Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act And Its Implications For Private Military Companies, Dustin M. Tipling

ExpressO

Private Military Companies (PMCs) are civilian staffed corporations that provide military (and law enforcement) services, logistics, and support under contract to a government both inside and outside the country’s borders. Prior to Congress passing the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, U.S. courts lacked jurisdiction to prosecute civilians accompanying United States’ Armed Forces overseas. This article will specifically address how the United States exercises jurisdiction and prosecutes the civilian employees of PMCs in United States courts for crimes they have committed in foreign countries while working under contract to the United States government.

The Regulation Of Intercountry Adoption, Mary E. Hansen, Daniel Pollack

ExpressO

As of January 2006, the United States was the only major receiver of children through intercountry adoption that had not implemented the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The U.S. signed the Hague Convention in 1994, but did not pass implementing legislation until 2000. Regulations pursuant to the legislation were proposed in 2003, but final regulations did not go into effect until March 2006. The slow pace was partly the result of Congressional wrangling over designation of a regulator and partly the result of a prolonged conversation between the designated regulator and the adoption community over specific regulations.

Finalization of …

Toward An International Standard Of Abortion Rights: Empirical Data From Africa, Chad M. Gerson

ExpressO

In the Fall of 2005 I published a brief Development in the Chicago Journal of International Law concerning the prospects for establishing the right to obtain an abortion as a fundamental human right. See 5 Chi. J. Int’l L. 753. In that article I argued that the right to choose and access to abortion services would greatly improve the health and status of women and children in the developing world.

In this article, I follow up with empirical data regarding the status of abortion rights in African countries. These data are compared to maternal and infant mortality and contraceptive use. …

Zoning And Eminent Domain Under The New Minimum Scrutiny, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

Recently the Supreme Court has made it clearer that minimum scrutiny is a factual analysis. Whether in any government action there is a rational relation to a legitimate interest is a matter of determining whether there is a policy maintaining important facts. This has come about in the Court’s emerging emphasis on developing fact-based criteria for determining government purpose. Thus, those who want to affect zoning and eminent domain outcomes should look to what the Court sees as important facts, and whether government action is maintaining those facts with its proposed land use or eminent domain action.

Lawrence V. Texas Overrules San Antonio School District. V. Rodriguez, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez used the scrutiny regime to decide whether there was an Equal Protection right to housing. However, Lawrence v. Texas abolished the scrutiny regime. So how do we evaluate whether there is an education right under Equal Protection? The right to education in the Texas Constitution shows us that we use the liberty Equal Protection right to determine if state laws are essential to education; this is the meaning of Lawrence's rule that laws are not permitted respecting liberty which do not "substantially further a legitimate state interest." Note that this takes substantially from intermediate …

Human Rights And Due Process Of Law, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

One of our constitutional rights, the right to due process of law, is terra incognita to most Americans, even though it is one of the most important constitutional rights. This article discusses the history of this fundamental right.

Democratic Governance: An Emerging Customary Norm?, Jackson N. Maogoto

ExpressO

International law has traditionally regarded the peoples of the world as being represented in the international arena by the governments in de facto control of their respective states. Except where such governments are imposed by foreign invasion or conduct themselves in ways inimical to international peace and security, these governments are conventionally deemed worthy of respect and protection under international law - in particular, respect regarding ‘matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction’ and protection ‘from the threat or use of force’. The method by which a government of domestic origin achieves or retains power was not ordinarily thought …

The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda: A Paper Umbrella In The Rain? Initial Pitfalls And Brighter Prospects, Jackson N. Maogoto

ExpressO

The tragedy which befell Rwanda in 1994 deserves a special place in the bloodstained pages of history. The Rwandan genocide merits distinction primarily because of its shocking efficiency, its scale and its proportional dimensions among the victim population. The Security Council's resolution establishing the ICTR articulates a set of decisions, assumptions, wishes, and objectives. Primarily, the States that voted in favour of the creation of the ICTR indicated that the root of the problem was individual violations of international criminal law. Only one State that voted for the resolution did not equate ipso facto ICTR actions with justice. That State …

Sovereignty In Transition: Human Rights And International Justice, Jackson N. Maogoto

ExpressO

Sovereign excesses in the twentieth century resulted in the murder of approximately 170,000,000 persons by their sovereign. This statistic, a potent testimony of sovereign excesses through gross and systematic human rights violations firmly places human rights and humanitarian problems on the international plane. This reality (identified and articulated in the Report of the Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change) firmly places human rights problems on the international plane and mandates a fundamental rethinking about the basis of sovereignty’s political and associational organization in the new millennium. This Article has as its modest aim an examination and analysis …

Traditional Values, Or A New Tradition Of Prejudice? The Boy Scouts Of America Vs. The Unitarian Universalist Association Of Congregations, Eric Alan Isaacson

ExpressO

President William Howard Taft, a Unitarian leader whose liberal faith had been viciously attacked by religious conservatives in the 1908 presidential campaign, used the White House as a platform in 1911 to launch a new nonsectarian organization for youth: The Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”). Lately, however, the BSA itself has come under the control of religious conservatives – who in 1992 banned Taft’s denomination from the BSA’s Religious Relationships Committee, and in 1998 threw Taft’s denomination out of its Religious Emblems Program. The denomination’s offense: A tradition of teaching its children that institutionalized discrimination is wrong. Unitarian Universalist religious …

Finding New Constitutional Rights Through The Supreme Court’S Evolving “Government Purpose” Test Under Minimum Scrutiny, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

By now we all are familiar with the litany of cases which refused to find elevated scrutiny for so-called “affirmative” or “social” rights such as education, welfare or housing: Lindsey v. Normet, San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, Dandridge v. Williams, DeShaney v. Winnebago County. There didn’t seem to be anything in minimum scrutiny which could protect such facts as education or housing, from government action. However, unobtrusively and over the years, the Supreme Court has clarified and articulated one aspect of minimum scrutiny which holds promise for vindicating facts. You will recall that under minimum scrutiny government’s action is …

Using Capture Theory And Chronology In Eminent Domain Proceedings, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

Capture theory--in which private purpose is substituted for government purpose--sheds light on a technique which is coming into greater use post-Kelo v. New London. That case affirmed that eminent domain use need only be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. Capture theory focuses litigators' attention on "government purpose." That is a question of fact for the trier of fact. This article shows how to use civil discovery in order to show the Court that private purpose has been substituted for government purpose. If it has, the eminent domain use fails, because the use does not meet minimum scrutiny. This …

Is Humanity Enough? The Secular Theology Of Human Rights, Peter Fitzpatrick

Human Rights & Human Welfare

© Peter Fitzpatrick. All rights reserved.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not quoted or cited without express permission of the author. The editors cannot guarantee a stable URL for any paper posted here, nor will they be responsible for notifying others if the URL is changed or the paper is taken off the site. Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any other website without express permission of the author.

Saddam Hussein's Trial In Iraq: Fairness, Legitimacy & Alternatives, A Legal Analysis, Christian Eckart

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

The paper focuses on Saddam Hussein’s trial in front of the Iraqi High Criminal Court in Baghdad. After providing an overview of the facts surrounding the court’s installation, the applicable international law is identified and the fairness and legitimacy of the current proceedings are analyzed. The paper finishes by considering whether the trial should be relocated and addresses alternative venues that could have been chosen to prosecute Iraq’s ex-dictator.

Litigating Child Recruitment Before The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Noah B. Novogrodsky

San Diego International Law Journal

In May 2004, the Special Court for Sierra Leone issued a landmark decision finding that an individual may be held criminally responsible for the offense of recruiting child soldiers into armed conflict. As a hybrid tribunal established by the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to try those who "bear the greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the country's civil war after November 1996, the Special Court is the first international criminal body to indict a person for the crime of recruiting and employing children in war. The decision in the case of …

Brief Of The University Of Toronto International Human Rights Clinic As Amicus Curiae To The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Noah B. Novogrodsky

San Diego International Law Journal

This brief addresses three questions: 1) the illegality of recruiting child soldiers into armed conflict; 2) the application of penal sanctions in international humanitarian law; and 3) the proper application of the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. Part I of our argument will establish that the recruitment of children into armed conflict is and was unquestionably a violation of international humanitarian law at the time the alleged offences took place. Part II will explain when international law permits prosecution of violations of international humanitarian law irrespective of whether penal sanctions are attached. Amici conclude that such prosecutions are permitted …

The Obligation To Use Force To Stop Acts Of Genocide: An Overview Of Legal Precedents, Customary Norms, And State Responsibility, Joshua M. Kagan

San Diego International Law Journal

Though the Genocide Convention was created to "liberate mankind from [the] odious scourge" of genocide, the dreams of its drafters have still not come to fruition. The commission of genocide, widely considered the most appalling of all crimes, did not end with the signing and ratification of the Convention in 1948. Genocide continues in the world today. While its sentiments were noble and its aims commendable, the Genocide Convention as it is interpreted and applied today is insufficient to stop the commission of genocide in the world. In order to rid the world of this crime, a new interpretation of …

Christiane Wilke On Global Justice Or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice At The Crossroads By Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003., Christiane Wilke

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Global Justice or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice at the Crossroads by Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003.

Provincializing Transitional Justice: Reading The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda Against The Grain, Jatin Dua

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Detention In A Time Of Terror: The Inevitability Of Protection, Fatma Hussein Saber

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Advocacy To Lawful Rebellion: Enforcing Ihrl In Egyptian Domestic Courts, Ashraf El-Sayed Abdel-Megied

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Civil Liberties V National Security In Times Of Crisis: The Past Use Of Internment Without Trial In The United States And The United Kingdom And The Lessons For The Ongoing 'War On Terror.' , Richard D. Donald

ExpressO

History teaches that, in time of crisis, we have often sacrificed fundamental freedoms unnecessarily. The Executive and Legislative Branches, reflecting public opinion formed in the heat of the moment, frequently have overestimated the need to restrict civil liberties. This has been especially true in regards to internment without trial. Neither novel nor normal, internment is an emergency measure which has regularly been employed in times of national crisis. Through an examination of two historical models this project aims to identify some the difficulties associated with the application of a policy of internment. Given it’s ongoing use around the world in …

Finding The Constitutional Right To Education In San Antonio School District V. Rodriguez, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

In Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court abolished the scrutiny regime because it impermissibly interfered with an important fact, liberty. And yet, even in earlier cases which ostensibly upheld the scrutiny regime, it is difficult to see that the Court ever did so to the detriment of facts it considered important. In short, the Court often (always?) found itself raising the level of scrutiny for a fact in the same case it upheld the regime, leaving us to wonder if the scrutiny regime ever actually had any effect at all, or even whether the Court felt it was relevant. As …

Human Rights Enforcement In The 21st Century, Douglas L. Donoho

ExpressO

The international human rights system’s approach to enforcement and implementation of human rights has proven unrealistic in a world characterized by oppression, poverty and armed conflict. In this essay, I suggest that traditional approaches to enforcement, while serving some important functions, are inadequate to meet the challenge of effectively realizing human rights in the 21st Century. These inadequacies include a variety of institutional, conceptual and jurisprudential weaknesses, including: (1) failure to develop a coherent overall structure with institutions whose attributes are likely to promote the legitimacy of international decision-making and encourage state respect; (2) refusal to make important distinctions among …

The Day Laborer Debate: Small Town, U.S.A. Takes On Federal Immigration Law Regarding Undocumented Workers, Margaret B. Hobbins

ExpressO

Herndon, Virginia is the latest example of small town immigration issues exploding into the national debate on illegal immigration. This four-square mile town, population 22,000, was propelled into the national spotlight after a dramatic public reaction to Mayor Michael O’Reilly’s proposal to construct a hiring site for day laborers. Three months before the center even opened its doors, Herndon and Fairfax County faced a law suit challenging the legality of funding a day labor center that would inevitably extend its services to undocumented immigrants.

Small towns, adjusting to significant increases in the immigrant worker population, have become a new battlefield …

Appeasing The International Conscience Or Providing Post-Conflict Justice: Expanding The Khmer Rouge Tribunal’S Restorative Role, Nema Milaninia

ExpressO

Three decades after the Cambodian civil war, the leaders of the Khmer Rouge will finally be brought before an internationalized domestic tribunal. While the majority of those most responsible have died off or received immunity for their conduct, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has the historic possibility of reaffirming the importance of international criminal justice and providing an historical narrative of the crimes committed and victims created.

This commentary evaluates the importance of restoration in transitional justice and the importance victims and witnesses play in post-conflict justice. This article will argue that previous post-conflict remedies required a balance of restorative and …

The Anomaly Of Guantanamo: Two Innocent Men Caught In A Devastating Legal Limbo, Lauren S. Elfant

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Human Rights Laws In The United States And Australia, Emily F. Chalifoux

Honors Theses

Discrimination does not make good business sense; it causes tension and a decrease in productivity. Even though human rights laws vary from country to country, conforming with these laws makes business more cohesive and productive. Some of the many benefits include:

• Increase the pool of potential employees and, therefore, the chances of getting the best person for the job,

• Build morale and productivity of employees

• Minimize complaints, disruptions and legal wrangles, leaving employees to focus on their work, and

• Add to the bottom line and build the company's reputation in the community.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze …

Considering Standing, Sincerity, And Antidiscrimination, Chapin C. Cody

Working Paper Series

This Article will establish that an unrecognized norm, the “norm of sincerity,” is an implicit factor in the standing analysis in a certain class of equal protection cases. That class of cases includes equal protection claims where 1) courts have applied the “able and ready to compete” test to determine a plaintiff’s injury in fact, and where 2) the plaintiff has complained about discriminatory access to limited government resources. In those cases, a plaintiff cannot demonstrate injury in fact sufficient to meet Article III standing unless she shows that she sincerely intends to use the benefits at stake in the …

Children And Immigration: International, Local, And Social Responsibilities, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Justin Luna

UF Law Faculty Publications

This essay focuses on the human rights of immigrant children, regardless of the legality of their presence within U.S. borders, especially with respect to health, education, and welfare. In that context, the work explores, as the title suggests, the international, local, and social/cultural normative standards that structure the responsibilities—independently and collectively, that proverbial village—with respect to children's well-being. We develop these ideas in three parts. First, we address the foundations of the human rights idea and specifically enumerate the particular normative notions, including international treaties that govern children's lives. Next, we discuss immigration in the United States, with particular attention …