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International Law And Contemporary Slavery: The Long View, Rebecca J. Scott
International Law And Contemporary Slavery: The Long View, Rebecca J. Scott
Michigan Journal of International Law
The three essays in this special issue come together to confirm the value of exploring varying domestic expressions of and adaptations to international legal ideals. In each polity, lawmakers have viewed the terms “slavery” and “slave labor” in part through a domestic historical lens, and have drafted (or failed to draft) legislation accordingly. The United States inherited core concepts dating back to the moment of abolition of chattel slavery, and thus initially built its prohibitions of modern slavery on nineteenth-century rights guarantees and anti-peonage statutes, later reinforced by modern concepts of human trafficking. Having just emerged from a long dictatorship, …
The Definition Of Slave Labor For Criminal Enforcement And The Experience Of Adjudication: The Case Of Brazil, Carlos H. B. Haddad
The Definition Of Slave Labor For Criminal Enforcement And The Experience Of Adjudication: The Case Of Brazil, Carlos H. B. Haddad
Michigan Journal of International Law
The paper examines the intersections and differences between “slave labor” as used in the Brazilian domestic sphere and “slave labor” as applied to international law. The former shows an approach centered on criminal law, as opposed to human rights law. This paper explains why degrading working conditions and debilitating workdays should continue to be prohibited and punished. It also compares the sanctions of the Brazilian Criminal Code with those of similar crimes in other jurisdictions. It concludes with a discussion of the current bill proposed by Senator José Sarney, which would replace the current definition with one that more closely …
The Anatomy Of An Institutionalized Emergency: Preventive Detention And Personal Liberty In India, Derek P. Jinks
The Anatomy Of An Institutionalized Emergency: Preventive Detention And Personal Liberty In India, Derek P. Jinks
Michigan Journal of International Law
Despite many indications of an emerging transnational consensus on the scope of human rights law, fundamental disagreements persist. These disagreements are, in many respects, structured around important cleavages in the international community such as: North/South, East/West, and capitalist/socialist. Whether these cleavages are understood as cultural, economic, or political, international lawyers must develop a better understanding of the specific practices that generate divergent interpretations of human rights standards. Without such an understanding, these factions seem to underscore an irreducibly political conception of human rights. Indeed, the prospects of a global "community of law" turn on the degree to which fundamental differences …
Universal Versus Islamic Human Rights: A Clash Of Cultures Or A Clash With A Construct?, Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Universal Versus Islamic Human Rights: A Clash Of Cultures Or A Clash With A Construct?, Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article examines the recent trend proposing that Islam and Islamic culture mandate a distinctive approach to human rights. It offers critical assessments of selected civil and political rights in two recent products of this trend: (1) the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, issued by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and endorsed by Iran and Saudi Arabia; and (2) the rights provisions in the Saudi Arabian Basic Law promulgated in 1992. These legislative initiatives will be examined in conjunction with constructs of an Islamic culture necessarily at odds with international human rights norms. These constructs have …
Measuring Freedom? The Undp Human Freedom Index, Lisa J. Bernt
Measuring Freedom? The Undp Human Freedom Index, Lisa J. Bernt
Michigan Journal of International Law
Part I of this Note describes and compares the Humana index and the UNDP's Human Freedom Index. Part II surveys some of the criticism of the Human Freedom Index since its publication in May 1991, and identifies fundamental problems with the manner in which the Human Freedom Index was prepared and presented. This Note concludes with recommendations for refining and presenting such an index in future years.
Nurturin Rights: An Essay On Women, Peace, And International Human Rights, Barbara Stark
Nurturin Rights: An Essay On Women, Peace, And International Human Rights, Barbara Stark
Michigan Journal of International Law
This essay will explore the relationship between what many view as the two most urgent issues of our time: nurturing rights, and promoting peace.