Law Commons^™

Inequalities, Human Rights, And Sustainable Development Goal 10, Gillian Macnaughton

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Most of the 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets echo the goals and targets in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework. SDG 10 — reduce inequality within and among countries — is, however, completely new. The idea that the global community should work together toward equality had no part in the MDG framework, which focused on reducing poverty rather than making a more equal world. From a human rights perspective, the inclusion of the new SDG on reducing inequality is a great step forward.

Notably, Oxfam reported in January 2017 that the eight wealthiest men in the world …

Indigenous Rights In The Trump Era, Tereza M. Szeghi

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper examines the ways in which the Dakota Access Pipeline and the related protests were divergently covered in mainstream versus alternative news sources and what this divergent coverage suggests about the current status of American Indian affairs and the role of American Indians in the U.S. cultural imaginary. Moreover, the paper will address the status of American Indian tribal sovereignty in the Trump era more broadly, with particular focus on American Indians' treaty-related rights to self-determination in the use of their lands.

Invisible Women: Syrian Victims Of Gender-Based Violence As A Particular Social Group In U.S. Asylum Law, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time, in Syria, we have seen extreme suffering by millions who have been summarily executed, tortured, imprisoned, raped, starved, and bombed with chemical weapons. Specifically, we have seen that women have been the target of gender-based violence in the conflict by and with the acquiescence of the Assad regime forces and by opposition groups.

Women have been human shields; hostages for the bargaining of prisoner release; and victims of sexual violence and exploitation, forced marriage, and other forms of violence such as honor killings.

This gender-based violence has rendered women …

Interrogating Rights: How The United States Is Not Complying With The Racial Equality Treaty, Malia Lee Womack

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In 1994, the United States ratified the United Nations’ core anti-racism treaty, ICERD. Although it has been more than two decades since the United States became a member to the multilateral agreement, a wide range of scholarship determines that the nation is not in compliance with the treaty. Little of this research focuses on gender. This paper intervenes with the research by conducting a gendered analysis, with a focus on African American women, of key areas where the US is not meeting its duties to the multilateral agreement.

This manuscript proves that, first, the United States does not comply with …

Out Of The Prison And Onto The Streets: The Trafficking Of Incarcerated Women (A Trans-Disciplinary Media Research Project), Mei-Ling Mcnamara

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Women are being actively targeted for the sex trafficking trade within US prisons and are recruited by a network of fellow inmates who are given "finders fees" for supplying victims. In prisons from Florida to North Carolina, Ohio to Massachusetts, women are promised housing and food in exchange for work upon release but instead are deceived and prostituted for the human trafficking trade. Some traffickers stalk their victims through public-access profiles from statewide prison websites, then groom them over months through correspondence and phone calls.

Inside the largest women’s prison in the United States, the Florida Lowell Correctional Institution, officers …

Agency, Equality And Courage: A Case Study Of Women On The Front Lines Of Egypt’S 2011 Revolution, Carol Gray

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

How were women involved in Egypt’s 2011 revolution/uprising? What role did they play vis-à-vis male activists? To what degree were Egyptian women “equal” during those 18 days in Tahrir Square? These questions will be explored within the context of interviews conducted by this writer in Cairo during and following Egypt’s 18-day revolution (uprising). This essay will explore the public/private sphere split, political consciousness-raising, and gender equality within the context of the stories of Egyptian women on the front lines of protest.

Much of the recent literature on women's protests in Egypt has focused on women's victimization. Critical gender theorist Ann …

Gender, Displacement And Transitional Justice, Sinead Mcgrath

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the past fifteen years, there has been huge emphasis on the need for gendered mechanisms dealing with both forced migration and peacebuilding. The UN landmark resolution on Women, Peace and Security (S/RES/1325) and the gender-mainstreaming of the 1951 Refugee Convention have urged all actors to increase the participation of women in peacebuilding and their protection in instances of displacement. An underdeveloped link between these issues has not been addressed by the academic community, particularly when looking at societies in transition and the relationship of displaced women to international migration organisations in the context of transitional justice. This study aims …

Engaging Human Rights Norms To Realize Universal And Equitable Health Care In Massachusetts, April Jakubec, Mariah Mcgill, Gillian Macnaughton

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Massachusetts health care law served as the model in 2010 for the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). In 2006, Massachusetts adopted sweeping health care reforms. The law sought to increase health care insurance coverage for residents of Massachusetts by:

(1) Mandating that all adults in the state have health care insurance unless an affordable option was not available;

(2) Expanding Medicaid;

(3) Creating a new program of subsidized private insurance for low- and moderate-income residents; and

(4) Establishing a transparent health care insurance market exchange.

Previous studies on the Massachusetts health care reforms of 2006 have analyzed …

Mass Displacement Of Destitute People: A Trigger For Non-Refoulement Protection?, Bernardo De Souza Dantas Fico, Leticia Machado Haertel

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper focuses on two problems around the mass displacement of people in extreme poverty: the characterization of such people as refugees and the application of the non-refoulement principle to mass displacements.

Extreme poverty is causal to grave human rights violations such as deprivation of water, of food, and of an adequate standard of living. These circumstances may reach a degree in which life in a country is unbearable — forcing people to move in order to enhance their likelihood of survival.

The classic understanding of the non-refoulement obligation, as enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, forbids states from returning …

Encounters With Climate Change: How Sdg 13 Can Move From Awareness To Action, Rebecca C. Potter

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In a well-known passage from his book I and Thou, Martin Buber relates his encounter with a tree: “I contemplate a tree,” he writes, and then lists the various ways he could perceive the tree, as an artist or biologist, as someone interested in the trees parts and construction or interested in its function as a living system. But in all cases, Buber observes, “the tree remains my object and has its place and its time span, its kind and condition.”

Yet sometimes, “if will and grace are conjoined,” Buber describes being drawn into a relation with the tree wherein …

The Socialization Of Human Rights As An Inroad To Protect Sacred Space, Leonard Hammer

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Serious problems exist for cultural heritage protection, and these problems are even more serious when accounting for the protection of sacred space and holy places. The lack of effectiveness of the majority of existing international norms and institutions will be reviewed in this paper, which shall then turn to potential sources for entrenching protection of scared space within states.

The paper shall rely on the human right to freedom of religion or belief as the basis for upholding sacred space given an emerging broader understanding of the right within the human rights framework.

The paper shall principally focus on the …

Climate Change, Development, And The Global Commons, Robert J. Brecha

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

An important link between energy, climate change, human development, and human rights comes in the form of a question that has yet to be answered satisfactorily: The earth’s atmosphere and other physical systems are the ultimate example of the global commons. Do future generations have a human right to an unchanged earth system? Sustainable Development Goals 13, 14, and 15 imply an affirmative answer. Given that climate scientists have a good estimate of the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted before the safe uptake capacity of the atmosphere is breached, how do we allocate that remaining atmospheric capacity …

Democratic Civic Engagement: Transformative Local, Inclusive Decision-Making To Achieve Global Peace And Climate Solutions, Leah Ceperley

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for action on Climate (No. 13) and Strengthening Governance (No. 16) as imperative to transform our world toward one that is resilient, just, and peaceful. Climate change is a global problem, marked frequently in the U.S. by indifference, with far-reaching impacts disproportionately burdening the poor and vulnerable worldwide. Global in scope, its sources, impacts, and fields of action are local. Combating indifference at the local level can strengthen local governance structures, build trust across ideological divides, and shift the conversation from indifference to action.

Using an example from a University of Dayton-sponsored National Issues …

Where Do We Go From Here? Charting Perceptions Of The Impact Of The Human Rights City Boston Resolution, Kostas Koutsioumpas, Maggie Schneider, Matthew Annunziato

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a common standard of achievement and called upon every individual and organ of society to promote the rights enshrined in the document. The UDHR has been applied in many ways around the world, including by the international Human Rights Cities movement, which began in Rosario, Argentina, in 1997.

Today more than two dozen Human Rights Cities have formed around the globe, including at least nine in the United States (Washington, DC; Eugene, OR; Pittsburgh, PA; Chapel Hill, NC; Columbus, IN; Jackson, MI; Seattle, WA; Mountain View, …

Factors Affecting Domestic Refugee Policy Development: An Analysis Of South Korea’S Case, Yun Ju Kang

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Asia is no exception to the global refugee crisis. The number of asylum-seekers in Asian countries has escalated very quickly in recent years. In the United States, President Trump's recent executive orders suspended refugee admissions, and hostile immigration policy sparked the controversy about refugees.

The rising number of refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia created political conflicts inside the European countries. The refugee issue has emerged as a global problem.

How is the world dealing with these refugee situations? What are the common barriers in designing humanistic refugee policy, and what is the best way …

Faith-Based Approaches To Asylum: New Appeals To Accountability? Using Faith-Based Principles As Soft Law, Jinan Bastaki

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Can a faith-based approach encourage states to provide greater protection for those seeking refuge and asylum? In response to the fleeing of Syrian refugees to Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated numerous times that the Turkish were the anṣār — an Arabic word loosely translated as ‘supporters’ or ‘champions’ — of the Syrian refugees, making the reference to the people of the city of Medina who offered refuge and a home to Prophet Muhammad and his followers fleeing the persecution of Mecca.

The reference to the anṣār of Muhammad gives the impression that Turkey’s act of welcoming …

Building Academic/Practitioner Teams For Human Rights Projects: Examples, Lessons Learned, And Pitfalls To Avoid, Theresa Harris

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Academics are increasingly interested in getting out of their classrooms and labs to contribute their knowledge, expertise, and resources to help communities develop evidence-based policies. In addition to post-election initiatives such as the March for Science and 314 Action, many academics are joining “without borders”-type programs and organizations that connect academics with opportunities to volunteer their time and talents for “social good.”

One of the longest-running of these is On-call Scientists, an initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that connects human rights organizations with pro bono scientists across all fields — life, physical, behavioral, and …

The Business Of Being Good: How It Pays To Be A Humanitarian State, Taylor Benjamin-Britton, Danielle Scherer

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In an era where human rights increasingly take a position of primacy in international relations, certain states have donned the mantle of the humanitarian, prioritizing human rights over nearly every other item on the foreign policy agenda and mainstreaming humanitarianism in other areas of foreign policy.

Existing arguments find that states that advance humanitarian policies are coerced, socialized, or mimicking, but they fail to seriously consider that states may choose and benefit from humanitarianism in several ways. We do not focus on explaining or theorizing why states have chosen to engage in humanitarianism; rather, we offer an analysis of the …

When Mass Murder, Theft, And Violation Of Civil Liberties Were "Legal": The Nazi Legal System, 1933-1945, Richard Fybel

Distinguished Speaker Series

The white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the violence that resulted in the death of a counter-protester, sparked increased concerns for the protection of vulnerable minority groups. The public display of Nazi symbols and rhetoric prompted many to consider whether the United States is experiencing a resurgence of white supremacy and nationalism, and whether this movement is becoming normalized among a larger segment of the population. This program will provide lessons for lawyers and all citizens from the controversial history of the Nazi legal regime, tracing the developments that enabled Nazis to take and maintain power in Germany. The …

Justice Reform And The Constituitional Court, Noela Ruço

UBT International Conference

During these years Albania has experienced numerous political, economic and social developments, which naturally have been accompanied with certain developments in the legal framework. Not only were these initiatives about the adoption of different legal acts, but also about the practice of state institutions themselves in the materialization of the law in general and the constitutional law in particular. The activity of constitutional institutions, especially the constitutional control exercised by the Constitutional Court, during these years has highlighted some of the issues needed to be reviewed by the constitutional lawmaker in the framework of the justice reform. The constitutional amendments …

Process Of Decentralization In The Republic Of Kosovo, Agni Aliu, Artan Tahiri

UBT International Conference

The subject of the study in this paper is the process of decentralization in the Republic of Kosovo and the obstacles faced by this process. The Republic of Kosovo is one of the world's newest states, so it is natural to face a numerous complex problems in local government in general, while special attention should be paid to the process of decentralization.

The decentralization process should be well analyzed by comparing with some notions such as: Local Governance and its Basic Characteristics, Democracy, Centralization, Non-concentration, etc. This process implies the transfer of competencies from central government to a certain degree …

Associations Of Municipalities In The Republic Of Kosovo, Ramiz Fazliu

UBT International Conference

The subject of this paper are the forms of cooperation and partnerships of municipalities, respectively the establishment of associations of municipalities in the Republic of Kosovo. Currently in Kosovo is the Association of Kosovo Municipalities and it is expected that the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities will soon be established the result of the Brussels Agreement, reached in the negotiations between the delegations of the republic of Kosovo and Serbia. In addition, the legal and constitutional basis for the establishment and functioning of these associations and their position in the legal system of Kosovo is analyzed and treated. Municipal Associations, their …

Human Rights, Flora Kadriu

UBT International Conference

The aim of this paper is to look into the topic of human rights; consequently showing that the fight for recognizing the cultural identity develops through the system of human rights. Specifically speaking, the latter is achieved through civil and political rights, individual rights, and I generation. The collective practices of the cultural self-identification of the individual develop exactly through the civil rights, namely speaking the right of self-determination. The collective practices also influence and determine the political system. Therefore, in this paper I direct the tone towards the democratic form of the political system of the segmented or the …

The Right Of Use Of Albanian Language As Official Language In Macedonia: The New Draft Law, Its Content, Advancement And Comparison, Bekim Kadriu, Ylber Sela

UBT International Conference

The use of Albanian language as official language in Macedonia has been a challenge especially after the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) in 2001. Before 2001, Albanian language was defined as an official language and was used only in private matters as well in primary and secondary education. With the OFA and Constitutional changes in 2002, the language that is spoken by 20% of the population in the country was defined as an official language, but it’s application in practice was left to be regulated by e specific law. The law was adopted in 2008, 6 years after the constitutional changes. …

The Definition Of A 'Place Of Effective Management' At Article 4 Paragraph 3 Of The 2014 Oecd Model Tax Convention, Shkumbin Asllani

UBT International Conference

The jurisdiction to tax is based on the connection of either the person or the income namely the concept of residence and the source taxation. The residence principle is based on the presumption that a state will tax its residents on their global income, while the source taxation is based on the connection of a particular income earn to the other state. Jurisdictions, for decades now enter into tax treaties to reduce or eliminate double taxation by relinquishing completely or partly their taxing rights. Yet, in international taxation when two or more states impose taxes on the same taxpayer for …

The Impact Of Public Interest In The Information Privacy: Analyze Of The Echr Decisions, Jorida Xhafaj, Almarin Frakulli

UBT International Conference

The main object of this paper is the tender balance that exists and arises even more between the use of personal information that people provide in the course of most public security actions and privacy. This study analyze the most famous and strong related decision of the European Court of Human Rights, with the aim to give our opinion how has to be understand the barrier between the power of individuals over information and the power of public institutions to guaranties security.

The protection of personal data is of fundamental importance to a person’s enjoyment of his or her right …

The Actual Paradigm Of Freedom Of Movement In The Context Of Eu Migrants Rights, Elitsa Kumanova, Zornitsa Yordanova, Elina Marinova, Doroteya Dimova-Severinova, Ivelin Velchev

UBT International Conference

The purpose of this paper is examination of the current dimensions of the freedom of movement of persons in the EU, which is a milestone in the construction of the European space. The refugee wave in the last decade, following the onset of the "Arab spring", has raised new questions about the rights and status of persons, who had left their countries because of military conflicts or civil wars and sought asylum in EU countries. Bulgaria has been unprepared to respond adequately to the protection of the EU's external border from illegal immigration and has rethought key issues such as …

Wrangling Services Contracts In Libraries, Michael Rodriguez

Charleston Library Conference

As more and more academic libraries outsource information technology services and enter into cooperative consortial schemes with other organizations, librarians push into a minefield of contractual negotiations, obligations, and liabilities more complicated and consequential than the typical e-resource licenses is. A poorly wordsmithed license may result in loss of access to journals, whereas becoming entangled in troubled consortia, watching an essential technology go offline during finals week, or getting audited by a vendor without contractual safeguards or recourse can produce much greater financial and administrative burdens. This concurrent session was a crash course in negotiating service contracts favorable to libraries, …

The Long Arm Of The Law, Bill Hannay

Charleston Library Conference

This presentation provides updates on three legal issues of pertinence to librarians: The “right to be forgotten,” the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to libraries and universities, and the application of copyright “fair use” doctrine to electronic reserves and electronic course packets.

Who Has Standing To Sue Under The Emoluments Clauses?, Matthew I. Hall

Distinguished Speaker Series

Three pending lawsuits challenge President Trump’s practice of accepting payments and other benefits from foreign governments through his businesses as violative of the Foreign Emoluments Clause. They also allege that the President’s practice of accepting payments and benefits from state or federal governmental units violates the Domestic Emoluments Clause. These actions raise interesting questions about the meaning of two little-discussed provisions of the Constitution. But before reaching the merits the courts where these cases are pending will first have to grapple with issues of justiciability - in particular, with the question whether plaintiffs have “standing” to bring their claims in …