Human Rights Law Commons^™

Some Middle-Age Spread, A Few Mood Swings, And Growing Exhaustion: The Human Rights Movement At Middle Age, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This paper was presented at a symposium, "The Scholar as Activist", dedicated to the work of Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU. This paper focuses on the subject of international human rights law and the engagement of scholars as activists in this area of law. At fifty-plus years, and therefore soundly middle aged, the global human rights project today provides occasion for reflection and evaluation. This paper observes that human rights have increasingly become the language of progressive politics. In many ways, this focus on human rights globally echoes the struggle for civil liberties and civil rights in the United …

Towards A Cosmopolitan Vision Of International Law: Identifying And Defining Cil Post Sosa V. Alvarez-Machain, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, future Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) litigants seemingly will be asked to demonstrate that the norms giving rise to their actions are violations of clearly established Customary International Law (CIL). Given the mutable character of CIL, especially in the area of human rights, this will surely fuel the already voluminous literature on the content of the CIL of human rights.

While debate will certainly arise over the norms that have been become CIL, significant attention must be also be devoted to the problems inherent in the CIL of …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Jewish Law And The Secular Perspective On International Human Rights (Part Of The Article, “Human Rights In The Bible, An Exchange Of Ideas”)., Richard Klein, Chaim Povarsky

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Universal Rights And Wrongs, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

When Is A War Not A War? The Myth Of The Global War On Terror, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

It is essential to correctly classify situations in the world as ones of war or peace: human lives depend on the distinction, but so do liberty, property, and the integrity of the natural environment. President Bush's war on terror finds war where suspected members of al Qaeda are found. By contrast, war under international law exists where hostilities are on-going. To the extent there is ambiguity, the United States should err on the side of pursuing terrorists within the peacetime criminal law enforcement paradigm, not a wartime one. Not only does the criminal law better protect important human rights and …

Indian Givers: What Indigenous Peoples Have Contributed To International Human Rights Law, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

Educating Lawyers For Transnational Challenges–The Globalization Of Legal Regulation, Steven Freeland

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Reforming Legal Education In Bangladesh, Mohammad Monirul Azam

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Educating Lawyers For Transnational Challenges: Perspectives Of A Developing Country–Botswana, Emmanuel Kwabena Quansah

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Six Propositions For Legal Education In Local And Global Development, Roger Burridge

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Reinvigorating First Year Criminal Law: Integrating Mental Disability Issues Into The Criminal Law Course, Linda C. Fentiman

ExpressO

This article explores how mental disability issues can be incorporated into a traditional criminal law class, in order to enrich student understanding of both mental disability law and criminal law doctrine. The intersection of mental disability with the doctrinal aspects of criminal law can be broken into five major categories: 1) the justifications for punishment; 2) the definition of crime in general, e.g., the requirements of a voluntary act, mens rea, and causation; 3) the definition of particular crimes, such as murder, manslaughter, rape, and burglary; 4) defenses to crime, including mistake of law and of fact, as well as …

David P. Forsythe On Non-State Actors And Human Rights. Edited By Philip Alston. Oxford, Uk: Oxford University Press, 2005. 350pp., David P. Forsythe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

Lifting Our Veil Of Ignorance: Culture, Constitutionalism, And Women's Human Rights In Post-September 11 America, Catherine Powell

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While we live in an Age of Rights, culture continues to be a major challenge to the human rights project. During the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the 1940s and during the Cold War era, the periodic disputes that erupted over civil and political rights in contrast to economic, social and cultural rights could be read either explicitly or implicitly as a cultural debate.

Gender has figured prominently in this perceived culture clash, for example, with the Bush administration's use of Afghan women as cultural icons in need of liberation--a claim that helped justify the …

Introducing Discipline: Anthropology And Human Rights Administrations, Iris Jean-Klein, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Anthropologists engage human rights administrations with an implicit promise that our discipline has something unique to offer. The articles in this special issue turn questions about relevance and care so often heard in the context of debates about human rights outside in. They focus not on how anthropology can contribute to human rights activities, but on what anthropological encounters with human rights contribute to the development of our discipline. They ask, how exactly do we render the subject relevant to anthropology? Reflecting on some ways anthropologists in this field have dispensed care for their subjects, the authors highlight two modalities …

Conflicts Diamonds: U.S. Responsibility And Response, Edward R. Fluet

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will examine U.S. and international efforts to combat the trade in conflict diamonds. Specifically, this article will detail their failures and examine the need for U.S. backed legislation to prevent the conflict diamond trade more effectively. This article proceeds as follows: Part I will examine the effect of the conflict diamond trade on those caught in the grip of civil war and terrorism. Part II will analyze international efforts to curtail conflict diamonds trade, specifically examining international support of the Kimberley Process. Part III and IV will examine the United States'efforts to regulate conflict diamonds and the inherent …

Christina M. Cerna On Defining Civil And Political Rights: The Jurisprudence Of The United Nations Human Rights Committee By Alex Conte, Scott Davidson And Richard Burchill. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2004. 257pp., Christina M. Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

Karen Macdonald On Constitutional Environmental Rights By Tim Hayward. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 236pp., Karen Macdonald

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In Schools, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the international community's gender equality targets will not be realized by 2015 because the problems associated with sexual violence against girls in schools are situated at an intersection of contested conceptual divides between human rights (civil and political liberties) and development aims (social and economic needs). Cracks in the conceptual foundations of both the liberal and utilitarian theories of justice and equality, which support traditional human rights advocacy and economic development plans, respectively render each approach inadequate to fully identify and address the grave danger sexual violence and harassment in schools pose to educational equality. In …

Kathleen J. Hancock On Breaking Silence, The Case That Changed The Face Of Human Rights By Richard Alan White. Washington, Dc: Georgetown University Press, 2004. 320pp., Kathleen J. Hancock

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

Corporate Liability For Overseas Human Rights Abuses: The Alien Tort Statute After Sosa V. Alvarez-Machain, David D. Christensen

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

David E. Guinn On A Dictionary Of Human Rights (2nd Edition) By David Robertson. London, England: Europa Publications, 2004. 346pp., David E. Guinn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

A Dictionary of Human Rights (2nd Edition) by David Robertson. London, England: Europa Publications, 2004. 346pp.

David E. Guinn On A Handbook Of International Human Rights Terminology (Second Edition) By H. Victor Condé. Lincoln, Nb: University Of Nebraska Press, 2004. 536pp., David E. Guinn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

A Handbook of International Human Rights Terminology (Second Edition) by H. Victor Condé. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. 536pp.

David E. Guinn On The Wilson Chronology Of Human Rights: A Record Of The Human Striving For Freedom From Ancient Times To The Present. Edited By David Levinson. Bronx, Ny: H.W. Wilson, 2003. 581pp., David E. Guinn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Wilson Chronology of Human Rights: A Record of the Human Striving for Freedom from Ancient Times to the Present. Edited by David Levinson. Bronx, NY: H.W. Wilson, 2003. 581pp.

Assassination Under The International Human Law, Wasem Mawlana

ExpressO

Israel has adopted a policy of assassinations, much earlier than its racist assassination policy that was renewed during the Palestinian uprising against the occupation. It goes back as far as 1947, when Israeli terrorists assassinated special UN Representative Count Bernadette . International law prohibits without exception the extra-judicial killing of protected persons. Israel's policy of assassination clearly amounts to intentional or willful killing; such killings violate international humanitarian law, and human rights protocols. Since 9 November 2000 the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has actively pursued a policy of deliberately targeting those alleged to have carried out, or to have planned …

"When Caterpillars Kill": Holding U.S. Corporations Accountable For Knowingly Selling Equipment To Countries For The Commission Of Human Rights Abuses Abroad, Zaha Hassan

San Diego International Law Journal

With the recent trend towards holding corporations accountable for aiding and abetting human rights abuses abroad, this paper asks the question whether corporations should be held liable for knowingly facilitating human rights abuses abroad by selling equipment widely known to be used in such abuses. To this end, the case of Caterpillar sales to Israel will here be examined. Part II provides an overview of the history of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and its applicability in United States courts. Part III gives an overview of how corporate liability for human rights abuses abroad developed under the ATCA. Part …

Jacobson V Massachusetts: It's Not Your Great-Great-Grandfather's Public Health Law, Wendy K. Mariner, George J. Annas, Leonard H. Glantz

Faculty Scholarship

Jacobson v Massachusetts, a 1905 US Supreme Court decision, raised questions about the power of state government to protect the public’s health and the Constitution’s protection of personal liberty. We examined conceptions about state power and personal liberty in Jacobson and later cases that expanded, superseded, or even ignored those ideas.

Public health and constitutional law have evolved to better protect both health and human rights. States’ sovereign power to make laws of all kinds has not changed in the past century. What has changed is the Court’s recognition of the importance of individual liberty and how it limits …

Akinbola E. Akinwumi On Sickness And Wealth: The Corporate Assault On Global Health By Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer And Oscar Gish (Eds). Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. 237pp., Akinbola E. Akinwumi

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health by Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer and Oscar Gish (eds). Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. 237pp.

Hijacked Justice: Domestic Appropriation Of International Norms, Jelena Subotić

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This paper explores the domestic politics of international norm diffusion, using the global transmission of transitional justice norms as the empirical context of the research. Applying sociological institutionalism as the principal theoretical framework, I argue that the motivation of states to adopt international models of transitional justice has changed over time. The transitional justice norm - that posits that war crimes and massive human rights abuses must be dealt with in a proper legal setting and not through “victors’ justice” or impunity - was institutionalized in large part as the result of a strong domestic demand for transitional justice in …

Peggy J. Blair On Commercial Law And Human Rights Edited By Stephen Bottomley And David Kinley. Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2001. 356pp., Peggy J. Blair

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Commercial Law and Human Rights edited by Stephen Bottomley and David Kinley. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. 356pp.

Aaron Peron Ogletree On Indigenous Peoples In International Law (Second Edition) By S. James Anaya. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 396pp., Aaron Peron Ogletree

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Indigenous Peoples In International Law (Second Edition) by S. James Anaya. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 396pp.