International Law Commons^™

Invoking State Responsibility In The Twenty-First Century, Edith Brown Weiss

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay reviews the articles on the invocation of state responsibility, analyzes them in historical context, and notes where they represent progressive development of international law. It then surveys a wide range of contemporary situations where individuals, other nonstate entities, and international organizations invoke state responsibility by initiating judicial or other formal complaint proceedings. The essay concludes that, in light of this contemporary practice, the articles usefully advance the codification and development of international law but do not deal sufficiently with the right of individuals and nonstate entities to invoke the responsibility of states.

Discourse In Development: Post-Colonial "Agenda" For The United Nations Committee On Economic, Social Amd Cultural Rights Through The Post-Colonial Lens , Beth Lyon

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Steven D. Smith

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Surely none of the following essays addresses or explores these claims and questions in any deliberate way. Nonetheless, in these opening pages, it seems that Ahdar is seeking to re-engage the questions that characterized the Western tradition from which our modern issues in law and religion descend, but which that tradition in its modern form has by now largely suppressed. The implication, it seems, is that in order to address the issues of the interaction of law and religion in an efficacious way, we must not only acknowledge that religion is a social phenomenon--although it is that, as Professor van …

Gender Hate Propaganda And Sexual Violence In The Rwandan Genocide: An Argument For Intersectionality In International Law, Llezlie Green

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article explores the gendered dimensions of genocidal hate propaganda before and during the Rwandan genocide and proposes that the international tribunal consider these cases with an intersectional approach that attempts to fully appreciate the harm inflicted upon Tutsi women.

New Trends In African Human Rights Law: Prospects Of An African Court Of Human Rights, Yemi Akinseye-George

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comment On The Complementary Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court: Adding Insult To Injury In Transitional Contexts?, Jennifer J. Llewellyn

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author examines the principle of complementarity on which the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based. Unlike its predecessors, the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the ICC can only take jurisdiction over a case when a state is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute. The Court is thus designed to complement the work of national criminal courts. This article assesses whether this admissibility standard will allow the ICC to complement the work of truth commissions like that of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It concludes that the prospect of an …

The United Nations And Civil Society, Jayantha Dhanapala

A Cartography of Governance: Exploring the Province of Environmental NGOs (April 7-8)

7 pages.

Effective Strategies For Protecting Human Rights: A Conference Engaging The International Community, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Human rights protection needs teeth. And those who work in the disparate field of human rights need to see the system more comprehensively and strategically. Far too often, political issues interfere with enforcement of human rights laws and allow violators to hide behind the unwillingness of national governments to take action to enforce existing laws against human rights violators. Lack of commitment to human rights enforcement or timely preventative or intervention actions have led to violators being left unpunished for torture, rape and genocide. This failure of governments means that there is a lack of deterent power sufficient to inhibit …

Capital Punishment: Corporate Criminal Liability For Gross Violations Of Human Rights, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

These remarks were presented on February 24, 2001, in a panel concluding a conference entitled "Holding Multinational Corporations Responsible Under International Law" at Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, California.

What Is Needed To Protect International Human Rights In The 21st Century, Oscar Arias

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

International human rights is a subject of special significance to me, as a citizen and former President of Costa Rica.

The United Kingdom's Human Rights Act Of 1998: Willthe Parliament Relinquish Its Soverignty To Ensure Human Rights Protection In Domestic Courts?, Christina M. Kitterman

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The United Kingdom has come into the new millennium with an unprecedented written set of human rights for its citizens.

Human Rights And Development In The 21st Century: The Complex Path To Peace And Democracy: Themes From The 2000 Goodwin Seminar, Douglas Lee Donoho

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

As the twenty-first century begins, the international human rights system faces a profound anomaly.

Freedom Of Expression In The Inter-American System For The Protection Of Human Rights, Claudio Grossman

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Freedom of expression is one of democracy's fundamental values. Its importance takes on special connotations in nations where the separation of powers is fragile

Introduction: Being Individuals: A Comparative Look At Relationships, Gender And The Public/Private Dichotomy, Aniella Gonzalez

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right Of Self-Determination: Is East Timor A Viable Model For Kashmir?, Amardeep Singh

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Human Rights In Transition: The Success And Failure Of Polish And Russian Criminal Justice Reform, Shannon C. Krasnokutski

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Review Of Human Rights In Global Politics, Christine M. Chinkin

Reviews

The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998, coming in the decade after the resurgence of Western-style liberal democracies, has generated much writing and activity over the current status and future development of international human rights law, practice, and discourse. International lawyers tend to take for granted the canon of rights that, in the wake of the Universal Declaration, have been enshrined within the body of international instruments that have been adopted within regional and global arenas. In the 1990s, these lawyers largely turned their attention away from standard setting and to issues of effectiveness. Considerable …

Justice In Africa: Rwanda's Genocide, Its Courts, And The Un Criminal Tribunal, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Cultural Relativism, Economic Development And International Human Rights In The Asian Context, Richard Klein

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Gender Mainstreaming In Legal And Constitutional Affairs: A Reference Manual For Governments And Other Stakeholders, Christine Chinkin

Books

This is one of the sectoral guides that are part of the Gender Management System (GMS) resource kit, a series of publications presenting GMS. GMS is an innovative system developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat for gender mainstreaming. The system is a comprehensive network of structures, mechanisms and processes for bringing a gender perspective to bear on all government policies, plans, programmes and projects. The kit consists of a handbook which presents the GMS in detail; sectoral guides to gender mainstreaming in specific sectors; and resource documents to assist the user in gender analysis, monitoring, evaluation and other aspects of gender …

Human Rights International Ngos: A Critical Evaluation, Makau Wa Mutua

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 7 in NGOs and Human Rights: Promise and Performance, Claude E. Welch, Jr., ed.

The Human rights movement can be seen in a variety of guises. It can be seen as a movement for international justice or as a cultural project for “civilizing savage” cultures. In this chapter, I discuss a part of that movement as a crusade for a political project. International nongovernmental human rights organizations (INGOs), the small and elite collection of human rights groups based in the most powerful cultural and political capitals of the West, have arguably been the most influential component of …

A Framework Of Norms: International Human-Rights Law And Sovereignty, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

The international legal boundary between states; rights and human rights is not fixed. Long ago, the Permanent Court of International Justice - the judicial arm of the League of Nations and the precursor to the present International Court of Justice - recognized that "the question whether a certain matter is or is not solely within the jurisdiction of a State is an essentially relative question; it depends on the development of international relations." In recent decades international relations concerning both sovereignty and rights have developed quickly. An examination of those rights and the evolving realities of sovereignty are examined.

How To Defeat A Treaty's Object And Purpose Pending Entry Into Force: Toward Manifest Intent, Jan Klabbers

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Under Article 18 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, states that have signed or ratified a treaty are supposed to refrain from acts which might defeat the object and purpose of the treaty pending its entry into force. After noting that international lawyers and academics have recognized various types of treaties, the Article begins by observing that traditionally the interim obligation operates well in contractual situations but not in normative situations. Furthermore, the Author argues that where treaties are normative, the traditional conception of the interim obligation is insufficient.

While the interim obligation has been recognized …

Does International Human Rights Law Make A Difference?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Does international human rights law make a difference? Does it protect rights in practice? The importance of these questions for rights protection is obvious: the institutions of international human rights law deserve our energetic support only to the extent they contribute meaningfully to protection of rights, or at least promise eventually to do so. Moreover, at the moment these questions have added urgency. They underlie an ongoing debate, fomented in part by this Journal, on the extent to which the United States should be prepared to cede degrees of its national sovereignty to international human rights institutions, in return for …

A Constitutional Confluence: American ‘State Action’ Law And The Application Of South Africa’S Socioeconomic Rights Guarantees To Private Actors, Stephen Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

As constitutional protection of human rights expands around the world, the question of whether constitutional rights should protect people not only against state action but also against the conduct of private actors is once again timely. Few nations have so broadly, or so ambiguously, endorsed the application of constitutional guarantees to constrain private conduct (known outside the United States as "horizontality") as South Africa. The constitution approved in 1996 applies fully and without qualification to all "organs of state," and this term is defined in section 239 in potentially very broad terms, notably embracing "any other functionary or institution ... …

A Trade/Human Rights Linkage By The United States: Is Enforcing Human Rights By Use Of Trade Sanctions Effective?, Blaise Omondi Odhiambo

LLM Theses and Essays

Universally held basic human rights must remain separate from political rights. Such basic human rights are those that are so universal that all societies, systems, nations, and ideology could, and do espouse them. Conversely, political rights are those that are dependent upon compatibility with the system of government in place and arc therefore far less likely to gamer universal support. An effective multilateral enforcement mechanism can only succeed if there are universal agreement and acceptance of the protected rights. Accordingly, at the outset of such a mechanism, only basic human rights may be enforced through trade sanctions. Once such a …

Women's International Tribunal On Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, Christine M. Chinkin

Articles

From December 8 to 12,2000, a peoples' tribunal, the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal 2000, sat in Tokyo, Japan. It was established to consider the criminal liability of leading high-ranking Japanese military and political officials and the separate responsibility of the state of Japan for rape and sexual slavery as crimes against humanity arising out of Japanese military activity in the Asia Pacific region in the 1930s and 1940s.

The immediate background to the tribunal's establishment was a series of events commencing in 1988 when the women's movement in the Republic of Korea began to learn of the research of …

After Seattle: Public International Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos), And Democratic Legitimacy In An Era Of Globalization: An Essay In Contested Legitimacy, Kenneth Anderson

Working Papers

This working monograph (about 120,000 words) analyzes the relationship between public international organizations such as the United Nations system and international non-governmental organizations under conditions of globalization. It argues that international organizations and international NGOs are locked in an embrace of mutual legitimation, each giving the other important political legitimacy, in favor of liberal internationalism and at the expense of democratic sovereignty. The monograph argues that the legitimacy that each gives the other is based on flawed assumptions about the nature of civil society and "international civil society," on the one hand, and global governance and the possibilities of international, …

Evolving Human Rights Norms Around Sexuality, Kristen L. Walker

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

International human rights law has only very recently begun to address issues of sexual identity.

Human Rights Environment And Development In South Asia, Ali M. Qazilbash

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The fundamental importance of the issue of Human Rights and the environment to any society is deeply appreciated today.