Human Rights Law Commons^™

A Hidden Crisis: Housing Insecurity On College Campuses, Christina Mendoza

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Flawed Forensics: Cautionary Tales From Our Criminal Justice Past, Marisa Tisbo

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Battle Of The Branches, Melissa Dupor

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Juveniles, Mass Incarceration, And Why "Raising The Age" Is Not Enough, Kenya Barbara

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

How Will The Legalization Of Marijuana Affect The Incarcerated In Illinois?, Kevin Anderson

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Public Interest Law Reporter

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Legalization Of Marijuana In Illinois: The Broader Implications On Social Justice, Colleen Ahern

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Housing Preservation Under Vawa: The Case For Treating Housing As An Immediate Safety Need, Olivia Alden

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Healthcare In America: Assessing The Aca And Medicare-For-All, Thomas Bishop

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Uncared For In State Care, Ashli Giles-Perkins

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Sex Stereotyping: Whether Title Vii Prohibits Discrimination Against Transgender People, Connor Q. Hollander

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

International Lessons In The Systematic Adoption Of Felony Restorative Justice In Chicago, Sean Hux

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Increased Administrative Roadblocks In Naturalization And Immigration Under President Trump, Kyle Johnson

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Wrongfully Convicted Does Not Need To Mean Wrongfully Compensated: Using State Legislation To Assure Accurate Compensation, Lilia Valdez

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice: The Law And Political Economy Of The Legal Services Corporation, Bobby Vanecko

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The International Law Commission's First Draft Convention On Crimes Against Humanity, Charles C. Jalloh

Articles

The UN General Assembly established the International Law Commission ("ILC") in 1947 to assist States with the promotion of 1) the progressive development of international law and 2) its codification. The ILC's first assignment from the General Assembly was to formulate the Nuremberg Principles, which affirmed the then radical idea that individuals can be held liable for certain international crimes at the international level. Since then, the ILC has played a seminal role in the development of modern international criminal law. In 2017, the ILC adopted on first reading a draft convention aimed at the prevention and punishment of crimes …

The Justice System Is Criminal, Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony

2020 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

The Robot-Transporter: Sex Trafficking, Autonomous Vehicles, And Criminal Liability For Manufacturers, Olivia Phillips

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Despite global condemnation, sex trafficking continues to plague our world. Even in developed countries, the problem persists. Technological advancements, like the Internet, have spurred the development of organized sex trafficking networks and have made “transactions” easier. Although law enforcement agencies have tried to adapt their investigative techniques to combat the problem, developments in technology move at a much quicker rate.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will present a new set of challenges for law enforcement agencies in the fight against sex trafficking. In the not-too-distant future, AVs, or “self-driving cars,” will dominate the roadways. An AV will be completely aware of the …

Collateral Consequences And Criminal Justice: Future Policy And Constitutional Directions

Marquette Law Review

National policy with respect to collateral consequences is receiving more attention than it has in decades. This article outlines and explains some of the reasons for the new focus. The legal system is beginning to recognize that for many people convicted of crime, the greatest effect is not imprisonment, but being marked as a criminal and subjected to legal disabilities. Consequences can include loss of civil rights, loss of public benefits, and ineligibility for employment, licenses, and permits. The United States, the 50 states, and their agencies and subdivisions impose collateral consequences—often applicable for life—based on convictions from any jurisdiction. …

Effects Of Senate Bill 4 On Wage-Theft: Why All Workers Are At Risk In Low-Income Occupations, Daniella Salas-Chacon

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

Death In America Under Color Of Law: Our Long, Inglorious Experience With Capital Punishment, Rob Warden, Daniel Lennard

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Concept Of “Unusual Punishments” In Anglo-American Law: The Death Penalty As Arbitrary, Discriminatory, And Cruel And Unusual, John D. Bessler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, like the English Bill of Rights before it, safeguards against the infliction of “cruel and unusual punishments.” To better understand the meaning of that provision, this Article explores the concept of “unusual punishments” and its opposite, “usual punishments.” In particular, this Article traces the use of the “usual” and “unusual” punishments terminology in Anglo-American sources to shed new light on the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. The Article surveys historical references to “usual” and “unusual” punishments in early English and American texts, then analyzes the development of American constitutional law as …

American Hypocrisy: How The United States' System Of Mass Incarceration And Police Brutality Fail To Comply With Its Obligations Under The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination, R. Danielle Burnette

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of International Law In Palestine, Svetlana Sumina, Steven Gilmore

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

Prisoner's Dilemma—Exhausted Without A Place Of Rest(Itution): Why The Prison Litigation Reform Act's Exhaustion Requirement Needs To Be Amended, Ryan Lefkowitz

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) passed in 1996 in an effort to curb litigation from prisoners. The exhaustion requirement of the PLRA requires prisoners to fully exhaust any administrative remedies available to them before filing a lawsuit concerning any aspect of prison life. If a prisoner fails to do so, the lawsuit is subject to dismissal. The exhaustion requirement applies to all types of prisoner lawsuits, from claims filed for general prison conditions to excessive force and civil rights violations. It has been consistently and aggressively applied by the courts, blocking prisoners’ lawsuits from ever going to trial. Attempts …

Trapped In The Shackles Of America's Criminal Justice System, Shristi Devu

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

What Caused The 2016 Chicago Homicide Spike? An Empirical Examination Of The 'Aclu Effect' And The Role Of Stop And Frisks In Preventing Gun Violence, Paul Cassell, Richard Fowles

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Homicides increased dramatically in Chicago in 2016. In 2015, 480 Chicago residents were killed. The next year, 754 were killed–274 more homicide victims, tragically producing an extraordinary 58% increase in a single year. This article attempts to unravel what happened.

This article provides empirical evidence that the reduction in stop and frisks by the Chicago Police Department beginning around December 2015 was responsible for the homicide spike that started immediately thereafter. The sharp decline in the number of stop and frisks is a strong candidate for the causal factor, particularly since the timing of the homicide spike so perfectly coincides …

Litigating Genocide: A Consideration Of The Criminal Court In Light Of The German Jew's Legal Response To Nazi Persecution, 1933-1941, Jody M. Prescott

Maine Law Review

After years of negotiation, a majority of the nations of the world have agreed to create an International Criminal Court. It will be given jurisdiction over three core types of offenses: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. With regard to war crimes, however, nations that join the court may take advantage of an “opt-out” procedure, whereby the court's jurisdiction over these offenses may be rejected for seven years after the court comes into existence. For various reasons, a small number of nations, including the United States, have refused to sign the treaty creating the court. While heralded as a …

Book Review, Jamie Rowen, Searching For Truth In The Transitional Justice Movement (2017) & Leonie Steinl, Child Soldiers As Agents Of War And Peace: A Restorative Transitional Justice Approach To Accountability For Crimes Under International Law (2017), Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Why do truth commissions emerge following some conflicts but not others? Jamie Rowen tackles this question in Searching for Truth in the Transitional Justice Movement. Rowen approaches this topic through a detailed study of three jurisdictions: the former Yugoslavia, Colombia, and the United States. Although truth commissions did progress in Colombia, they stalled in both the former Yugoslavia in the wake of the Balkan Wars as well as in the United States in regard to the conduct of US officials after the events on 11 September 2001. Rowen unpacks what happened and what failed to happen — and why …

Justice Outside Of Criminal Courtrooms And Jailhouses, In Arcs Of Global Justice: Essays In Honour Of William A. Schabas (Margaret M. Deguzman & Diane Marie Amann Eds., 2018), Mark A. Drumbl

Books and Chapters

This chapter examines alternate forms of transitional justice, notably, customary forms of dispute resolution, restitution, reparations, amnesties, and civil sanctions. It suggests that the international community’s preference for criminal trials as accountability mechanisms in the aftermath of genocide results in the ‘othering’ of these alternate forms of justice. Such ‘othering’ narrows legal pluralism to questions of the location of criminal process and the imposition of custodial punishment (who prosecutes, who sentences?), rather than a richer examination of how deployment of a conceptual diversity of overlapping mechanisms could promote shared objectives of accountability, justice, and transition.