International Law Commons^™

The Freedom To Manifest Religious Belief: An Analysis Of The Neccesity Clauses Of The Iccpr And The Echr, Todd Parker

ExpressO

This paper examines Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Both documents affirm freedom of religion as a fundamental human right, yet both recognize the need for restrictions on freedom of religion when “necessary.” The paper discusses the text of Articles 18 and 9, as well as European Court of Human Rights and Human Rights Committee cases interpreting and applying the Articles. The paper then analyzes several current laws restricting religious freedom on necessity grounds as to whether the restrictions are legitimate or illegitimate under the …

Arms Embargoes And The Right To Self-Defense In International Law , Matthew D. Vandermyde

ExpressO

Over the past few decades, a number of nations have argued that the mandatory arms embargoes imposed against them violated their right to self-defense. In some cases the Security Council has responded by adjusting the embargo to exclude its application to arms destined for the government, such as in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. But in other cases the Security Council has rejected the argument and refused to lift or adjust the embargo, such as in Bosnia and Liberia. In December of 2005, Somalia put forth a similar line of argument, asking the Security Council to lift the arms embargo imposed …

Global Pharmaceutical Patent Law In Developing Countries- Amending Trips To Promote Access For All, Angela J. Anderson

ExpressO

This comment will analyze the need to amend and revise the current global pharmaceutical patent system under TRIPS to take into account the needs of developing countries and overall public health. This comment will emphasize that the current international trade rules, which although administered by the WTO, are dictated by developed country governments and powerful pharmaceutical companies, and therefore, without reform will further diminish the access of poor people in developing countries to vital medicines. Part II of this comment will provide a general overview of the international trade law governing patents on pharmaceuticals focusing specifically on the development of …

An Emerging Uniformity For International Law, David H. Moore

ExpressO

The status of international law in the U.S. legal system has been hotly contested. Most international law scholars maintain that customary international law (CIL) is federal common law immediately applicable in federal courts. A minority of scholars has responded that CIL may be applied by federal courts only when authorized by the political branches. The Supreme Court’s decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 124 S. Ct. 2739 (2004), stoked the debate. In Sosa’s wake, scholars have overwhelmingly concluded that the Supreme Court endorsed the majority view that CIL is federal common law.

This Article asserts that Sosa has been both misperceived …

Putting Regulation Before Responsibility: Towards Binding Norms Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Thomas F. Mcinerney

ExpressO

Globalization of business has heightened concerns regarding corporate conduct in developing countries. Critics have charged that multinational firms in particular have exported social harms involving labor, the environment, bribery, and human rights to jurisdictions outside of their home countries. Opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and the associated collective action problem such opportunities suggest, highlight the need for strong regulatory responses to these issues. Rather than prioritize the strengthening of national or international regulatory actors to address these social harms, voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives have emerged as a favored response within the international community. This article undertakes a critical examination of …

Essay For The In-Print Symposium On The Myth Of Moral Justice, Stuart A. Scheingold

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

Stuart Scheingold responds to Thane Rosenbaum's The Myth of Moral Justice, agreeing with the aspiration to infuse law with moral imagination but critiquing Rosenbaum's oversight of existing moral energy within the legal profession, particularly through cause lawyering. Scheingold argues that Rosenbaum's approach is overly simplistic, failing to account for institutional obstacles and the contested nature of moral discourse, which can lead to conflict rather than harmony. He emphasizes that while moral advocacy, as seen in cause lawyering, can drive positive change, it also faces significant challenges and backlash.

Something's Happening Here: Children And Human Rights Jurisprudence In Two International Courts, Bernardine Dohrn

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Law, Narrative, And The Continuing Colonist Oppression Of Native Hawaiians, David Barnard

ExpressO

The article does three things. First, and for the first time, it brings to bear the perspectives of critical race theory, postcolonial theory, and narrative theory on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Rice v. Cayetano, which dealt a severe blow to Native Hawaiians’ struggles for redress and reparations for a century of dispossession and impoverishment at the hands of the United States. Second, it demonstrates in the concrete case of Hawaii the power of a particular historical narrative—when it is accepted uncritically by the Supreme Court—to render the law itself into an instrument of colonial domination. Third, it …

Refugee Security And The Organizational Logic Of Legal Mandates, Mariano-Florentino Cuellar

ExpressO

While the refugee protection system is one of international law’s most recognizable features, it routinely places massive numbers of refugees in camps in the developing world, where they face chronic threats to their physical security from crime and disorder, coercion, and military attacks. Yet key actors responsible for refugee protection, including host states, advanced industrialized countries, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), generally have failed to prioritize refugee security. This article asks: (1) Why? (2) What have been the consequences? (3) And what do these answers reveal about how organizations carry out legal mandates in complicated political …

On The Legal Construction Of Ethnic Cleansing, Timothy V. Waters

ExpressO

On the Legal Construction of Ethnic Cleansing

Timothy William Waters, Univ. Mississippi School of Law

Abstract

What is the true shape of our commitment to prohibit ethnic cleansing? This Article explores that question by considering a case observers have universally decided does not constitute ethnic cleansing. It examines the recent controversy in the European Union, when Sudeten Germans demanded that the Czech Republic apologize for having expelled them after WWII before being admitted to the EU. Their demands were universally rejected and the legality of the expulsions was reconfirmed by all relevant actors. So what is the consequence for customary …

Torture: Considering A Framework For Limiting Use, Scott J. Goldberg

ExpressO

Abu Graib, Guantanamo, the War on Terror—the debate over the use of torture is still very much alive in the world today. The debate can be divided into two questions: (1) whether there should be an actual absolute ban where torture is never allowed either ethically or legally, and (2) if torture should be allowed under certain circumstances what form of regulation is best able to ensure that it is used only in those most limited circumstances. Currently, there is an absolute ban in place, yet world leaders, applying a case-by-case utilitarian approach, in fact permit the use of torture …

Cambodia At A Crossroads: How Repealing Untac Article 63, Cambodia's Current Defamation Law, Will Lead To A More Vigorous Democracy, Alicia A. Adornato

ExpressO

Cambodia’s current criminal defamation law is an impermissible intrusion of Cambodians’ constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. The law itself is a remnant of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. Moreover it is now being used as a tool to silence the government’s political opposition through a weak judiciary system, leaving in its wake a democracy afraid to exercise its constitutionally guaranteed rights. This law is an unconstitutional violation for several reasons: first, it violates the right to freedom of expression which is guaranteed in Cambodia’s Constitution. Secondly, it is incompatible with Cambodia’s human rights obligations under the …

Christina M. Cerna On The Torture Papers: The Road To Abu Ghraib. Edited By Karen J. Greenberg And Joshua L. Dratel. Cambridge, Ma: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1249 Pp., Christina M. Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. Edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 1249 pp.

Gender-Based War Crimes: Incidence And Effectiveness Of International Criminal Prosecution, Andrea R. Phelps

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

No Laughing Matter: The Controversial Danish Cartoons Depicting The Prophet Mohammed, And Their Broader Meaning For The Europe’S Public Square, Ruti G. Teitel

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Legal Interpretations Of The Right To Divorce And Polygamy And The Egyptian Feminist Movement, Mozn A Hassan

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This essay aims to analyze the project of the Egyptian feminist movement in the legal arena to achieve equality for women under the Egyptian laws focusing on the right of divorce and polygamy. lt seeks to examine the most liberal interpretations towards these two questions. The essay assesses many of the methodologies used differently from feminist groups and its focal point were the lslamic legal interpretations according to the Egyptian legal system. The essay provides an innovative classification for feminist movement in Egypt. This classification is based on criticism of other available classifications and their legal tools every group have …

Bringing Human Rights Abusers To Justice In U.S. Courts: Carrying Forward The Legacy Of The Nuremberg Trials, Sandra Coliver

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Reservations And Declarations Before The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights: The Las Hermanas Serrano Cruz Case And The Future Of Inter-American Justice, Jessica L. Tillson

ExpressO

Las Hermanas Serrano Cruz is a landmark case in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights because it excludes a large body of arguably valid claims from meaningful adjudication within the inter-American system. In the Las Hermanas Serrano Cruz decision on preliminary objections, the Court upheld El Salvador’s restriction to rationae temporis. Although the State’s restriction was improper both substantively and procedurally, the Court held it to be valid under the American Convention on Human Rights by misclassifying it as a declaration rather than a reservation. This mistake not only proved detrimental to the Las Hermanas Serrano Cruz …

Superstition-Based Injustice In Africa And The United States: The Use Of Provocation As A Defense For Killing Witches And Homosexuals, Jennifer Dumin

ExpressO

This Article examines two different instances where strong cultural and religious beliefs suggest that an individual is justified in taking another’s life. Focusing primarily on South Africa and the United States, it argues that the rationale used to defend those who kill suspected witches and those who kill suspected homosexuals is the same – merely because a criminal holds a belief that the victim is evil, the criminal is somehow entitled to a lesser punishment. In the United States, those who readily recognize the absurdity of the witchcraft defense may have some difficulty in recognizing the same level of absurdity …

Whose Law Is It Anyway? The Cultural Legitimacy Of International Human Rights In The United States, Elizabeth M. Bruch

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Between Rogues And Liberals: Towards Value Pluralism As A Theory Of Freedom Of Religion In International Law, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Enforcement In The Twenty-First Century, Douglas L. Donoho

Faculty Scholarship

The international human rights system enters the twenty-first century facing a profound anomaly. Despite remarkable normative and institutional developments since the system's inception, the world remains mired in widespread violations of human dignity. Genocidal episodes have repeatedly scarred the consciousness of humankind since World War ll. Floods of refugees and simmering ethnic conflicts continually challenge the international community's capacity to respond, and grotesque forms of physical abuse, such as torture and summary execution, remain commonplace Despite a promising trend toward democratic governance around the world, basic civil liberties for countless millions remain only an empty promise.' Most disheartening of all, …

Sovereignty, Identity, And The Apparatus Of Death, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Faculty Publications

Ten years after the genocide in Rwanda, the government issued broad new laws outlawing the use of ethnic categories, with a view to uniting all Rwandans under a single Rwandan identity. This self-erasure of ethnic identity is deployed primarily within the borders of the state, to enable reconciliation after the genocide in 1994. Outside the borders, the state deploys ethnic identity as one of the rationales for its cross-border wars (in the Democratic Republic of Congo).

A Developing Trend: Laws And Policies On Internal Displacement, Jessica Wyndham

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Constitutional Court Of Egypt On Islamic Law, Veiling And Civil Rights: An Annotated Translation Of Supreme Constitutional Court Of Egypt Case No. 8 Of Judicial Year 17 (May 18, 1996), Nathan J. Brown, Clark B. Lombardi

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Peacekeepers As Perpetrators: Sexual Exploitation And Abuse Of Women And Children In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Susan A. Notar

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The French "Headscarves Ban": Intolerance Or Necessity?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 235 (2006), Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconceptualizing The Boundaries Of "Humanitarian" Assistance: "What's In A Name" Or "The Importance Of Being 'Earnest'"?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 195 (2006), Surabhi Ranganathan

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of Conference: “The Reaffirmation Of Custom As An Important Source Of International Humanitarian Law”, Sabrina Balgamwalla

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International Criminal Courts, Mariam Ahmedani, Meghan Stewart, Brianne Mcgonigle, Lizzie Rushing, Anne Heindel, Leslie Thompson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.