Human Rights Law Commons^™

Summary Report: Second Conference On Attribution Science And Climate Law, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Climate School hosted the Second Conference on Attribution Science and Climate Law at Columbia University on June 10–11, 2026. This event brought together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners to discuss recent developments in attribution science and the field’s relevance to climate law and policy. Participants included physical scientists, public health researchers, economists, social scientists, legal scholars, advocates, and policy experts. This report provides a written summary of the conference proceedings.

Support The Icc As A Vital Court Of Last Resort For Victims Of Grave International Crimes, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Gabor Rona

Online Publications

This public statement, issued on International Justice Day (July 17, 2026), affirms support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an independent judicial institution and a court of last resort for victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Signed by more than 100 organizations and individuals, including legal scholars, practitioners, human rights advocates, and civil society organizations, the statement expresses concern over efforts to undermine the ICC's independence and functioning. It calls on the United States to reaffirm its longstanding commitment to the rule of law, judicial independence, and international accountability, emphasizing the importance …

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Inc. V. State Ex Rel. Office Of The Nevada Attorney General (Civil), 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 40 (May 28, 2026), Charnel Gibson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Nevada’s parental notification abortion statute is likely unconstitutionally vague because it fails to provide physicians with adequate notice of the conduct required and permits arbitrary enforcement.

Cardozo Celebrates 34th Inspire! Awards, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law celebrated the 34th INSPIRE! Awards, recognizing alumni, students, and community members for their outstanding commitment to public service. The event honored leaders in immigration advocacy, presented student leadership and service awards, and featured a live recording of the SPARKS podcast focused on careers in public interest law.

All But The Death Penalty: Incomplete Protection For Civilian Internee Mothers, Minju Kwon

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How did unrecognised gender biases impact the codification of international humanitarian law (IHL)? While recent studies on IHL have highlighted historical lawmaking processes, little research has examined gender biases behind the codification of the “Protection of Women” in the Geneva Conventions and additional protocols. This study examines gender biases and state interests reflected in the codification process by focusing on Article 76§3 of the 1977 Protocol Additional I, which incompletely protects civilian women internees who are pregnant or have dependent children by prohibiting execution but leaving room for pronouncement of the death penalty. Referring to the theory of benevolent sexism, …

Red, Blue, And Bordered: Factors Influencing Immigration Attitudes, Estefania Morales Vilchis

Political Science Student Papers and Posters

The paper will explore the various social and individual variables that will impact how people perceive immigration as either beneficial to society or a societal threat. Some of the primary variables that will be examined in detail are one’s political affiliation, age, and geographical location; this will address the profound "why" behind our current beliefs on newcomers. The study will particularly address the "Contact Hypothesis" versus "Group Threat Theory" through the lens of how one's personal experiences with immigrants, or lack of, will shape public opinion. The study will focus on the rising psychological issue of "demographic anxiety", specifically, fears …

Cardozo Law Announces Three New Faculty Appointments, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law announced the appointments of three new faculty members: Assistant Professor of Law Mridula Raman, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Civil Rights Clinic Stefen R. Short, and Harold A. Stevens Visiting Assistant Professor of Law Fregine Sheehy. Their expertise spans criminal law, civil rights, disability justice, critical race theory, evidence, and human rights law.

Blue, Red, And Bordered, Estefania Morales Vilchis

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The paper will explore the various social and individual variables that will impact how people perceive immigration as either beneficial to society or a societal threat. Some of the primary variables that will be examined in detail are one’s political affiliation, age, and geographical location; this will address the profound "why" behind our current beliefs on newcomers. The study will particularly address the "Contact Hypothesis" versus "Group Threat Theory" through the lens of how one's personal experiences with immigrants, or lack of, will shape public opinion. The study will focus on the rising psychological issue of "demographic anxiety", specifically, fears …

Clihhr Leads Push For Regulatory Scrutiny Of Amazon Mining Project, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

The Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR), in collaboration with the University of Toronto's International Human Rights Program, filed requests with U.S. and Canadian securities regulators seeking investigations into alleged misrepresentations related to Brazil Potash's proposed mining project in the Brazilian Amazon. The initiative highlights concerns regarding Indigenous rights, environmental impacts, and investor disclosure.

Upr Report Submissions: Compiled By The International Human Rights Clinic At The University Of Illinois Chicago School Of Law And The Human Rights At Home Litigation Clinic At The Saint Louis University School Of Law, Sarah Dàvila A., Lauren E. Bartlett

Faculty White Papers

This unofficial summary compiles information from reports submitted by civil society and others for the Fourth Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of the United States.

The authors reviewed the submissions, which are reports from civil society and others, and grouped issues thematically, using the 2020 UPR themes and recommendations as the organizing framework. Within each theme, the authors synthesized recurring issues, patterns, and concerns identified across multiple submissions. For each issue, the unofficial summary follows a structured approach that presents international obligations first, followed by United States domestic law, and then facts drawn from the submissions. However, where reports …

My Right To Dominate You: The Populist Perversion Of Human Rights, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

A constitutional “right” is a legal technology designed to protect the weak from the strong. In the twenty-first-century United States, however, constitutional rights have increasingly been interpreted and deployed, by both litigants and courts, to secure the ability of the strong to dominate the weak. It is quickly becoming standard practice among right-wing American populists to claim that the deployment of rights in ways that limit the ability of the strong to dominate those weaker than themselves is to make victims of the strong. Freedom, in the imagination of American populists, means the freedom to dominate disfavored others.

This paper …

Living To Die: Life Imprisonment Without Remission Or Parole In India, Preeti Pratishruti Dash, Rushil Batra

Articles

This article critically examines the Supreme Court of India’s use of life imprisonment without the possibility of remission or parole (LWORP) as a sentencing alternative to the death penalty. While the Constitution Bench in V Sriharan v Union of India (2015) upheld the constitutionality of such sentences, it did not articulate principled standards governing their imposition. This article argues that the absence of such standards has produced a vacuum in LWORP sentencing. To substantiate this claim, we analyse fifty-three Supreme Court judgments delivered between 2016 and 2024 in which death sentences were commuted to LWORP. The analysis reveals widespread inconsistency …

Conflict As Catalyst: The Role Of Conflict In Creating Political Space For Women, Christie S. Warren

Faculty Publications

Although the benefits associated with the presence of women in political decision-making positions are uncontested, global statistics relating to the number of women in political leadership roles paint a disappointing picture of underutilized resources. While rights-based advocacy, quotas, and economic incentives are commonly posited as effective strategies to increase the number of women active in public spaces, several studies have shown that the law alone is not sufficient to bring about changes in gender norms unless the underlying structural constructs that perpetuate inequalities privileging dominant groups are addressed first. Conflict, especially when driven by rejection of those inequalities, can hasten …

People's Upr Written Record: Compiled By The International Human Rights Clinic At The University Of Illinois Chicago School Of Law And The Human Rights At Home Litigation Clinic At The Saint Louis University School Of Law, Sarah Dávila A., Lauren E. Bartlett

Faculty White Papers

This written record compiles the lived experiences of directly impacted persons. Directly impacted persons include people who have personally faced the conditions, policies, or practices documented in this written record in the United States and who have chosen to share their testimonies. The testimonies in this written record include those provided in-person, via video recording, which have been transcribed, or in writing. Testimonies are presented anonymously with ▊ sign as names and identifiable information has been redacted. Their accounts provide first-hand evidence of how these human rights issues operate in practice, offering essential context and depth that cannot be captured …

Cognitive Warfare: Generative Ai, False Realities, And International Humanitarian Law, Gary Corn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This paper, written as a draft chapter for the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare's forthcoming book on International Law and Artificial Intelligence in Armed Conflict: The AI-Cyber Interplay, explores the IHL implications of a specific subfield or category of AI—Generative AI (GenAI). This new and rapidly evolving technology does not merely analyze or classify data; it also generates original image, audio, and video content. This synthetic content can be highly deceptive and manipulative, as in the case of so-called “deepfakes.” Combined with other information and communications technologies (ICT) and AI capabilities, GenAI has the potential to drastically transform …

The Human Right To A Healthy Environment: Corporate Responsibility In Critical Mineral Extraction, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This paper argues that the emerging human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment should guide the governance of critical minerals by incorporating the corporate responsibility to respect human rights throughout supply chains to ensure a racially just energy transition. It frames the climate crisis within the history and political economy of racial capitalism, contending that without rights-based guardrails, mineral supply chains risk reproducing the extractive harms and racialized disparities of the fossil fuel era, including labor abuses, displacement, water depletion, and violence disproportionately borne by racialized and Indigenous communities. Methodologically, the paper combines doctrinal analysis of international norms …

An Analysis Of Global And Regional Human Rights Standards On Gender-Based Violence, Tamar Ezer, Denisse R. Cordova Montes

Articles

No abstract provided.

El Salvador At The Crossroads: Crimes Against Humanity Under The Public Security Policy, Susana L. Sacouto, Claudia Martin, Gino Costa, Santiago Canton, Jose Antonio Guevara

Research Reports & White Papers

The International Group of Experts for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations under the State of Emergency in El Salvador (GIPES) presents its final report entitled: “El Salvador at the Crossroads: Crimes against Humanity under the Public Security Policy.”

GIPES was formed with the aim of investigating the alleged serious human rights violations taking place in the context of the State of Exception public security policy that has been in place of El Salvador since March 2022 and determining whether they might constitute crimes against humanity. The group is made up of five internationally recognized jurists: Susana SáCouto, …

P*Law Week 2026: Student-Led Expert Panels Focusing On Public Service Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law's annual Public Law Advocacy Week (P*LAW), hosted by the Center for Public Service Law, featured student-led panels on disability rights, labor law, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration law, environmental law, and international accountability. The event brought together students, alumni, faculty, and practitioners to discuss pressing public interest issues and careers in public service law.

A Proposal For Citizenship As Reparations For Descendants Of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Dan Olson

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Milbank Expands Partnership With The Perlmutter Center For Legal Justice At Cardozo Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Milbank LLP announced a significant expansion of its partnership with the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo School of Law, increasing its charitable commitment to $2.5 million through 2029. The expanded funding will strengthen the Milbank Exoneration Review Unit, support additional staffing, and advance post-conviction advocacy for wrongfully convicted and excessively sentenced individuals.

The Laura And Isaac Perlmutter Foundation Expands Support For The Perlmutter Center For Legal Justice At Cardozo Law Of Yeshiva University, Bringing Their Total Contribution To $16 Million, With Up To An Additional $2 Million Committed, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

The Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation announced an additional $500,000 gift to the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo School of Law, along with a four-year matching commitment of up to $2 million. The expanded support will strengthen the Center's work on wrongful convictions, clemency, resentencing, and experiential legal education while advancing criminal justice reform initiatives.

Perlmutter Center's Derrick Hamilton, Reform Advocates Secure Passage Of New York State's Prison Justice Omnibus Package, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law recognized Derrick Hamilton, Deputy Director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice, and fellow criminal justice reform advocates for their role in advancing New York State's Prison Justice Omnibus Package. The legislation expands transparency, oversight, and accountability in state correctional facilities and reflects the advocacy of the End Prison Violence campaign.

Cultural Superimposition In Humanitarian Protection, Jocelyn B. Cazares Willingham

Journal Articles

The second Trump administration began with an onslaught of executive orders, many aimed at curtailing the “invasion” of undocumented noncitizens into the U.S.. The purported danger? Hostile cartel, gang, and transnational criminal organization members entering the U.S. as wolves in sheep’s clothing— a phobia fueled by White supremacist ideologies like the Great Replacement theory that sensationalize outlier cases as the norm. Yet the reality behind the hysteria is that most of these noncitizens come to the U.S. in pursuit of refuge. They leave their countries, homes, and communities, not to wreak havoc in the U.S., but to flee the very …

Human Rights In The U.S.: Handbook For Public Interest Attorneys (2026 Version), Lauren E. Bartlett

Faculty White Papers

Legal services attorneys, public defenders, law clinics, and other public interest law practitioners, fight every day to secure basic rights for the most vulnerable persons in the U.S.—among them, people living in poverty, racial minorities, children, the elderly, and immigrants. Yet, U.S. law more often than not falls short of providing a “floor” of minimum protections for these marginalized individuals. More expansive guarantees are found under international human rights law, and some advocates in the U.S. successfully incorporate human rights norms, language and strategies into their domestic work to help advocate for increased protections.

This Handbook was designed for attorneys …

The Lives Of Fritz Haber And Of International Law: Entwined Tales Of Tragedy And Irony, Mark A. Drumbl, C. William Vardy

Scholarly Articles

This article recounts the life of international law through the story of a single individual. This is the narrative of biographical international law. The subject — equally protagonist and antagonist — of this article is Fritz Haber, a German-Jewish scientist born in 1868. Devoted to the Kaiser, Haber was declared a war criminal by the Allies following World War I for having been ‘the father’ of chemical warfare. Haber argued that chemical weapons were more humane than conventional weapons. While under this shadow, Haber also won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1920 for his pioneering work with ammonia …

Can – And Should – The Un Charter Be Saved?, Steven Ratner

Articles

World leaders from Canada’s Mark Carney to Germany’s Friedrich Merz have announced the demise of the international rules that provided some degree of order to international relations since the Second World War.2 The immediate cause is clear to them and others – a seeming abandonment of international law, and the UN Charter in particular, by the United States government, its chief architect and advocate. The U.S. actions and rhetoric over Venezuela and Iran – wars the United States has started – as well as Greenland and Ukraine seem to have confirmed the worst about the future of international law.

The Non-Punishment Principle And Restorative Justice, Rachel J. Wechsler

Faculty Publications

The non-punishment principle is a legal norm that has increasingly gained legitimacy over the past quarter-century within international, regional, and domestic law on human trafficking. At its core, this principle opposes the punishment of human trafficking victims for unlawful conduct they engage in as a consequence of their trafficking victimization. Little is known about the presence and operation of the non-punishment principle within U.S. law. This Article fills this gap as the first to comprehensively map and analyze the principle’s instantiation across state and federal law.

From this new map, three key themes emerge. First, the non-punishment principle has a …

An International Framework For Marriage Promotion, Jessica Tueller

Faculty Articles

Governments across the globe lately have been raising the alarm about declining marriage rates and adopting a wide variety of measures to increase these rates. This article presents a framework, distilled from human rights law, for assessing whether such measures are in keeping with States’ international obligations to eliminate all forms of coercion and discrimination in their policies and practices concerning diverse family structure and composition. The framework draws clear boundaries between measures that are permissible under human rights law and measures that are prohibited by human rights law. It also provides a tool for evaluating marriage-promotion measures that, although …

Comparative Visions For U.S. Group-Based Asylum Proposal, Lauren N. Hughes

Scholarly Articles

Images of asylum seekers and migrants desperate to enter the United States at the southern border abound in U.S. media. Less familiar to the American public, but intertwined with the highly politicized modern migration crisis, is the ever-growing backlog of pending asylum applications before both the Asylum Office and Immigration Courts. This backlog has many causes, including underresourced agencies, a growing number of asylum applicants, the high evidentiary burden and complexities inherent to asylum law, and the lack of counsel for many asylum seekers. In response to this crippling backlog, some scholars propose the adoption of a “group-based” asylum mechanism. …