Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Decision Of The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights In The Case Of Angulo Losada V. Bolivia: A Catalyst For The Rights Of Girls And Victims Of Sexual Violence, Brisa De Angulo, Rosa Celorio, Bárbara Jiménez-Santiago, Rosemarie Hidalgo, Carolina Perez

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the case of Angulo Losada v. Boliviaon November 18, 2022, finding that the country of Bolivia violated the human rights of a victim of sexual violence by failing to thoroughly and promptly investigate, prosecute, and sanction a case of incestuous sexual violence against an adolescent girl by an older male relative. The Court advanced an enhanced due diligence standard, establishing that an intersectional gender and child-rights perspective needs to guide the judicial processing of cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents. The Court set critical legal standards for …

Tools Of Genocide: Forced Assimilation In Canada, Dr. Pamela Palmater, Zoë Craig-Sparrow

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Since colonization, the core objective of Canada’s Indian policy was to “get rid of the Indian problem”. To accomplish this, Canada has engaged in the forced assimilation of Indians (First Nations), with targeted and disproportionate impacts on First Nations women and girls resulting in grave human rights violations. Drawing on international human rights laws and standards (such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples); numerous inquiries and commissions (Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and …

Crossing Borders: The U.S. And Canadian Adoption Of The Wagner Act And The Limits Of U.S. Preemption, Grace Winkeljohn

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Labor law refers to the regulation of the relationship between employees and their employers. The main principle of labor law protection is the employees’ right to collectively bargain. This principle has served as a cornerstone of industrialized society since the beginning of the twentieth century, helping increase workplace equality. A comparison of labor laws in the United States and Canada offers a unique perspective, as these two North American countries share an almost identical foundation that has evolved in distinct ways over time. A strong distinction between the two systems is the adopted doctrine of preemption by the U.S., leaving …

Obstetric Violence In The Case Law Of The Universal And Inter-American Human Rights Systems, Carmen Cecilia Martínez López

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This Article explores how obstetric violence is treated within two major international human rights systems: the Inter-American System of Human Rights and the United Nations treaty body system. While obstetric violence has been increasingly recognized as a form of gender-based violence and a violation of fundamental rights, the articulation of its scope, state obligations, and standards of redress has varied across institutions.

Building on this analysis, the Article argues that a comparative approach to these systems not only illuminates key similarities and differences in legal standards, but also reveals concrete gaps and opportunities to advance the protection of reproductive autonomy. …

Legislating With An Expiration Date & The Duty To Reevaluate: Sunset Provisions As A Safeguard In Self-Defense Laws, Samantha Morales

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Self-defense laws have a long history in the jurisprudence of many countries around the world, reflecting the essential right to protect oneself from harm. At their core, self-defense laws seek to balance the rights of individuals against one another in threatening, violent, or high-risk scenarios, presenting a classic legal dilemma—one person’s rights end where another’s begin.

Through a comparative and analytical lens, this Note explores the origins, current state, and impact of self-defense laws, focusing specifically on the United States and the United Kingdom. Tracing the development of self-defense doctrine from its roots in the common law, the analysis highlights …

Expanding “We The People”: Constitutional Language And Gender (In)Equality In The United States, France, Germany, And Sweden, Sophia Elaine Ward

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

While the U.S. Constitution opens with the inclusive promise of representing “We the People,” it remains silent on gender equality. That silence leaves gender-based rights dependent on judicial interpretation rather than constitutional command, producing uneven, unstable protections that shift with changing courts and political regimes. Although the U.S. Supreme Court addresses sex discrimination through the Equal Protection Clause, its jurisprudence relies on a formal equality framework that fails to confront structural and systemic gender inequality and offers no durable constitutional guarantee.

This Note argues that the U.S. can no longer rely on judicial interpretation alone to secure gender equality. Instead, …

Human Rights In The Americas Symposium: An Examination Of Past, Present, And Future, Caroline Bettinger-López, Tamar Ezer, Shantanice Vaxter, Hannah Garry, Alexzandrea Bartle, Austin Brewster, Brittany Findley, Ana Garcia-Velez, Andrew Kiliment, Christian Kruger, Ana Luiza Potgornik Ferreira, Abigail Matherne, Genice Nadal, Lucia Niño Junyent, Yasmin Rizvi, Amanda Sarmientos, Megan Schutzen, Roberta Spehl, Sara White, Meg Williams

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Human Rights in the Americas Symposium: An Examination of Past, Present, and Future documents a week-long convening hosted by the University of Miami School of Law in November 2025, held in conjunctions with the 194th Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Symposium brought together scholars, advocates, policymakers, students, artists, and community members to assess the evolution, current challenges, and future trajectory of human rights in the Americas.

Through interdisciplinary panels, thematic hearings, artistic exhibitions, and community-based engagements, participants examined pressing regional issues, including democratic backsliding, migration, housing justice, racial and gender inequality, environmental harm, and …

Protection Of The Human Rights Of Older Persons In The Americas And The Caribbean, Gloria Monique De Mees

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The Americas and the Caribbean are undergoing rapid demographic aging amid structural inequality, widespread informality, and fragile social protection, exposing older persons to heightened risks of disease, poverty, exclusion, and abuse while reinforcing their construction as dependents rather than autonomous rights-holders. Grounded in the Inter-American Human Rights System, and complemented by empirical evidence, the analysis situates demographic aging as a structural human rights priority and traces the evolution of regional standards culminating in the Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons. It then examines advances and gaps in national protection systems in Latin America and the Caribbean …

Homelessness In The Caribbean: From Colonial Roots To Rights-Based Responses, Wilmy Dessalines, Tamar Ezer, Gabriela Valentín Diaz

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This Article provides an analysis of homelessness across four Caribbean localities—the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Each locality brings a diverse history connected to colonial legacies and realities from Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They capture a cross-section of the Caribbean and reveal that homelessness is shaped by legal and governance systems rooted in colonial inheritance that promote exclusion over social protection: from vagrancy laws that regulate presence in public space to land systems that legalize dispossession and facilitate displacement. Laws punishing vagrancy and life-sustaining activities serve as instruments of social control that systematically …

Police Accountability For Racial Justice And Equality: A Human Rights Analysis Of Perceptions Of Police Legitimacy In Orlando, Florida, Katherine Wilson Mccoy, R. Denisse Córdova Montes

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The murder of George Floyd marked a watershed moment in the global fight against racism. In response, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 43/1, calling for a comprehensive report on systemic racism and human rights violations against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement. Despite this increased scrutiny, legislators have increasingly used laws to police poverty. Florida House Bill 1365 went into effect on October 1, 2024, prohibiting public camping and sleeping on public property without authorization. Critics argue that such measures disproportionately target marginalized groups by criminalizing life-sustaining activities. Research suggests that repeated interactions, especially …

You Can Be Innocent—Or You Can Be Free: Prosecutorial Power And Dark Pleas In Innocence Litigation, Tori Simkovic, Craig Trocino

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

This Article examines the phenomenon Justice Michael P. Donnelly has termed the “dark plea.” A dark plea is a post-conviction guilty plea extracted from defendants who maintain their innocence but accept freedom over exoneration. Through the lens of State of Florida v. Lawrence K. Johnson, this Article exposes how dark pleas operate at the precise moment when newly discovered evidence threatens to unravel a conviction and expose actual innocence in a nearly two decades old wrongful conviction. Johnson’s case illustrates the coercive dynamics of this type postconviction “bargaining.” After eighteen years of incarceration, compelling DNA recantation evidence, and an appellate …

Unsettling Settled Science: The Perils Of And Rationale Behind Blind Faith In Forensic Evidence, Jaclyn Marra

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

Science—a seemingly compelling and infallible adjudicative element—plays a pivotal role in criminal trials, serving as a cornerstone for evidence interpretation and decision-making. However, the perceived infallibility of scientific evidence often masks its inherent limitations and vulnerabilities. Forensic methods, widely regarded as objective and precise, can suffer from a plethora of inconspicuous constraints—including flawed methodologies, human error, and biases—which undermine their reliability. The American public and legal system frequently place undue trust in forensic evidence and experts, influenced by portrayals of their certainty in media and popular culture. This phenomenon has been referred to as the “Reverse CSI Effect.” This note …

Presumed Guilty By Proximity: How Geofence Warrants Undermine The Fourteenth Amendment, Radha Patel

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

Geofence warrants are utilized as a surveillance tool to gather location data on every user within a specific area and are being integrated into policing without a stable legal framework. This integration threatens individual rights and disproportionately impacts people and communities of color. While these warrants are often scrutinized under the Fourth Amendment, this note argues that they significantly undermine the Fourteenth Amendment by granting law enforcement excessive discretion. This unchecked discretion allows systemic bias and racial profiling to influence criminal investigations, creating the potential for wrongful convictions. The analysis in this note details the three-step execution process of geofence …

On The “Storied” History And Sustained Impact Of A Thriving Social Justice Journal, Mario L. Barnes

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Separate But Equal In The Bold New City Of The South: A Shadow Of What Remains, Charity Dera

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

This project undertakes the task of analyzing the historical and contemporary landscape of Jacksonville, Florida, the “Bold New City of the South,”1 from a multidisciplinary vantage point. It argues that the spirit of the overturned “separate but equal” holding of Plessy v. Ferguson2 and its bold segregationist ideologies reverberate today in both subtle and overt ways. Yet, that reality has not come without the resilience and perseverance of pioneering natives who have resisted such ideals in bold ways. While segregation is deeply rooted in U.S. history and scholars have readily addressed the contemporary effects of landmark cases such as Plessy …

Revolutionizing Corporate Accountability: The La Oroya Case And The Right To A Healthy Environment In The Inter-American System, Teresa Jacques Valenzuela

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

La Oroya v. Perú marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of Business and Human Rights and the Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE) under the Inter-American legal framework. This paper examines the groundbreaking judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which established new standards for state responsibility in regulating and supervising corporate activities to prevent environmental harm. By integrating principles of environmental law with human rights obligations, the case highlights the transformative potential of judicial action in addressing corporate accountability. While the judgment sets a precedent for advancing corporate responsibility, it exposes enduring challenges, including jurisdictional limitations, corporate …

Censorship And Human Rights Violations: The Suppression Of Freedom Of Expression, Press, And Assembly In Cuba, Nicaragua, And Venezuela, Elisabell Laura Velázquez

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

As the days, months, and years go by, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela continue to violate the fundamental human rights of their citizens. Despite worldwide technological advancements and increased access to the digital world, these regimes continuously monitor and censor their citizens, depriving them of the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, press, and assembly. This article explores how censorship can represent a systemic violation of human rights. This article argues that strengthening cooperation between different international organizations is necessary because censorship in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela is a human rights crisis that impacts civil society. Furthermore, this article explains the …

The Right Of Nature: Lessons From Panama For Mangrove Protection In Miami, Jayson Fry

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Mangrove ecosystems are indispensable to climate resilience, yet traditional environmental governance has repeatedly failed to prevent their decline. This Note employs a comparative framework to examine Panama and Miami, two rapidly developing coastal regions facing parallel pressures of urbanization and sea-level rise, to demonstrate that mangrove loss persists not because law is absent, but because existing frameworks structurally authorize regulated degradation. Panama’s 2022 Rights of Nature Law, which grants ecosystems legal personhood and enforceable rights, represents a departure from anthropocentric environmental regulation. Its early judicial application in the Cobré Panamá mine case shows how rights-based protections can override extractive economic …

Who Will Hear My Case?: The Backdrop Of Hameed V. Canada And Its Impact On Canada’S Judicial Vacancy Crisis, Adrian T. Peraza

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark ruling in R v. Jordan, requiring prosecutors to try their case within eighteen months in provincial courts and thirty months in the superior courts. Through its holding, the Court sought to protect a defendant’s right to be tried within a reasonable time, a privilege enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, at the time of the decision, the Canadian judicial system faced a vacancy crisis. A total of forty-three judicial vacancies existed in the federal courts, a figure that would later rise to eighty-six in August 2023. …

Trips, World Trade, Social Progress, And The Public Interest, Hannibal Travis

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement arrived in the 1990s amidst great fanfare for a suite of comprehensive reforms to a trading system that had failed the world time and again. It bore a title that sounded less like a pact on outsourcing or multinational corporatism and more like a fair trade pledge for products of the mind and the personality. TRIPs was introduced as a pillar of the New World Order, a post-Cold War vision in which the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening of the Chinese economy would augur an era of harmonious commerce. …

Eyes Everywhere: Unpacking The Digital Surveillance State In Mexico And The Legal Blind Spots, Danielle Mena

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This article examines the rise of digital surveillance in Mexico and its implications for privacy, human rights, and democratic governance. Despite constitutional and legislative protections guaranteeing personal privacy and freedom of expression, Mexico has developed one of the most extensive surveillance systems in the Americas. Through tools such as Pegasus spyware and the C5 urban surveillance network, government agencies have expanded their monitoring capabilities, often under the guise of national security. However, the misuse of these technologies against journalists, activists, and political dissidents reveals legal and institutional deficiencies. The article analyzes the evolution of Mexico’s digital surveillance infrastructure, identifies the …

Beyond Judicial Dialogue: Reference To Domestic Law By The Inter–American Court Of Human Rights, Soledad Bertelsen

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The recent freeze of U.S. funding to the Inter–American Commission on Human Rights serves as a reminder of how fragile the Inter–American System of Human Rights truly is. The effectiveness of the Inter–American institutions largely depends on their legitimacy in the eyes of the member states. This article argues how the legitimacy of the Inter–American Court can be enhanced by the language used in its judgments. The paper focuses on how references to domestic law in the case–law of the Inter–American Court can persuade states to comply with its decisions. Citations transcend the much–discussed judicial dialogue since they also reference …

Constitutional Law On Abortion In Latin America And The Caribbean: A Regional Consensus Towards An International Custom Or A Peremptory Norm Of Jus Cogens?, Ligia Castaldi

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The Inter–American Court of Human Rights recently declared the existence of a jus cogens right to a healthy environment: could it lawfully reach the same conclusion regarding a right to abortion? This paper examines constitutional law and constitutional jurisprudence on abortion in Latin American and Caribbean countries to determine whether a regional consensus exists on abortion rights in the region. The paper looks at landmark abortion decisions favoring abortion rights in Colombia and Mexico, as well as broad abortion decriminalization through statutory reform in Argentina, Uruguay, Haiti and Cuba. The paper also looks at prenatal right to life protections in …

New Judicial Federalism And The Establishment Clause: Classroom Ten Commandments As A Case Study In State Constitutional Protection, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

Louisiana recently enacted a law requiring a Ten Commandments display in every public school classroom from kindergarten to college. Forty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a nearly identical attempt to introduce Christianity into the public schools violated the Establishment Clause—the clause in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment that requires some degree of separation between church and state.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court has since reduced the Establishment Clause to a shadow of its former self. It replaced doctrinal tests that protected religious minorities with a history and tradition test that is easily manipulated and that presumes the …

Authoritarian Transfers, Günter Frankenberg, Fernanda G. Nicola

University of Miami Law Review

The rapid proliferation of foreign agent laws globally has become a hallmark of rising authoritarianism, with these laws weaponized to suppress dissent and stifle civil society. While the post-World War II study of legal transplants focused on liberal legal orders, the rise of authoritarian regimes has introduced a new dimension: the transnational movement and adaptation of authoritarian legal frameworks, or authoritarian transfers. This Article fills a critical gap by developing an analytical framework to distinguish authoritarian transfers from democratic ones, using transfer theory, a central theme in comparative law that explores how laws travel, adapt, and transform within new social …

Pretrial Decision-Making In Brazil Under Inter-American Human Rights Law, Thiago Nascimento Dos Reis

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

In recent decades, pretrial detention has been a key contributor to Brazil’s mass incarceration. This is true, despite domestic and international norms limiting pretrial detention to exceptional circumstances and mounting evidence linking it to worse outcomes for arrestees in their criminal proceedings and post-release life prospects. As a longitudinal multivariate pretrial research in Brazil, this Article investigates the key mechanisms and factors that explain pretrial detention in relation to inter-American human rights standards. This Article conducts a quantitative case study of the first one hundred days of detention for all 2,158 non-confidential flagrant arrests in the first eight months of …

Rectifying Historical Wrongs: The Case For The Indigenous’ Inherent Right To Self–Govern Child Welfare In Canada, Ariana Kravetz

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free Speech, Assembly, And Labor Rights In Singapore And The United States, Tyler Smith

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exploring Statehood Through The Lens Of Palestine And Puerto Rico, Gabriela G. Ibáñez

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Silent Shores: The Asean Human Rights Response To Refugee Protections, Lakshmi Sanmuganathan

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Established on August 8, 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) emerged as the first intergovernmental organization dedicated to promoting peace, security, and regional unity in Southeast Asia. In 2009, ASEAN affirmed its commitment to human rights by founding the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (“AICHR”), the first regional human rights system in Asia. This note offers a critical evaluation of the ASEAN human rights system and its response to refugee rights, recognition, and protections in Southeast Asia. It begins by assessing the historical foundation that has shaped ASEAN’s contemporary constraints. Building on this historical analysis, the focus …