Law Commons^™

Patents Fettering Reproductive Rights, Scott A. Allen

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beyond Labor Rights: Which Core Human Rights Must Regional Trade Agreements Protect?, Stephen J. Powell, Trisha Low

UF Law Faculty Publications

As World Trade Organization ("WTO") Members relentlessly pursue new regional trade agreements to achieve even faster economic growth than the extraordinary numbers posted by global trade rules, the smaller number of parties and their greater cultural affinity have led negotiators to address the intersection of trade and human rights to an extent unparalleled in the culturally disparate and near-unmanageable, 150-plus member WTO itself. These new provisions have used trade's huge power to improve worker rights, secure environmental protections, and make initial inroads toward defending indigenous populations from trade's adverse effects. Employing the perspectives both of trade negotiators and students of …

Use Of Comparative Law In Determining The Customary International Law Of Human Rights, Kenneth S. Gallant

Law Faculty Scholarship

Comparative law method is essential to determining the customary international law status of rules of human rights law. Doing the hard, detailed work of comparative law is necessary if we are to give up on the unfortunate tendency to make overly broad, unsupported claims that wide varieties of human rights have passed into customary international law.

The traditional use of only interstate practice in determining rules of customary international law is insufficient where the rules concern relationships between states and individuals, especially their own nationals. This, however, is the essence of human rights law.

Comparative law techniques allow, and are …

Comparative Law And International Human Rights Law: Non-Retroactivity And Lex Certa In Criminal Law, Kenneth S. Gallant

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Challenge Of Domestic Implementation Of International Human Rights Law In The Cotton Field Case, Caroline Bettinger-López

Articles

No abstract provided.

Thinking Locally: Law, Aging And Municipal Government: Findings From A National Survey, A. Kimberley Dayton, Israel (Issi) Doron

Faculty Scholarship

Municipal law, which has been largely ignored in the body of elder-rights scholarship, often plays a far more important role in the everyday lives of older persons than the principally aspirational concepts of international law. Accordingly, this article examines how well modern cities have fulfilled their potential role in assuring the civil and human rights of older persons. The author concludes, based on the results of a national study, that local law is not currently fulfilling its potential as a means to expand the rights of older citizens. Few cities across the country appear to have taken more than minor …

Harm Reduction, Human Rights, And Access To Information On Safer Abortion, Joanna Erdman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

A harm reduction and human rights approach, grounded in the principles of neutrality, humanism, and pragmatism, supports women's access to information on the safer self-use of misoprostol in diverse legal settings. Neutrality refers to a focus on the risks and harms of abortion rather than its legal or moral status. Humanism refers to the entitlement of all women to care and concern for their lives and health, to be treated with respect, worth, and dignity, and to the empowerment of women to participate in decision-making and political action. Pragmatism accepts the historical reality that women will engage in unsafe abortion, …

Communications Disruption And Censorship Under International Law: History Lessons, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

With Internet censorship on the rise around the world, a variety of tools have proliferated to assist Internet users to circumvent such censorship. However, there are few studies examining the implications of censorship circumvention under international law, and its related politics. This paper aims to help fill some of that void, with an examination of case studies wherein global communications technologies have been disrupted or censored — telegram cable cutting and censorship, high frequency radio jamming, and direct broadcast satellite blocking — and how the world community responded to that disruption or censorship through international law and law making. In …

Book Review: Gary Botting, Extradition Between Canada And The United States (Ardsley: Transnational Publishers, 2005), Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Both domestic and international laws regarding the extradition of fugitive criminal offenders are in a state of flux throughout the world. The current legal landscape reflects tension between the interest of state authorities in promoting “security,” on the one hand, and increasing recognition that human rights obligations are at play, on the other. Gary Botting’s book, Extradition Between Canada and the United States, successfully addresses this tension by way of a detailed examination of what is probably the most integrated extradition partnership outside the European Union.

Charter Without Borders? The Supreme Court Of Canada, Transnational Crime And Constitutional Rights And Freedoms, Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The first decades of the Supreme Court of Canada's Charter jurisprudence have coincided roughly with an increase in the extent to which Canada is affected by transnational crime and the nation's consequential participation in inter-state efforts to combat it. The court itself has remarked on its discrete "jurisprudence on matters involving Canada's international co-operation in criminal investigations and prosecutions." This article examines the Court's adoption of a different approach to Charter analysis in cases involving transnational elements and surveys where the Court has "drawn the line" in terms of Charter application. By way of analyzing jurisprudence on exclusion of evidence …

Drone Strike Casualty Estimates Likely Understated, Human Rights Clinic

Human Rights Institute

NEW YORK — The U.S. government should provide an official accounting on who is being killed by drone strikes, said a new report released today by Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Clinic.

Annual Report 2011-2012, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

Greetings from Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute We are proud to share our first annual report and our remarkable accomplishments from the past year.

The Human Rights Institute sits at the heart of human rights teaching, practice and scholarship at the Law School Founded in 1998 by the late Professor Louis Henkin, the Institute draws on the Law School’s deep human rights tradition to support and influence human rights practice in the United States and throughout the world In the past several years, the Institute and the Human Rights Clinic have become increasingly integrated, enabling us to multiply our …

"By Some Other Means": Considering The Executive Role In Fostering Subnational Human Rights Compliance, Risa E. Kaufman

Human Rights Institute

The broad realization of human rights domestically requires strong partnership among all levels of government. Indeed, international and domestic law support an important role for state and local governments in implementing the United States’ human rights treaty commitments, with the federal government retaining ultimate responsibility. While the federal government’s responsibility is clear, its options for fostering and facilitating subnational compliance have not been fully explicated. United States’ human rights treaty ratification practices and recent Supreme Court jurisprudence primarily constrain the Executive’s ability to compel state and local compliance without congressional authorization. In the absence of such congressional action, the Executive …

Judicial Decision Making In A World Of Natural Law And Natural Rights, George C. Christie

Faculty Scholarship

This article was my contribution to a symposium celebrating the achievements of John Finnis held at the Villanova University School of Law. Finnis’ greatest work is his Natural Law and Natural Rights. I agree with Finnis’ rejection of an approach to natural law which focuses on the notion of natural rights. Finnis’ approach instead focuses on a natural law that is based on the idea that there are certain basic human goods such as the search for knowledge, the maintenance of life, the sharing of fellowship with other human beings, the capacity to enjoy aesthetic experiences, and the exercise …

Competing Paradigms? The Use Of Dna Powers In Youth Justice, Liz Campbell

Faculty Scholarship

Collecting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from crime scenes and individuals is now regarded as a critical element of effective criminal investigation and prosecution. Numerous benefits are said to accrue from the gathering and comparison of DNA evidence: suspects may be speedily identified, innocent parties ruled out, the wrongfully convicted exonerated and some would-be criminal actors deterred. Retention of DNA in state controlled databases allows for speculative searching to identify subsequent offending and to provide leads for unsolved crimes. The collection and retention of convicted adults’ DNA has been held by European and US courts to be a proportionate incursion on human …

Using Law And Equity For Poor And The Environment, Dinah L. Shelton

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This chapter discusses ways of overcoming “adaptation apartheid,” a term used to describe the differences in reactions to environmental disasters between poor and wealthy people and countries. The chapter focuses on “environmental protection and poverty alleviation.” The first section describes the connections between poverty and environmental damage, and the second section discusses distributive justice, defined as “an ethical imperative based on the notion of moral reciprocity.” Third, the chapter lists the sources of law pertaining to environmental justice, including private law, regulation, market mechanisms, and rights-based approaches. The chapter concludes by noting the advantages and challenges to a rights-based approach …

The Rule Of Law: A Help Or Hindrance To International Business, The Honourable Mr. Justice M. Burton

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

China And Human Rights In International Trade, Daniel Chow

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

The Catholic Church, Human Rights, And Democracy: Convergence And Conflict With The Modern State, Paolo G. Carozza, Daniel Philpott

Journal Articles

The author traces the history of the Catholic Church's relationship to the modern state, focusing on the idea of sovereignty and the development of human rights and democracy. It argues that the Catholic Church's relationship to human rights and democracy in the modern world can only be understood as reflective of both a historical convergence and a persistent tension and ambivalence. The first part argues for this dual theme in the development of Catholic doctrine, where today, as over the past several centuries, the Church's conception of the common good yields both an embrace of human rights and democracy and …

Institutionalizing Democracy In Africa: A Comment On The African Charter On Democracy, Elections And Governance, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article provides an exegesis of the recently entered-into-force African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Democracy has a decidedly mixed history in Africa and, despite a concerted effort by the African Union (AU), it has made only halting inroads in those states that are nondemocratic or struggling to consolidate democracy. That may change as more states ratify and implement the Charter, a comprehensive regional attempt to promote, protect, and consolidate democracy that entered into force in February 2012. This Charter, the culmination of two decades of African thinking on how democracy should develop on the continent, represents the AU’s …

Looking At Regional Trade Agreements Through The Lens Of Gender, Constance Z. Wagner

All Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on an unresolved issue within international trade law and policy, namely whether there is a need to consider gender-differentiated impacts of trade agreements and if so, how such impacts should be addressed. The author argues in favor of a gender aware approach to trade, discussing this topic within the context of regional trade agreements (“RTAs”), which are being used increasingly as a route to economic integration among nations. While there is evidence of gender-differentiated impacts of trade liberalization, there has been little progress made in advancing an agenda to address gender issues at the level of multilateral …

Circumcision Or Mutilation - Voluntary Or Forced Excision - Extricating The Ethical And Legal Issues In Female Genital Ritual, Obiajulu Nnamuchi

Journal of Law and Health

This Article consists of seven sections. Following the introduction, Part II reconstructs the debate as to whether Female Genital Ritual is a legitimate cultural practice or a human rights violation, and it sets forth the major arguments. Part III delves into, and debunks, the moral relativist argument regarding FGR. Part IV seeks to determine whether FGM is evil. A foray into the theory of evil, the section draws critical distinctions between FC and FGM and explains why the distinctions are of paramount moral importance. Part IV also concludes that FGM is evil, and thus, among the issues related to the …

Judicial Developments In The Application Of International Law To Domestic Violence, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Get The Balance Right!: Squaring Access With Patent Protection, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Osenga discusses the tensions between the interests of patent holders and patients worldwide in need of pharmaceutical treatments. Explaining the combination of exclusive patent and compulsory license approaches that govern access to intellectual property by statute and treaty, she urges that a carefully conceived balancing of these approaches will best serve both interests.

Parochialism, Cosmopolitanism, And The Foundations Of International Law, Mortimer N.S. Sellers

Books

Summary: "This book determines the boundary between parochial and cosmopolitan justice. To what extent should law recognize or support the political, historical, cultural, and economic differences among nations? Ten lawyers and philosophers from five continents consider whether certain states or persons deserve special treatment or exemptions or heightened duties under international law. Parochialism and cosmopolitanism are the two faces of international law, which recognizes our common humanity by protecting us in our differences"-- Provided by publisher.

Finding International Law, Part Ii: Our Fragmenting Legal Community, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

Is there an “International Community?” This Article suggests that there is not, that the oft-discussed fragmentation of international law reveals that there are in fact multiple overlapping and competing international law communities, each with differing views on law and legitimacy.

This Article reaches this conclusion by taking a fresh look not only at the sources of fragmentation, but at the sources of international law itself. Building on earlier work rethinking international law’s sources and drawing insights from legal philosophy, compliance theory, and international relations, this Article takes a closer look at three areas that have challenged traditional interpretations of international …

From Fragmentation To Constitutionalization, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

This short essay, prepared for a panel on “The Impact of a Wider Dissemination of Human Rights Norms: Fragmentation or Unity?,” explores the connection between two popular, but seemingly contradictory discourses in international law: fragmentation and constitutionalization. After disentangling and categorizing the various types of fragmentation international law may be experiencing, the essay focuses in on one form in particular, the “fragmentation of the legal community.” This most radical version of fragmentation, the essay argues, has spurred a number of responses, many of which suggest the beginnings of a constitutional conflicts regime for international law. The essay ends by suggesting …

Edzia Carvalho On Human Rights In The Global Political Economy: Critical Processes. By Tony Evans. Boulder, Co: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. 232pp., Edzia Carvalho

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights in the Global Political Economy: Critical Processes. By Tony Evans. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. 232pp.

Lina Acalugaritei And Karen Mingst On From Human Trafficking To Human Rights: Reframing Contemporary Slavery. Edited By Alison Brysk & Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick. Philadelphia, Pa: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 280pp., Lina Acalugaritei, Karen Mingst

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

From Human Trafficking to Human Rights: Reframing Contemporary Slavery. Edited by Alison Brysk & Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 280pp.

Carlos Figueroa On State Power And Democracy: Before And During The Presidency Of George W. Bush. By Andrew Kolin. New York, Ny: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 251pp., Carlos Figueroa

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W. Bush. By Andrew Kolin. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 251pp.