Law Commons^™

Promises To Keep: Diplomatic Assurances Against Torture In Us Terrorism Transfers, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

“Diplomatic assurances” are promises not to torture. They are sought when transferring a detainee from the custody of one government to another. Not surprisingly, they are sought from governments that typically torture.

This report surveys the law and practice of assurances in the US and, comparatively, in Canada and Europe. It is the culmination of a long-term engagement by Columbia’s Human Rights Clinic and its faculty to research and support advocacy on diplomatic assurances. That process has involved advocacy with Swedish NGOs, support for research by Human Rights Watch, FOIA requests with the ACLU and collaborative efforts with UN mechanisms. …

The Right To An Effective Remedy For Victims Of Trafficking In Persons: A Survey Of International Law And Policy, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

Remedies are a critical aspect of the international legal response to trafficking, confirming the status of trafficked persons as victims of crime and victims of human rights abuse. Over the past decade, States and the international community have come to better understand the true consequences of trafficking – an essential prerequisite to consensus on what constitutes ‘effective” and “appropriate’ remedies for trafficking-related harm. There have also been great improvements in the articulation and acceptance of legal obligations owed by States to prevent and respond to such harm. Unfortunately, and despite this important progress, victims of trafficking very rarely receive the …

The International Law Of Human Trafficking, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

This book presents the first-ever comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the international law of human trafficking. Anne T. Gallagher calls on her direct experience working within the United Nations to chart the development of new international laws on this issue. She links these rules to the international law of State responsibility , as well as key norms of international human rights law, transnational criminal law, refugee law and international criminal law, in the process identifying and explaining the major legal obligations of States with respect to preventing trafficking, protecting and supporting victims, and prosecuting perpetrators.

Justice For Rwanda: Toward A Universal Law Of Armed Conflict, Heather Alexander

Golden Gate University Law Review

Section I of this Comment provides a history of the Rwandan armed conflict and a description of the laws of armed conflict. It focuses on the basic laws of armed conflict, the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, and describes how these laws have been interpreted by the ICTY and ICTR. Section II addresses the classification of the Rwandan armed conflict as a non-international conflict. This section discusses Ugandan support for the invading Rwandan Patriotic Front ("hereinafter RPF") and the murder of ten Belgian U.N. peacekeepers by Rwandan troops. The Section proposes changing the definition of an international conflict, thereby strengthening …

Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: A Step Towards Eradicating The Trafficking Of Women Into Greece For Forced Prostitution, Vicki Trapalis

Golden Gate University Law Review

The purpose of this article is to provide a survey of the international law instruments presently in existence to combat trafficking of women for forced prostitution. This article will develop suggestions for more effective implementation of existing international obligations. Specifically, this article proposes extraterritorial jurisdiction as an opportunity for international cooperation.

Realizing The International Human Right To Health: The Challenge Of For-Profit Health Care, Eleanor D. Kinney

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Universal Human Rights: A Generational History, Eric Engle

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

Human rights are universal. Not in the sense of being the same positive laws, at all times and places, but rather as being aspirational goals, at all times and places, and also as containing core values which are indeed universal, such as the right to life (no irrational deprivation of life). Histories of human rights usually propose that the concept has evolved through at least three separate historical waves. This historical account, while roughly accurate, must be clarified as a theoretical construction which corresponds only partially to the historical reality: the rights of women and of non-white persons, in fact, …

The High Cost Of Freedom: A Legal And Policy Analysis Of Shelter Detention For Victims Of Trafficking, Anne T. Gallagher, Elaine Pearson

Anne T Gallagher

In countries around the world it is common practice for victims of human trafficking who have been “rescued” or who have escaped from situations of exploitation to be placed and detained in public or private shelters. In the most egregious situations, victims can be effectively imprisoned in such shelters for months, even years. This article uses field-based research to document this largely unreported phenomenon. It then considers the international legal aspects of victim detention in shelters and weighs the common justifications for such detention from legal, policy, and practical perspectives.

Hidetoshi Hashimoto On International Law (Sixth Edition). By Malcolm Shaw. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 1542pp., Hidetoshi Hashimoto

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

International Law (Sixth Edition). By Malcolm Shaw. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 1542pp.

Women And Private Military And Security Companies, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Lack of clarity about the application of international law norms and inadequacies of existing regulatory regimes covering private military and security companies have reinforced concerns about transparency and accountability in respect of gender-related violence, harassment and discrimination. This chapter focuses on the main issues and legal concerns raised by the impact of the privatisation of war on women, both as PMSC employees and civilians. Part I highlights how armed conflict, civil unrest, occupation and transition have a detrimental effect upon the lives of women with particular reference to safety, displacement, health and economic disadvantage. Part II provides a summary of …

Ecological Considerations Relating To The Destruction Of Chemical Weapons, Aldo Zammit Borda

Aldo Zammit Borda

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) not only establishes a global ban on the development of chemical weapons (CW), it also establishes an international obligation on possessor States to destroy their CW and production facilities. This is a central and mandatory obligation of the CWC, which aims at securing a world free of CW. In view of the risks posed by CW to human health and the environment, the obligation to destroy CW may be seen as directly connected to the right to a healthy environment. While the CWC seeks to set high standards for ensuring the safety of people and …

A Dark Descent Into Reality: The Case For An Objective Definition Of Torture, Michael W. Lewis

Michael W. Lewis

Abstract The definition of torture is broken. The malleability of the term “severe pain or suffering” at the heart of the definition has created a situation in which the world agrees on the words but cannot agree on their meaning. The “I know it when I see it” nature of the discussion of torture makes it clear that the definition is largely left to the eye of the beholder. This is particularly problematic when international law’s reliance on self-enforcement is considered. After discussing current common misconceptions about intelligence gathering and coercion that are common to all sides of the torture …

The Responsibility To Protect And The Decline Of Sovereignty: Free Speech Protection Under International Law, William Magnuson, William J. Magnuson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

State sovereignty has long held a revered post in international law, but it received a blow in the aftermath of World War II, when the world realized the full extent of atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis on their own citizens. In the postwar period, the idea that individuals possessed rights independent of their own states gained a foothold in world discussions, and a proliferation of human rights treaties guaranteeing fundamental rights followed. These rights were, for the most part, unenforceable, though, and in the 1990s, a number of humanitarian catastrophes (in Kosovo, Rwanda, and Somalia) galvanized the international community to …

Are Hate Speech Provisions Anti-Democratic?: An International Perspective , Robin Edger

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Necessary Fictions: Indigenous Claims And The Humanity Of Rights, Peter Fitzpatrick

Human Rights & Human Welfare

To begin, not propitiously. When checking whether my title ‘Necessary Fictions’ was being used elsewhere, Google revealed that it was going to be used in a future talk, and by me. It transpired mercifully that this use was going to be quite different to the present which suggested the prospect of a new academic genre: same title, different paper; rather than the standard combination of same paper, different title. Fortuitously, that contrast gave me the leitmotiv for this talk – that things ostensibly the same can be different, and that things ostensibly different can be the same.

© Peter Fitzpatrick. …

Prospective Parents And The Children's Rights Convention, Carter Dillard

American University International Law Review

This Article addresses the novel question of whether states parties can successfully implement the Children’s Rights Convention by placing legal obligations on prospective parents, thereby influencing not just a child’s environment, but also the procreation of that child. First, the Article takes a unique version of the child-centered perspective, one that recognizes that as we move back in time in the direction of and even before a child’s birth, our obligations to the child grow because our actions become ever more influential. The perspective also takes into account current moral theories of parental obligation to prospective children. The Article then …

Hybrid Courts: Examining Hybridity Through A Post-Colonial Lens, Elizabeth M. Bruch

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"A Guantanamo On The Sea": The Difficulties Of Prosecuting Pirates And Terrorists, Eugene Kontorovich

Faculty Working Papers

As a surge in pirate attacks in the seas around the Horn of Africa threatens to seriously damage international trade, the nations of the world have refused to enforce international law against these criminals. The dozens of nations patrolling the Gulf of Aden have ample legal authority to detain and prosecute pirates. Yet the United States and other navies have, as a matter of policy, been releasing apprehended pirates because of the difficulty of detaining or successfully prosecuting them. These fears are not unwarranted. As this Essay shows, while on the one hand international law requires all nations to fight …

International Human Rights At The Close Of The Twentieth Century, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

Speculates as to why the human-rights revolution is increasingly likely to dominate our foreign-policy attentions in the decades to come. Ventures some predictions, of particular interest perhaps to international lawyers, about where the cause of international human rights is heading.

Human Rights As Part Of Customary International Law:A Plea For Change Of Paradigms, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

The question for us international lawyers is how, and how much of, public sentiment for human rights has been transformed into binding international law.

The Relation Of The Individual To The State In The Era Of Human Rights, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

I address the question of the relation of the individual to the state and, in so doing, invoke Hegel, the preeminent philosopher of relationships. As students of international law, we should look forward to achieving the complex synthesis implicit in Hegel's philosophy: to promote the human rights of all persons in the natural context of the unique nation in which they live. Examines a legal problem that highlights this interrelatedness: Frolova v. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

From Kosovo To Catalonia: Separatism And Integration In Europe, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

In July 2010 the International Court of Justice rendered its Advisory Opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence and the Constitutional Court of Spain rendered an opinion concerning the autonomy of Catalonia. Two very different cases, from very different places, decided by very different courts. Nonetheless, they each provide insights on the issue of separatism in the midst of European integration. Does the Kosovo opinion open the door for other separatist groups? Does the process of European integration increase or undercut separatism? In addressing these questions, this article proceeds in three main parts. Part A briefly recaps the …

Rethinking International Women's Human Rights Through Eve Sedgwick, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Since the death of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, I have wanted to honor her memory, and this panel is the perfect venue. Sedgwick's foundational understandings of sexuality, gender, and identity set the stage for much of my work and that of those I admire. My own work looks at how the state regulates gender in the “public” sphere. I attempt to challenge the tensions and intersections among international and comparative notions of equality and identity. Group identity constructions vary across cultural lines and conflict with liberal notions of universalist constitutionalism and equality. My current work, Unsex CEDAW: What's Wrong with Women's …

Dynamic Federalism In Human Rights Treaty Implementation, Johanna Kalb

Articles

In response to the growing academic and political movement that opposes the direct incorporation of treaties into domestic federal law, numerous scholars have proposed that states take on an increased role in the domestic interpretation and implementation of international human rights treaties. The focus of this scholarship to date has been to locate doctrinal gaps where state legislatures and courts may act without intruding in areas of traditionally federal jurisdiction. Thus far, however, little effort has been directed towards modeling an affirmative obligation for state participation in treaty implementation, despite the fact that state action is arguably required, both pragmatically …

Missed Opportunity: Congress's Attempted Response To The World's Demand For The Violence Against Women Act, Brenton T. Culpepper

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Morrison struck down, as a violation of the Commerce Clause, § 13,981 of the Violence Against Women Act, that provided a private right of action for victims of gender-motivated violence to assert against their abusers. However, § 13,981 should have been affirmed as implementing legislation designed to fulfill U.S. obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and customary international law. Recognizing § 13,981 as implementing legislation serves as a foundation for the United States to restore itself as a legitimate human rights leader capable of both appreciating its own international …

Treaties As Law And The Rule Of Law: The Judicial Power To Compel Domestic Treaty Implementation, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, federal statutes, and ratified treaties part of the "supreme law of the land." Despite the textual and historical clarity of the Supremacy Clause, some courts and commentators have suggested that the "non-self-executing treaty doctrine" means that ratified treaties must await implementing legislation before they become domestic law. The non-self-executing treaty doctrine has in particular been used as a shield to claims under international human rights treaties.

This Article does not seek to provide another critique of the non-self-executing treaty doctrine in the abstract. Rather, I suggest that a determination that a treaty is non-self-executing …

The Global Law Of The Land, Amnon Lehavi

University of Colorado Law Review

Are we witnessing the gradual universality of national land laws, which have traditionally been considered to be the paradigm of legal idiosyncrasy by virtue of their reflection of place-specific society, culture, and politics? This Article offers an innovative analysis of the conflicting forces at work in this legal field, based on a historical, comparative, and theoretical study of the structures and strictures of domestic land laws and current cross-border phenomena that dramatically affect national land systems. The central thesis of this Article is that, irrespective of our basic normative viewpoint regarding the opening up of domestic land laws to the …

International Human Rights Law In Japan: The View At Thirty, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

Japanese courts have become increasingly open to the use of international human rights law in the past two decades. This paper examines several of the key decisions that reflect the judiciary's embrace of international law, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure and minority rights. I argue that the judiciary has eclipsed the other branches of government as the primary disseminator of human rights norms in Japan.

Human Rights For Hedgehogs?: Global Value Pluralism, International Law, And Some Reservations Of The Fox, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

This essay, a contribution to the Boston University Law Review’s symposium on Ronald Dworkin’s forthcoming book, Justice for Hedgehogs, critiques the manuscript’s account of international human rights on five grounds. First, it is vague: it fails to offer much if any guidance relative to many of the most difficult concrete issues that arise in the field of international human rights law and policy - precisely the circumstances in which international lawyers might benefit from the guidance that moral foundations supposedly promise. It is also troubling, and puzzling given Dworkin’s well-known commitment to the right-answer thesis, that his account of human …

Embedded International Law And The Constitution Abroad, Sarah H. Cleveland

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay explores the role of "embedded" international law in U.S. constitutional interpretation, in the context of extraterritorial application of the Constitution. Traditional U.S. understandings of the Constitution's application abroad were informed by nineteenth-century international law principles of jurisdiction, which largely limited the authority of a sovereign state to its geographic territory. Both international law and constitutional law since have developed significantly away from strictly territorial understandings of governmental authority, however. Modern international law principles of jurisdiction and state responsibility now recognize that states legitimately may exercise power in a number of extraterritorial contexts, and that legal obligations may apply …