Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Double-Helix Double-Edged Sword: Comparing Dna Retention Policies Of The United States And The United Kingdom, Erica S. Deray

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Forensic scientists have used DNA profiling technologies to link suspects to crimes since Alec Jeffreys first proposed the idea in the 1970s. Recognizing the potential for using DNA databases to solve crimes and to prevent future crimes, England and Wales attempted to greatly expand its DNA database by allowing for the collection and indefinite retention of DNA profiles from arrestees. The European Court of Human Rights, however, issued a ruling in 2008 in the case of S. & Marper v. United Kingdom, advising the United Kingdom to restrict use of DNA profiles from arrestees and to establish time frames for …

Managing Forced Displacement By Law In Africa: The Role Of The New African Union Idps Convention, Won Kidane

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article provides a critical appraisal of the newly adopted African IDPs Convention. In particular, it offers a detailed analysis of the Convention's transformation of the UN Guiding Principles into legally binding rules for the management of the phenomenon of internal displacement in Africa. By definition, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are persons who have not crossed international frontiers and are citizens of the state within which they find themselves. Although their conditions may be similar to refugees, who are necessarily aliens to the host community, their legal status is not analogous. At the most basic level, there is no doctrinal …

Foreign Official Immunity After Samantar: A United States Government Perspective, Harold H. Koh

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

I am delighted to speak here at Vanderbilt regarding the U.S. Government's perspective on Foreign Official Immunity after Samantar v. Yousuf.' In the Samantar case, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the immunity of foreign government officials sued in their personal capacity in U.S. courts, including for alleged human rights violations, is not controlled by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, but rather, by immunity determinations made by the Executive Branch. Let me break my topic today into three parts: first, the world of foreign official immunity as it existed before the Samantar case; second, the Supreme Court's …

State Immunity And Human Rights: Heads And Walls, Hearts And Minds, Roger O'Keefe

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article suggests that arguments against the availability of state immunity as a bar to civil actions alleging internationally wrongful ill-treatment abroad are not only destined to fall by and large on deaf ears but are also misdirected as a matter both of fairness and of the ultimate policy objectives of human rights advocates. It would make more sense for victims' interest groups to target the failure of allegedly responsible states to afford victims the opportunity of a remedy and the failure of victims' states of nationality to do enough to defend their nationals' interests.

Italian Judges' Point Of View On Foreign States' Immunity, Elena Sciso

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Article gives an account of the most recent Italian practice as regarding foreign states' immunity from the jurisdiction of the forum state. In the absence of domestic laws regulating the matter, Italian courts thus far have been directly applying international customary law, making recourse to a progressive interpretation of international rules. In the past, Italian judicial practice together with the Belgian one gave a great contribution to the consolidation of the restrictive immunity theory. In the last few years, Italian courts have lifted immunity with respect to acts of a foreign state qualified as "acta iure imperii" in civil …

From Ideology To Pragmatism: China's Position On Humanitarian Intervention In The Post-Cold War Era, Jonathan E. Davis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article fills a gap in the literature by examining in depth China's state practice and official pronouncements in respect of nine post-Cold War cases typically cited by academics when considering the international legal status of humanitarian intervention. The majority of today's commentary and scholarship holds that the People's Republic of China's position on sovereignty and intervention remains inflexible and absolutist, much as it was for the PRC's first four decades. This Article contends that this view is outdated and overly simplistic: while China continues to champion a strong conception of state sovereignty in interstate relations, it has signaled a …

Abusing The Authority Of The State: Denying Foreign Official Immunity For Egregious Human Rights Abuses, Beth Stephens

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Government officials accused of human rights abuses often claim that they are protected by state immunity because only the state can be held responsible for acts committed by its officials. This claim to immunity is founded on two interrelated errors. First, the post-World War II human rights transformation of international law has rendered obsolete the view that a state can protect its own officials from accountability for human rights violations. Second, officials can be held individually responsible for their own actions even when international law also holds the states liable for those acts. This Article begins with an analysis of …

Forced To Flee And Forced To Repatriate? How The Cessation Clause Of Article 1c(5) And (6) Of The 1951 Refugee Convention Operates In International Law And Practice, Marissa E. Cwik

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The purpose of refugee law is to provide international protection for vulnerable people who are denied state protection. In fulfilling this purpose, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and asylum states have different legal foundations and implementing materials. When terminating refugee status and protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the obligations and legal authorities of UNHCR and asylum states differ. The UNHCR implementing statute allows the facilitation of voluntary repatriation when refugees can return in safety and with dignity. In contrast, host states are able to mandate repatriation when a change in …

The Conflict Between The Alien Tort Statute Litigation And Foreign Amnesty Laws, Carlee M. Hobbs

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since the landmark case Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, foreign individuals have increasingly utilized the Alien Tort Statute to raise claims of human rights violations in the United States federal courts. Defendants, however, have alleged that principles of international comity necessitate dismissal of the suit when the foreign country in which the human rights violations occurred has granted defendants amnesty. While the doctrine of international comity permits dismissal if the case requires a federal court to adjudicate the internal affairs of a foreign country, the Supreme Court held, in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, that the Alien Tort Statue grants U.S. courts jurisdiction over …

A Global Water Apartheid: From Revelation To Resolution, Itzchak Kornfeld

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It is well settled in international human rights law that a human right to water exists. Nevertheless, to date, there has been little scholarship about what the practical contours of the right should be. If legal tools are to benefit the world's poor and disenfranchised, they cannot be void due to the impossibility of implementation. This is the problem with the purported human right to water: it is quixotic.

This Article proposes a pragmatic solution to the potable water problem for the world's poor. The solution offered here is based on a model of privatized access to water grounded in …

Refugee Credibility Assessment And The "Religious Imposter" Problem, Michael Kagan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Credibility assessment in refugee status determination (RSD) poses unique challenges when the outcome of asylum applications turns on the question of whether an asylum seeker is actually a member of a persecuted religious minority. These cases require secular adjudicators to delve into matters of religious identity and faith that are, by their nature, subjective and beyond the realm of objective analysis. This Article explores practical means of addressing this challenge through a case study of the RSD interviews of Eritrean asylum seekers in Egypt who based their refugee claims on Pentecostal religious associations. Analysis of the interview methods used in …

The Responsibility To Protect And The Decline Of Sovereignty: Free Speech Protection Under International Law, William Magnuson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

State sovereignty has long held a revered post in international law, but it received a blow in the aftermath of World War II, when the world realized the full extent of atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis on their own citizens. In the postwar period, the idea that individuals possessed rights independent of their own states gained a foothold in world discussions, and a proliferation of human rights treaties guaranteeing fundamental rights followed. These rights were, for the most part, unenforceable, though, and in the 1990s, a number of humanitarian catastrophes (in Kosovo, Rwanda, and Somalia) galvanized the international community to …

Missed Opportunity: Congress's Attempted Response To The World's Demand For The Violence Against Women Act, Brenton T. Culpepper

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Morrison struck down, as a violation of the Commerce Clause, § 13,981 of the Violence Against Women Act, that provided a private right of action for victims of gender-motivated violence to assert against their abusers. However, § 13,981 should have been affirmed as implementing legislation designed to fulfill U.S. obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and customary international law. Recognizing § 13,981 as implementing legislation serves as a foundation for the United States to restore itself as a legitimate human rights leader capable of both appreciating its own international …

One New President, One New Patriarch, And A Generous Disregard For The Constitution:, Robert C. Blitt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The government of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)--the country's predominant religious group--recently underwent back-to-back changes in each institution's respective leadership. This coincidence of timing affords a unique opportunity to reassess the status of constitutional secularism and church-state relations in the Russian Federation. Following a discussion of the presidential and patriarchal elections that occurred between March 2008 and January 2009, the Article surveys recent developments in Russia as they relate to the nation's constitutional obligations. In the face of this analysis, the Article argues that the government and the ROC alike continue to willfully undermine the constitutional principles of …

Enforcing Human Rights In U.S. Courts And Abroad: The Alien Tort Statute And Other Approaches, John B. Bellinger, Iii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

U.S. foreign policy--under every Administration--involves promoting respect for human rights around the world. Most of you probably know that the State Department spends a great deal of time and effort abroad, persuading foreign governments to change their human rights behavior and administering programs to advance the cause of human rights. What many of you may not be aware of, though, is that we are now quite frequently occupied "domestically" with suits by foreign plaintiffs in U.S. courts--often arising from conduct that occurred in other countries and has no significant connection to the U.S., that may not be consistent with our …

Non-Refoulement: The Search For A Consistent Interpretation Of Article 33, Ellen F. D'Angelo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international community rose to the challenge of addressing mass migration with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention). The 1951 Convention established several important concepts as binding international law, including the requirements for refugee classification and the principle of non-refoulement. The duty of non-refoulement prohibits state-parties from expelling or returning a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers or territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. According to the definition in Article 33, non-refoulement is applicable …

Treaty Bodies And The Interpretation Of Human Rights, Kerstin Mechlem

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The eight United Nations human rights treaty bodies play an important role in establishing the normative content of human rights and in giving concrete meaning to individual rights and state obligations. Unfortunately, their output often suffers from methodological weaknesses and lack of coherence and analytical rigor, which compromise its legitimacy.

This Article suggests that these deficits could in large part be addressed if the committees applied the customary legal rules of interpretation codified in Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention), which requires attention to the text, context, and object and purpose …

The Emperor Is Still Naked: Why The Protocol On The Rights Of Women In Africa Leaves Women Exposed To More Discrimination, Kristin Davis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa entered into force in 2005. Met with much celebration for the protection it would provide African women, the Protocol was heralded as one of the most forward-looking human rights instruments. Now, fifteen years after it was conceived, the Protocol deserves a full assessment of the issues that it has faced in accession and will face in implementation. This Note analyzes the way in which the Protocol was developed and the effect the Protocol's language will have on its ability to achieve its …

Treason In The Age Of Terrorism: An Explanation And Evaluation Of Treason's Return In Democratic States, Kristen E. Eichensehr

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Treason is an ancient crime, but it fell into disuse in most Western democratic states after World War I. Now it is making a comeback with prosecutions or threatened prosecutions against a new type of enemy--accused terrorists--in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. In the postwar period, commentators wrongly argued that treason would no longer be prosecuted because it is antiliberal, too difficult to prove, unnecessary because modern democracies are stable and secure, and premised on an extinct sense of loyalty to the state. This Article begins by debunking these claims and explaining treason's recent reappearance. First, democratic …

The Crisis Of International Law, Rafael Domingo

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article delves into the reasons for the current crisis in the traditional international law system, considering how the system developed through the centuries in order to respond to the needs and circumstances of past historical epochs, as well as how the system is no longer capable of meeting the unique developments and needs of life in the Third Millennium. The Article considers the fundamental problems of a state-based system of international law that--rather than focusing on the prime actor and focus of the law, the human person, and his inherent dignity--concentrates on and gives enormous power to the artificial …

Duress, Demanding Heroism, And Proportionality, Luis E. Chiesa

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article discusses the Erdemovic case in order to examine whether duress should be a defense to a crime against humanity. Although the Article contends that the arguments in favor of permitting the defendant to claim duress weaken as the seriousness of the offense charged increases, the Article also argues that the duress defense should usually succeed if it can be proved that the actor could not have prevented the threatened harm by refusing to capitulate to the coercion.

After balancing the competing considerations, the Author concludes that the defendant in Erdemovic should have been able to claim duress as …

Whose Child Is This?: Genetic Analysis And Family Reunification Immigration In France, Tera R. Murdock

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In an attempt to limit fraudulent family reunification immigration and control how many migrants enter its borders, France statutorily implemented the use of DNA testing in family reunification immigration in late 2007. Where an immigrating child possesses suspicious documentation, and the child is seeking to reunite with his or her mother in France, the statute provides for voluntary DNA testing to establish that the child has a biological connection with the mother. The requirement of proof of a biological link between family members is diametrically opposed to family recognition policies that apply to French citizens, which emphasize the establishment of …

Resolving The Dissonance Of Rodriguez And The Right To Education, Angela A. Holland

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Education exists as a fundamental right recognized by countries worldwide. Overwhelming support for the right to education is reflected in international human rights instruments, including the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Notwithstanding a near global consensus on this issue, the United States has refused to recognize a federal right to education since the 1973 Supreme Court decision San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez. The ill-effects of Rodriguez linger today; glaring disparities continue to mar the educational prospects of women, minorities, and poor children in the United States. …

Trade, Empires, And Subjects--China-Africa Trade, Uche E. Ofodile

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since 2000, the interest of the People's Republic of China (China) in Africa has grown steadily. Trade between China and Africa has grown exponentially. China-Africa trade volume increased from $10 billion to $18 billion between 2000 and 2003. In 2005, total trade between Africa and China surged to $40 billion, and in 2006 China-Africa trade was valued at $55.5 billion. A third of China's crude oil imports come from Africa. In the West, reaction to China's involvement in Africa has bordered on suspicion and paranoia. Policy makers and analysts are concerned that China could gain control over Africa's vast and …

Comparative Models Of Reporting Mechanisms On The Status Of Trafficking In Human Beings, Mohamed Y. Mattar

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A comprehensive approach to combating trafficking in human beings requires precise knowledge of the scope of the problem and constant evaluation of government responses. Reporting on the status of human trafficking achieves both goals. This Article is designed to examine the various human trafficking reporting mechanisms, including reports that states are required to submit to the United Nations as well as national reports whereby governments engage in a process of self-assessment. Comparative models from Europe and the United States will be examined. The Article analyzes reports released by interministerial task forces as well as congressional hearings held on progress made …

An Ounce Of Prevention: Improving The Preventative Measures Of The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Takiyah R. Mcclain

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that affects the lives of millions of people, especially young girls and women. In an effort to combat this issue, the United States enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. The Act has had some positive effects on the trafficking industry, but its preventative measures overlook or fail to deal sufficiently with some key factors: human rights issues, gender and economic inequalities, and sensationalism of the sex industry.

This Note discusses these three issues and their importance in establishing more effective preventative measures. Additionally, this Note looks to two approaches to trafficking, the …

Liberalizing Trade In Agriculture And Food Security--Mission Impossible?, Christine Kaufmann, Simone Heri

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) foresees that trade should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living. It is undisputed that raising living standards contributes to the implementation of the right to food. Indeed, state parties to the WTO have obligations regarding the right to food not only under the international trade system, but also under the human rights regime. All WTO state parties are bound by customary human rights law, and most have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, of which Article 11 contains the most important codification of the …

The Limits Of International Human Rights Law And The Role Of Food Sovereignty In Protecting People From Further Trade Liberalization Under The Doha Round Negotiations, Wenonah Hauter

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

International free trade agreements under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) seriously undermine the international human right to adequate food. Conceivably, those deprived should be able to seek redress under Article 11 of the International. Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which spells out the right to adequate food. Unfortunately, while the concept of the right to adequate food has developed substantially since its inception, its implementation has been slow. It is not a well-developed tool for individuals or the groups representing them to redress harms that will likely result from the current Doha Round negotiations …

The Legality Of The West Bank Wall: Israel's High Court Of Justice V. The International Court Of Justice, Victor Kattan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article offers a critique of the decision reached by Israel's High Court of Justice in the Mara'abe Case (2005) as well as some aspects of the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2004). The Article takes a socio-legal and facts-based approach to analyzing the decisions' discussions of settlements, self-determination, and self-defense, examining all three topics in light of several recent legal and political developments.

When Globalization Hits Home: International Family Law Comes Of Age, Barbara Stark

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Not that long ago, international family law (IFL) referred to a series of multilateral conventions basically concerned with conflicts of law questions. It could be studied as part of a course on family law or as part of a course on conflicts of law. But IFL, or family law in which more than one State has an interest, has grown up and become a subject of its own. This is not merely a curricular development. Rather, it reflects and reinforces two of the most powerful trends of the last fifteen years: globalization and the spread of human rights. Globalization is …