditions, only to leave the season’s harvest just as poor as they were before. To date, human rights and labor treaties and agreements that Mexico is party to have failed to protect workers. In early 2016, however, negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP”) concluded and, if ratified, the party-countries claim that the TPP will hold Mexico to higher standards than previously faced because the TPP will link labor rights with trade law. However, this was …

The Expanding Scope Of Human Rights In A Technological World — Using The Interamerican Court Of Human Rights To Establish A Minimum Data Protection Standard Across Latin America, Josiah Wolfson

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Privacy is a human right that many in the world do not enjoy. The failure of many countries to prioritize privacy through the passage and enforcement of comprehensive data protection laws has left their citizens vulnerable. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights should use its authority to set a minimum data protection standard for its Member States.

This Note discusses the historical development of data protection, the current data protection gap in Latin America, and proposes the role that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights should play in advancing a minimum data protection standard in the region.

Workers’ Rights As Natural Human Rights, Anne Marie Lofaso

University of Miami Law Review

We live in an increasingly polarized world: one summed up by President Clinton, “we’re all in this together;” the other summed up by then-presidential candidate Trump, “I alone can fix it.” These world views have implications for workers and how the future workplace is ordered. In this Article, I explore the idea that a natural human rights approach to workplace regulations will tend to favor the we’re-all-in-this-together view, whereas the Lochnerian or neo-liberal view tends to favor an individualistic world view.

The Article’s six-step analytical approach starts with a historical analysis of labor law jurisprudence, concluding that U.S. labor laws …

Jewish Honor Courts: Revenge, Retribution, And Reconciliation In Europe And Israel After The Holocaust, David Abraham

Articles

No abstract provided.

Forewarned War: The Targeting Of Civilian Aircrafts In South America And The Inter-American Human Rights System, Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Throughout the War on Drugs, South American governments have fought a difficult and many times losing battle against drug trafficking. Lack of resources and policing capabilities have lead a growing number of States to adopt so called “Shoot-Down Laws”, legislation designed to authorize use of lethal force against “hostile” aircraft suspected of being involved in narco-trafficking. This article examines said laws from the viewpoint of international law, humanitarian law and human rights law. The article makes the point that mere transportation of narcotics cannot be reason enough to authorize use of lethal force and that “Shoot-Down Laws” constitute both a …

You Say Embargo, I Say Bloqueo - A Policy Recommendation For Promoting Foreign Direct Investment And Safeguarding Human Rights In Cuba, Marcia Narine Weldon

Articles

The United States is the only major industrialized nation that restricts trade with Cuba. Although President Obama issued several executive orders that have facilitated limited trade (and President Trump has scaled some back), an embargo remains in place, and by law, Congress cannot lift it until, among other things, the Cuban government commits to democratization and human rights reform. Unfortunately, the Cuban and U.S. governments fundamentally disagree on the definition of "human rights, " and neither side has shown a willingness to compromise. Meanwhile, although some US. investors clamor to join their European and Canadian counterparts in expanding operations in …

Applying Domestic Statutes To Foreign Conduct: How Much Does Kiobel Touch And Concern The Presumption Against Extraterritorial Application, Jessica Neer Mcdonald

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This paper examines a tumultuous history of applying United States law to foreign conduct in United States federal courts and the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions in this area. Despite its inconsistent application, the presumption against extraterritorial application may bridle Article III courts’ authority of applying domestic law to foreign conduct. Notably, a complicated test of displacing the presumption has emerged from the recent Supreme Court case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., which concerned foreign conduct under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). The test states the presumption is overcome if the foreign conduct “touches and concerns” …

The Failure Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Jacob Dolinger

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The UN Human Rights Commission dedicated over two years to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was approved by the General Assembly in 1948.

The underlying reason for the Declaration was the genocide executed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany against the Jewish people throughout Europe during the Second World War. The fundamental mistake of the Commission was that the persecution by the Nazis was not directed against individual persons, but against an entire people, whereas the Declaration deals exclusively with the rights of the individual human being, no reference whatsoever made in the document to collectivities.

Moreover, …

The Lingua Franca Of Reproductive Rights: The American Convention On Human Rights And The Emergence Of Human Legal Personhood In The New Civil And Commerce Code Of Argentina, Martin Hevia, Carlos Herrera Vacaflor

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inverting Human Rights: The Inter-American Court Versus Costa Rica, Robert S. Barker

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Costa Rica has for many years been deeply and genuinely committed to the worldwide rule of law and, in particular, to the protection of human rights through the inter-American legal system and to the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

In the year 2000 Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber declared unconstitutional the country’s program of in-vitro fertilization, primarily because the program violated the right to life as guaranteed by the national Constitution and by international conventions, in that the in-vitro fertilization process exposed large numbers of embryos to death, as only a very small percentage of in-vitro fertilizations resulted …

International Human Rights; International Human Rights Law, James W. Nickel

Articles

No abstract provided.

Extraterritorial Application Of The Alien Tort Statute After Kiobel, Ranon Altman

University of Miami Business Law Review

This article explores when corporations can be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute for human rights abuses that are committed outside of the United States. The Alien Tort Statute grants the United States district courts jurisdiction for torts committed against foreigners in violation of the law of nations. While the Alien Tort Statute concerns international law, it does not indicate whether the district courts have jurisdiction over disputes that involve conduct outside of the United States.

In this article, I focus my analysis on the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. That case …

Disclosing Disclosure's Defects: Addressing Corporate Irresponsibility For Human Rights Impacts, Marcia Narine

Articles

Although many people believe that the role of business is to maximize shareholder value, corporate executives and board members can no longer ignore their companies' human rights impacts on other stakeholders. Over the past four years, the role and responsibility of non-state actors such as multinationals has come under increased scrutiny. In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the "UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," which outline the State duty to protect human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and both the State and corporations' duties to provide remedies to parties. The Guiding …

Immigrant Integration And Social Solidarity In A Time Of Crisis: Europe And The United States In A Postwelfare State, David Abraham, David Abraham

Articles

A cloud has settled over the immigration regimes of the European welfare states and the United States. Confidence has waned in the viability and value of integrating newcomers into a system of social solidarity. The weakening of civic nationalism and secular constitutional patriotism has unsettled national identities and undermined efforts to facilitate the inclusion of immigrants, especially Muslims. More forceful integration policies might better sustain the welfare state, but individual liberties and group recognition make this more difficult. Ironically, immigrants may now fare better in more unjust neoliberal societies such as the United States than in the advanced welfare states. …

Divergent Paths, Similar Results: How African Asylum Seekers Have Been Failed In Both Israel And Malta Despite Varying Procedures And Treatment, Edward N. Krakauer

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reversal Of Fortune: How The German Courts Found Their Human Rights And Helped The European Courts Find Theirs, Henry Biggs

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.