Human Rights Law Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Proposition Of Accession Of The European Communities To The European Convention On Human Rights, Yves Quintin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Considering the numerous problems created by the accession, including the length of time required and the administrative burdens placed on the EC, one may question the value of this project. The creation of a catalogue of rights, however, will require as much time as the accession. As Professor Schermers points out, producing such a catalogue specifically for the EC will further split Western Europe, isolate the other members of the Council of Europe, and limit the effectiveness of the ECHR to the extent that the provisions in the catalogue would offer higher standards of protection. One may argue, however, that …

Human Rights And The Free Flow Of Information, Lung-Chu Chen

Articles & Chapters

"Human Rights and the Free Flow of Information." This topic immediately raises three key questions: the appropriate conception of human rights; the scope and reach of freedom of information; and finally, the bearing of one upon the other.

Symposium: The Trial Of The "Gang Of Four" And Its Implication In China

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

Capital Punishment And The Right To Life: Some Reflections On The Human Right As Absolute, Peter J. Riga

Seattle University Law Review

The right to life of the person and its various applications in different political situations is one of the most debated subjects of our day. This question is important today for a number of reasons: the widespread demand for abortion, the drive for the right to die, and the challenge to capital punishment. The debate seems at times to be confused: those opposing all forms of war and capital punishment seem to approve of abortion; while others vehemently opposed to abortion, approve of war and capital punishment. But this inconsistency disappears once an absolute view of man's right to life …

Book Reviews, Howard D. Coleman, Clark C. Siewert, John T. Smith Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Book Reviews

Human Rights: International Petition System

Binders 1 and 2

Maxine E. Tardu

Dobbs Ferry: Oceania Publications, Inc.,1979 and 1980. $75.00 per Binder.

Reviewed by Howard D.Coleman

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The International Law and Policy of Human Welfare

Edited by R. St. John Macdonald, D.M. Johnston and L. Morris

The Netherlands: Sijthoff and Noordhoff, 1978. Pp. xviii, 690. $95.

Reviewed by Clark C. Siewert

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Deep Sea Mining

Judith T. Kildow, Editor

Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: MIT Press. 1980. Pp. 251.

Reviewed by John T. Smith II

The Problem Of Public Pretense, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Research In Periodicals: A Bibliographic Note, Howard A. Hood

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Research on implementation of the humanitarian provisions of the Helsinki Accord must include examination of the periodical literature. Articles on this topic are not restricted to specific journals, however, but are scattered throughout the gamut of human rights and general interest publications--from scholarly reviews and esoteric newsletters to the most popular magazines and newspapers. Research on the Accord thus encounters difficulties common to the investigation of the broad topic of human rights. Many of the relevant periodicals are obscure, unindexed, hard to locate, and ephemeral. Because of the global character of human rights concerns, journals and newsletters dealing with them …

The Approach Of The Helsinki Declaration To Human Rights, Antonio Cassese

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The purpose of this paper is to outline briefly the basic attitude toward human rights evidenced in the Helsinki Declaration. By way of introduction, I shall describe summarily how perceptions of human rights have evolved in the United Nations since the adoption of the Charter in 1945. It is in this context that the novelty of the Helsinki exercise can be viewed and assessed.

There are many ways of analyzing and appraising United Nations action in the field of human rights over the years. This complex phenomenon can be divided into various stages, according to prevailing political philosophy. Three phases …

The Right Of The Individual To Know And Act Upon His Rights And Duties: Monitoring Groups And The Helsinki Final Act, Virginia A. Leary Professor Of Law,

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The provisions of the Helsinki Final Act relating to human rights stimulated a most extraordinary and probably unforeseen development the creation of ad hoc private citizen monitoring groups in signatory countries. No other international instrument on human rights has had a similar effect. The activities of these monitoring groups cannot be over emphasized. The phrase in Principle VII of the Final Act that the signatory states confirm the right of the individual to know and act upon his rights and duties constituted international recognition of the legitimacy of participation by private individuals in the monitoring of their own country's conformity …

The Place Of Helsinki On The Long Road To Human Rights, Vojin Dimitrijevic

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The ten principles enumerated in the Helsinki Final Act mark the beginning of a process that could improve relations among the signatory States. Such rapprochement would create a more favorable climate for fuller realization of human rights or values by every person living in their territories. In the other direction, Principles VI and VIII try to define the societal preconditions for amelioration of interstate relations. The term "progress" implies gradual development to be assessed at certain intervals. The assessment can hardly be unanimous; thus, the fact that government representatives in Belgrade parted without substantive agreement was not in itself a …

Human Rights And The Belgrade Meeting, Arthur J. Goldberg

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In September of 1977, President Carter asked me to take on responsibility for what is familiarly called CSCE--the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Like most Americans, I had previously thought of the CSCE in terms of the Helsinki Summit of 1975 when President Ford signed the document called the Final Act, a lengthy text, not a treaty, but an expression at the highest political level of the commitment of the 35 states of Europe and North America to respect certain principles of interstate behavior, to respect human rights, to build mutual confidence in the military sphere, and to …

The Csce Follow-Up Mechanism From Belgrade To Madrid, Dante B. Fascell

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The on-going nature of the Final Act has given the endeavor initiated at Helsinki the characteristics of an active process, one intended to grow and intensify as its commitments are fulfilled, and, in turn, expanded by the participating states. It is this sense of an on-going process which makes the Final Act unique among international documents. Unlike many treaties or other legally binding documents, the Final Act, which is non-binding, provided for a mechanism which allows periodic review of implementation progress in a series of multilateral forums. This review mechanism, in many respects, makes the issue of compliance, if not …

The International Legal Significance Of The Human Rights Provisions Of The Helsinki Final Act, Alexandre C. Kiss, Mary F. Dominick

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It may be submitted that the Helsinki Final Act is not a treaty, nor is it similar to resolutions of international organizations. In light of the language used in the text and the signatories' public expressions of intent, the human rights provisions must be deemed to have the same legal nature as the other provisions. The document as a whole falls within a special category of international legal instruments not anticipated by traditional definitions of the sources of international law--that is, non-binding, but directive texts which produce limited legal effects. Its foundation is agreement on a common objective: detente. Its …

East European Perceptions Of The Helsinki Final Act And The Role Of Citizen Initiatives, Vratislav Pechota

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Human rights are articulable expressions of legal ideas that can be readily identified. The developments of the last thirty-five years have created a duality of sources from which fundamental rights of the individual derive. There are, on the one hand, national human rights. They derive from the constitution and the laws of each nation, from its traditions, values and other elements that make up what may be appropriately called the "national human rights culture." They are expressive of the specific needs of each society and indicate the purposes for which governments are created. They necessarily differ from one country to …

The Soviet Human Rights Doctrine In The Crossfire Between Dissidents At Home And Critics Abroad, F.J.M. Feldbruggge

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Political and foreign relations aspects, rather than justiciability and legal instrumentalities, have always been preponderant in So- viet human rights doctrine. It is widely admitted now, at least outside the Soviet Union, that the main purpose for the much- publicized inclusion of an extensive catalogue of basic rights in the 1936 Constitution of the USSR can only have been the crea- tion of a favorable impression upon the Western democracies.' One has to remember that this happened not only at a time when the victims of Stalinist terror were numbered in millions (making the constitutional pronouncements a lugubrious farce) but …

The Individual And International Law, Alona E. Evans

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents: The Use Of Force, Human Rights, And General International Legal Issues

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

International Law And Basic Human Rights, Louis B. Sohn

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Introduction, William W. Bishop, Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law is a symposium devoted to human rights aspects of the Helsinki Final Act. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was convened in Helsinki July 3, 1973. After sessions there and in Geneva, all European states, both Western and Eastern (except Albania), took part, as did also the United States and Canada. On August 1, 1975, the Final Act of the Conference was signed at Helsinki by thirty-five nations. Its provisions had been laboriously arrived at by consensus rather than by voting. Early pressures for such a conference had come …

The Humanitarian Provisions Of The Helsinki Accord: A Critique Of Their Significance, Valery Chalidze

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It is no exaggeration to say that the humanitarian provisions of the Helsinki Accord have been recorded in the history of international relations by virtue of not so much their content as the strong public response they have elicited. This reaction is perhaps surprising, for the humanitarian provisions of the Helsinki Accord itself are very weak. If the convergence of East and West means loss by the West of its legal perspective on issues as fundamental as human rights, then I would not recommend such a convergence. Keeping in mind the development of such problems in the future, it would …

Human Rights Bibliography, Igor L. Kavass

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It would be a mistake to assume that the concept of human rights as an ethical precept is an invention of recent origin. The shelves of libraries throughout the world are filled with books which either endeavor to define the inalienable rights of individuals or record the sad history of their constant and relentless abuse. Many of the world's greatest literary creations, from the Greek drama onward, chronicle man's cruelty to man. What is more effective in evoking a feeling of indignation about the perversity of human misery and suffering than the unforgettable books of writers with such culturally and …

Human Rights And The Helsinki Conference On Security And Cooperation In Europe, Jacqueline P. Granier

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Preparatory talks for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe began in November 1972, in Helsinki, Finland. This final product of seven months of discussions, known as the Blue Book, served as the procedural manual for the Conference when it officially opened in July 1973. It contains recommendations on various aspects of the Conference including organization, agenda, participation, rules of procedure and financial arrangements.

The organizational section provides that the Conference be divided into three working sessions designated Stages I, II, and III. Stage I was a ministerial level meeting designed to open the Conference and allow for the …

The Sunday Times Case: Freedom Of The Press And Contempt Of Court Under English Law And The European Human Rights Convention, Nathaniel L. Nathanson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

President Carter's Sermon On Human Rights In Foreign Policy, Charles Veenstra

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Are Human Rights Good For International Business , Anthony D'Amato

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

When I take up the Nuremberg cases in my class in International Law, I find it quite difficult to convey to the students how radical those proceedings appeared to be in 1947. At that time, the contention that there should be individual accountability under international law seemed to constitute an unfounded and dangerous precedent. How could political leaders be made personally responsible for acts of state such as instituting a war (even an "aggressive" war) or engaging in wholly internal policies (the "final solution" against Jews and other minorities of their own citizens)? Indeed, the Nuremberg result seemed somewhat unprincipled …

The Right To Life, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

In the theory of rights we repeatedly encounter the problem of reconciling someone's having a right with his properly suffering damage to the interest protected by the right. In the case of right to life, we have to assess numerous cases in which individuals are killed or allowed to die, and we wish nonetheless to affirm their right to life. These cases include killing an aggressor in self-defense, accidental homicide, terminating life-sustaining therapy, and capital punishment.

My program in this Article is to provide an account of how it is that those with a right to life may nonetheless be …

Books Received, C. C. S.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

APPLICABLE LAW IN INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION By Julian D. M. Lew. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications,1978. Pp. 633.

COMPARATIVE LAW YEARBOOK Issued by The Center for International Legal Studies Germantown, Maryland: Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1979. Pp. 300.

CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL LAW: A CONCISE INTRODUCTION By Werner Levi Boulder, Colorado: The Westview Press, 1979. Pp.391.

DIRECT INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE U.S. By Raymond J. Waldman Washington, D.C.: Transnational Investments, 1979.Pp. 413.

ENHANCING GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS Edited by J. I. Dominguez and others New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. Pp. 270.

THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF LAW By Laura Nader Menasha, Wisconsin: American Anthropological Association, …

Whither The Commission On Human Rights: A Report After The 35th Session, Gerson Smoger

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The statement that the Commission on Human Rights "functions as the focal point of the United Nation's concentration on the international observance of human rights" is fraught with definitional inconsistencies. Throughout its existence one of the main problems faced by the members of the Commission has been to agree upon the appropriate limits of the expression "human rights." The question arises whether the term includes the right of a retired school teacher to speak out against his country's employment practices or his entitlement to receive social security after his departure from the teaching force. If these are both considered to …

To Bring To An End The State Of War: The Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, John F. Murphy

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This article will describe and evaluate the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, and set it in historical and contemporary perspective in order to highlight some of the primary problems facing decision-makers in their deliberations on approaches to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. The article will then consider alternative courses of action available to the world community in light of principles of the United Nations Charter and of other sources of public international law and justice, political feasibility and the perceived interests of all parties to the conflict. Lastly, it will suggest new approaches to the problem, with a view …

Science, Technology And Human Rights, Yoram Dinstein

Dalhousie Law Journal

The rapid development of science and technology, particularly in the last generation, has had a tremendous impact on human rights. Many, perhaps most, human rights are adversely affected - in actuality or potentiality - by modern machines.' The subject has been discussed at great length by scientists and statesmen, lawyers and laymen, preachers and futurologists. But, to understand it in its proper perspective, it is believed that a typological approach is called for. It is necessary to distinguish between four different types of cases, in accordance with the nature of the relationship between science and technology, on the one hand, …