Law Commons^™

Extraterritoriality And The Rule Of Law: Why Friendly Foreign Democracies Oppose Novel, Expansive U.S. Jurisdiction Claims By Non-Resident Aliens Under The Alien Tort Statute, Donald I. Baker

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Contradiction Between Alien Tort Statute Jurisprudence And The Continued Immunity Of U.S. Officials For Acts Of Torture Committed Abroad, Jules Lobel

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Global Land Rush: Markets, Rights, And The Politics Of Food, Smita Narula

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In the past five years, interest in purchasing and leasing agricultural land in developing countries has skyrocketed. This trend, which was facilitated by the 2008 food crisis, is led by state and private investors, both domestic and foreign. Investors are responding to a variety of global forces: Some are securing their own food supply, while others are capitalizing on land as an increasingly promising source of financial returns. Proponents argue that these investments can support economic development in host states while boosting global food production. But critics charge that these “land grabs” disregard land users' rights and further marginalize already …

Introduction To The Special Issue On The Arab Spring, Ayodeji Kamau Perrin

Faculty Scholarship

What quickly became known as the "Arab Spring" is a series of protest movements, reform movements, and revolutions (some bloody and some relatively "bloodless") that has been ongoing for more than two years in the majority-Muslim world of the Middle East and North Africa. Arab Spring recalls both the European Revolutions of 1848, dubbed the "Springtime of the Peoples," as well as the Prague Spring of 1968. And the events have drawn comparisons to the post-Soviet revolutions of 1989. The compilation of essays contained in this Special Issue of the Journal of International Law reflects on these events from a …

Incorporating Rights: Empire, Global Enterprise, And Global Justice, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This Article traces the history and evolution of corporate responsibility under international law to contextualize the developing discourse on business and human rights. It explores the role of private industry in contributing to colonial expansion, slavery, and conflict, and examines the advocacy efforts of abolitionists, anti-imperialism activists, and peace movements to craft reforms and create norms to control corporate conduct. First, the Article outlines the challenge that regulating private commercial power presents for a system of public international law premised on the sovereign power of states. Then, using the example of colonial era European charter companies the Article offers a …

The Future Of The Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement: Providing Access To U.S. Courts For Garment Workers Worldwide, Allie Robbins

Labor & Employment Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Plugging The Democracy Drain In The Struggle For Universal Access To Safe Drinking Water, Tara Paul

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Privatization of water delivery services has become a global trend as states seek ways to shift both political and economic costs to private actors. The advantage of privatization is that it relieves governments of the daunting expense of repairing and expanding water infrastructure in order to improve quality and reach marginalized communities. But water privatization has also been deeply criticized for corrupt practices, increasing prices to the poor, undermining human rights objectives, and dodging accountability. This note aims to find middle ground, acknowledging that privatization is an important tool to increase freshwater access, but that treating water as a human …

Lessons For International Law From The Arab Spring, Rosa Brooks

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Narratives Of Mass Violence: The Role Of Memory And Memorialization In Addressing Human Rights Violations In Post-Conflict Rwanda And Uganda, Carla De Yeaza, Nicole Fox

Societies Without Borders

This paper explores the question of what do Rwandans and Ugandans working on memorialization initiatives deem important when discussing the role of individual and collective memory in the aftermath of mass violence and human rights violations. Social scientists and human rights scholars have asserted the importance of memory in both reconciliation and healing after mass violence. However, it is difficult to determine the most appropriate way to facilitate reconciliation between groups who previously raped, stole from or killed one another, as there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. While policies cannot remedy the murder of one’s family, scholars, activists and practitioners argue …

January Roundtable: Responding To The Syrian Crisis, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The World Next Genocide” by Simon Adams. New York Times, November 2012.

and

“Syria is Central to Holding Together the Mideast” by Condoleezza Rice. Washington Post, November 2012.

Syrians Crushed Between Humanitarianism And Realism, Philip Cunliffe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

With the UN High Commissioner for Refugees announcing early this year that the war in Syria may have claimed as many as 60,000 lives, two op-eds published late in 2012 usefully exemplify two contrasting frames that have thus far dominated international responses to the conflict—namely, the humanitarian frame and the geopolitical frame. Yet despite the apparent contrasts between these two frameworks, both reflect a similar contempt for the Syrian people and their right to self-determination. The humanitarian framing of the conflict emphasizes the scale of human suffering and the need to alleviate it, while the geopolitical frame accentuates political interests …

Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The articles by Condoleezza Rice and Simon Adams advance a series of disquieting possibilities for the future of Syria if the US and other states fail to act. While I am sympathetic to the urgency with which both writers advance their claims, there is much strained and stretched logic—as well as outright naiveté—in both authors' arguments, especially Rice's.

Indian Courts And Fundamental Fairness: Indian Courts And The Future Revisited, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

University of Colorado Law Review

This article comes out of the University of Colorado Law Review's symposium issue honoring the late Dean David H. Getches. It begins with Dean Getches's framework for analyzing Indian courts. I revisit Indian Courts and the Future, the 1978 report drafted by Dean Getches, and the historic context of the report. I compare the 1978 findings to the current state of Indian courts in America. This article focuses on the reality that the ability of Indian courts to successfully guarantee fundamental fairness in the form of due process and equal protection of the law for individuals under tribal government authority …

Constitutional Provisions Making Sharia “A” Or “The” Chief Source Of Legislation: Where Did They Come From? What Do They Mean? Do They Matter?, Clark B. Lombardi

Articles

The constitutions of many Arab countries provide that Islamic law ("shari'a") is a "source" of national law. Indeed, some make shari'a norms "a chief source," of state law. Other stronger provisions even declare them to be "the chief source" or "the only source" of legislation. There has been surprisingly little historical scholarship about these clauses, either in Arabic or in Western languages. There has also been almost no systematic comparative scholarship looking at the way that these clauses have been interpreted in different countries. In both Western scholarship and in popular Arab discourse one finds considerable confusion about where these …

Juvenile Pirates: "Lost Boys" Or Violent Criminals?, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has flourished over the past decade, and has both caused a global crisis in maritime shipping and destabilized regional security in East Africa. In addition, piracy attacks have spread more recently to the coast of West Africa, and in particular, the Gulf of Guinea. Thus, piracy is an ongoing global issue that should continue to occupy many maritime nations in the near future, and one that should command continuous scholarly attention.

This article examines the issue of juvenile piracy, with a specific focus on the treatment of juvenile piracy suspects by both the capturing …

China’S Human Rights Footprint In Africa, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

A significant amount of recent scholarship and commentary accuses China of plundering the African continent, coddling its dictators, and flouting labor and environmental standards. This paper makes the counterintuitive claim that, despite irrefutable cases of abuse, China’s engagement with Africa has actually improved the human rights conditions of millions of Africans. First, it places China’s abuses in context, showing that they differ little from the abuses and patronage politics of the major Western powers. Second, it examines the evolution of international relations between China and various African countries, from the exportation of political revolution in the 1950s and 1960s, to …

Jurisdiction And Human Rights Accountability In Indian Country, Kristen Matoy Carlson

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Updated Who Guidance On Safe Abortion: Health And Human Rights, Joanna Erdman, Teresa Depiñeres, Eszter Kismodi

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Since its first publication in 2003, the World Health Organization's “Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems” has had an influence on abortion policy, law, and practice worldwide. To reflect significant developments in the clinical, service delivery, and human rights aspects of abortion care, the Guidance was updated in 2012. This article reviews select recommendations of the updated Guidance, highlighting 3 key themes that run throughout its chapters: evidence-based practice and assessment, human rights standards, and a pragmatic orientation to safe and accessible abortion care. These themes not only connect the chapters into a coherent whole. They reflect …

The Case For The Federation Of Law Societies Rejecting Trinity Western University's Proposed Law Degree Program, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Should Canada have a law school that discriminates against gays and lesbians? Would the governing bodies of the legal profession in Canada approve a law school that prohibited mixed race sexual intimacy? Should a self-regulating legal profession require that the policies of the institutions that produce this country's next generation of lawyers respect equality and academic freedom? Trinity Western University (TWU), a private Christian school in British Columbia is posed to become Canada’s first Christian law school. Trinity Western discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation in both its hiring and admissions policies. It has also been found to violate …

Stateless In The United States: Current Reality And A Future Prediction, Polly J. Price

Faculty Articles

Statelessness exists in the United States-a fact that should be of concern to advocates of strict immigration control as well as those who favor a more welcoming policy. The predominant reasons for statelessness include the presence of individuals who are unable to prove their nationality and the failure of their countries of origin to recognize them as citizens. Migrants with unclear nationality, already a problem for the United States, obstruct efforts to control immigration by the deportation of unauthorized aliens. These existing problems of national identity will increase exponentially if birthright citizenship in the United States is amended to exclude …

A New International Human Rights Court For West Africa: The Ecowas Community Court Of Justice, Karen J. Alter, Laurence R. Helfer, Jacqueline R. Mcallister

Faculty Scholarship

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (ECCJ) is an increasingly active and bold international adjudicator of human rights violations in West Africa. Since acquiring jurisdiction over human rights issues in 2005, the ECCJ has issued several path-breaking judgments, including against the Gambia for the torture of journalists, against Niger for condoning modern forms of slavery, and against Nigeria for failing to regulate the multinational oil companies that polluted the Niger Delta. This article explains why ECOWAS member states authorized the ECCJ to review human rights suits by individuals but did not allow private actors to complain about violations of regional …

Does International Law Obligate States To Open Their National Courts To Persons For The Invocation Of Treaty Norms That Protect Or Benefit Persons?, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In its decisions in the LaGrand and Avena cases, the International Court of Justice (I.C.J. or Court) determined that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) creates "individual rights" (as opposed to just rights of states) and that the United States has an obligation to provide an individual with meaningful access to U.S. courts to vindicate those rights. Based on those determinations, it might be thought that international law generally obligates a state to open its courts for private persons to vindicate rights or benefits that a treaty accords to them, whether or not the treaty expressly …

Labor Rights Are Human Rights: Direct Action Is Critical In Supply Chains And Trade Policy, Marisa Ann Pagnattaro

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

Al Shimari V. Caci International, Inc.: The Application Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction In The Wake Of Kiobel, Ellen Katuska

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Obligations To The Poor, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

Poverty unquestionably detracts fromthe human rights mission.Modern human rights law recognizes a broad range of rights – for example, “to life, liberty, and security of person” and to adequate “food, clothing, and medical care.”1 Any number of those rights might go unrealized in conditions of extreme poverty. However, human rights law has always been partly aspirational. For those seeking to improve the lives of the poor, the key question is not what rights exist but how to make those rights operational.What does human rights law actually require of states? And how might its obligations benefit the poor?

The Court's Denial Of Racial Societal Debt, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw

Faculty Scholarship

In this year of civil rights anniversaries, the narrative of racial progress has been tempered by the Supreme Court’s game-changing decisions this past summer. The notion that “we’ve come a long way and we have much more work to do” sounds ever more like wishful thinking in the face of a Supreme Court that is no longer an active contributor to the cause. Having abandoned its unprecedented insistence that white supremacy be upended root and branch, the current Court’s boldness is measured by its audacious efforts to reverse engineer the transformative mechanisms these anniversaries celebrate.

The Human Rights Of Indigenous Peoples: United Nations Developments, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

Tribal Rights, Human Rights, Kristen A. Carpenter, Angela R. Riley

Publications

No abstract provided.

Commonality Among Unique Indigenous Communities: An Introduction To Climate Change And Its Impacts On Indigenous Peoples, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

This special Issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal explores how climate change affects the rights of indigenous peoples. Climate change is a global environmental problem caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Indigenous peoples generally contribute very limited quantities of greenhouse gases to the global atmosphere. Although the causes of climate change are global, the adverse impacts of this problem are disproportionately burdening indigenous peoples.

In recognition of the growing global problem of climate change, legal strategies to address climate change through mitigation and adaptation have been undertaken. This Issue recognizes that indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable to climate change, both …

Freedom From Food: On The Need To Restore Fdr's Vision Of Economic Rights In America, And How It Can Be Done, Evgeny Krasnov

Hofstra Law Review

Within the U.S. policy discourse, it has long been taken for granted that the body of human rights law does not — and should not — include economic rights, which include the right to adequate food, shelter, and health care. This is an irony of history, since the origins of modern-day economic rights law lie in the policies advocated by the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

This article argues that (1) the common justifications for neglecting economic rights are not sound; (2) there is a pressing need to recognize economic rights in the United States; and (3) the best way …