Human Rights Law Commons^™

The False Panacea Of Offshore Deterrence, James C. Hathaway

Articles

Governments take often shockingly blunt action to deter refugees and other migrants found on the high seas, in their island territories and in overseas enclaves. There is a pervasive belief that when deterrence is conducted at arms-length from the homeland it is either legitimate or, at the very least, immune from legal accountability.

Refugees' Human Rights And The Challenge Of Political Will, James C. Hathaway

Articles

Governments in all parts of the world are withdrawing in practice from meeting the legal duty to provide refugees with the protection they require. While states continue to proclaim a willingness to assist refugees as a matter of political discretion or humanitarian goodwill, many appear committed to a pattern of defensive strategies designed to avoid international legal responsibility toward involuntary migrants. Some see this shift away from a legal paradigm of refugee protection as a source of enhanced operational flexibility in the face of changed political circumstances. For refugees themselves, however, the increasingly marginal relevance of international refugee law has …

Peoples' Tribunals: Legitimate Or Rough Justice, Christine M. Chinkin

Articles

The article examines the use of Peoples' Tribunals in seeking access to justice where none has been possible through more formal methods. It uses as illustration the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal that sought justice for the so-called comfort women, the primarily Asian women who were subjected to sexual slavery by the Japanese military before and during World War Two. The article briefly recounts the fate of the comfort women and then considers the legal and practical obstacles they faced in accessing justice at the end of the War. It outlines how towards the end of the 20th century the …

From Dyad To Triad: Reconceptualizing The Lawyer-Client Relationship For Litigation In Regional Human Rights Commissions, Melissa E. Crow

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article analyzes the standing requirements for NGO petitions to the Inter-American and African Commissions and explores the ways which they may undermine the legitimacy and effectiveness of each of these for a, especially in the context of litigation on behalf of groups. The author evaluates various proposals for addressing these problems based on princeiples of class action and client-centered lawyering and concludes that they are inadequate.

From Indifference To Engagement: Bystanders And International Criminal Justice, Laurel E. Fletcher

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article contributes to the scholarship on transitional justice by examining how the legal architecture and operation of international criminal law constricts bystanders as subjects of jurisprudence, considering the effects of this limitation on the ability of international tribunals to promote their social and political goals, and proposing institutional reforms needed to address this limitation.

Global Sex Trafficking And The Trafficking Victims Protection Act Of 2000: Legislative Responses To The Problem Of Modern Slavery, Rosy Kandathil

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Human trafficking is becoming the fastest growing criminal activity in the world. Generally, trafficking is defined as the transportation of persons across international borders for labor purposes, by means of force, fraud, or coercion. Commerce directly related to human slavery yields approximately $7-$10 billion a year, trailing only behind drugs and weapons trade for international profit. According to recent congressional findings, over 700,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year, including approximately 50,000 women and children into the United States. Women and girl children are the primary targets for sexual exploitation into prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and other …

Pornography As Trafficking, Catharine A. Mackinnon

Michigan Journal of International Law

In material reality, pornography is one way women and children are trafficked for sex. To make visual pornography, the bulk of the industry's products, real women and children, and some men, are rented out for use in commercial sex acts. In the resulting materials, these people are then conveyed and sold for a buyer's sexual use. Obscenity laws, the traditional legal approach to the problem, do not care about these realities at all. The morality of what is said and shown remains their focus and concern. The injuries inflicted on real people to make the materials, or because they are …

Review Of Human Rights: Between Idealism And Realism, Steven R. Ratner

Reviews

For centuries, moral philosophers have regarded ethics and justice in the international plane as part of their domain. The move from the personal to the societal or national to the global seems effortless. In recent years, philosophers in ethics have devoted considerable attention to the ethical significance of nationality and patriotism, asking whether an impartial morality permits better treatment of an individual’s co-nationals; while those in politics have revisited issues of international justice through, for instance, works on human rights and just war theory. These two bodies of work both address what constitutes a just world and what role the …

Legal "Black Hole"? Extraterritorial State Action And International Treaty Law On Civil And Political Rights, Ralph Wilde

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article considers the significant role that extraterritorial activity is playing in the post-9/11 foreign policy of some States and the idea that this activity somehow takes place "outside" the law or, at least, outside an arena where legal norms apply as a matter of course rather than only when and to the extent that the State involved decides these norms will apply. It begins in Section II by mapping out the extraterritorial state activities conducted since 9/11, covering activities with a personalized object-such as the military action taken in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda-and activities with a spatial (territorial) object-such …

Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article argues that the international community's gender equality targets will not be realized by 2015 because the problems associated with sexual violence against girls in schools are situated at an intersection of contested conceptual divides between human rights (civil and political liberties) and development aims (social and economic needs). Cracks in the conceptual foundations of both the liberal and utilitarian theories of justice and equality, which support traditional human rights advocacy and economic development plans, respectively render each approach inadequate to fully identify and address the grave danger sexual violence and harassment in schools pose to educational equality. In …

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 …

The Michigan Guidelines On Well-Founded Fear, Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law

Other Publications

An individual qualifies as a Convention refugee only if he or she has a "well-founded fear" of being persecuted. While it is generally agreed that the "well-founded fear" requirement limits refugee status to persons who face an actual, forward-looking risk of being persecuted (the "objective element"), linguistic ambiguity has resulted in a divergence of views regarding whether the test also involves assessment of the state of mind of the person seeking recognition of refugee status (the "subjective element").

State Legislation And Human Trafficking: Helpful Or Harmful?, Stephanie Richard

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Human trafficking is the modern day form of slavery. Despite the fact that thousands of people are trafficked into the United Sates each year, the majority of U.S. citizens are not aware of the nature and extent of this problem. In 2000, the U.S. government passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA) to combat this grave human rights abuse. This federal legislation takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the problem of human trafficking in the United States by acknowledging that effective prosecution cannot occur without safeguards and benefits for trafficking victims. To this end, the VTVPA enumerates …

The Right Of States To Repatriate Former Refugees, James C. Hathaway

Articles

Armed conflict often results in the large-scale exodus of refugees into politically and economically fragile neighboring states. The burdens on asylum countries can be extreme, and may only be partly offset by the arrival of international aid and protection resources. Moreover, difficulties inherent in the provision of asylum have been exacerbated in recent years by the increasing disinclination of the wealthier countries that fund the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and most other assistance agencies to meet the real costs of protection. In such circumstances, it is unsurprising that as conflicts wind down, host countries ordinarily seek to …

Is There A Subjective Element In The Refugee Convention's Requirement Of 'Well-Founded Fear'?, James C. Hathaway, William S. Hicks

Articles

Linguistic ambiguity in the refugee definition's requirement of "well-founded fear" of being persecuted has given rise to a wide range of interpretations. There is general agreement that a fear is "well-founded" only if the refugee claimant faces an actual, forward-looking risk of being persecuted in her country of origin (the "objective element"). But it is less clear whether the well-founded "fear" standard also requires a showing that the applicant is not only genuinely at risk, but also stands in trepidation of being persecuted. Beyond vague references to the subjective quality of "fear," few courts or commentators have undertaken the task …

Justice For The Collective: The Limits Of The Human Rights Class Action, Paul R. Dubinsky

Michigan Law Review

The class action lawsuit is our grand procedural experiment in collective justice. As against the U.S. legal system's strong orientation toward individual rights rather than group rights, the class action is a countercurrent. Through Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, large numbers of previously unaffiliated individuals can proceed in federal court as a group, litigating through representatives. A recent form of this litigation, the human rights class action, takes this experiment to its far reaches. In the human rights class action, the tension between individual claimants and the group as a whole can be heightened. The class …

The "No Property" Problem: Understanding Poverty By Understanding Wealth, Jane B. Baron

Michigan Law Review

Could it be that understanding homelessness and poverty is less a function of understanding the homeless and the poor than of understanding how the wealthy come to ignore and tolerate them? This is one of the more intriguing suggestions of anthropologist Kim Hopper's Reckoning with Homelessness, and it echoes claims made by lawyers who, like Hopper, have spent much of their careers advocating on behalf of the homeless. While Hopper's new book is first and foremost a work of anthropology, its structure strongly parallels recent work by legal scholars who have sought to assess the effects of litigation and lobbying …

Rumsfeld V. Padilla: Brief Amicus Curiae Of Comparative Law Scholars And Experts On The Laws Of The United Kingdom And Israel In Support Of Respondent, Samuel R. Gross, J. Christopher Mccrudden

Appellate Briefs

Amici are comparative law scholars and experts on the laws of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the State of Israel.

Both terrorism and democratic values transcend borders. Democratic allies of the United States also face threats of terrorism. Some, notably the United Kingdom and Israel, have long histories of fighting terrorism. This brief documents how dramatically the indefinite, incommunicado detention to which Petitioner has subjected Jose Padilla departs from the minimum procedural protections that other democracies provide detained suspected terrorists. Each of these democratic allies uses four controls to constrain executive authority to detain suspected …

Rumsfeld V. Padilla: Brief For Amici Curiae Law Professors In Support Of Respondent, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Appellate Briefs

Amici Curiae are law professors who are concerned about the human rights questions involved in this matter. Amici support affirmance and write to situate the issues in this case within the broader context of international human rights law. Amici believe that this Court's analysis of the decision rendered by the Second Circuit should take into account the serious rights questions raised by the assertion of executive authority to designate, detain, and isolate people deemed "enemy combatants" or any equivalent category. These concerns weigh strongly against endorsement of such broad, unilateral executive power and in favor of a strict construction of …

The Use Of Human Rights Discourse To Secure Women's Interests: Critical Analysis Of The Implications, Renu Mandhane

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This article highlights the significant theoretical constraints of universalism, the tendency of human rights advocates to ignore the underlying cause of rights violations, as well as problems associated with the concept of and informal hierarchy between rights. The article suggests that there are certain circumstances in which INGOs that rely primarily on human rights language in their advocacy efforts may wish to supplement their analysis with explicit reference to feminist legal theory in order to more effectively secure women's interests globally. These ideas will be developed with ongoing reference to the recent and successful campaign initiated by Nepali women to …

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 Reality Of Private Rights, Duties, And Participation In The International Legal Process, Jordan J. Praust

Michigan Journal of International Law

In a realistic and descriptive sense, international law is a complex and dynamic legal process profoundly interconnected with regional and domestic legal processes throughout the globe. There are no single sources or evidences of international law; no single set of participants; and no single arenas or institutional arrangements for the creation, invocation, application, change or termination of such law. Like all human law, it is full of human choice and rich in individual and group participation and inter-affectation. Awareness of this reality can have significant consequences with respect to identification of international legal norms, realistic meaning or content, remedies, and …

Of Federalism, Human Rights, And The Holland Caveat: Congressional Power To Iplement Treaties, Ana Maria Merico-Stephens

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article explores whether the Rehnquist Court's federalism doctrine, as elaborated during this last decade, should or ought to extend to the domestication of discrete provisions of ratified human rights treaties. It explores this question by examining the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Covenant) and by considering the civil remedy provision of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as potential implementing legislation for the equality provisions of the Covenant. In the context of this inquiry, the discussion engages federalism, as developed by the current Court, on its own terms. That is, I do not seek here to defend it …

Refugee Protection In International Law: Unhcr's Global Consultations On International Protection, Taylor H. Garrett

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Refugee Protection in International Law: UNHCR's Global Consultations on International Protection (Erika Feller, Volker Türk & Frances Nicholson eds.)

Copyright Infringement, Sex Trafficking, And Defamation In The Fictional Life Of A Geisha, Susan Tiefenbrun

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Memoirs of a Geisha has sold and made millions for Arthur Golden since 1997. This is his first novel, and it has earned him worldwide acclaim. A feature film version directed by Steven Spielberg is in the works. The book is translated into more than twenty languages. This article uses the book and the legal controversy that ensued after its publication to ask, and hopefully answer, two questions: First, is the geisha tradition as described by Golden in his fictional biography a variant of sex trafficking and sexual slavery which, despite possible cultural justifications, should be abolished by law? Second, …

Review Of Rethinking Refugee Law, By N. Nathwani. , James C. Hathaway

Reviews

It is a wonderful thing when a work of scholarship is published just as policymakers are struggling with the issues that it seeks to address.

Beyond State Sovereignty: The Protection Of Cultural Heritage As A Shared Interest Of Humanity, Francesco Francioni

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this paper the author will try to explore the topic from a different perspective: i.e. the emergence of cultural heritage as part of the shared interest of humanity, with the consequent need for international law to safeguard it in its material and living manifestations, including the cultural communities that create, perform and maintain it. Culture in itself is not extraneous to the formation of the modern nation State. Especially in the history of nineteenth century Europe, culture as language, religion, literary and artistic traditions provided the cement and the legitimizing element to support the claim to independent statehood.

Religious Freedom And The Undoing Of The Westphalian State, Daniel Philpott

Michigan Journal of International Law

Not so long ago, in 1998, the world acknowledged both the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia. The Universal Declaration was celebrated in the popular press, by thousands of activists, and at well attended open forums at schools and universities. Westphalia was noted almost exclusively at academic conferences. But public obscurity is an undeserved fate for Westphalia, for its legacy in organizing our political world vies with that of the American and French revolutions. What Westphalia inaugurated was a system of sovereign states where a single authority resided …

Commentary To Professor Guibernau, Annika Tahvanainen

Michigan Journal of International Law

Commentary on Professor Montserrat Guibernau's Nations Without States: Political Communities in the Global Age

Sexual Harassment: An International Human Rights Perspective., Christine M. Chinkin

Book Chapters

This chapter considers sexual harassment in the workplace from the perspective of international human rights law. Adopting a human rights approach locates sexual harassment in the context of women’s economic and social rights and more broadly in the wider frame of international imperatives such as the maintenance of international peace and security and global economic development. Sexual harassment has come onto the international agenda comparatively recently, and the story comprises both the inclusion of prohibitions within legal instruments and significant silences, especially where breaking the silence requires intrusion into state policies relating to militarism, trade and investment liberalization, and the …