Disability Law Commons^™

Monitoring The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities: Innovations, Lost Opportunities, And Future Potential, Michael Ashley Stein, Janet E. Lord

Faculty Publications

As the first human rights treaty of the twenty-first century, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) protects some 650 million persons with disabilities. The CRPD also has an opportunity to progressively reconfigure the structure and process of human rights oversight. While the overall framework for monitoring and implementing the CRPD resembles existing core human rights instruments, it has some notable features. The CPRD Committee is endowed with several innovations of significant potential, especially in the breadth of reporting and investigative procedures, thereby offering prospects for other treaty bodies and the human rights system more …

Tackling Disability Discrimination At Work: Toward A Systematic Approach, Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier Collection

Approaching disability discrimination in systemic terms is the most fundamental challenge that disability human rights law currently faces. Achieving fundamental change in relation to disability at work necessitates challenging able-bodied norms. To that end, a social construction of disability entails adapting the environment to meet the needs of those with a variety of dis-abilities. Tackling disability discrimination requires contesting what is deemed “normal” be­cause it is the way most able-bodied persons function, necessitating a thorough understanding of adverse effects discrimination, which looks behind purportedly neutral practices to uncover detrimental effects on those who do not function “normally”.

The fact that …

Book Review Of Cause Lawyering For People With Disabilites, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone, David B. Wilkins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Shared Understanding Or Consensus-Masked Disagreement? The Anti-Torture Framework In The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Janet E. Lord

Articles

No abstract provided.

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.

Disability Rights In Cambodia: Using The Convention On The Rights Of People With Disabilities To Expose Human Rights Violations, Ulrike Buschbacher Connelly

Washington International Law Journal

In Cambodia, the percentage of the population living with disabilities is one of the highest in the world. At least 650,000 Cambodians live with a disability, and the exact count may be as high as 1.4 million. The incidence of disability is also expected to increase in the future. Despite the fact that many Cambodians have at least one disability, the country does not have adequate legal provisions to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. There are no comprehensive laws that address disability issues. The few existing laws provide only implicit protections and some directly discriminate against people …

The Witness Who Saw, He Left Little Doubt: A Comparative Consideration Of Expert Testimony In Mental Disability Law Cases, Michael L. Perlin, Astrid Birgden, Kris Gledhill

Articles & Chapters

The question of how courts assess expert evidence - especially when mental disability is an issue - raises the corollary question of whether courts adequately evaluate the content of the expert testimony or whether judicial decision making may be influenced by teleology (‘cherry picking’ evidence), pretextuality (accepting experts who distort evidence to achieve socially desirable aims), and/or sanism (allowing prejudicial and stereotyped evidence). Such threats occur despite professional standards in forensic psychology and other mental health disciplines that require ethical expert testimony. The result is expert testimony that, in many instances, is at best incompetent and at worst biased. The …

A Change Is Gonna Come: The Implications Of The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities For The Domestic Practice Of Constitutional Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

As recently as fifteen years ago, disability was not broadly acknowledged as a human rights issue. Although there were prior cases decided in the United States and in Europe that, retrospectively, had been litigated from a human rights perspective1 the characterization of "disability rights" (especially the rights of persons with mental disabilities) was not discussed in a global public, political or legal debate until the early 1990s. Instead, disability was seen only as a medical problem of the individual requiring a treatment or cure. By contrast, viewing disability as a human rights issue requires us to recognize the inherent equality …

The Domestic Incorporation Of Human Rights Law And The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Janet E. Lord, Michael Ashley Stein

Washington Law Review

This Article reviews the processes by which domestic-level transposition of international human rights norms may occur as a consequence of human rights treaty ratification, or other means of incorporation. Specifically, we consider the transformative vision of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or Convention) as a vehicle for fostering national-level disability law and policy changes. In doing so, we outline the challenges and opportunities presented by this new phase in disability rights advocacy, and we draw conclusions that bear generally upon human rights practice and scholarship. We contend that the role of human rights in domestic …

Tolling For The Luckless, The Abandoned And Forsaked: Community Safety, Therapeutic Jurisprudence And International Human Rights Law As Applied To Prisoners And Detainees, Michael L. Perlin, Astrid Birgden

Articles & Chapters

There has been an explosion of interest in therapeutic jurisprudence as both a filter and lens for viewing theextent to which the legal system serves therapeutic or anti therapeutic consequences. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of therapeutic jurisprudence on questions of international human rights law and the role of forensic psychologists. Human rights are based on legal, social, and moral rules. The paper will propose that human rights principles can add to the normative base of therapeutic jurisprudence, and in turn, therapeutic jurisprudence can assist forensic psychologists to actively address human rights. As duty bearers, forensic …

Through The Wild Cathedral Evening: Barriers, Attitudes, Participatory Democracy, Professor Tenbroek, And The Rights Of Persons With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This article is a commentary on Michael Ashley Stein & Janet Lord, Jacobus TenBroek, Participatory Justice, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, - Tex. J. Civ Lib. & Civ. Rts. - (2008) (in press). In it, I seek to expand their analysis of the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in an effort to invigorate an area of institutionalized patients rights law that is now nearly forgotten: the rights of such persons to exercise civil rights while institutionalized. I also argue that Prof. Stein and Ms. Lord's paper should lead us …

Everybody Is Making Love/Or Else Expecting Rain: Considering The Sexual Autonomy Rights Of Persons Institutionalized Because Of Mental Disability In Forensic Hospitals And In Asia, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

One of the most controversial policy questions in all of institutional mental disability law is the extent to which patients in psychiatric hospitals have a right to voluntary sexual interaction. The resolution of this matter involves the resolution of difficult and sensitive questions of law, social policy, clinical judgment, politics, religion, and family structures.

As difficult as these questions are in cases involving civil hospitals, the difficulties are exacerbated when the topic is the application of the right in forensic hospitals. Such facilities typically house individuals involved in the criminal justice system (either those who may be incompetent to stand …

The Domestic Incorporation Of Human Rights Law And The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Janet E. Lord, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

This Article reviews the processes by which domestic-level transposition of international human rights norms may occur as a consequence of human rights treaty ratification, or other means of incorporation. Specifically, we consider the transformative vision of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or Convention) as a vehicle for fostering national-level disability law and policy changes. In doing so, we outline the challenges and opportunities presented by this new phase in disability rights advocacy, and we draw conclusions that bear generally upon human rights practice and scholarship. We contend that the role of human rights in domestic …

Disabling Prejudice, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Through The Wild Cathedral Evening: Barrier, Attitudes, Participatory Democracy, Professor Tenbroek, And The Rights Of Persons With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This article is a commentary on Michael Ashley Stein & Janet Lord, Jacobus TenBroek, Participatory Justice, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, - Tex. J. Civ Lib. & Civ. Rts. - (2008) (in press). In it, I seek to expand their analysis of the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in an effort to invigorate an area of institutionalized patients rights law that is now nearly forgotten: the rights of such persons to exercise civil rights while institutionalized. I also argue that Prof. Stein and Ms. Lord's paper should lead us …

The Un Disability Convention: Historic Process, Strong Prospects, And Why The U.S. Should Ratify, Tara J. Melish

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Development And Adoption Of The United Nations Convention Recognizing The Rights Of Individuals With Disabilities: Why The United States Refuses To Sign This Un Convention, Tracy R. Justesen, Troy R. Justesen

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Beyond Disability Civil Rights, Michael Ashley Stein, Penelope J.S. Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Quick Overview Of The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability Human Rights, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

Responding to the absence of an international treaty expressly protecting people with disabilities, the United Nations General Assembly will soon adopt a disability-based human rights convention. This Article examines the theoretical implications of adding disability to the existing canon of human rights, both for individuals with disabilities and for other under-protected people. It develops a "disability human rights paradigm" by combining components of the social model of disability, the human right to development, and Martha Nussbaum's version of the capabilities approach, but filters them through a disability rights perspective to preserve that which provides for individual flourishing and modifying that …

Commentary: Mental Health Legislation, Michael L. Perlin

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Connecting Care And Challenge: Tapping Our Human Potential - Inclusive Education: A Review Of Programming And Services In New Brunswick, A. Wayne Mackay

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Due to the short time frame for this Review, this cannot be considered an exhaustive report. There is however quite a massive volume of information and sources introduced here touching on the particulars required by the Terms of Reference.

In section I we present legal considerations that have an impact on education in various ways, all of which are related to inclusion and the application of equality rights in Canada. Those considerations include accommodation of students with disabilities, the student-teacher relationship, discipline, safe-schools, and a framework for analysis: the new 3 R’s in education: Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships. Included are …

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Identity As Inclusion, Jerome Bruner

Buffalo Law Review

Book review of David M. Engel and Frank W. Munger's Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities

Exile And The Kingdom: Integration, Harassment, And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Mark C. Weber

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Human Rights Of Persons With Mental Disabilities: A Global Perspective On The Application Of Human Rights Principles To Mental Health, Lawrence O. Gostin, Lance Gable

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Our Right To Work, Our Demand To Be Heard: People With Disabilities, The 2004 Election, And Beyond, The Honorable Tony Coelho

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Disability And Identity, Michael Ashley Stein

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The United States' Position On The Death Penalty In The Inter-American Human Rights System, Richard J. Wilson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Their Promises Of Paradise: Will Olmstead V. L.C. Resuscitate The Constitutional Least Restrictive Alternative Principle In Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This article argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., 119 S. Ct. 2176 (1999), finding a qualified right to community treatment and services for certain institutionalized persons under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and endorsing an "integration mandate," forces us to reconsider the role of the "least restrictive alternative" in institutional mental disability law, and may serve to resuscitate and revitalize the constitutional foundations of that principle in this area of the law. In this context, Olmstead has the capacity to be the Supreme Court's most therapeutic mental disability law decision since that Court decided, in …