Human Rights Law Commons^™

Rif’D Off: The Denial Of Education Opportunities Through Seniority-Based Layoff Policies And The Judiciary’S Role In Reform, Amy Conant

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status: A “Juvenile” Here Is Not A “Juvenile” There, Heryka Knoespel

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Nfib V. Sebelius: A Feather In The Cap Of Those Who Challenge Sorna?, Bethany Belisle

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Is Jus In Bello In Crisis?, Jens David Ohlin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

It is a truism that new technologies are remaking the tactical and legal landscape of armed conflict. While such statements are undoubtedly true, it is important to separate genuine trends from scholarly exaggeration. The following essay, an introduction to the Drone Wars symposium of the Journal, catalogues today’s most pressing disputes regarding international humanitarian law (IHL) and their consequences for criminal responsibility. These include: (i) the triggering and classification of armed conflicts with non-state actors; (ii) the relative scope of IHL and international human rights law in asymmetrical conflicts; (iii) the targeting of suspected terrorists under concept- or status-based classifications …

"At The Hospital There Are No Human Rights": Reproductive And Sexual Rights Violations Of Women Living With Hiv In Namibia, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

This report documents the ongoing stigma and discrimination of women living with HIV in Namibia, building on prior findings and investigations on the subject, such as the 2008 research conducted by the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) and the Namibian Women’s Health Network (NWHN). The report, based upon both desk research and a field mission, examines the human rights situation related to sexual and reproductive health of women living with HIV, including the gravity and ongoing nature of forced and coerced sterilizations in Namibia. The report also provides evidence of violations of informed consent in the context …

Religions As Sovereigns: Why Religion Is "Special", Elizabeth Clark

Faculty Scholarship

Commentators increasingly challenge religion’s privileged legal status, arguing that it is not “special” or distinct from other associations or philosophical or conscientious claims. I propose that religion is “special” because it functions metaphorically as a legal sovereign, asserting supreme authority over a realm of human life. Under a religion-as-sovereign theory, religious freedom can be understood as at least partial deference to a religious sovereign in a system of shared or overlapping sovereignty. This Article suggests that federalism, which also involves shared sovereignty, can provide a useful heuristic device for examining religious freedom. Specifically, the Article examines a range of federalism …

Land Grabs Still Plague Myanmar And Cambodia, Mahdev Mohan, Vani Sathisan

2008 Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative

No abstract provided.

How Customary Is Customary International Law?, Emily Kadens, Ernest A. Young

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Kozminski: On The Threshold Of Involuntary Servitude , Kenneth T. Koonce Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Municipal And State Sanctuary Declarations: Innocuous Symbolism Or Improper Dictates?, Jorge L. Carro

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Persons Who Are Not The People: The Changing Rights Of Immigrants In The United States, Geoffrey Heeren

Law Faculty Publications

Non-citizens have fared best in recent Supreme Court cases by piggybacking on federal rights when the actions of states are at issue, or by criticizing agency rationality when federal action is at issue. These two themes-federalism and agency skepticism-have proven in recent years to be more effective litigation frameworks than some individual rights-based theories like equal protection. This marks a substantial shift from the Burger Court era, when similar cases were more likely to be litigated and won on equal protection than on preemption or Administrative Procedure Act theories. This Article describes this shift, considers the reasons for it, and …

Mobilization After Repression: Reconsidering The Role Of Testimonies And Exiles In Post-War El Salvador, Angela Elena Fillingim

Societies Without Borders

During the civil war in El Salvador, the Salvadoran military engaged in the systematic disappearance of youth and facilitated their adoptions. Presently Found, a Salvadoran human rights NGO, works to reunite these youth with their surviving biological families. However, a key difference between Found and other similar organizations, is that the former was established in the post-war context. Through a case study of Found, and placed in comparative light with a similar phenomenon in Argentina, I will show that traditional mobilization strategies face new obstacles in a post-war context. Specifically, while Found engaged in many of the same movement tactics …

Constructing Gendered Ngo Selves: Utilizing Identity Work To Assess Ngo Gender Advocacy And Politics, Steven L. Arxer

Societies Without Borders

This paper seeks to address a need in development and international literature regarding assessments of nongovernmental organizations (NGO). While NGO scholars have provided a great deal of information regarding NGO service evaluation, there are relatively few detailed studies that look at what is happening within these organizations as solutions to problems related to development and democratization. This paper uses both a developed sociological lens and empirical case study from Latin America to illustrate the internal gender dynamics of NGOs and the value of a narrative approach for making evaluations of NGO efficacy. It is shown that NGO members’ experiences as …

Review Of White Party, White Government: Race, Class, And U.S. Politics By Joe R. Feagin, David G. Embrick

Societies Without Borders

No abstract provided.

The Real Terrorist Was Me: An Analysis Of Narratives Told By Iraq Veterans Against The War In An Effort To Rehumanize Iraqi Civilians And Soldiers, Stephanie Decker, John Paul

Societies Without Borders

War often necessitates or compels the dehumanization of the enemy. Taking away the humanity of a group of people makes them easier to kill and commit atrocities against them while relieving the soldiers, as well as the public at large, of having to deal with any moral dilemmas related to their actions. Additionally, once a people have been dehumanized, it is a difficult task to change those attitudes, particularly when it causes one to examine their own role in civilian causualties, war crimes, and other abuses. While it is not a new phenomena for servicemen and women to return from …

The Politics Of Religious Establishment: Recognition Of Muslim Marriages In South Africa, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores the normative dissonances and antinomies generated by the politics around religious establishment by examining post-apartheid law reform efforts in South Africa to recognize Muslim marriages. Since the late 1990s, the South African Law Reform Commission has initiated various projects to recognize the claims of and redress past discrimination against different religious communities, including tribal groups living under customary law and religious minorities with their own family and personal status laws. It is striking how the norms and assumptions underpinning this debate differ from engagements involving the claims of religious communities in Europe and North America where broadly …

Drugs, Dignity And Danger: Human Dignity As A Constitutional Constraint To Limit Overcriminalization, Michal Buchhandler-Raphael

Scholarly Articles

This Article proposes a constitutional constraint to limit criminalization of victimless crimes and, particularly, to alleviate the pressures on the criminal justice system emanating from its continuous “war on drugs.” To accomplish this goal, the Article explores the concept of human dignity, a fundamental right yet to be invoked in the context of substantive criminal law. The U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisprudence invokes conflicting accounts of human dignity: liberty as dignity, on the one hand, and communitarian virtue as dignity, on the other. However, the Court has not yet developed a workable mechanism to reconcile these competing concepts in cases where …

The “Arab Spring” And Its Theoretical Significance: Samuel Huntington’S Theory, “The Clash Of Civilizations,” Revisited, Mahmoud "Max" Kashefi

Societies Without Borders

Using the characteristics and the demands of the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa or so called “Arab Spring,” this study questions the significance of some propositions deduced from Huntington’ popular theory of “The Clash of Civilizations.” The research asserts that globalization, especially the development of new technology, has created opportunities for the new generations in the region to be acculturated with a set of values reflecting their basic civilian and human rights. The new values, while credited with the development in the West, belong to all human beings and are gaining the status of universal human …

Springtime For Freedom Of Religion Or Belief: Will Newly Democratic Arab States Guarantee International Human Rights Norms Or Perpetuate Their Violation?, Robert C. Blitt

Book Chapters

The Arab Spring has generated unprecedented and seismic political and social upheaval across the Arab world. The reasons for the outbreak of widespread and vociferous public protest are myriad, but generally understood as including long-simmering resentment of government corruption and repression, underwhelming economic development, chronic unemployment and poor respect for human rights, including the treatment of individuals and groups affiliated with political manifestations of Islam. Despite the initial drama surrounding the street rallies, two years on, the pace of change has grown fitful and uncertain.

The purpose of this chapter is to consider one narrow aspect of the Arab Spring. …

Book Review, David R. Boyd, The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study Of Constitutions, Human Rights, And The Environment, Bradford Mank, Suzanne Smith

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

David R. Boyd’s book entitled, The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment, provides a comprehensive overview of nations that have incorporated the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions. Throughout his research, Boyd analyzes the effectiveness of environmental protection provisions in national constitutions and seeks to determine whether constitutional provisions guaranteeing the right to a healthy environment have measurable, positive effects on the environment. His wide-ranging compilation and analysis of environmental rights provisions in numerous countries is an important contribution to international human rights literature. Although Boyd explains that treating the right …

The Dilemma Of Piratical Ransoms: Should They Be Paid Or Not? On The Human Rights Of Kidnapped Seamen And Their Families, Barry Hart Dubner, Kimberly Chavers

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Aversion To Acceptance: Evolution Of The Asean Human Rights Agenda, Siraj Aziz Shaik

2008 Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative

This paper examines the evolution of ASEAN’s attitude towards human rights from one of aversion on the premise of cultural relativism to the acceptance of its universality as demonstrated by the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. In doing so, it also examines the veracity of cultural relativist objection to universality of human rights. The paper then examines the obstacles that militate against ensuring institutionalisation on the ground via the rule of law.

Multi Stakeholder Singapore Forum On Business And Human Rights (And Related Events), Singapore Management University

2008 Asian Business & Rule of Law initiative

The present document provides a summary of the discussions of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Business and Human Rights and related events in Singapore. The Multi-Stakeholder Forum, held on 28 May 2013, was jointly organized by the ASEAN CSR Network, Singapore Compact, the Asian Peace-building and Rule of Law Programme of the Singapore Management University’s School of Law ("SMU-APRL"). The Forum was graced by Dr. Puvan Selvanathan, Member of the United Nations Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Businesses ("UNWG"). A half-day executive training workshop on ‘Integrating Human Rights into Corporate Risk Management’ was held on 29 …

Third Annual Environmental Law And Justice Symposium Issue: Introduction, Randall S. Abate, Richard D. Schulterbrandt Gragg Iii

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Only Fools Who Send Hyenas To Roast Meat For Them: In Search Of The Doctrinal Foundations Of The Not-So-Ordinary Crime Of Patrimonicide, Ndiva Kofele-Kale

Florida A & M University Law Review

Crimes against humanity are generally considered crimes of such unimaginable horror that they shock the conscience of mankind. The Article challenges the international community to take a mental leap by recognizing that the contemporary version of official corruption is so fundamentally different from its historical antecedents that it deserves to (a) be called a different name: indigenous spoliation or patrimonicide; and (b), to be treated as an extraordinary crime that rises up to the level of a crime against humanity. Towards this end, the Article reviews the basic elements of a crime against humanity identified in various legal instruments, and …

Super-Intermediaries, Code, Human Rights, Ira S. Nathenson

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

We live in an age of intermediated network communications. Although the internet includes many intermediaries, some stand heads and shoulders above the rest. This article examines some of the responsibilities of "Super-Intermediaries" such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, intermediaries that have tremendous power over their users' human rights. After considering the controversy arising from the incendiary YouTube video Innocence of Muslims, the article suggests that Super-Intermediaries face a difficult and likely impossible mission of fully servicing the broad tapestry of human rights contained in the International Bill of Human Rights. The article further considers how intermediary content-control procedures focus too …

Human Rights In China: Examining The Human Rights Values In Chinese Confucian Ethics And Roman Catholic Social Teachings, Mee-Yin Mary Yuen

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

In this paper, I will first examine social values in Chinese Confucian ethics and investigate if these values seek to protect what could be termed basic rights and freedoms of people. Such an inquiry is essential given the background of the lack of freedom of expression and conscience in contemporary China. I shall focus on examining those ideas in Confucian ethics that may contribute to upholding such freedom. Secondly, as a Roman Catholic, I will borrow from the example of Catholic social teachings, another ethical tradition, to show briefly the gradual development and acceptance of human rights discourse within the …

The Revolutionary Influence Of Low Enlightenment: Weakening Copyright In Developing Countries To Improve Respect For Human Rights And The Rule Of Law, Martin Skladany

Faculty Scholarly Works

Diverse groups have banded together to critique current intellectual property laws under the Access to Knowledge movement. The Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Access to Knowledge Treaty, and the Adelphi Charter on Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property call for an end to further growth in intellectual property protection and demand that the World Intellectual Property Organization be more cognizant of the needs of developing countries in terms of expanding access to textbooks and other educational materials. However, the movement has yet to appreciate the value of significantly weakening copyright law in developing countries …

Introduction: Persecution Through Prosecution: Revisiting Touro Law Center’S Conference In Paris On The Dreyfus Affair And The Leo Frank Trial, Rodger D. Citron

Touro Law Review

This piece provides the introduction for the Dreyfus affair. It gives a brief overview of the actual Dreyfus affair and outlines the articles in this volume.

The Mighty Work Of Making Nations Happy: A Response To James Davison Hunter, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This article is an invited response to James Davison Hunter’s much-discussed book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2010). Hunter, a sociologist at UVA and a believing Protestant, claims that law’s capacity to contribute to social change is “mostly illusory” and that Christians, therefore, should practice “faithful presence” in the public square rather than seek to influence law directly. My response is that it is, in fact, law’s stunning ability to alter and limit available choices that makes it an object of deservedly fierce contest. The wild …