Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Usa Patriot Act, Toni Panetta

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The events of September 11, 2001 serve as the origin of the United States’ War on Terror as popularized by the Bush administration. Previously, American strategies to combat terrorism focused on attacks against its interests abroad, and support for other governments’ efforts to curb terrorist acts within their own boundaries. However, September 11 revealed vulnerability to violence by non-state actors within U.S. borders. In response, the United States reshaped its anti-terrorist strategies to prevent future attacks by targeting terrorists, foreign and domestic, known and potential.

Is Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention Compatible With The U.N. Charter?, Petr Valek

Michigan Journal of International Law

The main topic of this Note is the compatibility of unilateral humanitarian intervention with Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter (the Charter). Through its interpretation, the author will attempt to discover whether the Grotian idea of unilateral humanitarian intervention can survive in the environment of contemporary international law without its "just war appendix." This Note will separate this idea from its "just war justification" and approach the question of the compatibility of such intervention with the Charter as a legal positivist. In the interpretation of Article 2(4) of the Charter, this Note will try to avoid moral principles. Instead, it …

Seeking Synchronicity: Thoughts On The Role Of Domestic Law Enforcement In Counterterrorism, Jeff Breinholt

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of The Geneva Conventions: Avoiding Formalist Traps, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Geneva Conventions were drafted in 1949, in another world. The world of the Geneva Conventions' "framers" is still familiar to all of us, though increasingly it is familiar from movies and books rather from the evening news or, still less, our own lived experience. The world in which the Conventions were drafted was a world of states: powerful states, weak states, predatory states, law-abiding states, but states all the same. Soldiers wore uniforms designed by their states, carried weapons issued by their states, obeyed orders given by their commanders, and fought against the armies of other states.

Well--most of …

Law And War: Individual Rights, Executive Authority, And Judicial Power In England During World War I , Rachel Vorspan

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the role of the English courts during World War I, particularly the judicial response to executive infringements on individual liberty. Focusing on the areas of detention, deportation, conscription, and confiscation of property, the Article revises the conventional depiction of the English judiciary during World War I as passive and peripheral. It argues that in four ways the judges were activist and energetic, both in advancing the government's war effort and in promoting their own policies and powers. First, they were judicial warriors, developing innovative legal strategies to legitimize detention and other governmental restrictions on personal. Second, they …

Ingando Solidarity Camps: Reconciliation And Political Indoctrination In Post-Genocide Rwanda Note, Chi Adanna Mgbako

Faculty Scholarship

This Note, based primarily on interviews with ingando participants, government officials, journalists, and genocide survivors conducted in Rwanda in January 2004, evaluates the merits and limits of government-run ingando solidarity camps as a means of fostering reconciliation in the complicated social landscape of post-genocide Rwanda. Focusing on ingando for ex-combatants, ex-soldiers, students, and released genocidaires, this Note argues that much of the ingando project is focused on the dissemination of pro-RPF ideology, a dangerous undertaking in a country in which political indoctrination and government-controlled information were essential in sparking and sustaining the genocide. Furthermore, a successful reconciliation program must take …

Occupation Failures And The Legality Of Armed Conflict: The Case Of Iraqi Cultural Property, Mary Ellen O'Connell

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the looting of the Iraqi National Museum in April 2003 by remarking, “stuff happens.” In doing so, he gave an early indication that in planning to invade Iraq, the Bush Administration failed to take seriously the legal obligations of an occupying power. Occupying powers have a variety of binding legal obligations, including obligations to stop looting, protect cultural property, and protect persons in detention. Yet, the Administration sent a wholly inadequate force to fulfill those obligations, and, more seriously, the force received no direct and imperative orders to do so. As a result, …

The Patriot Act And Bush's Military Tribunals: Effective Enforcement Or Attacks On Civil Liberties?, John Lichtenthal

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Semantics Of The Guantanamo Bay Inmates: Enemy Combatants Or Prisoners Of The War On Terror?, Anne E. Joynt

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Case Study In The Banning Of Political Parties: The Pan-Arab Movement El Ard And The Israeli Supreme Court, Ron Harris

ExpressO

Attempts to outlaw political groups that are alleged to approve the use of violence, to limit the expression of views that challenge the core values of democratic nation-states, and to ban radical, separatist, or religious political parties are more widespread in recent years than at any other time since 1945. They gave rise in the last few years to litigation in Constitutional Courts and Supreme Courts in Spain, Germany, Turkey, France, Israel, and Latvia, as well as in the European courts.

The present article tells the story of the encounter in the years 1959-1965 between the Pan-Arab national movement El …

International Legal Compliance: Surveying The Discipline, William C. Bradford

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And The Neo-Conservative Project: What’S Not To Like?, Tom J. Farer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Hegemony, as neo-cons argued in the 1990s, is not the mere possession of dominating power but also the will to use it on behalf of a coherent project. In the Clinton years, hegemony was only latent. The catastrophe of September 2001 created the circumstances in which it could be made real. To what end? There is not yet a single comprehensive statement of the neoconservative project and its premises.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not …

From The Nuremberg Charter To The Rome Statute: Defining The Elements Of Crimes Against Humanity, Mohamed Elewa Badar

San Diego International Law Journal

The purpose of this study is to examine the past and present contours of the prohibition of "crimes against humanity", analyzing and scrutinizing the essential elements of this crime, with a view to obtaining and drawing together basic criteria that could eventually guide the adjudication of this offence. Furthermore, this clarification of "crimes against humanity" is particularly timely with respect to the soon functioning International Criminal Court (ICC).

Citizens Of An Enemy Land: Enemy Combatants, Aliens, And The Constitutional Rights Of The Pseudo-Citizen, Juliet P. Stumpf

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Outsourcing Refugee Protection Responsibilities: The Second Life Of An Unconscionable Idea, Ronald C. Smith

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Sexual Slavery And The International Criminal Court: Advancing International Law, Valerie Oosterveld

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article explores the advancement of the international crime of sexual slavery, from its initial inclusion in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court through further development in the delineation of the ICC's Elements of Crime document. This Article begins with a detailed exploration of the negotiation process that led to the inclusion of the crime of sexual slavery in the Rome Statute. The first Section describes the decision to include both sexual slavery and enforced prostitution as crimes, as well as the debate on listing sexual slavery as a crime separate from that of enslavement. Next, the Section …

The Past Is Another Country: Against The Retroactive Applicability Of The Foreign Immunities Act To Pre-1952 Conduct, 37 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1337 (2004), Andrzej R. Niekrasz

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Armed Conflict, Health And Human Rights, Alex Deraney, Hafsteinn Hafsteinsson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This section highlights resources with information on health concerns that arise from armed conflict. It examines human rights violations as derived from health issues and the humanitarian efforts to alleviate them. The vast majority of available literature approaches conflict-related healthcare shortfalls in terms of intervention. Literature dealing with armed conflict and health as it applies to human rights is much harder to come by, which indicates the need for additional emphasis in this area.

Law, Human Rights, Realism And The “War On Terror”, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror by Michael Ignatieff. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 212pp.

The War On Terrorism: Peru’S Past And Present, A Legal Analysis (2004), Ralph Ruebner, Et Al.

Faculty White Papers

No abstract provided.

The Legality And Legitimacy Of Unilateral Armed Intervention In An Age Of Terror, Neo-Imperialism, And Massive Violations Of Human Rights: Is International Law Evolving In The Right Direction?, Jean-Gabriel Castel

Articles & Book Chapters

When the United Nations was created in 1945, its main purpose was to deal with threats to international peace and security in order to prevent states from waging aggressive wars. Today, especially since 9/11, terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and internal conflicts involving massive violations of human rights are some of the new challenges confronting this organization. The Security Council, which is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security, has not been very consistent and quick in addressing these issues. As a result, when it has failed to authorize collective action, some states have resorted …

Cosmopolitan Law—And Cruelty— On Trial, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Law against Genocide: Cosmopolitan Trials by David Hirsh. London: Cavendish/Glasshouse, 2003. 183pp.

Politics And International Justice In A World Of States, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

War Crimes and Realpolitik: International Justice from World War I to the 21st Century by Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004. 267 pp.

Prospects For Human Rights Advocacy In The Wake Of September 11, 2001, Juan E. Mendez, Javier Mariezcurrena

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Humanitarian Inviolability In Crisis: The Meaning Of Impartiality And Neutrality For U.N. And Ngo Agencies Following The 2003-2004 Afghanistan And Iraq Conflicts, Kenneth Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Introduction. Humanitarian inviolability is the ability of humanitarian relief agencies, whether official agencies such as the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or private organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to act in situations of extreme human need and suffering, particularly in circumstances of armed conflict, with the assurance that their personnel, their property, and their activities will not be made the object of attack. It is a concept that is at the core of all humanitarian relief work, especially during war, when the cooperation of the belligerent parties is essential …

War Everywhere: Rights, National Security Law, And The Law Of Armed Conflict In The Age Of Terror, Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Both international and domestic law take as a basic premise the notion that it is possible, important, and usually fairly straightforward to distinguish between war and peace, emergencies and normality, the foreign and the domestic, the external and the internal. From an international law perspective, the law of armed conflict is triggered only when a armed conflict actually exists; the rest of the time, other bodies of law are applicable. Domestically, U.S. courts have developed a constitutional and statutory jurisprudence that distinguishes between national security issues and domestic questions, with the courts subjecting government actions to far less scrutiny when …

Matthew S. Weinert On Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle For Social Justice By Geoffrey Robertson. New York: The New Press, 1999 (Revised 2002). 658pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Social Justice by Geoffrey Robertson. New York: The New Press, 1999 (revised 2002). 658pp.

What Have We Learned From The Wars Of The Twentieth Century?, Winston Langley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Relative deprivation (RD) and its associated twin, the “othering” of human groupings, together became the root cause of the wars of the twentieth century. By examining the thirty-years of war between 1914 and 1945 and the Cold War that prevailed for the rest of the half-century, the author explores the way in which relative deprivation may be seen to have expressed itself through nationalism, liberalism, and Marxism — the three great ideologies of the twentieth century that have competed against each other and have contributed to the perception of groups and individuals that they are relatively deprived. He investigates the …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this and the next issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy we will look at issues of war in the twentieth century; at how the nature and purpose of war have changed; at how evil stalks the human condition, how we forget, most likely because we want to forget. Some truths are too terrible to bear. They require us to ask questions of ourselves that our psyches are not equipped to answer and so they close down for the sake of our survival. Had we slaughtered dumb animals in the manner in which we slaughtered ourselves during …

The Last Line Of Defense: The Doctrine Of Command Responsibility, Gender Crimes In Armed Conflict, And The Kahan Report (Sabra & Shatilla), Sherrie L. Russell-Brown

ExpressO

“THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE” addresses using the doctrine of command responsibility - the doctrine according to which military and non-military leaders can be held individually criminally responsible for the crimes committed by their subordinates - before the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a way to prevent gender crimes in armed conflict. The prevention of gender crimes in armed conflict is an important issue for a variety of reasons. One extremely important reason is the connection that the United Nations has cited between the AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa and rape in armed conflict. In addition, in the August 25, …