Human Rights Law Commons^™

'More Of The Same, But Worse Than Before': A Qualitative Study Of The Challenges Encountered By People Who Use Drugs In Nova Scotia, Canada During Covid-19, Emilie Comeau, Matthew Bonn, Sheila Wildeman, Matthew Herder

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Background

To learn about the experiences of people who use drugs, specifically opioids, in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), in Nova Scotia, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic through qualitative interviews with people who use drugs and healthcare providers (HCP). This study took place within the HRM, a municipality of 448,500 people. During the pandemic many critical services were interrupted while overdose events increased. We wanted to understand the experiences of people who use drugs as well as their HCPs during the first year of the pandemic.

Methodology

We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 13 people who use …

Critical Pathways To Disability Decarceration: Reading Liat Ben-Moshe And Linda Steele, Sheila Wildeman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

I consider how Liat Ben-Moshe’s Decarcerating Disability and Linda Steele’s Disability, Criminal Justice and Law: Reconsidering Court Diversion contribute to emerging conversations between critical disability studies and anti-carceral studies, and between disability deinstitutionalization and prison abolitionism. I ask: what if any role might law, or specifically rights-based litigation, play in resisting carceral state strategies and redirecting material and conceptual resources toward supports for diverse forms of flourishing? I centre my remarks on the special relevance of Ben-Moshe’s and Steele’s books to social movement activism in Atlantic Canada and critical reappraisal of Canada’s solitary confinement litigation.

Addressing (In)Equality In Redress: Human Rights-Led Reform Of The Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Surya Deva, Tara Van Ho

Faculty Articles

In the context of ongoing debates concerning the reform of the investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, this article critiques the widely-accepted approach that seeks to fit international human rights law (IHRL) into the existing structure of ISDS and argues that IHRL should at least be treated as ‘primus inter pares’ vis-à-vis international investment law. Testing ISDS on the touchstone of the human rights to equality, non-discrimination, and an effective remedy, the authors demonstrate that ISDS is incompatible with IHRL. Considering various structural and systemic problems, abolishing ISDS is perhaps the only normatively sound solution to address this incompatibility with IHRL. …

The Post-Shelby Southern Struggles, Marla Zappa

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Virtually Inaccessible: Resolving Ada Title Iii Standing In Click-And-Mortar Cases, Saxon S. Kagume

Emory Law Journal

As the electronic age has taken hold of the global community, and digital devices have become the mainstay of human interaction, new accessibility barriers have emerged for people with disabilities. Although most courts now conclude virtual inaccessibility is an injury cognizable under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, great ambiguity surrounds the injury-in-fact requirement of Article III standing in online accessibility cases. Despite pleading for elucidation and clarifying principles, federal district courts have been left to navigate the uncharted territory of the digital injury-in-fact inquiry with exiguous guidance from higher courts. The resultant confusion in the federal courts …

The Right To A Healthy Environment And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay explores the implications of the right to a healthy environment for the long-standing criticisms of international human rights law as a project and product of the Global North. It examines the Southern origins of the right to a healthy environment and its interpretations in regional human rights tribunals. The essay analyzes the responses offered by this evolving jurisprudence to various objections to human rights-based approaches to environmental protection. These include the human rights-based framework’s individualism, anthropocentrism, failure to address transboundary harm, and failure to challenge the economic law instruments that perpetuate environmental degradation.

The United States’ Stringent Sovereignty: How Foreign Policy Framing Prioritizes Security Over Human Rights, Kathryn Parker

Scripps Senior Theses

American policymakers utilize valence framing, purposeful descriptions of outcomes as positive or negative, to influence the opinions of voters while maintaining the moral superiority felt by many citizens in the liberal Western hegemon. This study intended to combine the political theories of Constructivism and Realism to form Constructive Realism, a theory that emphasizes the significance of state power and norms as joint influences on constituents. Constructive realism was then applied to four case studies – the UN Security Council, International Criminal Court, Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. This study …

Getting There By George Mckenna [Reponses By Gerard Bradley And Others], Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

This October we will hold our 20th Great Defender of Life dinner, and soon after commence celebrating our 50th anniversary year. We are grateful to have outlived Roe, but the question today is: Where does the pro-life movement go from here? While saving unborn babies from destruction remains our goal, how do we get there now that the Supreme Court has taken itself out of the fight? Our esteemed longtime contributor George McKenna considers the question in the following article, “Getting There,” to which nine Human Life Foundation Great Defenders of Life respond with comments on his proposal and ideas …

Nestlé V. Doe: A Death Knell To Corporate Human Rights Accountability?, Phillip Ayers

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court in Nestlé v. Doe held that foreign plaintiffs who claimed to be victims of overseas tortious conduct by corporate defendants had no jurisdiction to sue in federal courts using the Alien Tort Statute. This Comment looks at the history of the Alien Tort Statute, from its inspiration, long dormancy, and recent reinvigoration beginning in the 1980s. The Comment then explores the background of Nestlé and its issues with child slavery in its cocoa supply chain. From there, the Comment analyzes the Nestlé v. Doe decision, and posits an alternative outcome. Finally, this Comment looks for a new …

Ambulatory Versus Fixed Baselines Under The Law Of The Sea, Sean Murphy

American University Law Review

When “diving” into consideration of sea-level rise issues, one finds various “pools” of international law that are perfectly suited for answering some of the issues we are addressing. For example, Professor Galvão Teles spoke about the protection of persons in the event of sea-level rise. There are, of course, various aspects of human rights law and international law relating to disasters that can be employed to resolve some of the concerns in that regard. It is just a question of applying that law to a new, factual phenomenon.

Having said that, there are some areas where existing international law is …

“Fundamental Fairness”: Finding A Civil Right To Counsel In International Human Rights Law, Meredith Elliot Hollman

Law Student Publications

Every other Western democracy now recognizes a right to counsel in at least some kinds of civil cases, typically those involving basic human rights. The World Justice Project’s 2021 Rule of Law Index ranked the United States 126th of 139 countries for “People Can Access and Afford Civil Justice.” Within its regional and income categories, the United States was dead last. The United Nations and other international treaty bodies have urged the United States to improve access to justice by providing civil legal aid. How did we fall behind, and what can we learn from the rest of the world? …

2023 Winter - Clihhr Newsletter, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr)

CLIHHR Newsletters

This Winter 2023 issue of the CLIHHR Newsletter highlights the Institute’s work in solidarity with communities affected by identity-based violence and mass atrocities. It features updates from the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic, student and fellowship spotlights, international collaborations in Argentina, major public events including the Lemkin Award Ceremony, and faculty engagement in global human rights and humanitarian law forums. The newsletter reflects CLIHHR’s commitment to survivor-centered justice, Indigenous rights, restorative justice, and international accountability.

Human Rights And Lawyer’S Oaths, Lauren E. Bartlett

All Faculty Scholarship

Each lawyer in the United States must take an oath to be licensed to practice law. The first time a lawyer takes this oath is usually a momentous occasion in their career, marked by ceremony and celebration. Yet, many lawyer’s oaths today are unremarkable and irrelevant to modern law practice at best, and at worst, inappropriate, discriminatory, and obsolete. Drawing on a fifty-state survey of lawyer’s oaths in the United States, this article argues that it is past time to update lawyer’s oaths in the United States and suggests drawing on human rights to make lawyer’s oaths more accessible and …

Table Of Contents, Public Interest Law Reporter

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Last Stand For Union Power, Laura Christensen Garcia, Danya Moodabagil

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

An Examination Into The Physical And Sexual Abuse Of Children In Juvenile Detention Centers, Claudia Cornejo

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Chicago's War On Crime, Madison Flores

Public Interest Law Reporter

About one in five U.S. adults say they or someone close to them has had a personal experience with gun violence.¹ Seventy-one percent of Americans also believe gun laws should be stricter.² Most people favor a federal law preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns and a smaller percentage favor a nationwide ban on semi-automatic weapons.³ The debate is not so simply divided between those who want to ban all guns and those who want no restrictions on guns. Rather, many Americans value both preventing gun violence and protecting gun rights.⁴

To understand the atmosphere …

Sanctioned Abuse: Corporal Punishment, Restraint And Seclusion Of Children In Public Schools, Jasper Gingrich

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action In Jeopardy, Natalie Jakubowski

Public Interest Law Reporter

Forty-five years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke ("Bakke"), which confirmed the constitutionality of race as a factor for consideration in college admissions, otherwise known as affirmative action.¹ Since then, colleges have considered race as an additional "plus factor" in their admissions processes and have immensely increased the percentage of minority enrollment in colleges. However, the Supreme Court will hear two cases in 2023: Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. …

A Brief Introduction To The Legal Response To Childhood Fatalities And Injuries On Family Farms, Madeline Krolczyk

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Punishing Poverty: The Inequalities Of Cash Bail And The Move Towards Reform, Emily L. Salamone

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Felony Disenfranchisement: A Barrier To True Democracy, Anna Baish

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Beneath The Welfare Façade, Anna Bowser

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Name, Image, And Likeness In Ncaa College Athletics, Marlee Burridge

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Barricading The Ballot Box: How Legislative Changes To Ballot Referendums Threaten America's Tradition Of Direct Democracy, Tripp Frank

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Safeguarding Sanctuary: The Growing Pains Of A Sanctuary City, Iris Gomez

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Where The Fourth Amendment Fails: The Loophole Of No-Knock Warrants And The Devastating Community Safety Consquences, Grace Hague

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Banning The Unhoused From Chicago's Public Spaces, Alex Kirchner

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Scotus On "Wotus", Will Matushek

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

"If You Die, That's On You": The Persistence Of Inhumane Conditions At Cook County Jail, Leanna Nichols

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.