Law Commons^™

Ending Slavery: A Papal Mission, Anne T. Gallagher Ao

Anne T Gallagher

My weekend with Pope Francis

Public Policy In International Investment And Trade Law: Community Expectations And Functional Decision-Making, Diane A. Desierto

Diane A Desierto

This article uses a contextual policy-oriented approach to assess how the standing debate on a State's regulatory freedom has been treated within international investment law (e.g. case-by-case interpretation of variant treaty design in each case), in contrast with how the issue of domestic regulatory autonomy in international trade law has evolved towards coordination (e.g. attempted harmonization of the same set of instruments). The article submits a different view from many primarily trade law/investment law scholars (and other systemic integrationists who idealize a seamless shift from trade law to investment law), who have postulated that this fundamental issue of State regulatory …

The Kaffatan Constitution, Liaquat Ali Khan

Ali Khan

This Kaffatan Constitution is transformative energy guarding the peoples of the world, animals, and all life species that exist or may come to exist in the future. It transforms communities across the world, whether these communities are nation-states, provinces, cities, town, neighborhoods, or virtual communities, and turn them into Free States and Perfect Communities. Free State is Perfect Community and Perfect Community is Free State. The two are synonymous. Perfect Community is the radiance of Supreme Truth. Perfect Community evolves out of ordinary communities if, when, and while it seeks guidance from Supreme Truth. You are Perfect Community. You evolve …

Liberty, Equality, Diversity: States, Cultures And International Law, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

This chapter explores how culture is addressed by contemporary international law, with particular reference to human rights law norms. The first part covering freedom focuses on the rise of the modern state and its conscious reimagining of ties with its citizens through the promotion of tolerance and a secular, national identity. The shift is explored through the prisms of the freedom of religion, the right to participate in (national) cultural life, and the limitations on freedom of expression including prohibition of hate speech and domestic blasphemy laws. The second part on equality centres on the relationship between the state, the …

Exposing Judges' Unaccountability And Consequent Riskless Wrongdoing: Pioneering The News And Publishing Field Of Judicial Unaccountability Reporting, Dr. Richard Cordero Esq.

Dr. Richard Cordero Esq.

This study analyzes official statistics of the Federal Judiciary, legal provisions, and other publicly filed documents. It discusses how federal judges’ life-appointment; de facto unimpeachability and irremovability; self-immunization from discipline through abuse of the Judiciary’s statutory self-policing authority; abuse of its vast Information Technology resources to interfere with their complainants’ communications; the secrecy in which they cover their adjudicative, administrative, disciplinary, and policy-making acts; and third parties’ fear of their individual and close rank retaliation render judges unaccountable. Their unaccountability makes their abuse of power riskless; the enormous amount of the most insidious corruptor over which they rule, money!, …

Exposing Judges' Unaccountability And Consequent Riskless Wrongdoing: Pioneering The News And Publishing Field Of Judicial Unaccountability Reporting, Dr. Richard Cordero Esq.

Dr. Richard Cordero Esq.

This study analyzes official statistics of the Federal Judiciary, legal provisions, and other publicly filed documents. It discusses how federal judges’ life-appointment; de facto unimpeachability and irremovability; self-immunization from discipline through abuse of the Judiciary’s statutory self-policing authority; abuse of its vast Information Technology resources to interfere with their complainants’ communications; the secrecy in which they cover their adjudicative, administrative, disciplinary, and policy-making acts; and third parties’ fear of their individual and close rank retaliation render judges unaccountable. Their unaccountability makes their abuse of power riskless; the enormous amount of the most insidious corruptor over which they rule, money!, …

Exposing Judges' Unaccountability And Consequent Riskless Wrongdoing: Pioneering The News And Publishing Field Of Judicial Unaccountability Reporting, Dr. Richard Cordero Esq.

Dr. Richard Cordero Esq.

This study analyzes official statistics of the Federal Judiciary, legal provisions, and other publicly filed documents. It discusses how federal judges’ life-appointment; de facto unimpeachability and irremovability; self-immunization from discipline through abuse of the Judiciary’s statutory self-policing authority; abuse of its vast Information Technology resources to interfere with their complainants’ communications; the secrecy in which they cover their adjudicative, administrative, disciplinary, and policy-making acts; and third parties’ fear of their individual and close rank retaliation render judges unaccountable. Their unaccountability makes their abuse of power riskless; the enormous amount of the most insidious corruptor over which they rule, money!, …

Increase Quota, Invite Opportunities, Improve Economy: An Examination Of The Educational And Employment Crisis Of Undocumented Immigrants And Individuals From Abroad, Brittany Fink

Brittany Fink

No abstract provided.

The Natural Rights Of Children, Walter E. Block

Walter E Block

No abstract provided.

Legalized Lynch Mobs In The 21st Century: Racial Improprieties In The Death Penalty, Betsy A. Daniller

Betsy A Daniller

No abstract provided.

Slaves To Big Data. Or Are We?, Mireille Hildebrandt

Mireille Hildebrandt

In this contribution the notion of Big Data is discussed in relation to the monetisation of personal data. The claim of some proponents as well as adversaries, that Big Data implies that ‘n = all’, meaning that we no longer need to rely on samples because we have all the data, is scrutinized and found both overly optimistic and unnecessarily pessimistic. A set of epistemological and ethical issues is presented, focusing on the implications of Big Data for our perception, cognition, fairness, privacy and due process. The article then looks into the idea of user centric personal data management, to …

Enhancing Human Rights Through European Integration: How Recent Litigation Before The European Court Of Human Rights And The Court Of Justice Of The European Union Has Advanced European Aslyum Law, Clara Presler

Clara Presler

Recent case law from the two European courts charged with protecting human rights -- the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice for the European Union -- reveals mutual influence that has enhanced protection of asylum seekers. The two courts’ willingness to engage in the other’s legal reasoning has resulted in rapid development in the areas of eligibility for asylum protection, detention of asylum seekers, and the Dublin II Regulation. This interplay has occurred despite the fact that the courts are not formally bound to each other, and each employs different procedures, mandates, and substantive law. In …

The Supreme Court Of Canada's Decision In Ezokola And The Harmonisation Of Article 1f(A) Of The Convention On The Status Of Refugees With International Criminal Law, Alan W. Freckelton

Alan W Freckelton

Canadian appellate courts have historically taken a very wide view of when there are “serious reasons to believe” that a person has committed the kinds of offences envisaged by Article 1F(a) of the Convention. In particular, they have taken the view that, in some cases at least, mere membership of a particular group is sufficient to exclude a person from protection under the Convention. However, in Ezokola v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) the Supreme Court has attempted to reconcile the requirements for responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity at international criminal law, and the requirements for exclusion under …

If You Had A Fundamental Human Right To A Particular Environment, What Would That Look Like?, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

Many environmentalists believe that because the earth has in the last several decades become largely a human environment in which pure nature or wild places uninfluenced by humans no longer exist, people ought to abandon the idea of wilderness entirely and do the best they can in a world dominated by humans. That would be a mistake. The idea of nature and wilderness in particular, or of places and things in the world relatively uninfluenced by humans, actually provides the foundation on which to build the international human right to a particular environment that some environmentalists have been looking for. …

No Prisoner Left Behind? Enhancing Public Transparency Of Penal Institutions, Andrea Armstrong

Andrea Armstrong

Prisoners suffer life-long debilitating effects of their incarceration, making them a subordinated class of people for life. This article examines how prison conditions facilitate subordination and concludes that enhancing transparency is the first step towards equality. Anti-subordination efforts led to enhanced transparency in schools, a similar but not identical institution. This article argues that federal school transparency measures provide a rudimentary and balanced framework for enhancing prison transparency.

A Priliminary Critique Of Draft Media Laws With Special Reference To The Kica Bill 2013, Muiru Ngugi

Charles Muiru Ngugi

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 gives priority to the enactment of statutes relating to media law. These new laws are expected to be aligned to the very progressive provisions on free expression, media freedom as well as data protection and freedom of information. I have quickly perused through the recently published Kenya Information and Communications Authority (KICA) and Media Council of Kenya (MCK) Bills, and proffer my initial reaction.

The Forgotten Nuremberg Hate Speech Case: Otto Dietrich And The Future Of Persecution Law, Gregory S. Gordon

Gregory S. Gordon

Among international jurists, the conventional wisdom is that atrocity speech law sprang fully formed from two judgments issued by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT): the crimes against humanity conviction of Nazi newspaper editor Julius Streicher, and the acquittal on the same charge of Third Reich Radio Division Chief Hans Fritzsche. But the exclusive focus on the IMT judgments as the founding texts of atrocity speech law is misplaced. Not long after Streicher and Fritzsche, and in the same courtroom, the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT) in the Ministries Case, issued an equally significant crimes against …

The Dangerousness Of The Status Quo: A Case For Modernizing Civil Commitment Law, Daniel A. Moon

Daniel C Moon

The states, private healthcare organizations, and those with psychiatric disorders are poorly served by the vague “dangerousness” standard endorsed by the United States Supreme Court in O’Connor v. Donaldson, as well as the state statutes that adhere to the high bar set in its holding. This paper explores involuntary civil commitment from a variety of perspectives in order to highlight these issues and to identify where improvements can be made. Specifically, this article proposes that the American Law Institute or the American Bar Association promulgate model rules intended to correct the system’s shortcomings and protect the various interested parties.

Reburying An Injustice: Indigenous Human Remains In Museums And The Evolving Obligations To Return Remains To Indigenous Groups, Alex Bernick

Alex Bernick

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Thirst: The Right To Equality And The Unlawful Privatization Of Water, Kasari Jl Govender

Kasari JL Govender

The problem of thirst is a massive one, and a child dies every 15 seconds from disease related to lack of access to safe, clean water. Privatization is touted as the solution to water injustice, despite evidence that privatization of water services only increases water deprivation for the poorest citizens. This paper examines whether a privatized for-profit system of water access for personal use infringes the human right to water, and whether states have a legal responsibility to protect their citizens from any and all third party business interests in water. The problem of thirst is considered from the perspective …

An Anachronism Too Discordant To Be Suffered: A Comparative Study Of Parliamentary And Presidential Approaches To Regulation Of The Death Penalty, Derek R. Verhagen

Derek R VerHagen

It is well-documented that the United States remains the only western democracy to retain the death penalty and finds itself ranked among the world's leading human rights violators in executions per year. However, prior to the Gregg v. Georgia decision in 1976, ending America's first and only moratorium on capital punishment, the U.S. was well in line with the rest of the civilized world in its approach to the death penalty. This Note argues that America's return to the death penalty is based primarily on the differences between classic parliamentary approaches to regulation and that of the American presidential system. …

Conflict Minerals And The Law Of Pillage, Patrick J. Keenan

Patrick J. Keenan

The illicit exploitation of natural resources—often called conflict minerals—has been associated with some of the worst violence in the past half-century, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prosecutors and scholars have struggled to develop legal tools to adequately hold accountable those who have been responsible for the exploitation of civilians and resources in conflict. The most common legal tool, the crime of pillage, has been inadequate because it has been applied only to discrete, relatively small episodes of theft. As important as it has been, the episodic theory is of limited utility when applied to what have been called …

The Family Responsibilities Convention Reconsidered: The Work-Family Intersection In International Law Thirty Years On, Lee Adams

Lee Adams

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981, No. 156 coming into force. Family responsibilities in the context of paid work and its implications for gender equality have been the subject of international regulation most specifically in ILO 156, although it remains a marginalized convention. Since then, the interaction of work and family and the conflict between them have exploded as a subject of scholarly importance. This article examines ILO 156 in the context of chronological development of other major international legal instruments which address the intersection of work and …

La Hostilización En El Trabajo, Jorge R. Llanos

Jorge Rolando Llanos García

Actualmente se observa una serie de arbitrariedades cometidas por el empleador, que conduce a la extinción de la relación laboral, basándose en situaciones inexistentes con la finalidad de evadir sus obligaciones. Teniendo en cuenta lo anteriormente mencionado, podemos observar la figura de la hostilización al trabajador, es decir aquel tipo de despido, en el cual se produce un grave incumplimiento de sus obligaciones por parte del empleador, peligrando la estabilidad o “vocación de permanencia”, del contrato laboral, pues le bastaría al empleador no cumplir sus deberes para forzar de esta manera al trabajador a renunciar, sin asumir responsabilidad alguna.

The Rule Of Law Goes To Work: How Collective Bargaining May Promote Access To Justice In The U.S., Canada, And Around The World, Christopher David Ruiz Cameron

Christopher David Ruiz Cameron

No abstract provided.

A Regime In Need Of A Balance: The Un Counter-Terrorism Regime Between Security And Human Rights, Isaac Kfir

Isaac Kfir

Since 9/11, the UN’s counter-terrorism regime has developed two distinct approaches on combating international terrorism. The Security Council follows a traditional security doctrine that focuses on how to best protect states from the threat posed by international terrorists. This is largely due to the centrality of the state in Security Council thinking and attitudes. The General Assembly and the various UN human rights organs, influenced by the human security doctrine, have taken a more holistic, human rights-based approach to the threat of international terrorism. This paper offers a review of how the dichotomy above affects the application of UN policy …

Right To Asylum Under International Human Rights Law And Edward Snowden Case, Dr Nafees Ahmad

Dr Nafees Ahmad

No abstract provided.

Post-Conflict Justice In The Aftermath Of Modern Slavery, Roy L. Brooks

Roy L. Brooks

Abstract

Modern slavery is defined as human exploitation over a period of time effectuated through coercion, fraud or trickery. An estimated 12.3 million people worldwide are held in some form of modern slavery, including forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude. Children and women bear the brunt of modern slavery. Divided into three stages—trafficking, exploitation, and post-conflict—modern slavery has attracted much scholarly interest in recent years. However, relatively little scholarly attention has been given to the post-conflict stage. This article attempts to initiate such discussion by drawing upon the reparative framework crafted in the years since the …

"First, Do No Harm:" Interpreting The Crime Of Aggression To Exclude Humanitarian Intervention, Joshua L. Root

Joshua L. Root

The yet to be implemented Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute criminalizes, as the crime of aggression, acts of aggression which by their “character, gravity and scale” constitute a “manifest violation” of the Charter of the United Nations. This article argues that Article 8 bis must be construed so as to exclude from the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction uses of force which are facial violations of the UN Charter but which nonetheless comport with the principles and purposes of the Charter, such as bona fide humanitarian intervention unauthorized by the Security Council. This article applies the Vienna Convention on …

Sex Trafficking In Edo State, Nigeria: Causes And Solutions, Tim S. Braimah

Tim s Braimah

Edo State, the 'Heartbeat of Nigeria', has been labeled as “the most endemic source of human trafficking in Nigeria”. As a result of this negative label, a number of international organizations and non-governmental organizations have intervened to combat sex trafficking in the region. Despite these interventions, sex trafficking is still rife in Edo State. This article argues that political, economic, religious, social and cultural factors contribute to the difficulties in curbing sex trafficking in Edo State. To eradicate it, a joint effort between the government, traditional leaders, religious institutions/NGOs and members of the public is needed.