Human Rights Law Commons^™

Fundamental Rights, Moral Law, And The Legal Defense Of Life In A Constitutional Democracy, Martin Rhonheimer, Paolo G. Carozza

Journal Articles

Article by Martin Rhonheimer, translated by Paolo G. Carozza.

Notre Dame Lawyer - Summer 1997, Notre Dame Law School

Notre Dame Lawyer

The Center for Civil and Human Rights

Faculty Tributes to Rev. Bill Lewers, C.S.C.

Commencement 1997

Student Tribute-Remembering Our Friend-Joseph Ciraolo '97

After Hours: Tex Dutile-The Piano Man

The Scope Of Employer Liability For Employee Exposure To A Hazardous Substance: No Harm, No Foul? An Analysis Of Metro-North Commuter R.R. Co. V. Buckley, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case Metro-North Commuter R.R. Co. v. Buckley, 521 U.S. 424 (1997). The author expected the Court to decide whether a railroad worker who is covered by the Federal Employer's Liability Act who has been exposed to asbestos because of employer negligence but who has not developed an asbestos-related disease can recover damages for emotional distress caused by the exposure.

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied: May A Prisoner's Challenge To Parole Revocation Be Delayed Until The Sentence Is Completed And Then Dismissed As Moot?, Jimmy Gurulé

Journal Articles

A preview of Spencer v. Kemna, a 1997 Supreme Court case where a prison inmate challenged the revocation of his parole by the state of Missouri. This case is significant because the inmate initiated his challenge while in prison and continued it after he had served his sentence and was released. Substantial confusion exists in case law regarding whether such a challenge would be considered moot after the inmate had completed serving his or her sentence. At issue is if the “collateral consequences” rule applies to challenges against parole revocations. The Court has ruled that challenges by individuals against their …

Corporate Initiatives: A Second Human Rights Revolution?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

This Essay examines the role of multinational corporations in protecting human rights around the globe. Part I analyzes the conduct of corporations, describes examples of corporations' involvement in human rights violations, and discusses the merits of greater responsibility of corporations. Part II suggests that the level of responsibility for a multinational corporation depends on the proximity of the corporation's operations to human rights violations, in combination with the seriousness of the violations, and proposes five gradations of responsibility. This Essay concludes that the evolving nature of the global economy is producing a shift in responsibilities from government to the private …

Lessons From The Americas: Guidelines For International Response To Amnesties For Atrocities, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Amnesty guidelines modeled on international law as defined by Latin American tribunals and treaties should be adopted and used by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and national governments involved in remedying human rights violations. The 10 guidelines are stringent and would rarely result in the granting of amnesty. They may better serve their function than treaties or customary laws be cause they are guidelines and not mandatory.

War Crimes And Other Human Rights Abuses In The Former Yugoslavia, Robert T. Mounts, Jeffrey L. Bleich, Douglass Cassell

Journal Articles

Mr. Cassel: Today, the world is witnessing in Europe the first genocide in half a century. Unfortunately, everyone has failed to date to do much about it. Everyone has seen it so often in the papers and on the television in the last two years, that it sounds almost banal at this point to repeat it. History, sociology and the law can get pretty dry. One of the things that the report of the U.N. Commission of Experts on Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia attempted to do was to give all this a human face. This …

The Legality And Morality Of Using Deadly Force To Protect Unborn Children From Abortionists, Charles E. Rice, John P. Tuskey

Journal Articles

Is killing abortionists as they arrive at abortuaries to perform regularly scheduled abortions a legally justifiable use of force in defense of another person's life? Under commonly accepted criminal law principles of justification, a person normally is entitled to use force—even deadly force—when necessary to save a person's life from an aggressor bent on taking that life. But because Roe and its progeny have made abortion a constitutionally protected right, courts would predictably hold that using force against an abortionist is not legally justified, despite the fact that the motive for that force is to defend innocent human life.

Even …

The Effect Of Transaction Costs On The Market For Babies, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Among the more controversial ideas advanced by prominent United States Circuit Court Judge and law professor Richard Posner is his suggestion that a market in babies would rectify many of the problems of the adoption system. His concept has, to say the least, provoked a tremendous reaction in various segments of American society. His critics proclaimed that sales of children would serve to demean the children and their mothers, relegating them to the status of mere commodities. Unscrupulous but wealthy parents might purchase children solely to abuse them. "Baby-selling" became a code word for the foolish extreme to which its …

Bosnia, War Crimes, And Humanitarian Intervention, Jane Olson, Lois Fielding, Holly Burkhalter, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

This presentation examines the history of the laws of war and the effort made through international law to prevent war crimes and to punish those responsible for war crimes. It specifically looks as the Statute of the International Tribunal as a method in establishing the meaning of the crimes. It then evaluates the United States' policy of war crimes as applied in Bosnia and how it has affected its relations with NATO and the UN.

Meeting The Diverse Needs Of The Poor, David T. Link, Harry Specht, Gregory Evans

Journal Articles

Forums such as this develop our understanding of current efforts to bring about positive change for America's poor. The Journal's compilation and dissemination of important, thoughtful essays on poverty is laudable.

The one thing that is clear about the poor and the homeless is that their problems are multi-faceted. No one theory or group can provide all the solutions. People are poor and homeless for a wide variety of reasons, and they need different kinds of help. Providing more income assistance will not cure poverty, and providing more housing will not remedy homelessness. Neither the public nor the private sector …

Issues Raised By The Abortion Rescue Movement, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

The civil rights protests of the fifties and sixties taught the nation about the relation of the enacted law to the higher law of justice. Though less favorably publicized, the abortion rescue movement provides another such teaching moment today. As with the civil rights protests, the abortion rescue movement involves ordinary people putting their bodies on the line-and in jail-to vindicate their conception of justice. The rescue movement raises issues that transcend the question of whether one approves or disapproves of abortion. This paper examines what society might learn from the Operation Rescue movement about the weaknesses of our law.

Implications Of The Coming Retreat From Roe V. Wade, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

In Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional Pennsylvania statutes which required that (1) pregnant women give "informed consent" to an abortion and that they be provided information as to the characteristics of their unborn child, the nature and risks of abortion and the availability of alternatives to abortion; (2) the attending physician must file detailed reports on abortions and the reports be made available to the public for copying, even though this could lead to public identification of the woman having the abortion; (3) that in post-viability abortions, the physician use the care …

Overruling Roe V. Wade: An Analysis Of The Proposed Constitutional Amendments, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

It is not my purpose here to criticize the abortion decisions in detail. Professor Robert M. Byrn has exposed the many specific errors and evasions found in the majority opinions in those cases. As Professor Byrn demonstrates, the Supreme Court's opinions in Wade and Bolton are an intellectual shambles. I will not try to cover the same detailed ground that Professor Byrn did. Rather, after examining the medical evidence which establishes that the unborn child is a human being from the moment of conception, this article will evaluate the propriety of excluding this class of human beings from the protections …

Equal Protection For The Child In The Womb, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

During 1971, the drive for liberalized abortion laws stalled after achieving rapid successes in the preceding four years. The law in most American states still allows abortion only where, it is necessary to save the life of the mother. Since 1967, however, sixteen states have relaxed their laws to provide that abortions may now be performed in varying situations where the life of the mother is not at stake. Some states, such as New York, allow abortions virtually on request. In other states, laws forbidding abortion have been declared unconstitutional by the courts. During 1971, no further liberalization was enacted …

Foreword, Charles E. Rice, Robert E. Rodes

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During the past several years the NATURAL LAW FORUM has achieved a distinctive and honored place among legal and philosophical journals. This has primarily been due to the diligent efforts of the board of editors under the leadership first of Professor Anton-Hermann Chroust and more recently Professor John Noonan as editors and of Professor Andrew T. Smithberger as managing editor. This degree of excellence was continued with the first issue of the FORUM under its new name of THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE.

With the resignation of Professor Noonan the Board of Editors has appointed us co-editors of THE AMERICAN …

Abortion, The Law And Human Life, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The issue in abortion "reform" is whether existing criminal sanctions against doctors and pregnant women should be abolished or liberalized. From one point of view this is the question presented in any discussion of the criminal law—whether people should be put in jail for doing something. From another viewpoint, it is the question presented in any discussion of existing law—whether the reformers, who presumably have the burden of proof, have made a case. The controversy will be especially interesting to Indiana lawyers, who last winter saw an abortion-reform proposal pass both houses of the General Assembly and then die (abort?) …