Law Commons^™

Can “Asians” Truly Be Americans?, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Recent, tragic events have brought more attention to hate and bias crimes against Asian Americans. It is important to address these crimes and prevent them in the future, but the discourse on Asian Americans should not end there. Many non-Asian Americans are unaware or only superficially aware of the vast diversity that exists among us, along with the challenges posed by that diversity. Some have basic knowledge of the immigration and exclusion of Asian Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans which was upheld in Korematsu v. United States, and the “model minority stereotype”, but these are Asian Americans 101. This …

The Role Of Lawyers In Bridging The Gap Between The Robust Federal Rights To Education And Relatively Low Education Outcomes In Guatemala, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Scholarship

Relative to other countries in the world and in Central America, the Guatemalan Constitution and the federal education law include a robust and detailed right to education. However, literacy rates and secondary educational attainment, particularly for Indigenous people and young women living in rural communities, remain low. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated disparities. Once children return to schools after the pandemic, the gaps will be even larger. Lawyers can play a critical role in making the strong Constitutional right to education more meaningful.

Civil Rights In Living Color, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will examine how American civil rights law has treated “color” discrimination and differentiated it from “race” discrimination. It is a comprehensive analysis of the changing legal meaning of “color” discrimination throughout American history. The Article will cover views of “color” in the antebellum era, Reconstruction laws, early equal protection cases, the U.S. Census, modern civil rights statutes, and in People v. Bridgeforth—a landmark 2016 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals. First, the Article will lay out the complex relationship between race and color and discuss the phenomenon of colorism—oppression based on skin color—as differentiated from …

The Virtue Of Vulnerability: Mindfulness And Well-Being In Law Schools And The Legal Profession, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the role of vulnerability in transforming individual relationships, particularly the attorney-client relationship. In this essay, Martin argues that broadening our expressions can improve our client relations and decrease the likelihood that when that inevitable mistake occurs, we will be sued for it. Also, based upon virtue ethics, that practicing vulnerability is also virtuous and thus worthwhile in and of itself.

This essay starts by describing the traits people look for in lawyers as well as evidence that clients often feel that their lawyers are less than human. Then examines how legal education contributes to this problem by …

Peace In The Home, Peace In The Nation: Conceptions Of Justice For Rural Women Of Northern Uganda, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

UNM International Studies Institute Fall Lecture Series 2019 "Peacemaking In Africa"

The Justice System Is Criminal, Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony

2020 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

Kunm Interviews Jennifer Moore About Refugees, Asylum, And International Law, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

How The U.S. Ignores Immigration And Asylum Laws, by Megan Kamerick. Immigrant. Refugee. Asylum. These are words we’ve been hearing a lot this year. But what are the laws around refugees in the United States and internationally and is the U.S. following its legal obligations? On this episode of University Showcase, we talk with Professor Jennifer Moore. She's an expert on refugee law and teaches it at UNM. Moore co-authored one of the first law school text books on refugee law. Prior to joining UNM in 1995, she worked with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees in West Africa …

Talking With Women About Community Healing In Uganda And Sierra Leone, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Featuring voices on international law, policy and practice

Engendering Peace And Justice After Armed Conflict: A Call For Qualitative Research Among Women's Community Networks, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Transitional justice refers to a variety of mechanisms established to help postconflict societies account for the war and build the peace, including war crimes tribunals, truth and reconciliation commissions, and reparations programs. The framework of transitional justice, while responsive to local actors and local realities, was largely constructed by external actors, including foreign states, international organizations, non-governmental agencies, advocates, and academics working in the fields of human rights and rule of law promotion. The gender dilemma for global and local transitional justice practitioners is the increasing awareness that most women in war-affected countries have not been well-served by the considerable …

Demonizing Muslims Only Benefits Is, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

It is wrong to marginalize Muslims in part because such attitudes intensify the very dangers they purport to alleviate. Simply put, Islamophobia feeds ISIS-inspired terrorism.

Freedom From Detention For Central American Families, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

August 19th is World Humanitarian Day, declared by the UN General Assembly in 2008, out of a growing concern for the safety and security of humanitarian workers who are increasingly killed and wounded in direct military attacks or infected by disease when helping to combat global health pandemics.

Deportations Violate U.S., Global Laws, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

The detention and summary deportation of these moms and kids is in violation of U.S. and international law.

The Responsibility To Protect In The Ebola Outbreak, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

When the UN General Assembly endorsed the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005, the members of the United Nations recognized the responsibility of states to protect the basic human and humanitarian rights of the world’s citizens. In fact, R2P articulates concentric circles of responsibility, starting with the individual state’s obligation to ensure the well-being of its own people; nested within the collective responsibility of the community of nations to assist individual states in meeting those obligations; in turn encircled by the responsibility of the United Nations to respond if necessary to ensure the basic rights of civilians, with military means …

Humanitarian Protection For Unaccompanied Children From Central America, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

We are approaching World Humanitarian Day, an occasion to honor the talents, struggles, and sacrifices of tens of thousands of humanitarian workers serving around the world in situations of armed conflict, political repression, and natural disaster.

Mental Retardation And The Death Penalty: The Need For An International Standard Defining Mental Retardation, Allison Freedman

Faculty Scholarship

I. INTRODUCTION

Within the international community, there is a consensus against the imposition of the death penalty on individuals with mental retardation. The United States Supreme Court and several international human rights bodies have recognized that individuals with mental retardation should not be subject to the death penalty. Additionally, most countries maintain that individuals who are insane or mentally retarded are shielded from execution. However, reports of individuals with mental retardation who are facing the death penalty continue to surface.

One reason for this may be the lack of an international standard defining mental retardation. There is currently great variation …

Punitive Military Strikes On Syria Risk An Inhumane Intervention, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

The 1949 Geneva Conventions do not justify US missile strikes in Syria in response to chemical weapons attacks on the civilian population.

Just Who Are Humanitarian Workers?, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

On the 19th of August, World Humanitarian Day, we honor the contributions of humanitarian workers around the world, especially those who have lost their lives helping people in war-torn societies.

All The Missing Souls: A Personal History Of The War Crimes Tribunals By David Sheffer, Jennifer Laws

Faculty Scholarship

David Scheffer’s memoir records his firsthand experiences as the primary U.S. representative in the processes of building five war crimes tribunals between 1993 and 2006: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia, and the International Criminal Court. This review analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of his work and makes recommendations to libraries regarding selection for their collections.

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Moore About The Law Of Compassion, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Humanitarian Law In Action Within Africa, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

I’m happy to share news of my book Humanitarian Law in Action within Africa, soon to be released by Oxford University Press.

R2p= Mdgs: Implementing The Responsibility To Protect Through The Millennium Development Goals, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a peaceful call to arms based on the understanding that an essential way to fight the most egregious and widespread human rights abuses is through a broad-spectrum approach to human security grounded in the Millennium Development Goals and a new, non-military, understanding of humanitarian intervention. The responsibility to protect, often cited as a justification for military force to stop genocide, crimes against humanity, and other widespread human rights abuses, is better seen as a commitment by all nations to strengthen their own social welfare and human rights systems, and for those nations with more resources to assist …

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Moore About U.S. Detention Camps, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Jennifer Moore of the University of New Mexico School of Law said her work in international law led her to concerns that treatment of Guantanamo prisoners has created people more likely to commit acts of terrorism against the United States.

Moore, who worked with refugees of the Rwandan genocide, said that in dealing with the remaining Guantanamo prisoners, "We should keep in mind not just legality, but the legacy of how the U.S. is looking to prevent terrorism. Due process may be the strongest tool."

The Alchemy Of Exile: Strengthening A Culture Of Human Rights In The Burundian Refugee Camps In Tanzania, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

This Article suggests that our analysis of U.S. immigration policy should also be informed by a broader consideration of the experiences of immigrants and refugees in other parts of the world, including those who will never come to the United States. As we examine the moral, legal, and pragmatic imperatives behind the evolution of U.S. immigration policy, we should bear in mind the historical, political, economic, and cultural realities facing developing countries that host refugees from within their own regions. For some observers, such a global perspective might support calls for greater receptivity to immigrants in the United States. For …

Practicing What We Preach: Humane Treatment For Detainees In The War On Terror, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

This article sets forth both principled and pragmatic arguments for the fair and humane treatment of all individuals detained in the war on terror derived from both U.S. and international law. Section II explores the human dimension of the "war on terror." Section IIA critiques the use of the metaphor of war to characterize counter-terrorism policy. Section IIB examines the experiences of several individuals apprehended by the United States on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, including the response of U.S. courts to their detention without charge as "unlawful combatants." Section III offers possible explanations for the phenomenon by which the …

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Moore About War On Terror Meeting, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

"There are just so many issues," she said, from allegations of widespread mistreatment at places like Bagram Air Force Base and Guantanamo to concerns for due process of those accused of criminal activities. Where the first panel will take a "big picture" approach, the second will review more specific applications of law.

Collective Security With A Human Face: An International Legal Framework For Coordinated Action To Alleviate Violence And Poverty, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this article will explore some of the diverse theoretical and cultural roots of the human security concept set forth in the U.N. Charter, as well as the limited historical impact of the human security concept in global affairs since the United Nation's birth. Part II confronts the negative impact of the "War against Terrorism" on the war against poverty by linking recent developments in Iraq and the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Finally, Part III analyzes the international law arguments supporting a legal obligation to promote human security in the U.N. Charter, various human fights instruments, and …

Speaking Law To Power: Joan Fitzpatrick, 1950-2003 (Obituary), Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Her scholarship embraced the rights of refugees and migrants, legal limits on the waging and methodology of war, due process before international tribunals, and essential restraints on the exercise of state power in self-proclaimed emergencies, including the war on terrorism.

From Noriega To Pinochet: Is There An International Moral And Legal Right To Kidnap Individuals Accused Of Gross Human Rights Violations?, Sherri L. Burr

Faculty Scholarship

This article concerns the moral conceptions of justice and whether there should be an international legal right to kidnap individuals accused of gross human rights violations, and whether they should be brought before national and international judicial forums. This focus is based around the case of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, a Mexican citizen, who was kidnapped from his medical office in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the behest of United States Drug Enforcement Agents (DEA) in 1990.

Whither The Accountability Theory: Second-Class Status For Third-Party Refugees As A Threat To International Protection, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

This article cautions that the accountability theory strikes at the very heart of international protection, by threatening the international consensus underlying the provision of asylum to refugees. Part 2 presents a conceptual analysis of the accountability theory and its fundamental inconsistency with the principle of refugee protection. This philosophical approach is followed in Part 3 by a pragmatic examination of the impact of the accountability theory in the context of a regional burden-sharing regime that allows a European State, under certain circumstances, to return an asylum seeker to the country of first asylum. Part 3 concentrates on two asylum cases …

From Nation State To Failed State: International Protection From Human Rights Abuses By Non-State Agents, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

In her seminal 1951 work The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt examined historical developments in Europe during the period between the two World Wars and declared that "the transformation of the state from an instrument of the law into an instrument of the nation had been completed." While Arendt focused on threats to individual and minority rights posed by the repressive "nation-state," her critique also identified the complicity of an international legal system that accorded undue deference to sovereign prerogative. The collapse of the League of Nations, the ascendancy of the Nazi Party in Germany, and the …