Human Rights Law Commons^™

Responding Restoratively To Student Misconduct And Professional Regulation – The Case Of Dalhousie Dentistry, Jennifer Llewellyn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The 2015 restorative justice process at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry is a case study that reveals the connection at conceptual and practical levels between restorative justice and responsive regulation as common expressions of relational theory and practice. Their relationship is clearest when, as in this case, issues are understood in their full contexts and circumstances require a widening of the circle of issues and parties. At this scale the complexity of the situation and the need for responsive interventions capable of supporting and sustaining a just relationship is revealed.

When Law Frees Us To Speak, Jonathon Penney, Danielle Citron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

A central aim of online abuse is to silence victims. That effort is as regrettable as it is successful. In the face of cyber harassment and sexual privacy invasions, women and marginalized groups retreat from online engagement. These documented chilling effects, however, are not inevitable. Beyond its deterrent function, law has an equally important expressive role. In this article, we highlight law’s capacity to shape social norms and behavior through education. We focus on a neglected dimension of law’s expressive role—its capacity to empower victims to express their truths and engage with others. Our argument is theoretical and empirical. We …

Freedom: A Work In Progress, Rusi Stanev, Sheila Wildeman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Rusi Stanev, survivor of an intransigent system of guardianship and institutionalisation, victor in a ground breaking disability rights case against Bulgaria at the European Court of Human Rights, my partner in this writing project and (for too short a time) my friend, died on March 9, 2017, before our chapter could be completed. He was 61. Questions have been raised about the appropriateness of the care Rusi received in his final days; at the time of finalising this chapter, a formal inquest into the circumstances of his death had not issued in a decision. But whether or not Rusi Stanev’s …

Debating Rights Inflation In Canada: A Sociology Of Human Rights, Hannah Steeves

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Dominique Clément’s Debating Rights Inflation in Canada is intended to augment a report he co-authored, “The Evolution of Human Rights in Canada,” published by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2012. The book’s goal is to stimulate discussion on the effects that rights inflation has had and could continue to have in Canada.

The Demand Side Of Sex Trafficking In Minnesota: The Who, Where, And Why—And What We Can Do About It, Erinn B. Valine

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

It Takes A Village: An Analysis Of Multilateralism And The Legal Mechanisms Designed To Prevent Violence Against Women, Madison Ivey

Scripps Senior Theses

Treaties and international organizations work together to create a global environment that protects the rights of a person and actively promotes the well-being of society. However, they do not necessarily guarantee the rights of everyone. Since women are not explicitly named in human rights documents, they are often not granted equal human rights. Therefore, it takes more than just international legal instruments to guarantee women's rights as human rights. A combination of civil society (NGOs), International organizations (IOs), and domestic government creates a perfect coalition to beat the barriers that must be overcome to fully protect women from violence.

Unbowed, Unbroken, And Unsung: The Unrecognized Contributions Of African American Women In Social Movement, Politics, And The Maintenance Of Democracy, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

Black women have made huge contributions to American society in movements, politics, and maintenance of the democracy. Black women have been relegated to footnotes, turned in memes, and largely ignored in politics and other areas of power. Notwithstanding the disrespect, disregard, and failures of the larger society to acknowledge that black own have made significant contributions, not only in the in entertainment industry, but in numerous other ways that have shaped out cultural and political landscape, black women's contributions to the larger society have been huge and impactful; yet there are so many blank spaces where their stories should reside. …

Trump’S Angry White Women: Motherhood, Nationalism, And Abortion, Yvonne F. Lindgren

Faculty Works

A majority of white women — fifty-two percent — voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. White working-class women supported Trump in even greater numbers: sixty-one percent of white women without college degrees voted for Trump. This result seems remarkable considering Trump’s derogatory statements about women and his staunch opposition to legal access to abortion. Why did white women, especially those most likely to need access to reproductive healthcare—poor and working-class women — vote heavily against their own interests to embrace a candidate who called for punishing women who access abortion? Much recent commentary has considered this question …

Critiquing Matter Of A-B-: An Uncertain Future In Asylum Proceedings For Women Fleeing Intimate Partner Violence, Theresa A. Vogel

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The #MeToo movement has brought renewed attention to the impact of gender inequality on our society’s ability to provide protection to women from physical and sexual violence, including intimate partner violence. Despite advances in legal protections and increased resources to prevent, prosecute, and bring an end to intimate partner violence, in the absence of true efforts to combat gender inequality as a whole, intimate partner violence will continue to pervade our society. The discussion of gender inequality’s impact on the treatment of intimate partner violence must expand beyond the violence that occurs in the United States to gender inequality’s impact …

Mentally Ill, Or Mentally Ill And Dangerous?: Rethinking Civil Commitments In Minnesota, Eliot T. Tracz

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Aspects Of Female Genital Mutilation Prohibitions In The United States, Limor Ezioni

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Justice System Is Criminal, Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony

2020 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

The Structural Underpinnings Of Access To Justice: Building A Solid Pro Bono Infrastructure, Latonia Haney Keith

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Price Is Rights: Getting The United Arab Emirates Up To International Speed In The Labor Law Department, Janae C. Cummings

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Despite a rapidly growing economy and a tremendous accumulation of wealth, the United Arab Emirates has facilitated many human rights abuses against migrant workers from impoverished countries throughout the world. The UAE’s system of recruitment, payment and living conditions put already vulnerable populations in considerably worse economic conditions by exploiting their labor and creating significant barriers to challenging the unjust employment system. After being sold on the idea that migrating to the UAE would bring a semblance of economic advancement, many migrants find themselves in inhumane working conditions and debt from having to pay excessive amounts of money to recruitment …

Assessing The Impact Of The Global Compacts On Refugees And Migration In The Middle East, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Today, the overwhelming burden of the global refugee and migrant crisis is borne by the Middle East region, driven by protracted armed conflict and exacerbated by a deficit of applicable international legal norms. Most States in the Middle East have not adopted the international treaties that provide protection guarantees for refugees and stateless persons, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The lack of legal status for persons displaced by conflict, many of whom are stateless refugees, leaves them in situations …

Straining To Prevent The Rohingya Genocide: A Sociology Of Law Perspective, Katherine Southwick

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper analyzes the generally muted international response to the protracted plight of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar, from the perspective of sociology of law. The first part provides background on the Rohingya crisis and discusses relevant international legal frameworks relating to crimes against humanity and genocide. The second part adapts analytical frameworks developed by Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat on the emergence and transformation of disputes, in order to examine some of the factors that frustrate the processes of naming crimes, blaming perpetrators, and claiming rights and protection for the Rohingya minority in the international context. Work …

We Are All Farkhunda: An Examination Of The Treatment Of Women Within Afghanistan's Formal Legal System, Ashley Lenderman

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

In this paper, I will examine three cases of violence against women that went through the Afghan formal legal system: the case of Farkhunda, the Paghman district gang rape case, and the case of Sahar Gul. In the first Part, I will discuss the formal legal system framework on which the cases are based. In the second Part, I will discuss the cases in detail. In the third Part, I will describe neo-liberal, reformist, and neo-fundamentalist approaches to interpretation of Islamic law, and I will then draw out pieces of the decisions from the three cases that closely match these …

Much Ado About Nothing?: Local Resistance And The Significance Of Sanctuary Laws, Alyssa Garcia

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment explores the current constitutional discourse of sanctuary laws and compares their various components. Part I provides background on the basic policy components of sanctuary laws and modern policies. Part II explores and compares the substantive legal and political value of sanctuary laws. This section will first assess the impact of sanctuary policies on existing immigration and constitutional law. In doing so, specific sanctuary jurisdictions involved in litigation, Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago, and their likelihood of withstanding preemption under existing doctrine will be compared. The impact sanctuary laws may have on the Tenth Amendment will next be discussed. …

A Life Absolutely Bare? A Reflection On Resistance By Irregular Refugees Against Fingerprinting As State Biopolitical Control In The European Union, Ziang Zhou

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

In a legally transitory category, irregular refugees- experience a double precariousness. They risk their lives to travel across treacherous seas to Europe for a better life. However, upon the long-awaited embarkation on the European land, they are exposed once again to the precariousness of the asylum application. They are “powerless”, “with no rights” and “to be sacrificed” as Giorgio Agamben and Hannah Arendt suggested in their respective understanding of a “bare life”, la nuda vita. In light of the administrative difficulties in managing asylum application, the European Union introduced the “Dublin Agreement”, which stipulates mandatory biometric data collection for …

The Search For Protection For Stateless Refugees In The Middle East: Palestinians And Kurds In Lebanon And Jordan, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Most Arab countries have not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention/1967 Protocol or the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness has no ratifications in the Middle East. While regional conventions dealing with refugees in the Arab world have been developed, they have been honoured primarily in the breach. Further, many Arab countries do not have domestic laws governing the status of refugees or stateless persons per se, but have applied ad hoc policies to the waves of refugees that have entered and stayed – some for decades – in …

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 …

Principles And Consequences In A Virtue Ethics Analysis Of Affirmative Action, Caleb H A Brown

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

In this paper, I evaluate affirmative action from the framework of virtue ethics. In doing so, I consider the principles behind affirmative action as well as its consequences because a perfectly virtuous person will act per just principles but will also be concerned with the consequences of her actions. An attempt to restore justice that utilizes a mechanism known to be ineffective is not truly an attempt to restore justice, and so is not virtuous. Therefore, if affirmative action is principally justified, a complete virtue ethical analysis will still ask, “Do we know if it works?” I conclude that affirmative …

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. …

Intersectional Human Rights At Cedaw: Promises Transmissions And Impacts, Amanda Barbara Allen Dale

PhD Dissertations

Starting from the premise that international human rights law is not a neutral fact, this dissertation is a critical exploration of the promises, transmissions and impacts of intersectionality as an approach to gender protections in international human rights law. I begin with a definition of intersectionality at the individual claimant and jurisprudential levels, as an approach to anti-discrimination and equality law that attempts to move beyond static conceptions and fixed identities of discriminated subjects, and, based on Kimberl Crenshaws powerful metaphor of a traffic intersection, delineates the flow of discrimination as multi-directional, and injury as seldom attributable to a single …

Sanctuary Cities And The Trump Administration: The Practical Limits Of Federal Power, Joshua W. Dansby

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

On January 25, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order with the supposed purpose of enhancing public safety of the interior of the United States. Part of the Administration’s plan includes threatening “sanctuary jurisdictions,” also known as “sanctuary cities,” with the loss of federal funds for failing to comply with federal law, specifically 8 U.S.C. § 1373.

There are several problems with this plan: (1) there is no solid definition for what makes a city a “sanctuary;” (2) if we accept the Administration’s allusion that a sanctuary jurisdiction is one that “willfully” refuses to comply with 8 U.S.C. …

Undocumented Crime Victims: Unheard, Unnumbered, And Unprotected, Pauline Portillo

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

Abstract forthcoming

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

The Chilling Effect: The Politics Of Charging Rape Complainants With False Reporting, Lisa Avalos

Brooklyn Law Review

Although legal scholars have addressed the persistent failure to effectively investigate and prosecute rape despite decades of attempts at reform, the issue of prosecutors going so far as to bring false reporting charges against disbelieved sexual assault victims has received scant scholarly attention. This article calls attention to this particularly disturbing externality of the mishandling of rape cases. First contextualizing false reporting prosecutions of rape victims, the article demonstrates that such prosecutions are a direct outgrowth of poor quality, under-resourced police rape investigations. These prosecutions move forward as a result of several systemic problems: procedural irregularities and informal policies that …

A (Re)Adoption Story: What Is Driving Adoptive Parents To Rehome Their Children And What Can Texas Do About It, Emma Martin

Texas A&M Law Review

Ava was adopted from Africa when she was four years old. She became the baby sister to two older brothers and the daughter to two loving, experienced parents. A year or two after Ava moved to America, she and her “forever family” attended a Colorado summer camp. All was seemingly well until the camp staff and the other families at camp started to notice something strange about the way Ava’s parents treated her compared to her brothers. After an activity, the parents greeted the brothers with an excited “did you have fun?” or “what did you learn?,” while the parents …

Things Invisible To See: State Action & Private Property, Joseph William Singer, Isaac Saidel-Goley

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article revisits the state action doctrine, a judicial invention that shields “private” or “non-governmental” discrimination from constitutional scrutiny. Traditionally, this doctrine has applied to discrimination even in places of public accommodation, like restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores. Born of overt racial discrimination, the doctrine has inflicted substantial injustice throughout its inglorious history, and courts have continuously struggled in vain to coherently apply the doctrine. Yet, the United States Supreme Court has not fully insulated “private” or “horizontal” relations among persons from constitutional scrutiny. The cases in which it has applied constitutional norms to non-governmental actors should be celebrated rather …