Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Influence Of Exile, Sara K. Rankin

Maryland Law Review

Belonging is a fundamental human need, but human instincts are Janus-faced and equally strong is the drive to exclude. This exclusive impulse, which this Article calls “the influence of exile,” reaches beyond interpersonal dynamics when empowered groups use laws and policies to restrict marginalized groups’ access to public space. Jim Crow, Anti-Okie, and Sundown Town laws are among many notorious examples. But the influence of exile perseveres today: it has found a new incarnation in the stigmatization and spatial regulation of visible poverty, as laws that criminalize and eject visibly poor people from public space proliferate across the nation. These …

Accountabilitea: Assam Tea Workers Demand Action From The World Bank And Tata, Promotion And Advancement Of Justice, Harmony And Rights Of Adivasis (Pajhra), People's Action For Development (Pad), Accountability Counsel, Nazdeek, Human Rights Clinic

Human Rights Institute

New Delhi, India, November 7, 2016 – An investigation published today on Tata’s tea plantations in Assam vindicates the claims of Indian NGOs documenting the failure of the World Bank and Tata to uphold the fundamental rights of workers and their families. Over 155,000 people live and work on tea plantations run by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), the second largest tea producer in Assam. The project has the potential to significantly improve thousands of lives, however the Bank’s initial response to the investigation fails to make the most of this opportunity.

Conference Report: Climate Change And Sustainable Investment In Natural Resources: From Consensus To Action, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Sabin Center For Climate Change Law

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment has produced this conference report on CCSI’s Conference on Climate Change and Sustainable Investment in Natural Resources: From Consensus to Action. A shorter outcome document, which was disseminated at COP22, is also available. These documents summarize the discussions at the eleventh annual Columbia International Investment Conference, which took place on November 2-3, 2016, at Columbia University. The Conference offered a high-level opportunity to discuss how countries can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, while also advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular the important implications for the …

Outcome Report Of Workshop On International Investment And The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Jesse Coleman

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

On May 12, 2016, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment hosted a one-day workshop on international investment and the rights of indigenous peoples. This outcome document synthesizes the discussions that took place during the May 12 workshop.

The workshop was part of a series of consultations undertaken to support the Special Rapporteur's Second Thematic Analysis on the Impact of International Investment Agreements on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Held at the Ford Foundation in New York, the workshop brought together 53 academics, practitioners, indigenous …

Human Rights, Religious Freedom, And Peace, David Little

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jennings V. Rodriguez: Brief Of Amici Curiae Human Rights First And International Law Scholars William Aceves, Denise Gilman, Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, James C. Hathaway, Manfred Nowak, Sarah Paoletti, Nigel Rodley, And Martin Scheinin In Support Of Respondents, James C. Hathaway

Appellate Briefs

Human Rights First is a non-governmental organization established in 1978 that works to ensure U.S. leadership on human rights globally and compliance domestically with this country's human rights commitments. Human Rights First operates one of the largest programs for pro bono legal representation of refugees, working in partnership with volunteer lawyers at leading law firms to provide legal representation without charge to thousands of indigent asylum applicants, including some detained in immigration detention facilities across the United States. Human Rights First has conducted research, issued reports and provided recommendations to the United States Government regarding compliance with its legal obligations …

Administrative Narratives, Human Rights, And Public Ethics: The Detroit Water-Shutoff Case, Richard K. Ghere

Political Science Faculty Publications

This inquiry focuses specifically on administrative (local official) narratives that speak to contentious issue contexts of social conflict. Specifically, it draws upon a theoretical connection between hermeneutics and the sociology of knowledge to interpret narrative passages of local officials and others related to a contentious public action—the Detroit Water and Sewerage District’s stepped-up water-discontinuation efforts (2014 and 2015) that left thousands of inner-city residents with “delinquent” accounts and no access to water service. Selected narratives from this case are interpreted on the basis of their literary and social functions. The interpretations support a subsequent determination of whether and how the …

Rethinking Body Property, Kara W. Swanson

Florida State University Law Review

Body products, including blood, gametes, and kidneys, are a routine part of contemporary medicine. They are also controversial. There is a strong preference for donated gifts, based on an intuition that gifts are pure, altruistic, and healthy, and that purchased products (commodities) are tainted, exploitative, and dangerous. Law and policy reflect this dichotomy, preventing market exchanges either by declaring body products non-property or banning sales by the supplying body. Yet with growing scarcity leading to injustice in the allocation and harvesting of body products, calls to allow sales have been increasing, motivating proposals to increase supplies by compensating bone marrow …

Europe & Central Asia Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Asia & Oceania Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Americas Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Unpacking Affirmative Consent: Not As Great As You Hope, Not As Bad As You Fear, Jonathan Witmer-Rich

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article aims to “unpack” the concept of affirmative consent by identifying common assertions about affirmative consent that are false or misleading and by separating issues that are commonly conflated. The goal here is not to advocate either for or against the notion of affirmative consent but to clarify the concept to show what is at stake (and what is not at stake) in these debates.

Part II of this Article sets forth definitions of affirmative consent, particularly noting the difference between policies that require unambiguous agreements and those that do not. Part III addresses the various misconceptions identified above. …

Implementation Of Executive Order Of July 1, 2016, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

October 6, 2016, NEW YORK – The Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic today urged the Obama Administration to fulfill its promises of transparency and accountability for U.S. drone strikes. Over the past decade, the U.S. government has killed thousands of people around the world in a program largely cloaked in secrecy. Together with a group of leading non-governmental organizations, the Clinic called on the government to act on promises it made over the summer to investigate drone strikes and compensate victims.

Negotiating The Terms Of Corporate Human Rights Liability Under Federal Law, R. George Wright

San Diego Law Review

This Article first addresses, by way of example, questions of mens rea, or required mental states, through the basic purposes and relevant assumptions underlying general tort and criminal law. Whichever approach the law adopts, with or without negotiation, toward corporate aiding and abetting liability in human-rights-oriented torts cases should at least be generally compatible with these basic purposes and assumptions. Next, this Article addresses several possible approaches to the mens rea issues before adopting a model of negotiation or bargaining bounded by general moral constraints.

Secondly, this Article discusses a number of issues associated with the Alien Tort Statute ATS …

The Modern Treaty-Executing Power: Constitutional Complexities In Contemporary Global Governance, Carlo Felizardo

Northwestern University Law Review

Treaties have evolved significantly since the ratification of the United States Constitution, leading to uncertainty as to the constitutional limits on their domestic execution. This Note adapts existing constitutional doctrine on treaty execution to two distinct complications arising in the contemporary treaty regime. First, voluntary treaties imposing aspirational obligations on signatories raise the issue of the extent of obligations that Congress may domestically enforce by federal statute. Second, originating treaties which create international organizations and authorize them to adopt rule- and adjudication-type post-treaty pronouncements bring up a question of when, if ever, to incorporate those pronouncements into U.S. law, and …

Without Unnecessary Delay: Using Army Regulation 190–8 To Curtail Extended Detention At Sea, Meghan Claire Hammond

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note analyzes instances of U.S. detention of suspected terrorists while at sea as an alternative to Guantánamo, and how this at-sea detention fits in the interplay of U.S. statutory law, procedural law, and applicable international law. Of particular interest is the dual use of military and civilian legal regimes to create a procedural-protection-free zone on board U.S. warships during a detainee’s transfer from their place of capture to the U.S. court system. The Note concludes that U.S. Army Regulation 190–8 contains language of which the purpose and intent may be analogized to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure requirements …

Transnational Indigenous Migration: Racialized Geographies And Power In Southern Highland Ecuador, Victoria Stone-Cadena

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the shifting landscape of social and economic inequalities in the remittance-dominated region of southern highland Ecuador, focusing on the transformations brought about by increased international migration since the early 2000s. The broader question is whether or not transnational migration has facilitated political and social upward mobility among indigenous communities. More specifically I ask: in what ways does indigenous identity figure in contemporary international migration practices, how does transnational indigenous migration complicate bounded notions of rural indigenous life, and how might the strategies employed by indigenous migrants transform social and economic inequalities in two small towns in the …

Ebola, Experimental Medicine, Economics, And Ethics: An Evaluation Of International Disease Outbreak Law, Sara L. Dominey

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Law And Racial Hate Speech Regulation In Australia: Reform And Replace?, Dr. Alan Berman

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

New Judicial Review In Old Europe, Alyssa S. King

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Should Children Work? Dilemmas Of Children’S Educational Rights In The Global South, Conrad John Masabo

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

The realisation of Children’s Rights and the right to education, in particular, have for quite long left the children of the Global South at a crossroads. The ideal of a childhood free from work has in itself become a barrier to access this social good. As such, due to their country’s minimal or non-existent educational funding and family abject poverty, some children in the Global South have realised that adopting a pragmatic strategy of combining school and work is the only feasible solution. This study, therefore, examines the interface between children’s work and schooling in the Global South.

Penal Welfare And The New Human Trafficking Intervention Courts, Kate Mogulescu, Aya Gruber, Amy J. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Racial Profiling In The Era Of Black De-Constitutionalism, Donald F. Tibbs

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

“Lord Forgive Me, But He Tried To Kill Me”*: Proposing Solutions To The United States’ Most Vexing Racial Challenges, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Defense Support Of Civil Authorities: An Examination Of Trends Impacting Upon Police Militarization, Kevin H. Govern

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Tinker, Taylor, Schoolhouse, Speech: The Impact Of The Internet And Social Media On Public School Administrators’ Authority To Control Student Speech, Olivia Broderick

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The No-Fly List: The New Redress Procedures, Criminal Treatment, And The Blanket Of “National Security”, Chelsea Creta

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Can You Hear Me Now? The Reasonableness Of Sending Notice Through Text Messages And Its Potential Impact On Impoverished Communities, Caley Degroote

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

When More Is Less—Swat And Procedural Justice, Timothy C. Macdonnell

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Since the “war on drugs” began in the early 1970s the use of Special Weapons and Tactics units has increased exponentially. These units, originally designed to address unique policing situations like riots or a barricaded gun man, are now deploying approximately 60,000 times a year. Over half of those deployments are for search warrants. Because SWAT units deploy assuming that they are going to a situation with a high likelihood of violence, their tactics reflect that assumption. SWAT means and methods emphasize the decisive use of force to resolve conflicts. These means and methods do not encourage communication between police …