Human Rights Law Commons^™

International Human Rights Law And Social Movements: States' Resistance And Civil Society's Insistence, Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Claire Whitlinger, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This review examines recent scholarship on the rise of international human rights law and proposes that social movements have played critical roles both in elevating the standards of human rights in international law and in leveraging these standards into better local practices. Institutionalization of universal human rights principles began in the immediate post–World War II period, in which civil society actors worked with powerful states to establish human rights as a key guiding principle of the international community and to ensure the actors' continuing participation in international human rights institutions. The subsequent decades saw various hurdles arise in international politics, …

An End To The Violence: Justifying Gender As A "Particular Social Group", Suzanne Sidun

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Working Conditions In China: Drama Or Reality?, Evan Bishop

In the Balance

No abstract provided.

License To Kill? Corporate Liability Under The Alien Tort Claims Act?, Kevin Golden

In the Balance

Because Kiobel removed corporate defendants from the scope of civil liability under the ATS, and because a corporation is not a person who can be charged, convicted and imprisoned for a crime, it effectively placed large multinational corporations above the law. Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., 621 F.3d 111, 145 (2d Cir. 2010). In Part II of this article, I will provide a necessary overview of the history of the ATS and its evolution into modern-day relevance. I will discuss the state of ATS law as it pertains to corporations in Part III. Lastly, I will discuss the Kiobel …

Background Paper For Second Workshop On Contract Negotiation Support For Developing Host Countries, Vale Columbia Center On Sustainable International Investment, Humboldt-Viadrina School Of Governance

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance (HSVG) have initiated a process to discuss the desirability and feasibility of mechanisms to provide negotiation support for developing host countries in their negotiations with major investors.

At a first workshop held in October 2011, participants agreed on the need for an expansion of support for developing countries in their contract negotiations.

A second workshop was held at Columbia University in July 2012 that undertook a gap analysis between the existing sources of support for developing countries in relation to complex contracts and the countries’ needs for …

Forums For International Economic Adjudication: Threads In Fragments, Francis N. Botchway

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article challenges the notion of fragmentation in international law, arguing that the proliferation of international adjudicatory bodies, such as the ICJ, WTO DSB, and ECJ, does not lead to fragmentation but instead fosters integration and coherence in international jurisprudence. It highlights the alignment of procedures, shared sources of law, and interpretative approaches among these bodies, demonstrating that institutional diversity enhances efficiency and enriches international law rather than causing discord. The article emphasizes the role of these institutions in addressing complex legal issues, ensuring legal certainty, and promoting transparency and inclusivity in global dispute resolution.

Genocide Ideology Laws: Violation Of Rwandan Peoples' 'Peoples' Rights'?, Casey Dalporto

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note argues that Rwanda's Genocide Ideology Laws, enacted to prevent ethnic divisionism and incitement to genocide, violate the Rwandan people's rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. It contends that challenging these laws through the framework of "peoples' rights" rather than individual civil and political rights could be more effective, as the latter approach is often dismissed by the Rwandan government as Western interference. The note proposes leveraging the African Charter's provisions on collective rights to address the laws' impact on ethnic identity and political dissent.

The Public Defender As Anti-Trafficking Advocate, An Unlikely Role: How Current New York City Arrest And Prosecution Policies Systematically Criminalize Victims Of Sex Trafficking, Kate Mogulescu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Racial Disparities In Sentencing In The U.S. And Georgia, Kamal Rattray, Nicole Lee

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Incarceration represents the ultimate use of coercive power, and in the state of Georgia, that power is being disproportionately levied upon people of color, particularly African Americans.1 According to 2011 statistics from the Georgia Department of Corrections, the total prison population statewide was approximately 53,341 inmates. The majority of that number were Blacks (33,069 inmates), followed by Whites (17,752 inmates), Hispanics (2,306 inmates) and other ethnic groups.

Gender-Specific Prison Reform: Addressing Human Rights Violations Against Women In Russia's Prisons, Courtney M. Skiles

Washington International Law Journal

Russia currently incarcerates women in conditions that amount to human rights violations. Women incarcerated in Russia’s prisons experience not only oppression and abuse common to all those incarcerated in Russia, but also gender-specific harms. While Russia has signed on to many pivotal human rights treaties, it also has a long history of mass incarceration of its people. Today, the prison conditions for women in Russia reveal a need for reform. Reformers are challenged by a powerful State that has not prioritized the type of reform necessary to eliminate further harms done to incarcerated women. To ensure the rights of women …

Foreign Investment And Indigenous Peoples: Options For Promoting Equilibrium Between Economic Development And Indigenous Rights, George K. Foster

Michigan Journal of International Law

The quotations above refer to distinct conflicts that are widely separated by time and geography but remarkably similar in other respects. The first describes events leading to the Black Hills War of 1876, in which the U.S. Army forced the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne onto reservations to make way for gold mining by non-Indians. The second describes a violent episode in a conflict between native groups and the Peruvian government, which began in 2009 when the government took steps to expand mining and oil operations by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the Peruvian Amazon. In both cases, outside commercial interests …

“Seeking Justice, Strategically”, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In his opinion piece, Ian Paisley takes to task the International Criminal Court (ICC) for, as he sees it, intervening in domestic processes of reconciliation at the expense of long-term prospects for peace. The "peace versus justice" paradox is not a new one and Paisley expresses a common criticism of justice mechanisms as disruptive of post-conflict, societal healing and the overwhelming hurdle of governing in the aftermath of violence. Missing from his analysis is a broader understanding of trends in international justice and accountability, of which the ICC is only one component. While the ICC is certainly not immune from …

“Slippery Slopes: On Why We Need The Icc”, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Peace, reconciliation, and restorative justice: these are the albatrosses that international criminal law (ICL) must (unfairly) bear. Ian Paisley, MP from Northern Ireland and former United Nations and European Union peace envoy, echoes in a New York Times op-ed contribution the aspirations heaped onto the International Criminal Court (ICC). In March, the ICC convicted Thomas Lubanga for war crimes and the conscription of children as soldiers; justice has been done, Paisley claims. Yet the ICC was "intended as an instrument of peace," and "there is no peace" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On this ground he concludes, …

June Roundtable: International Criminal Court, Peace, And Justice, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Peace Must Not Be the Victim of International Justice” New York Times. March 16, 2012.

Revisiting Extraterritoriality After Al-Skeini: The Echr And Its Lessons, Barbara Miltner

Michigan Journal of International Law

On July 7, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights, sitting as a Grand Chamber, handed down two long-awaited judgments on the subject of the extraterritorial reach and scope of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In both Al-Skeini v. United Kingdom and Al-Jedda v. United Kingdom, the underlying issue was whether or not the United Kingdom was bound by its treaty obligations under the ECHR with regard to its military presence in Iraq. Al-Skeini involved the joined claims of six Iraqi nationals whose relatives were killed while allegedly under U.K. jurisdiction in Iraq; they claimed a lack of …

Is The Prosecution Of War Crimes Just And Effective? Rethinking The Lessons From Sociology And Psychology, Ziv Bohrer

Michigan Journal of International Law

Should perpetrators of genocide, violent acts against civilians during war, or other massive violations of core human rights be punished? International criminal law (ICL) answers this question affirmatively, asserting that the punishment of such atrocities is just and that their effective prosecution can (and should) contribute to the prevention of such future acts. Moreover, an increasing attempt has been made in the international and domestic arenas to act in accordance with these assertions of ICL through the prosecution of war crimes. During the last two decades the role of ICL has become gradually more significant, and the fall of the …

The European Convention On Human Rights And National Constitutional Reordering, Alec Stone Sweet

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalism Beyond The State? The Administrative Character Of European Governance Revisited, Peter L. Lindseth

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Patriotism Beyond The Nation-State: Human Rights, Constitutional Necessity, And The Limits Of Pluralism, Jan-Werner Müller

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blacklisted: The Constitutionality Of The Federal System For Publishing Reports Of "Bad" Doctors In The National Practitioner Data Bank, Katharine A. Van Tassel

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.