Human Rights Law Commons^™

Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway

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On 13 December 2001, states committed themselves" ... to consider ways that may be required to strengthen the implementation of the 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol". It is wonderful that after half a century we may finally be on the verge of taking oversight of the treaty seriously.

Precis Of The Mismeasure Of Desire: The Science, Theory And Ethics Of Sexual Orientation, Edward D. Stein

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In the past decade, scientific research on sexual orientation has garnered a great deal of attention, not just among scientists but among litigators, legislators, judges, executives, and members of the general population concerned with issues relating to social, legal and moral questions relevant to lesbians, gay men and other sexual minorities. Some claim that science is converging on the view that sexual orientation is biologically based. Many friends and foes of lesbian and gay rights are interested in this scientific research because they think that it has social, legal, and ethical relevance. The thought is that if sexual orientations have …

Reply To Martha Nussbaum And Ian Hacking, Edward D. Stein

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The essays by Martha Nussbaum and Ian Hacking both raise important issues about the some of the central themes of The Mismeasure of Desire and it is a pleasure and an honor to have such careful, significant and interdisciplinary thinkers engage my ideas. In this brief reply, I address some of their challenges.

Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway

Articles

We simply cannot afford to sell out the future of refugee protection in a hasty bid to establish something that looks, more or less, like an oversight mechanism for the Refugee Convention.

Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway

Articles

We simply cannot afford to sell out the future of refugee protection in a hasty bid to establish something that looks, more or less, like an oversight mechanism for the Refugee Convention.

Refugee Law Is Not Immigration Law, James C. Hathaway

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The spectacle of the governments of Australia, Indonesia, and Norway playing pass the parcel with 400 refugees, most of them Afghans, is not an edifying one... Yet the issues of responsibility, over which the three governments are arguing, are important ones which, left unsettled in this and other cases, could only worsen the prospects for all refugees in the longer run. For the truth is that when what agreement has been painfully achieved between nations on how to deal with refugees breaks down, the natural reaction is to erect even higher barriers than already exist.

A Measure Of Freedom, James W. Nickel

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No abstract provided.

Rights Of Sexual Minorities In Ireland And Europe: Rhetoric Versus Reality, Bruce Carolan

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Superficially, Irish and European Community law proclaim the rights of sexual minorities - particularly in web sites and printed information designed for public consumption. The reality is different. This article identifies a gap between the public pronouncements on the rights of sexual minorities under Irish and EC law. It employs a hypothetical fact situation to suggest that existing legal protections are anemic, and argues that the potential failure of affected groups to identify these deficiencies (due to contradictory claims in public information campaigns) could endanger efforts to effect progressive change.

Vision And Reality: Democracy And Citizenship Of Women In The Dayton Peace Accords, Christine M. Chinkin, Kate Paradine

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This Article examines the gendered meanings of the concepts of democracy, citizenship, and human rights in the context of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFA), negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995. The Article is predicated upon the idea that a feminist theory and politics of citizenship and democracy "must embrace an internationalist agenda" and that in turn, for effectiveness and legitimacy, the internationalist agenda must embrace feminist thinking. This Article further argues that the GFA provided an opportunity for the renegotiation of a contested space where democratic concepts of access and participation and citizenship issues …

Framing Refugee Protection In The New World Disorder, James C. Hathaway, Colin J. Harvey

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A number of jurisdictions have fastened onto a "solution" that appears to reconcile respect for refugee law with the determination of states to rid themselves quickly of potentially violent asylum seekers. Courts in these states have been persuaded that a person who has committed or facilitated acts of violence may lawfully be denied a refugee status hearing under a clause of the Refugee Convention that authorizes the automatic exclusion of persons whom the government reasonably believes are international or extraditable criminals. Refugee law so interpreted is reconcilable with even fairly blunt measures for the exclusion of violent asylum seekers. In …

Why Supervise The Refugee Convention?, James C. Hathaway

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The Refugee Convention is the only major human rights treaty that is not externally supervised. Under all of the other key UN human rights accords — on the rights of women and children, against torture and racial discrimination, and to promote civil and political, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights — there is at least some effort made to ensure that States are held accountable for what they have signed onto.

Women's International Tribunal On Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, Christine M. Chinkin

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From December 8 to 12,2000, a peoples' tribunal, the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal 2000, sat in Tokyo, Japan. It was established to consider the criminal liability of leading high-ranking Japanese military and political officials and the separate responsibility of the state of Japan for rape and sexual slavery as crimes against humanity arising out of Japanese military activity in the Asia Pacific region in the 1930s and 1940s.

The immediate background to the tribunal's establishment was a series of events commencing in 1988 when the women's movement in the Republic of Korea began to learn of the research of …

In Memoriam Rafael C. Benitez, Keith S. Rosenn

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No abstract provided.

America As Pattern And Problem, Carl E. Schneider

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Since the days of Tocqueville, foreign observers have seen America as both a pattern and a problem. They still do, and in ways that illuminate the way law deals with bioethical issues both here and abroad. America was long exceptional in having a written constitution, in allowing its courts the power of judicial review, and in letting courts exercise that power to develop and enforce principles of human rights. Today, that pattern looks markedly less exceptional. After the Second World War, Germany and Japan were persuaded to adopt constitutions that included human rights provisions and that endowed courts with the …

Refugee Rights Are Not Negotiable, James C. Hathaway, Anne K. Cusick

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America's troubled relationship with international law, in particular human rights law, is well documented. In many cases, the United States simply will not agree to be bound by international human rights treaties. For example, the United States has yet to ratify even such fundamental agreements as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. When the United States does agree to become a party to an international human rights treaty, it has often sought to condition its acceptance …

The Risks Of Adjudicating Vichy, Richard H. Weisberg

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The article examines the risks and implications of adjudicating Vichy-era officials, focusing on Maurice Papon's trial for crimes against humanity. It highlights how the trial exposed France's complicity in the Holocaust, the role of its legal system in perpetuating anti-Semitic policies, and the challenges of addressing historical injustices decades later.

A New Agenda For International Human Rights: Economic Freedom, John O. Mcginnis

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No abstract provided.

What Is A Human Right? Universals And The Challenge Of Cultural Relativism, Paul Dubinsky, Jeremy Waldron, Tracy Higgins, Michel Rosenfeld, Ruti Teitel

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The article explores the tension between the universality of human rights and the challenges posed by cultural relativism, emphasizing the need to reconcile these perspectives to address human rights violations effectively. While human rights are foundational and inherent to all individuals, their application must navigate cultural, moral, and legal complexities. The discussion highlights the importance of dialogue and adaptability in upholding universal principles while respecting diverse contexts.

Can Human Rights Bridge The Gap Between Universalism And Cultural Relativism? A Pluralist Assessment Based On The Rights Of Minorities, Michel Rosenfeld

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The article argues that the debate between universalism and cultural relativism is mischaracterized and proposes pluralism as a mediating approach. It suggests that pluralism, particularly comprehensive pluralism, can reconcile the tensions between universal human rights and cultural diversity by balancing individual and group rights within a dynamic framework that respects both universal principles and particular contexts.

An Army Of Lovers?: Queering The Ministry Of Defense Report Of The Homosexual Policy Assessment Team, Bruce Carolan

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Certain queer theorists argue that gay men and lesbians are banned from military service in certain countries not due to a fear of otherness. Instead, they are prohibited from serving precisely because of a fear that the opposite might be true -- that introducing openly gay people into a 'homosocial' environment might destabilize accepted notions of sexuality among members of the service who presently constitute themselves as heterosexual. This article explores that idea in the context of the Report of the Homosexual Policy Assessment Team established to defend exclusion of openly gay people from military service in the United Kingdom. …

Living With The Death Penalty, Samuel R. Gross

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The debate over the death penalty in the United States - such as it is - is framed in terms of criminal justice policy. The issues are the same ones we consider when the question is the length of prison sentence for a drug crime: Does the defendant deserve the penalty? Is it cost effective by comparison to other available sanctions? Will it deter others from committing the crimes for which he was convicted? Can we impose this punishment fairly? Can we make sure that innocent people are not condemned?

A Child's Right To Physical Integrity, Suellyn Scarnecchia

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As we wring our hands over increasing reports of severe child abuse and how violent many of our children have become, it might be time to reassess policies that give parents and others the license to use even the most mild forms of violence against our children.

International Refugee Law: The Michigan Guidelines On The Internal Protection Alternative, James C. Hathaway

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International refugee law is designed only to provide a back-up source of protection to seriously at-risk persons. Its purpose is not to displace the primary rule that individuals should look to their state of nationality for protection, but simply to provide a safety net in the event a state fails to meet its basic protective responsibilities.1 As observed by the Supreme Court of Canada, "[t]he international community was meant to be a forum of second resort for the persecuted, a 'surrogate,' approachable upon the failure of local protection. The rationale upon which international refugee law rests is not simply the …

America's Apostasy, James C. Hathaway

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It has often struck me that the prominence of the Restatement of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States epitomizes the plight of international law in this country. The title of this standard reference on international law does not even refer to international law, but instead to foreign relations law. That is, it is meant to set out the standards by which we may legitimately judge the conduct of others. The clear, if unintended, message is that the Restatement is not really a codification of laws that bind us. And indeed, it is explicitly not just a codification, but …

Succession By Estoppel: Hong Kong's Succession To The Iccpr, Peter K. Yu

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No abstract provided.

Why Basic Liberties Are Bilateral, James W. Nickel

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No abstract provided.

Us Supreme Court Confronts 'Right To Die', Bruce Carolan

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This article covers the US Supreme Court's decisions regarding physician-assisted suicide for a UK audience.

Can International Refugee Law Be Made Relevant Again?, James C. Hathaway

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Ironic though it may seem, I believe that the present breakdown in the authority of international refugee law is attributable to its failure explicitly to accommodate the reasonable preoccupations of governments in the countries to which refugees flee. International refugee law is part of a system of state self-regulation. It will therefore be respected only to the extent that receiving states believe that it fairly reconciles humanitarian objectives to their national interests. In contrast, refugee law arbitrarily assigns full legal responsibility for protection to whatever state asylum-seekers are able to reach. It is a peremptory regime. Apart from the right …

Human Rights And The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea, Bernard H. Oxman

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No abstract provided.

Group Agency And Group Rights, James W. Nickel

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No abstract provided.