Human Rights Law Commons^™

A Note From The Editors, Blau, Alberto Moncada

Societies Without Borders

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one on the pedagogical and epistemological borders that dominate in the U.S. academy and another on the realm of worldwide political order/disorder.

Knowledge As A Global Public Good: The Role And Importance Of Open Access, Verschraegen, Michael Schiltz

Societies Without Borders

This paper argues that knowledge should be considered as a global public good first and as a private right second. The argument is underpinned by the claim that the growing movements for source-, data-, and knowledge-sharing (Open Access, Open Source, Open Courseware, etc.) have enhanced our ability to facilitate the global production and dissemination of 'knowledge', so that more people in the world can enjoy its benefits. In contrast with the existing intellectual property regime - which does not succeed in balancing the public and private gains of knowledge - these movements and their corollary technologies have improved peoples' access …

Viewing The Wreckage: Eco-Disaster Tourism In The Wake Of Katrina, Gould, Tammy L. Lewis

Societies Without Borders

Before hurricane Katrina, "cultural tourism" was Louisiana's second largest industry. Tourism agencies are now imploring potential tourists to visit New Orleans for "An eyewitness account of the events surrounding the worst natural disaster on American soil!" Economic need is driving tour agencies to construct 'eco-disaster tourism,' and the construction includes explicit causes of blame. Who is defining the new tourism? How is the controversy surrounding causation being negotiated in eco-disaster tour narratives? e main finding is that the big players in the tourism industry, namely Gray Line Tours, have maneuvered into a powerful position to rewrite the tourism narrative by …

Globalization And Politics Of Transformation In Africa: Nepad And Pitfalls Of Transnational Elite Developmental Projects, Sahle

Societies Without Borders

This article examines the New Partnership for Africa's Development initiative launched in 2001. The article discusses the political and economic conjuncture that resulted in the adoption of this initiative. In the main, the analysis demonstrates the ways in which the initiative dovetails well with the global neo-liberal project and, consequently, contests the claims by African ruling elites and their counter-parts in the global North that it represents a transformative framework for economic and political change for national social formations in Africa.

Who Is Afraid Of T. H. Marshall? Or, What Are The Limits Of The Liberal Vision Of Rights?, Murray

Societies Without Borders

The liberal construction of the citizen is a man (sic) empowered with reciprocal rights to the nation state, which will maintain his dignity by providing work and welfare if he can prove need. The challenge for the new century is to find out whether we still can live in a finely balanced world of citizen/civil society state and capital from which these rights will flow. We need to understand why many of the rights died and subsequently to be able to redefine what it means to be a citizen; by taking into account the unequally weighted power relations that favor …

"Buying Sex Is Not A Sport" - A Campaign Against Trafficking In Women, Danna

Societies Without Borders

In this article I present the use of the broad concept of trafficking in the "Buying Sex Is Not a Sport" campaign, launched by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) against German regulation of prostitution configuring prostitution as sex work. I trace the development of this 2006 campaign in which conservative and social-democratic parties, churches and anti-globalization organizations joined together at the international level. Finally, I trace the ideological and political reasons for the convergence of left-wing and right-wing forces, along with the analysis of some leftist theoretical texts on prostitution.

Principles For Organic Public Sociology: Reflections On Publicly Engaged Research In The San Francisco Homeless Policy Field, Noy

Societies Without Borders

Interest in "public sociology" in the United States is a positive sign for researchers who seek to span the borders between academia and social change. However, it is important not to assume that just because sociological research is publicly oriented it will automatically advance human rights, justice, and ecological sustainability. Sociologists must critically consider principles for conducting public sociology if their work is to have a libratory outcome. This is particularly crucial when academic researchers attempt to directly work with marginalized social groups. In this article, I draw upon my experiences conducting a project of public sociology on local homeless …

If We Build It They Will Come: Human Rights Violations And The Prison Industrial Complex, Smith, Angela Hattery

Societies Without Borders

This paper utilizes the concept of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) in order to examine the complex configuration comprised of the US prison system, multi-national corporations, small private businesses and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the 21st century US. Utilizing data on the PIC we pose the question: What is the purpose of prison, the rehabilitation of the inmates or the exploitation of prison labor? Specifically we argue, using Wright's neo-Marxist theory, that the current system of incarceration in the US mimics the exploitation characteristic of the slave plantation economy of the southern US, ripe …

Without Borders: Just One Border For Human Rights, Tayefi

Societies Without Borders

The author talks about the role of sociologists in defending human rights and promoting social security around the world. He said that those transnational forces such as lawyers, artists, librarians and writers are reflective movements to crash or break the monopolistic invasion of the masters of globalization. He claims that sociologists are hand in hand with other social activists to defend academic freedom and freedom of all people.

Book Review Of Vulnerability And Human Rights, Gran

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "Vulnerability and Human Rights," by Bryan S. Turner.

Book Review Of Public Sociologies Reader, Klayman

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "Public Sociologies Reader," edited by Judith R. Blau and Keri E. Iyall Smith.

Book Review Of Challenging Authority, Klayman

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "Challenging Authority," by Frances Fox Piven.

Exploring Universal Rights: A Symposium, Jamie Mayerfeld, Brooke Ackerly, Henry Shue, Jack Donnelly, Kok-Chor Tan, Charles Beitz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Which Rights Should Be Universal? by William J. Talbott. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. 232pp.

The Universality Of Human Rights: A Response, William J. Talbott

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A response to:

Mayerfeld, J., Ackerly, B., Shue, H., Donnelly, J., Tan, K., & Beitz, C. (2007). Exploring universal rights: A symposium. Human Rights, Human Welfare, 7. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/hrhw/vol7/iss1/24/

Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.”

Matthew S. Weinert On Truth Commissions And Procedural Fairness By Mark Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 400pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness by Mark Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 400pp.

Babes With Arms: International Law And Child Soldiers, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

This article examines advances in preventing children from participating in armed conflict. It references international human rights treaties, UN Security Council resolutions and jurisprudence from international courts to chart the course by which recruiting child soldiers became an international crime. At the same time, it calls on UN bodies – and the states that comprise them – to implement some of the many resolutions and veiled threats leveled at various groups and militias that use child soldiers.

The Immigrant Rights Marches (Las Marchas): Did The “Gigante” (Giant) Wake Up Or Does It Still Sleep Tonight?, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

This article documents the genesis of the March 2006 immigrant rights protests and analyzes their impact. Las Marchas were truly spontaneous grassroots protests, the largest massive civil rights mobilization effort for a single event in the United States to date. This paper provides a macro- and micro-analysis of the forces that account for this success. First, the catalyst, HR 4437, a bill that was successfully approved by the House of Representatives would have criminalized illegal presence. This law was perceived as unjust, and engendered a debate around immigrant rights debate in terms with universal and simple appeal, human dignity, the …

Restitution As A Remedy For Refugee Property Claims In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

This Article examines restitution as an autonomous human right for refugees displaced in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and assesses the implications of taking such a rights-based approach. The author concludes that the refugees have a strong legal claim to restitution. In international law, compensation is relevant only when restitution is materially impossible, where property has been damaged or declined in value so that restitution is not a complete remedy for the victim's loss or where a refugee chooses not to seek restitution. Current empirical research about land usage in Israel indicates that a great deal, and possibly the majority, of lost …

Destructive Ambiguity: Enemy Nationals And The Legal Enabling Of Ethnic Conflict In The Middle East, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

In the course of the Middle East conflict since 1948, both the Arab states and Israel have tended to take harsh measures against civilians based on their national, ethnic, and religious origins. This practice has been partially legitimized by a norm in international law that permits states to infringe the liberty and property interests of enemy nationals during armed conflict. Middle Eastern governments have misused the logic behind this theoretically exceptional rule to justify far-reaching measures that undermine the “principle of distinction” between civilians and combatants and erode the principle of non-discrimination that lies at the center of human rights …

Charity Of The Heart And Sword: The Material Support Offense And Personal Guilt, David Henrik Pendle

Seattle University Law Review

In Part I, this Comment details the designation process of FTOs and examines the wide array of purposes and activities in which FTOs engage. Part III chronicles how § 2339B has evolved through amendments and judicial interpretation. Part IV establishes that Scales controls the personal guilt analysis and identifies due process concerns implicated by Scales that have been overlooked by the courts. Finally, Part V argues a recklessness standard is the most appropriate fix to § 2339B and proposes a model amendment to that end.

Crimes Against Humanity At The Extraordinary Chambers In The Courts Of Cambodia: Is A Connection With Armed Conflict Required, 24 Ucla Pac. Basin L.J. 125 (2007), Stuart K. Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Darfur, The Authority Of Law, And Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention, 39 U. Tol. L. Rev. 97 (2007), Samuel Vincent Jones

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why Refugee Law Still Matters, James C. Hathaway

Articles

I am concerned that the singular importance of international refugee law is profoundly misunderstood. My more specific worry is that erroneous and competing claims by governments and the refugee advocacy community about the structure and purpose of refugee law threaten its continuing ability to play a truly unique human rights role at a time when no meaningful alternative is in sight.

Why Sudan? Ambiguous Identities Forge Persistent Conflict, Laura Nyantung Beny

Articles

The following essay is excerpted from the prospectus for Perspectives on Genocide and Genocidal Violence in the Sudan, edited by Law School Assistant Professor Laura N. Beny, Sondra Hale of UCLA, and Lako Tongun of Claremont Colleges, California. The book is under advance contract for publication by the University of Michigan Press. Its 14 chapters, written by prominent historians, anthropologists, social scientists, political leaders, and others, “tell overlapping stories about the social constructions of race, gender, culture, and religious and political loyalties, each of which underlies the longstanding conflict” in Sudan, according to Beny, whose essay in the book is …

Dark Ages Of Human Rights?, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Protection Elsewhere: The Legal Implications Of Requiring Refugees To Seek Protection In Another State, Michelle Foster

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article first questions the legitimacy of protection elsewhere practices. It then considers the circumstances in which the transfer of refugees might take place. It should be emphasized that the Michigan Guidelines set out the minimum requirements and constraints imposed by international law when a state wishes to implement a protection elsewhere policy. In addition, in some instances the Michigan Guidelines engage in "progressive development" of the law by suggesting safeguards that, while not strictly required by international law, should be respected in order to ensure the implementation of such policies in a way that protects and ensures the rights …

State Intelligence Gathering: Conflict Of Laws, Charles H.B. Garraway

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article begins with an examination of the development of the law of war (Part II) and human rights law (Part III) before looking at the differing legal categories of armed conflict (Part IV). It then examines the applicability of human rights law in situations of armed conflict (Part V) and the increasing complexity of defining violence, whether as armed conflict or otherwise (Part VI). The Article proceeds with an examination of the overlap between the law of war and human rights law (Part VII) and the risk of divergence that this overlap causes (Part VIII). Finally, it seeks to …

Not Just Doctrine: The True Motivation For Federal Incorporation And International Human Rights Litigation, Daniel Abebe

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article challenges the universalist theory of international law upon which federal incorporation of CIL and international human rights litigation rely. It unpacks the international relations (IR) theory paradigms that support the universalist theory, and discusses a competing theory that views state compliance with international law as a function of national self-interest. Working from this perspective, it proposes a framework to evaluate the wisdom of federal incorporation of CIL and the wisdom of international human rights litigation. The framework suggests that federal incorporation of CIL generates sovereignty costs for the United States, and that international human rights litigation complicates the …

The Cost Of Confusion: Resolving Ambiguities In Detainee Treatment, Kenneth Anderson

Research Reports & White Papers

This short policy paper considers US counterterrorism policy with particular attention to treatment of detainees in matters of challenging detention, interrogation, trial of detainees, and release. It analyzes the existing US war on terror and considers future policies that would address both national security concerns and human rights/civil liberties concerns. The paper is written by two experts and advocates in counterterrorism-related issues, coming from the center right and the center left in American politics, as part of a project of the Stanley Foundation, Bridging the Foreign Policy Divide, which publishes papers by pairs of experts coming from conservative and progressive …