Human Rights Law Commons^™

Prisoner Voting Rights In Canada: Rejecting The Notion Of Temporary Outcasts, Debra Parkes

All Faculty Publications

This book chapter examines a successful prisoner voting rights case in Canada and suggests that the opposition in the U.S. to postincarceration legal, social, and economic consequences of criminal conviction would benefit from attention to the way the continued construction of prisoners as temporary outcasts resonates positively in society, assisting to legitimate the myriad penalties and consequences imposed on prisoners' release.

Section 7 And The Politics Of Social Justice, Margot Young

All Faculty Publications

This paper examines the transformative potential of section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its potential usefulness in the struggle against social and economic injustice central to Canadian society. Can section 7 of the Charter encompass the protection of social and economic rights? In other words, can section 7 be interpreted to capture the progressive goal of economic redistribution? Three separate issues are considered, each providing different perspectives on the issue. First jurisprudence (doctrine) is considered, i.e. how section 7 can encompass substantive claims to economic redistributive justice. Secondly, the institutional appropriateness and justiciability of socio-economic …

Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Christopher J. Tyson

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Banned And Enforced: The Immediate Answer To A Problem Without An Immediate Solution, Alison W. Manhoff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

India has banned the use of ultrasound technology to determine the sex of a fetus for more than a decade. Despite this ban, India's 2001 census showed that for every one thousand boys under the age of six there are only 927 girls. There is speculation that this striking gender imbalance is largely the result of the abortion of fetuses discovered to be female after a sex determination ultrasound or amniocentesis procedure. Traditionally, the desire not to have a female child is viewed as a consequence of the dowry system that is prevalent in India. Commentators often propose efforts to …

Human Rights And Bioethics: Formulating A Universal Right To Health, Health Care, Or Health Protection?, George P. Smith, Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Codifying, and then implementing, an international right to health, health care, or protection is beset with serious roadblocks--foremost among them being contentious issues of indeterminacy, justiciability, and progressive realization.

Although advanced--and to some degree recognized under the rubric of a social or cultural entitlement within the law of human rights and, more particularly, the U.S. Declaration on Human Rights, together with International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and presently UNESCO's Draft Declaration on Universal Norms on Bioethics--attainment of such a universal right to …

Rights And The Need For Objective Moral Limits, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

In this article, we will examine the natural law conception that rights are rooted in human nature, which nature itself is of divine origin through creation. We will compare this natural law concept to the premises and social consequences of the secular, relativist, and individualist approaches common to the jurisprudence of the Enlightenment. This article will offer the conclusion that only a grounding of right in the nature of persons as immortal beings created by God can offer moral and cultural security against the depersonalization characteristic of regimes premised on a relativist individualism.

Asians, Gay Marriage, And Immigration: Family Unification At A Crossroads, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

Family unification has long been a significant component of U.S. immigration policy, and the Asian Pacific American (APA) community has long been a champion of laws that strengthen America's commitment to this goal. The recent emergence of same-gender marriages among state and local governments has caused society to consider more closely its definition of the family, challenging the traditional notion that only civil unions between heterosexuals should be celebrated. But because U.S. immigration law does not include a gay or lesbian partner within its statutory definition of spouse, binational same-gender couples may not legally remain in the country together, even …

Indigenous Peoples’ Participatory Rights In Relation To Decisions About Natural Resource Extraction: The More Fundamental Issue Of What Rights Indigenous Peoples Have In Lands And Resources, James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

Pluralism And Universalism In European Human Rights Law, Paolo G. Carozza

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Introduction And Postscript: Partial Progress On Un Reform, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

The conference on Reforming the United Nations: The use of force to safeguard international security and human rights, co-sponsored by Northwestern University School of Law and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Faculty of Law as their Fourth Annual Transatlantic Dialogue, was held in January 2005.

Its timing was propitious. It was held one month after publication of the report of the prestigious and geographically diverse High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Among many other proposals to reform the UN, the High-Level Panel recommended expansion of the Security Council, new guidelines for use of force …

Indigenous Peoples' Rights To Water Under International Norms, David H. Getches

Publications

In this article, Dean Getches examines the nature of international law as it relates to indigenous water rights and evaluates the kinds of claims that native peoples might assert when they are deprived of access to water. Around the world, indigenous peoples have experienced depletion or pollution of their traditional water sources caused by the uses made by dominant, non-native societies. As a result, native peoples' ability to perform water-dependent vocations like farming and fishing, and to perpetuate cultures and spiritual practices requiring water is limited. While a few countries recognize water rights of indigenous peoples in their domestic laws, …

Divergent Discourses About International Law, Indigenous Peoples, And Rights Over Lands And Natural Resources: Toward A Realist Trend, S. James Anaya

Publications

In this article renowned scholar S. James Anaya analyzes the divergent assessments of international law's treatment of indigenous peoples' demands to lands and natural resources. The author explores several strains of arguments that have been advanced within this debate, including state-centered arguments and human rights-based arguments. The author also examines the shortcomings of recurring interpretive approaches to international law that consider indigenous peoples' rights to land and resources. From this analysis the author identifies a more promising approach within the human rights framework--which he describes as a realist approach--that focuses on the confluence of values, power, and change. The author …

Inter-American System, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Differing Conceptions Of Development And The Content Of International Development Law, Daniel D. Bradlow

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

International development law is the branch of international law that deals with the rights and duties of states and other actors in the development process. Its original content was premised on a particular generally accepted understanding of development. Under the pressure of the problems of development that arose during the 1970s and 1980s, this general agreement on the key issues in development disintegrated. As a consequence, the consensus on the content of international development law also began to break down.

Today, there are competing idealized views of development that shape the current debate about both development, and the content of …

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

A Property Rights Approach To Sacred Sites Cases: Asserting A Place For Indians As Nonowners, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

Although the Free Exercise Clause prohibits governmental interference with religion, American Indians have been unsuccessful in challenging government actions that harm tribal sacred sites located on federal public lands. The First Amendment dimensions of these cases have been well studied by scholars, but this Article contends that it is also important to analyze them through a property law lens. Indeed, the Supreme Court has treated the federal government's ownership of public lands as a basis for denying Indian religious freedoms claims. This Article contends that such holdings rely on an "ownership model" of property law wherein the rights of the …

Book Review, Lakshman D. Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

National Identity And Liberalism In International Law: Three Models, Justin Deystone

Publications

No abstract provided.

Direct Vs. Indirect Obligations Of Corporations Under International Law, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

International law today addresses the conduct of private corporations in a variety of areas. With very few exceptions, however, international law regulates corporate conduct indirectly--that is, by requiring states to enact and enforce regulations applicable to corporations and other non-state actors. Only a small number of international legal norms--primarily those relating to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and forced labor--apply directly to non-state actors. Scholars have argued forcefully that international law should move in the direction of directly imposing obligations on corporations. These arguments overlook important aspects of the problem. If international legal norms were extended to corporations and backed …

Alvarez-Machain Ii: The Supreme Court's Reliance On The Non-Self-Executing Declaration In The Senate Resolution Giving Advice And Consent To The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, Malvina Halberstam

Articles

No abstract provided.

Walking While Muslim, Margaret Chon, Donna E. Arzt

Faculty Articles

In the post-9/11 era, what exactly is meant by race? This essay claims that both domestic civil rights law and international human rights law simultaneously create and obscure racial identity increasingly constructed through Muslim religious identity. The argument unfolds in several parts. First, by analogy to the racial formation process that occurred with the Japanese American community after World War II, we argue that a group's religious identity can contribute to the perception of a group as a racially different and inferior "other." Second, among other elements, religious identity is under-analyzed as a key element of racial formation. Third, post-9/11 …

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.
/="/">
/="/">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 …