Human Rights Law Commons^™

You Got No Secrets To Conceal: Considering The Application Of The Tarasoff Doctrine Abroad, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Law And Politics Of Contemporary Transitional Justice, Ruti G. Teitel

Articles & Chapters

Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Hissene Habre, Augusto Pinochet, Charles Taylor. There have never been more political leaders in the dock, or, under the shadow of its threat. Of what significance are these contemporary instances of transitional justice? This article uses the trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein as an occasion for revisiting and extending my ongoing project of tracing a genealogy of transitional justice.
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/="/">In prior work, I have defined "transitional justice" as that conception of justice associated with periods of political change. In an ongoing genealogy, I tie the legal developments in this area to distinct …

Reflections On The Essential Role Of Legal Scholarship In Advancing Causes Of Citizen Groups, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of International Human Rights Developments On Sexual Minority Rights, Arthur S. Leonard

Articles & Chapters

The Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) marked the first time that tribunal took notice of how foreign and international courts were dealing with the civil rights claims of lesbians and gay men as part of its discussion of American constitutional law. If this evinces a new openness by the Court to looking at such external sources in gay rights cases, what would it find on the major legal issues now facing the LGBT community in the United States? This article summarizes developments abroad on legal recognition of same-sex partners (including for purposes of immigration status) and military …

The Human Right To Housing: Making The Case In U.S. Advocacy, Maria Foscarinis, Brad Paul, Bruce Porter, Andrew Scherer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Homophobia And The 'Mathew Shepard Effect' In Lawrence V. Texas, Kris Franklin

Articles & Chapters

This paper explores the significance of shifting cultural understandings of gay men and lesbians in the Supreme Court's majority, concurring and dissenting opinions in the landmark sodomy case Lawrence v. Texas. By examining the legal authorities in which the case's various opinions are grounded, the article shows that the differing positions taken by the Court reflect radically diverging views on the significance of homosexuality in contemporary culture.

Beyond the rather easy observation that the Supreme Court justices are speaking different languages in the Lawrence opinion, the article contends that the rhetoric of the majority and dissent converge on at least …

The Human Right To Housing: Making The Case In U.S. Advocacy, Maria Foscarinis, Brad Paul, Bruce Porter, Andrew Scherer

Articles & Chapters

American anti-poverty advocates are increasingly focusing on expressing homelessness as a violation of fundamental human rights. Conceptualizing homelessness as a human rights violation can help add legal content to advocacy goals, and help build support for the housing resources, policy changes, and improved legal protective measures needed to ensure access to housing.

This article explores the right to housing in domestic and international law, how to evaluate compliance with the right in the United States, and how to employ legal strategies in support of claims to the right. Theauthors review the status of international law in U. S. law and …

Women's Human Rights And The Conversation Across Cultures, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This comment examines the vision of women's rights and equality as outlined in CEDAW. It raises some of thepossibilities and limitations associated with universalizing legal norms in a context of enormous global disparities, particularly in material and cultural terms.

Roots "Resolving The Death Penalty: Wisdom From The Ancients", Robert Blecker

Articles & Chapters

Lest it be cruel and unusual, the U.S. Supreme Court has held, capital punishment must be consistent with the evolving standards of decency of a maturing society. Although controversy swirls around our current sense of decency, this Society's changing standards are largely the product of deeply embedded traditions and an unchanging cultural core. Thus, virtually every heated death penalty debate today requires us not only to take the temperature of the people, but also to appreciate their temperament.

ROOTS: Resolving the Death Penalty: Wisdom from the Ancients reflects the current controversy back onto the core of Western Culture - the …

An Overview: International Human Rights And Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

From Gender Apartheid To Non-Sexism: The Pursuit Of Women's Rights In South Africa, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This article discusses the quest for women's rights in South Africa and how the transition from apartheid to democracy led to a commitment to gender equality as incorporated in South Africa's transitional and final Constitutions. This paper refers to the organizational attempts by women prior to and during the constitutional drafting process to ensure that the new Constitution embodied the aspirations and reflected the struggles for women's rights by women activists in South Africa. This article is divided into six sections. Section Two describes the legacy of apartheid for all women in South Africa. This section shows how the laws …

A Constitutional Confluence: American ‘State Action’ Law And The Application Of South Africa’S Socioeconomic Rights Guarantees To Private Actors, Stephen Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

As constitutional protection of human rights expands around the world, the question of whether constitutional rights should protect people not only against state action but also against the conduct of private actors is once again timely. Few nations have so broadly, or so ambiguously, endorsed the application of constitutional guarantees to constrain private conduct (known outside the United States as "horizontality") as South Africa. The constitution approved in 1996 applies fully and without qualification to all "organs of state," and this term is defined in section 239 in potentially very broad terms, notably embracing "any other functionary or institution ... …

Hidden Agendas And Ripple Effects: Implications Of Four Recent Supreme Court Decisions For Forensic Mental Health Professionals, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

Supreme Court decisions have implications far beyond the legal principles they articulate, and it is essential that individuals working in the forensic mental health and correctional systems understand the extent to which such decisions can affect their practice and the facilities in which they work. The seemingly-unrelated cases of Godinez v. Moran (1993) (establishing a unitary standard for the determinations of competency to plead guilty, competency to waive counsel, and competency to stand trial), Kansas v. Hendricks (1997) (upholding the constitutionality of one state's “Sexually Violent Predator Act”), Pennsylvania Department of Corrections v. Yeskey (1998) (ruling that the Americans with …

A Grand Exercise In Forgiveness, Or Justice Held Hostage To Truth? South Africa’S Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

An evaluation of the success or otherwise of the TRC may seem premature, but there have been some interesting reflections thus far. One such work is David Dyzenhaus’ book, Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves: Truth, Reconciliation and the Apartheid Legal Order. The book is a narrative and critique of the legal hearings which took place over three days at the TRC. This is a review of the Dyzenhaus book.

Their Promises Of Paradise: Will Olmstead V. L.C. Resuscitate The Constitutional Least Restrictive Alternative Principle In Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This article argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., 119 S. Ct. 2176 (1999), finding a qualified right to community treatment and services for certain institutionalized persons under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and endorsing an "integration mandate," forces us to reconsider the role of the "least restrictive alternative" in institutional mental disability law, and may serve to resuscitate and revitalize the constitutional foundations of that principle in this area of the law. In this context, Olmstead has the capacity to be the Supreme Court's most therapeutic mental disability law decision since that Court decided, in …

Violence Against Women In South Africa: The Role Of Culture And The Limitations Of The Law, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This paper describes the role of culture in perpetuating violence against women. It does this by contextualizing violence against women in South Africa within the grand project of transformation taking place there, and highlighting the possibilities of fundamental restructuring, with respect to rights and equality for women, when the feminist project intersects with the non-racial project. The paper, therefore, visits a familiar question, namely, the obstacles to transformation when the eradication of racism takes precedence over the elimination of sexism, as it historically has in South Africa. In addition, this paper describes recent attempts by the legislature and courts in …

When Justice Fails: Indemnification For Unjust Conviction, Adele Bernhard

Articles & Chapters

The first section of this article reviews the evidence, both historical and contemporary, documenting the existence and frequency of wrongful convictions. The next dissects an actual case to illustrate how an innocent person can be convicted and why, once the error has been corrected and the conviction is vacated, that person generally has no legal action for damages in the absence of indemnification legislation. The third section argues that society has a moral obligation to assist the wrongfully convicted; that indemnification legislation is a better approach than reliance on ''moral obligation" bills; and that enacting legislation is possible - just …

Affirmative Action In South Africa: Transformation Or Tokenism, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Violence Against Aboriginal Women In Australia: Possibilities For Redress Within The International Human Rights Framework, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This Article addresses the issue of violence against Aboriginal women. Part I concerns the historical violenceagainst Aboriginal people generally, and Part II concerns violence against Aboriginal women in particular. Part III considers how the priorities and perspectives of Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal women differ insignificant ways despite their congruence in others. In particular, the Article evaluates the awkward relationship between Aboriginal women and the largely white feminist movement in Australia as a consequence of these different priorities and perspectives, and suggests how political victories for white or non-Aboriginal women could be translated into gains for Aboriginal women. The fourth part …

Transitional Jurisprudence: The Role Of Law In Political Transformation., Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Creation Of South Africa's Constitution: Introduction, Stephen J. Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Introduction (Symposium: Police Corruption, Municipal Corruption: Cures At What Cost?), Ross Sandler

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Foreword (Symposium: Challenges In Immigration Law And Policy: An Agenda For The Twenty-First Century)., Carol Buckler

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The United States Supreme Court And The Protection Of Refugees, Lung-Chu Chen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The United States Supreme Court And The Protection Of Refugees, Lung-Chu Chen

Articles & Chapters

The problem of refugees is a worldwide phenomenon. The

twentieth century has been called the century of refugees. Its

history is replete with mass displacements of peoples fleeing war,

political oppression, human rights deprivations or disasters of one

kind or another. Currently, there are about seventeen million refugees

around the world. The specter of masses of refugees huddled

at national boundaries seeking asylum is common to the experience

of many nations. The United States, being a nation of

immigrants and a land of opportunity, is certainly not immune

from such pressures, as most recently illustrated by the exodus of

the …

The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child: A Policy-Oriented Overview, Lung-Chu Chen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Protection Of Persons (Natural And Juridical), Lung-Chu Chen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Gideon's Shelter: The Need To Recognize A Right To Counsel For Indigent Defendants In Eviction Proceedings, Andrew Scherer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Responses To World War Two Criminals And Human Rights Violators: National And Comparative Perspectives; European, American, And Canadian Responses (Panel Discussion: Holocaust And Human Rights Law: The First International Conference), Ruti G. Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Treatment Refusals For The Critically And Terminally Ill: Proposed Rules For The Family, The Physician, And The State, Stephen A. Newman

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.