Law

The right to health: realizing a 65-year-old global commitment

By José M. Zuniga
A strong case can be made, based upon modern human rights concepts and international law, that the right to health, as well as health-related services, is a human right. However, this right has been far from fully realized in any country of the world, including those most affluent (e.g. the United States), even 65 years after the right to health was enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), whose adoption we annually commemorate on Human Rights Day.

The dawn of animal personhood

by Justin Gregg
Like furniture, animals are considered property in the eyes of the law; things that can be bought, sold, or disposed of when no longer wanted. Unlike a human (or a corporation), an animal is not recognized as a person under US law, and could never serve as a plaintiff in a court case.

Human Rights protection at the European Court

By Jonas Christoffersen
Let´s reform the European Court of Human Rights. Very few supporters of European human rights protection agree that we need to urgently reform the European Court. I am one of them.

US accountability for post-9/11 human rights abuses

By Dr. Robert H. Wagstaff
December is Human Rights month and the 10th of December is Human Rights Day. What better time for President Obama to fulfill his promise of actually closing Guantanamo Bay and to initiate an investigation of violations of human rights by the US government post-9/11?

Celebrating Human Rights Day

By Frances Astbury
On 10 December 1948, world leaders congregated at the United Nations General Assembly to affirm the principles which have remained at the very heart of the human rights movement for over six decades.

Taking stock: Human rights after the end of the Cold War

By Mark Goodale

To mark the date on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, World Human Rights Day is celebrated each year on 10 December. The first Human Rights Day celebration was held in 1950 following a General Assembly resolution that “[i]nvites all States and interested organizations” to recognize the historical importance of the UDHR as a “distinct forward step in the march of human progress.”

Between ‘warfare’ and ‘lawfare’

By Carsten Stahn
The Syria crisis has challenged the boundaries of international law. The concept of the ‘red line’ was used to justify military intervention in response to the use of chemical weapons. This phenomenon reflects a trend to use law as a strategic asset or instrument of warfare (‘lawfare’).

Requiring local storage of Internet data will not protect privacy

By Christopher Kuner
Widespread Internet surveillance by governments, whether carried out directly or by accessing private-sector databases, is a major threat to the data protection and privacy rights of individuals. It seems that in some countries (such as the United States), the national security state is out of control.

The Hobby Lobby problem and the HSA/HRA solution

By Edward Zelinsky
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Mardel, Inc. are owned by the Green family. The Greens oppose on religious grounds “morning after” forms of contraception.

US Supreme Court weighs in on BG Group v. Argentina

By Frédéric G. Sourgens
On Monday, 2 December 2013, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a significant appeal for investor-state arbitration conducted in the United States. Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit set aside an award rendered by a UNCITRAL tribunal seated in Washington DC and constituted pursuant to the United Kingdom-Argentina BIT in BG Group PLC v Republic of Argentina.

Enforced disappearance: time to open up the exclusive club?

By Irena Giorgou
For over five decades, enforced disappearance has been the symbol of state terror and the absence of justice. Pursuant to this heinous practice, people are arrested or kidnapped, detained in secret, and subsequently ‘disappear’. All traces of the victims are deliberately wiped out: no record, no information, no body.

A Q&A with Ingi Iusmen on international adoption

In recognition of Adoption Month, we interviewed two scholars, Peter Hayes and Ingi Iusmen, about intercountry adoption (ICA) to raise awareness of some of the complexities presented by intercountry adoption. Today, we present a brief Q&A with Dr. Ingi Iusmen, Lecturer in Governance and Policy at the University of Southampton.

A Q&A with Peter Hayes on international adoption

In recognition of Adoption Month, we interviewed two scholars, Peter Hayes and Ingi Iusmen, about intercountry adoption (ICA) to raise awareness of some of the complexities presented by intercountry adoption. Today, we present a brief Q&A with Peter Hayes, Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sunderland.

Thanksgiving? The deprivations and atrocities that followed

By Stephen L. Pevar
Every schoolchild is taught that the holiday of Thanksgiving commemorates the feast the Pilgrims arranged to thank the Indians for their friendship, for sharing their land, and for showing them how to grow, harvest, and store food. Accounts say that the generosity of the Indians saved the colonists from starvation during the harsh New England winter of 1620.

R v Hughes and death while at the wheel

By John Watson
In their judgement in the case of R v Hughes [2013] UKSC 56, the UK Supreme Court has issued guidance which, arguably, negates the offence of s. 3ZB of the Road Traffic Act 1988 of causing death by being unlicensed, uninsured or disqualified from driving. In a case since this judgement the CPS stated they considered this offence as written ‘no longer existed’ due to the Hughes decision.

Transitional justice and international criminal justice: a fraught relationship?

By Naomi Roht-Arriaza
What is the key, and often fraught, relationship between transitional justice (TJ) and international criminal justice (ICJ)? How, if at all, do the two fields fit together: do they coexist, create synergies, occupy the whole space, or simply inhabit parallel universes?