Law Commons^™

Book Review, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Journal Articles

This book brings together two previously separate aspects of Michael J. Perry’s thoughtful and pioneering scholarship dealing with the proper relation of morality (especially religious morality) to law and human rights and the role of courts in protecting human rights.

Home State Obligations For The Prevention And Remediation Of Transnational Harm: Canada, Global Mining And Local Communities, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canadian mining companies, stock exchanges, mining professionals, and the Canadian government itself, play a significant role in global mining. This unpublished PhD dissertation, completed in January 2008, explores whether Canada has a legal obligation to regulate to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental harm associated with Canadian mining companies operating abroad. Canada and global mining serve as a case study to explore the broader question of whether home states have obligations under international environmental and human rights law. The key claims examined in this dissertation are as follows. First, the exercise of unilateral home state jurisdiction over transnational corporate …

U.S. Immigration Policy: Contract Or Human Rights Law?, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

The current immigration debate often reflects a tension between affirming the individual rights of migrants against the power of a nation to control its borders. An examination of U.S. Supreme Court precedent reveals that, from our earliest immigration history to the present time, our immigration policy has functioned more like contract law than human rights law, with the Court deferring to the power of Congress to define the terms of that contract at the expense of the immigrant's freedom.

Human Rights, Social Justice And State Law: A Manual For Creative Lawyering, Program On Human Rights And The Global Economy, National Economic And Social Rights Initiative (Nesri), Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

This manual is written to help lawyers consider the role of transnational law as an interpretive tool in state constitutional and other state law litigation to protect economic and social rights.9 In Chapter I, the manual provides an overview of the relationship between state law and transnational law. In Chapter II, the manual covers key economic and social rights and provides examples of how courts have found those rights to be justiciable in a range of contexts. The principal economic and social rights discussed in Chapter II are:

• The right to health
• The right to housing
• The right to food …

Children And Religious Expression In School: A Comparative Treatment Of The Veil And Other Religious Symbols In Western Democracies, Catherine J. Ross

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Whether and how to accommodate students' personal religious symbols worn in public schools are part of a mounting global debate. The competing claims of the body politic and the religious or cultural identity of minority groups came to a head in what the French called the "affair of the veil." This chapter examines the problem of the veil from a cross-cultural perspective, comparing the United States to several other western democracies. The comparison involves both legal and cultural premises. In each instance, the analysis must consider the fundamental values of the body politic, the laws and covenants that govern decision-making, …

The Bush Regime From Elections To Detentions: A Moral Economy Of Carl Schmitt And Human Rights, David Abraham

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Three Narratives Of Medellín V. Texas, Margaret E. Mcguiness

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Every once in a while, a Supreme Court case comes along that holds a mirror up to the changing face of the American polity. Medellín v. Texas (Medellín II) is such a case, reflecting divisive national debates over immigration, the death penalty, victims' rights, the scope of executive power, U.S. adherence to international human rights standards, the salience of international law to national security, and the appropriate role of judicial review of political decisions. Which of those issues stands out among the reflected images depends on who is peering into the mirror.

For international law scholars, the significance of …

Reconstituting Japanese Law: International Norms And Domestic Litigation, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

This paper examines a number of lawsuits challenging racial discrimination in Japan’s private sector. Since Japan does not have a law banning private acts of racial discrimination, victims of racial discrimination invoke international human rights law to buttress their claims for compensation. I argue that Japanese judges are, by and large, receptive to these international law claims, but that the system for adjudicating racial discrimination disputes is inadequate. Specifically, a law that bans private acts of racial discrimination would put Japan in line with recently emergent global norms of equality.

Female Genital Mutilation: Exploring Strategies For Ending Ritualized Torture; Shaming, Blaming, And Utilizing The Convention Against Torture, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

The intent of this article is to graphically describe female genital mutilation (FGM); discuss the background of FGM and its health, psychological, and social implications; propose some workable solutions to ending FGM; and raise the level of awareness of the pain and suffering of women around the world. In part, this article will discuss invoking the Convention against Torture against those nations unwilling to end this horrific practice. There is also a caveat to this article: the author acknowledges that discussing solutions to the practice of FGM is not a simplistic and straight-forward endeavor. Solutions to ending FGM are as …

The Collateral Protection Of Rights In A Global Economy, Sheldon Leader

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of The Nuremberg Doctors' Trial To American Bioethics And Human Rights, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

In this lecture I argue that modern bioethics was born at the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, a health law trial that produced one of the first major human rights documents: the Nuremberg Code. Accepting this conclusion has significant consequences for contemporary American bioethics generally, and specifically in the context of our continuing global war on terror in which the United States uses physicians to help in interrogations, torture, and force-feeding hunger strikers.

The primary force shaping the agenda, development, and current state of American bioethics has not been either medicine or philosophy, but law, best described as health law. Like bioethics, …

China Reexamined: The Worst Offender Or A Strong Contender?, Yang Wang

Michigan Law Review

These are the questions that Professor Randall Peerenboom sets out to answer from an American legal scholar's perspective in China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest. Peerenboom advances three main arguments in China Modernizes. First, to more accurately assess China's performance in its quest for modernization, one must "plac[e] China within a broader comparative context" (p. 10). Through a careful analysis of empirical data, Peerenboom observes that China outperforms many other countries at a similar income level on almost all key indicators of well-being and human rights, with the sole exception of civil and political …

Arbitrating Human Rights, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Corporate liability for human rights abuses is one of the most important developments in current international law and practice. With the advent of human rights litigation against corporations, there is now the prospect of a deep-pocket defendant that is complicit in grave human rights abuses, subject to personal jurisdiction, and not immune from suit. Indeed, if a corporation is accused of "aiding and abetting" human rights abuses, this is all but a concession that the corporate actor is not the principal wrong-doer. It is of course possible that this controversial trend toward corporate responsibility may reflect a genuine concern about …

The Nobel Effect: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates As International Norm Entrepreneurs, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

For the first time in scholarly literature, this article traces the history of modern international law from the perspective of the constructivist theory of international relations. Constructivism is one of the leadings schools of thought in international relations today. This theory posits that state preferences emerge from social construction and that state interests are evolving rather than fixed. Constructivism further argues that international norms have a life cycle composed of three stages: norm emergence, norm acceptance (or norm cascades), and norm internalization. As such, constructivism treats international law as a dynamic process in which norm entrepreneurs interact with state actors …

International Delegation And State Sovereignty, Oona A. Hathaway

Law and Contemporary Problems

Hathaway rebuts the claim that state sovereignty almost always suffers when states delegate authority to international institutions. Critics of delegation err, she contends, by overemphasizing the costs but losing sight of some of the substantial benefits of cooperation. She considers the challenge to sovereignty posed by international delegation by focusing on recent debates over the influence of international legal commitments on domestic governance.

Humanity Law: A New Interpretive Lens On The International Sphere, Ruti Teitel

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corporate Aiding And Abetting Of Human Rights Violations: Confusion In The Courts, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

This article explores whether transnational corporations or their executives can be held criminally or civilly liable for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by governments, militaries or other actors in foreign countries where they do business. The article particularly examines the mens rea element under international law: whether the aider or abettor must knowingly—or instead purposefully—assist the principal to commit a crime. At present, the principal concern of major corporations about liability for aiding and abetting is the risk of being held liable in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute. But whatever happens with ongoing ATS litigation, the …

Why We Do The Things We Do? The Role Of Ethics In Water Resource Planning, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Water provides a natural framework in the role of ethics because ethical issues are present in every facet of water management. The value of water and the creation of ethics dictate decisions regarding water resource management. Value can be assessed from factors including happiness, well-being, or intrinsic value. Once a value is assessed, obligations that dictate actions regarding this issue are generated, and an ethic is created.

Various domestic and international policies have, both explicitly and implicitly, called for a human right to water. The presence of domestic and international policies that recognize or protect a person’s right to water …

Panel: Ethics-Based Decision-Making In Societal Water Management, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

There is an ethical overlay to water-related decision-making and management, frequently drawing on personal experiences with water and the ubiquitous need for water. The modern South African Bill of Rights, ensuring its people’s access to water; the movement towards recognizing water as a basic human right; and even occurrences in Texas, including the passage of “environmental flows legislation” and the efforts to preserve and protect the Edwards Aquifer, reflect the presence of ethics in decision-making with respect to water management. Ethics are a part of water management decision-making.

Standard-Setting By The United Nations Commission On Human Rights: An Overview From Its Inception In 1947 Until The Creation Of The Human Rights Council In 2006, Dinah L. Shelton

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article discusses the standard-setting role of the Commission and Sub-Commission of the United Nations. The article describes the creation of the Commission, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Commission’s art in creating human rights treaties, and the use of non-binding instruments and other methods of standard-setting. The article concludes that the Commission accomplished a moderate amount and argues that the UN must retain an independent body to ensure protection of human rights.

Aziza Khatoon On Human Rights In Turkey Edited By Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 349 Pp., Aziza Khatoon

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights in Turkey edited by Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 349 pp.

Gregory J. Moore On The U.N. Secretary General And Moral Authority: Ethics And Religion In International Leadership. Edited By Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp., Gregory J. Moore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The U.N. Secretary General and Moral Authority: Ethics and Religion in International Leadership. Edited by Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp.

Richard Burchill On Contemporary Human Rights Ideas By Bertrand G. Ramcharan. New York, Ny : Routledge, 2008. 192 Pp., Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Contemporary Human Rights Ideas by Bertrand G. Ramcharan. New York, NY : Routledge, 2008. 192 pp.

Eric A. Heinze On Humanitarianism And Suffering: The Mobilization Of Empathy Edited By Richard Ashby Wilson & Richard D. Brown. New York, Ny: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 328pp., Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization of Empathy edited by Richard Ashby Wilson & Richard D. Brown. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 328pp.

The Promise Of Economic Rights And The Welfare State, Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Labour Left Out: Canada’s Failure to Protect and Promote Collective Bargaining as a Human Right. By Roy Adams. Ottawa: Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, 2006.

and

The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy. By Christopher Howard. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

and

Economic Rights in Canada and the United States. Edited by Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann and Claude E. Welch Jr. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Rights And The Hijâb: Rationality And Discourse In The Public Sphere, Howard Adelman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents, and Citizens by Seyla Benhabib. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 251 pp.

and

Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space by John R. Bowen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 290 pp.

and

Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics & Social Exclusion by Trica Danielle Keaton. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. 223 pp.

and

Human Rights and Religion: The Islamic Headscarf Debate in Europe by Dominic McGoldrick. Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2006. 320 pp.

Germany, Afterwards, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Race after Hitler: Black Occupation Children in Postwar Germany and America. By Heide Fehrenbach. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

and

The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany. By Suzanne Brown-Fleming. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.

and

A Woman in Berlin. By Anonymous. New York: Henry Holt, 2000.

and

Johanna Krause, Twice Persecuted: Surviving in Nazi Germany and Communist East Germany. By Carolyn Gammon and Christiane Hemker. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007.

Privatization, Efficiency, Gender, Development, And Inequality— Transnational Conflicts Over Access To Water And Sanitation, Srini Sitaraman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace by Vandana Shiva. Boston, MA: South End Press, 2005.

and

Gender, Water, and Development edited by Anne Coles and Tina Wallace. New York: Berg, 2005.

and

Dams and Development: Transnational Struggles for Water and Power by Sanjeev Khagram. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.

Bonded Labor In India, Devin Finn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Bonded labor, which is characterized by a long-term relationship between employer and employee, is usually solidified through a loan, and is embedded intricately in India’s socio-economic culture—a culture that is a product of class relations, a colonial history, and persistent poverty among many citizens. Also known as debt bondage, bonded labor is a specific form of forced labor in which compulsion into servitude is derived from debt. Categorized and examined in the scholarly literature as a type of forced labor, bonded labor entails constraints on the conditions and duration of work by an individual. Not all bonded labor is forced, …

The Economic Foundations Of Contemporary Slavery, Justin Guay

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“Slavery existed before money or law” (Hochschild 2005). Indeed the “peculiar institution” is one of humanity’s oldest. It has, however, evolved and manifested itself quite distinctly in different periods of history. In contrast to historical views of slavery that are associated with Chattel Slavery, numerous forms fall under the umbrella term of contemporary slavery. The United Nations (U.N.) Working Group recognizes such radically new forms as: child labor, children in conflict, trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, and the sale of children. The International Labor Office (ILO) approaches the topic through the lens of forced labor. The ILO recognizes slavery and …