Law Commons^™

The Politics Underpinning The Non-Realisation Of The Right To Development, Belachew M. Fikre

Belachew M Fikre

No abstract provided.

On “Waterboarding”: Legal Interpretation And The Continuing Struggle For Human Rights , Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

While some aspects of the “waterboarding” debate are largely political, the practice also implicates deeply normative underpinnings of human rights and law. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has steadfastly declined to declare waterboarding illegal or to launch an investigation into past waterboarding. His equivocations have generated anguished controversy because they raise a fundamental question: should we balance “heinousness and cruelty” against information that we “might get”? Mr. Mukasey’s approach appears to be careful lawyering. However, it portends a radical and dangerous departure from a fundamental premise of human rights law: the inherent dignity of each person. Although there is some lack …

Legal Lines In Shifting Sand: Immigration Law And Human Rights In The Wake Of September 11, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

In March of 2004, a group of legal scholars gathered at Boston College Law School to examine the doctrinal implications of the events of September 11, 2001. They reconsidered the lines drawn between citizens and noncitizens, war and peace, the civil and criminal systems, as well as the U.S. territorial line. Participants responded to the proposition that certain entrenched historical matrices no longer adequately answer the complex questions raised in the “war on terror.” They examined the importance of government disclosure and the public’s right to know; the deportation system’s habeas corpus practices; racial profiling; the convergence of immigration and …

Sharpening The Cutting Edge Of International Human Rights Law: Unresolved Issues Of War Crimes Tribunals, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

International criminal tribunals have emerged as the most tangible and well-known mechanism for seeking justice in the wake of atrocious human rights violations. As the enterprise has developed, the need to ask fundamental questions is obvious, compelling, and essential. In March, 2006, the Boston College International and Comparative Law Re-view, together with The Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College and the Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project convened a diverse and impressive group of speakers from academia, the judiciary, and legal practice to evaluate: the development of “common law” of the tribunals, the function and limits …

Justice, The Bretton Woods Institutions And The Problem Of Inequality, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

The Bretton Woods Institutions are, together with the WTO, the preeminent international institutions devoted to managing international economic relations. This mandate puts them squarely in the center of the debate concerning development, inequality and global justice. While the normative analysis of the WTO is gaining momentum, the systematic normative evaluation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is comparatively less developed. This essay aims to contribute to that nascent inquiry. How might global justice criteria apply to the ideology and operations of the Bank and Fund? Political theory offers an abundance of perspectives from which to conduct such …

The Global Market And Human Rights: Trading Away The Human Rights Principle, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

No abstract provided.

Review: A Philosophy Of International Law, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

No abstract provided.

Community Recovery Lawyering: Hard-Learned Lessons From Post-Katrina Mississippi, Bonnie Allen, Barbara Bezdek, John Jopling

Barbara L Bezdek

No abstract provided.

Education, Labor Rights, And Incentives: Contract Teacher Cases In The Indian Courts, Varun Gauri, Nick Robinson

Varun Gauri

Since the liberalization of India\'s economy beginning in the early 1990\'s, the government has increasingly employed contract workers to perform various state functions, including in the education sector. Yet, little research has been done to examine how courts have reacted to this shift in government labor policy. This paper looks at all reported cases involving contract teachers in the Indian Supreme Court and four High Courts over the last thirty years. It finds that although almost never explicitly overturning precedent, the judiciary in India has increasingly become less sympathetic to contract teachers demands, particularly at the Supreme Court level. The …

Do We Need Regional Human Rights Institutions In The Asia-Pacific Region?, Buhm-Suk Baek

Buhm Suk Baek

Since the adoption of the Bangkok Declaration in 1993, there have been numerous initiatives to establish regional human rights institutions and charters in the Asia‐Pacific region, but all efforts have been impeded by deep cultural, political, and historical issues. Over the last two decades, human rights scholars have also published a large number of studies exploring the possibilities for creating RHRIs in the Asia‐Pacific region. They, however, have mainly focused on examining the reasons why such regional human rights systems have not emerged in the Asia‐Pacific region and on suggesting ways in which RHRIs in this region can be created, …

Legal Outlier, Again? U.S. Felon Suffrage: Comparative And International Human Rights Perspectives, Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

Dr. Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

The judiciousness of American felon suffrage policies has long been the subject of scholarly debate, not least due to the large number of affected Americans: an estimated 5.3 million citizens are ineligible to vote as a result of a criminal conviction. This article offers comparative law and international human rights perspectives and aims to make two main contributions to the American and global discourse. After an introduction in Part I, Part II offers comparative law perspectives on challenges to disenfranchisement legislation, juxtaposing U.S. case law against recent judgments rendered by courts in Canada, South Africa, Australia, and by the European …

Submission To The United Nations Economic And Social Council (Unecosoc) Regarding Education And Indigenous Rights, Andrea P. Capellán

Andrea Pestone Capellán

In 2011, UN ECOSOC issued a High Level Segment Open Call for Oral and Written Statements regarding "Implementing the Internationally Agreed Goals and Commitments in regard to Education." This is the 500-word submission by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights.

Women And Children Last: The Prosecution Of Sex Traffickers As Sex Offenders And The Need For A Sex Trafficker Registry, Geneva Brown

Law Faculty Publications

Sex trafficking is a moral and legal tragedy that affects thousands in the United States and abroad. The U.S. State Department estimates that human traffickers bring between 14,500 and 17,500 persons annually into the United States for various avenues of exploitation, including involuntary servitude and forced prostitution. Human traffickers are highly organized into criminal syndicates that reap exponential profits exploiting vulnerable women and children. Individual states struggle to prosecute traffickers and must rely on federal prosecution of trafficking enterprises. International cooperation with local law enforcement is essential in combating trafficking, especially in the sex trade. This Article proposes that an …

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Cognitive Dissonance In A Recession: Minnesota Gop Attacks Marriage Equality In Land Of "Gayest City In America", Aaron J. Shuler

Aaron J Shuler

Despite a tradition of progressive thinking on civil rights and recent specific gains for gays in Minnesota, the State's Republican party is trying to place an anti-marriage equality amendment on the 2012 ballot.

Children's Oppression, Rights And Liberation, Samantha Godwin

Samantha Godwin

This paper advances a radical and controversial analysis of the legal status of children. I argue that the denial of equal rights and equal protection to children under the law is inconsistent with liberal and progressive beliefs about social justice and fairness. In order to do this I first situate children’s legal and social status in its historical context, examining popular assumptions about children and their rights, and expose the false necessity of children’s current legal status. I then offer a philosophical analysis for why children’s present subordination is unjust, and an explanation of how society could be sensibly and …

A Modest Proposal: To Deport The Children Of Gay Citizens, & Etc: Immigration Law, The Defense Of Marriage Act And The Children Of Same-Sex Couples, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines the terms “marriage” and “spouse” for federal purposes, clearly prevents the recognition of same-sex spouses under U.S. immigration law. Unless judges and immigration officials are careful to limit it as Congress intended, DOMA might also have a tragic unintended effect on some parent-child relationships. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) employs terms like “born in wedlock” and “stepparent” to define parent-child relationships for various immigration and citizenship purposes. One could argue, therefore, that DOMA prevents INA recognition of parent-child relationships stemming from a same-sex marriage. These relationships determine whether a person can …

Post Baby Boy V. United States Developments In The Inter-American System Of Human Rights: Inconsistent Application Of The American Convention’S Protection Of The Right To Life From Conception, Ligia M. De Jesus

Ligia M. De Jesus

This article examines the question of whether the Inter-American system of human rights has effectively applied article 4(1) the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter American Convention or Convention), which protects the right to life from the moment of conception and, if so, to what extent. The paper carries out a critical assessment of the Inter-American system’s current application of article 4(1), which stands out among other international human rights treaties for its explicit recognition that human life begins at conception and for its unequivocal protection of the unborn child’s right to life in utero. Section II looks at the …

Revisiting Baby Boy V. United States: Why The Iachr Resolution Did Not Effectively Undermine The Inter-American System On Human Rights’ Protection Of The Right To Life From Conception, Ligia M. De Jesus

Ligia M. De Jesus

Not many are aware Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were challenged before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 1981. In Baby Boy v. United States, the quasi-judicial regional human rights body concluded that the abortion of Baby Boy, a viable male fetus, was permissible under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and, incidentally, the American Convention on Human Rights, notwithstanding the fact that the latter protects the right to life "from the moment of conception" and the former contains an implied right to life for every "human being". In addition, the Commission …

Islam In The Secular Nomos Of The European Court Of Human Rights, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

Since 2001 the European Court of Human Rights has decided a series of cases involving Islam and the claims of Muslim communities (both majorities and minorities) to freedom of religion and belief. This Article suggests that what is most interesting about these cases is how they are unsettling existing normative legal categories under the ECHR and catalyzing new forms of politics and rethinking of both the historical and theoretical premises of modern liberal political orders. These controversies raise anew two critical questions for ECHR jurisprudence: first, regarding the proper scope of the right to religious freedom; and second, regarding the …

Forced To Flee And Forced To Repatriate? How The Cessation Clause Of Article 1c(5) And (6) Of The 1951 Refugee Convention Operates In International Law And Practice, Marissa E. Cwik

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The purpose of refugee law is to provide international protection for vulnerable people who are denied state protection. In fulfilling this purpose, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and asylum states have different legal foundations and implementing materials. When terminating refugee status and protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the obligations and legal authorities of UNHCR and asylum states differ. The UNHCR implementing statute allows the facilitation of voluntary repatriation when refugees can return in safety and with dignity. In contrast, host states are able to mandate repatriation when a change in …

The Human Element: The Impact Of Regional Trade Agreements On The Human Rights And The Rule Of Law, Claudio Grossman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Transitional Justice, Peace, And Prevention, Juan E. Mendez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Those Who Can't, Teach: What The Legal Career Of John Yoo Tells Us About Who Should Be Teaching Law, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

Perhaps no member of the legal academy in America is more controversial than John Yoo. For his role in producing legal opinions authorizing what is thought by many to be abusive treatment of detainees as part of the Bush Administration’s “Global War on Terror,” some have called for him to be subjected to professional discipline, others have called for his criminal prosecution. This paper raises a different question: whether John Yoo – and his like – ought to be teaching law.

John Yoo provides something of a case study in the problems in legal education today. As a scholar, Professor …

La Convención Americana Sobre Derechos Humanos: Piedra Angular Del Derecho A La Vida Del No Nacido En Latinoamérica Y El Caribe [The American Convention On Human Rights: Cornerstone Of The Unborn’S Right To Life In Latin America And The Caribbean], Ligia M. De Jesus

Ligia De Jesus Castaldi