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Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Scholarly Works

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …

Should Labor Defend Worker Rights As Human Rights? A Debate, Jay Youngdahl, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

The authors debate the relative merits and drawbacks of defining the labor movement under the umbrella of human rights, and the virtues of the rights of the individual versus the solidarity of the community.

Justice After War: Sri Lanka And The Rights And Duties Of A Vanquisher, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Human rights scholars, attorneys, and activists will deservedly focus on the human rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan military as the decades - long civil war against the Tamil Tigers came to a crushing end this past spring. The military’s brutality, especially its failure to discriminate combatants from non-combatants, should be investigated by both domestic and transnational institutions. It remains to be seen whether such wanton disregard for civilian collateral damage will become the norm for regimes embroiled in civil wars and present yet another realpolitik threat to humanitarian law, or will Sri Lanka and other regimes face accountability …

Social Rights And The Relational Value Of The Rights To Participate In Sport, Recreation And Play, Janet E. Lord, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

July Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

What Next for Sri Lanka's 2.5 Million Tamils? by Amantha Perera. Time. May 26, 2009.

and

How to Defeat Insurgencies: Sri Lanka's Bad Example by Bobby Ghosh. Time, May 20, 2009.

The War Goes On - No Reconciliation At This Stage, Anja Mihr

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The victorious Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaska has been quite bold to pass a reconciliation note after he declared the thirty year war over. Can he be taken seriously?

Moving Beyond Conflict In Sri Lanka: The Economic Rights Dimension, Shareen Hertel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Much of the literature on transitional justice underplays the role of economic rights in shoring up peace. The case of Sri Lanka demonstrates the urgency of addressing them. Until a month ago, Sri Lanka was the country with Asia’s longest running civil war. Since independence in 1947, the island nation has been wracked by conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority—a conflict that has eroded political stability and aggravated internal inequalities. The struggle was marked not only by inter-ethnic and religious tensions but also by a fight for control over land and resources.

Moving In The Open Daylight, Nicola Colbran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The road ahead for Sri Lanka is certainly not easy. Although the government has declared that the LTTE ( Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has been defeated, this “victory” has come at a high cost for civilian lives and democratic values. Decades of instability and violence have given rise to deep rooted and sustained human rights violations. Thousands of Sri Lankans have been displaced, killed or wounded, and are malnourished and traumatized after months of extended fighting between the two sides.

Families Redefined: Kinship Groups That Deserve Benefits, Jane E. Cross, Nan Palmer, Charlene L. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

In Families Redefined: Kinship Groups that Deserve Benefits, the authors examine 1) the nature of kinship families, 2) the benefits accorded to married couples, 3) kinship families that lack protection and benefits, 4) the impact of denying kinship families protection and benefits, 5) the use of contract law in kinship relationships, and 6) using legislation to benefit kinship relationships.

This exploration of expanding family law protections to kinship groups addresses a series of interrelated topics. The first two sections of the article explore the characteristics and creation of kinship families in different societies. The third section addresses the legal …

Caméras De Surveillance : La Cohabitation Légale Reste Houleuse…, Franck Dumortier

Franck Dumortier

La nouvelle loi du 21 mars 2007 relative à l’installation et à l’utilisation de caméras de surveillance (ci après « loi caméras) est loin d’être la seule norme juridique réglant l’utilisation des caméras en Belgique. Outre cette loi existent, en effet, un certain nombre de textes généraux et particuliers ayant une incidence normative sur l’installation et l’utilisation des yeux électroniques. Il s’agit notamment de la loi du 8 décembre 1992 relative à la protection de la vie privée à l’égard des traitements de données à caractère personnel , de la loi du 2 septembre 2005 simplifiant la loi du 10 …

Blow-Up - Depois Daquele Golpe: A Fotografia Na Reconstrução Da Memória Da Ditadura, Douglas Antônio Rocha Pinheiro

Douglas Antônio Rocha Pinheiro

Taking the work of the Brazilian Special Commission on the Political Dead and Disappeared as a parameter, this paper intends to reflect on the role of photography in the process of reconstruction of the memory of human rights violations in the context of transitional justice.

Trademarks And Human Rights: Oil And Water? Or Chocolate And Peanut Butter?, Megan M. Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, there has been a growing discourse at the intersection of intellectual property and human rights, including whether or not individual intellectual property rights are, or can be, human rights. In 2007, this debate began to focus on the area of trademarks. That year, the European Court of Human Rights determined that it had jurisdiction over a trademark dispute, by virtue of the property rights provision found in Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights. This paper seeks to explore the connection between trademarks and human rights. The first part of the article …

States Of Resistance: The Real Id Act And The Limits Of Federal Deputization Of State Agencies In The Regulation Of Non-Citizens, Shirley Lin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The goal of this Article is to discuss the justiciability of issues arising under immigration federalism by examining the constitutionality of the REAL ID Act. Part I discusses states' authority over non-citizens and the history of "immigration federalism" jurisprudence. Part II explores key provisions of the REAL ID Act, the WHTI, and similar attempts by the federal government to deputize states to engage in citizenship-policing and immigration enforcement. It describes the acute social and economic segregation that the denial of driver's licenses to non-citizens engenders, and examines a number of theories that attempt to capture the impact of the current …

Facebook And Risks To De-Contextualization Of Information, Franck Dumortier

Franck Dumortier

No abstract provided.

Executing Capital Punishment Via Case Study: A Socratic Chat About New Jersey's Abolition Of The Death Penalty And Convincing Other States To Follow Suit, James Johnston

James B Johnston

For those who detest capital punishment Christmas arrived early in 1997. On December 17, 2007 New Jersey became the first State to abolish the death penalty via enactments from both the executive and legislative branches of government. The responses both domestically and abroad have been overwhelmingly supportive. New Jersey was able to do so thanks to the work of the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission; a blue ribbon panel of individuals appointed by Governor Corzine to study capital punishment and provide their findings to the State Legislature and the Governor. The commission recommended the death penalty be abolished and …

The Hijab In Educational Institutions And Human Rights: Perspectives From Nigeria And Beyond, Abdulmumini A. Oba

Abdulmumini A Oba

Islam places much emphasis on modesty and chastity. Islam makes it compulsory for all Muslims to dress with great modesty. The modest dressing for females is referred to as the hijab. The exact ambit of the hijab is subject of controversies. Over the years, in compliance with this divine injunction, Muslim women have adopted all or one or more combination of these: loose outer garment (jilbab), headscarves (khimar), face veil (niqab), and stockings to cover their feet. Any pious Muslim woman would feel strongly, the imperative to adopt these.

Teeming numbers of students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria are now …

Whistleblowers' Protection Legislation: In Search For Model For Nigeria, Ibrahim Sule

Ibrahim Sule

No abstract provided.

A Few Random Thoughts About Socio-Economic "Rights" In The United States In Light Of The 2008 Financial Meltdown, Taunya Lovell Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

Socio-economic rights, first articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) sixty years ago, are regaining currency. Legal practitioners around the world, emboldened by emerging constitutional democracies in Eastern Europe and South Africa that constitutionalized socio-economic rights, are actively seeking to enforce these rights. The UDHR “reaffirim[ed] faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person,” and served as the basis for the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Among those rights included in the Covenant are housing, food, and healthcare.

Beyond Free Speech: Novel Approaches To Hate On The Internet In The United States, Jessica S. Henry

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Hate on the Internet presents a unique problem in the United States. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects speech, even that which is hateful and offensive. Although the First Amendment is not without limitation and, indeed, although there have been a small number of successful prosecutions of individuals who disseminated hate speech over the Internet, web-based hate continues to receive broad First Amendment protections. Some non-governmental organizations in the United States, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have adopted innovative approaches to hate on the Internet. For instance, the ADL tracks and monitors …

Prosecuting And Adjudicating Trafficking In Persons Cases In Australia: Obstacles And Opportunities, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

No abstract provided.

Targeted Killing In U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy And Law, Kenneth Anderson

Working Papers

Targeted killing, particularly through the use of missiles fired from Predator drone aircraft, has become an important, and internationally controversial, part of the US war against al Qaeda in Pakistan and other places. The Obama administration, both during the campaign and in its first months in office, has publicly embraced the strategy as a form of counterterrorism. This paper argues, however, that unless the Obama administration takes careful and assertive legal steps to protect it, targeted killing using remote platforms such as drone aircraft will take on greater strategic salience precisely as the Obama administration allows the legal space for …

Digital Divide Older People And Online Legal Advice, Subhajit Basu, Joe Duffy, Helen Davey

Subhajit Basu

Many older people are not aware where and when advice is available. Furthermore they may be unaware that advice is needed

Looking Forward, Backward, Or Just Away?, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The declassification and leaking of the so-called “torture memos” only supplements much which was already publicly well-known, but has offered a fresh opportunity to frankly debate American values, in particular its commitment to the rule of law, its own constitution, and international human rights and humanitarian law obligations to which it has committed itself, and which the Supreme Court has confirmed are part of domestic law. It is a shame, therefore, that the debate has been so stunted, diverted by the red herring of Dick Cheney’s rantings, and the apparent willingness of a segment of the population to accept, first, …

Restrictive Trade Measures Based On Extraterritorial Human Rights Violations: An Analysis Under Allocation Of Regulatory Jurisdiction And Transaction Costs, Gustavo Ferreira Ribeiro

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Are states entitled to take unilateral or collective trade measures in cases of extraterritorial human rights violations? Are states obligated to do so? The debate is often blurred by a multitude of legal, political, economic, and moral arguments that have, so far, produced many misunderstandings. On one hand, the human rights community alleges that the superiority of human rights resolves any conflict. On the other hand, the trade community fears the intrusion of human rights language and power within the trade regime, including multilateral regimes like the World Trade Organization.

While exploring the above issue, this dissertation unfolds in three …

Let Us Not Become The Evil We Deplore, Rebecca Otis

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On 14 September 2001, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D) voted against the House bill that granted President Bush the authority to use force in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. As the sole person to vote against the bill (by a margin of 420-1), Lee was roundly vilified as a “traitor,” a “coward, and even a “communist.” Later that day, as the only voice of dissent on the House floor, Lee delivered a speech to justify her position. Famously, she said to the elected representatives of our country, “As we act, let us not become …

Response To Mark Danner’S “The Red Cross’ Torture Report: What It Means”, Charli Carpenter

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Danner’s NY Review of Books treatise on torture calls our attention to many significant issues, but in his key argument he is critically wrong.

June Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means.” by Mark Danner. The New York Review of Books. April 30, 2009.

Righting Past, Present And Future Wrongs, Rhona Smith

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Three legal issues are raised by the centerpiece of this month’s Roundtable: Does the legal definition of torture include “enhanced interrogation techniques”? What are the legal responsibilities of a State when torture is committed by its agents? and What should the State do now to prevent future violations of human rights? In other words, one must characterize the actions of the past, ameliorate the damage in the present, and prevent a recurrence in the future.

Torture—And Our Broader Understanding Of Human Rights, Mark Gibney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Like most other human rights scholars, I am appalled at the idea that those people in the Bush White House who designed the administration’s policy on torture (but calling it something else) will in all likelihood go unpunished. In my view, the law is clear on this matter: those who directed and/or carried out torture must be held accountable for their actions. However, rather than focusing on the issue of accountability, I will use the issue of torture to make a broader point about how we have come to conceptualize the extent and scope of a state’s human rights obligations.

The Moral High Ground In An Age Of Vulnerability, Tyler Moselle

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Mark Danner’s New York Review of Books piece on torture in conjunction with John Nichols’ comment on the Bush administration, outline moral, legal and political problems related to the global war on terrorism and the ascendancy of the American imperial presidency. Most people seem to be repulsed by the idea of torture but are not morally committed enough or fully dedicated to prevent it from being employed to defend their way of life. Torture is a policy decision predicated on fear, self-defense, and vulnerability in an age of globalized insurgency: one way to respond is to take the moral high …