Law

A new paradigm for defining and promoting human rights

HUQUQ Research Team Systems Thinking Framework, History, Law, Medicine, Philosophy, Sociology Systems Thinking 0

by Ema Paskevicius Although the concept of human rights suggests that every individual is entitled to certain basic human rights, how exactly are they upheld in various circumstances? The answers to these questions are often proposed by researchers, scholars, and professionals in various academic disciplines and professional areas of expertise. In this research note, we will consider whether there is an academic discipline of “human rights”, the meaning of “human rights”, and how the systems thinking framework could potentially bridge the gap between the various definitions of human rights proposed by scholars in various disciplines to advance the aims of human rights. Academic disciplines and human rights Academic discipline can be best defined as a distinct branch of knowledge that bases its main ideas on a particular area of study. Academic disciplines help us organize the vast range of human knowledge into certain categories, such as humanities, social sciences, and scientific disciplines. Humanities focuses on the study of human culture, which can include subcategories such as language, philosophy, literature, and art. In terms of their applications to human rights standards, philosophers, for example, may analyze and theorize concepts underlying human rights such as justice and equality. They may ask abstract questions that surround their fundamental principles such as – What are the moral obligations to adequately uphold human rights? How do human rights differ from a universal versus a cultural perspective? Philosophers tend to work on a more theoretical level, where they explore political ideologies, ethical guidelines, and legal frameworks […]

Terror and Terrorism in International Humanitarian Law

Research Assistants Law, International humanitarian Law, Jurisprudence, Treaties 0

Terror: Terror refers to action taken by the State that consists of political and military terror, which may take place both in times of war and peace for the purpose of social control or military action. In the cases of armed conflict, acts of terror may apply to methods of warfare and acts or threats of violence—the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population. Such acts include indiscriminate bombardment, attacks against the civilian population or civilian objects, persecutions, acts of violence designed to spread terror among the population, acts of terrorism, pillage, rape, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions, hostage taking and enforced disappearances, and ethnic cleansing that forcibly displaces the civilian population. Reprisals against civilians and their property are prohibited (Geneva Conv. IV, Art. 33; API Art. 51; Ad. Protocol II, Art. 4, 13). State Terror may happen outside the context of armed conflict. State response to protests, riots, demonstrations, disturbance of public order, and internal strife, may qualify as Terror. International Humanitarian Law applies in that it limits the power of governments to use coercive measures as well as police and armed forces to defend or reestablish public order. These rules can be found in fundamental guarantees such as the one provided for by non-derogable international human rights provisions and the principles of Common Article 3 to the four Geneva Conventions. Terrorism: Unlike acts of Terror that State may unleash during conflict and peace times, the definition of terrorism is less established in International […]

Poverty Law and Equality Rights: Preliminary Reflections

Research Assistants Law Poverty 0

by James C. Hathaway, University of Michigan Law School Abstract The traditional governmental response to the phenomenon of poverty has been the enactment of legislation to permit or effect the transfer of some measure of economic resources to the poor. From feudal times to the present, governments of our political tradition have consistently embraced an economic definition of poverty: the poor are identified by financial criteria and are assisted by financial means. The legislative evolution in regard to poverty, based on this underlying economic premise, has achieved only superficial advances. First, twentieth century legislation incorporates a more humane standard of minimum acceptable resource allotments. Second, the modern social welfare system represents a somewhat more comprehensive and less stigmatizing legislative bandage than were such earlier legal vehicles as the regulation of begging, institutionalized almsgiving and workhouses. Recommended Citation Hathaway, James C. “Poverty Law and Equality Rights: Preliminary Reflections.” Journal of Law and Social Policy 1 (1985): 1-16. (Work published when author not on Michigan Law faculty.) Download: UM Repository

Systemic Racism in the U.S. Immigration Laws

Research Assistants Essays, Journal, Law 0

by Kevin R. Johnson, UC Davis Abstract This Essay analyzes how aggressive activism in a California mountain town at the tail end of the nineteenth century commenced a chain reaction resulting in state and ultimately national anti-Chinese immigration laws. The constitutional immunity through which the Supreme Court upheld those laws deeply affected the future trajectory of U.S. immigration law and policy. Responding to sustained political pressure from the West, Congress in 1882 passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, an infamous piece of unabashedly racist legislation that commenced a long process of barring immigration from all of Asia to the United States. In upholding the Act, the Supreme Court in an extraordinary decision that jars modern racial sensibilities declared that Congress possessed “plenary power”—absolute authority—over immigration and that racist immigration laws were immune from judicial review of their constitutionality. The bedrock of U.S. immigration jurisprudence for more than a century and never overruled by the Supreme Court, the plenary power doctrine permits the treatment of immigrants in racially discriminatory ways consistent with the era of Jim Crow but completely at odds with modern constitutional law. The doctrine enabled President Trump, a fierce advocate of tough-as-nails immigration measures, to pursue the most extreme immigration program of any modern president, with devastating impacts on noncitizens of color. As the nation attempts to grapple with the Trump administration’s brutal treatment of immigrants, it is an especially opportune historical moment to reconsider the plenary power doctrine. Ultimately, the commitment to remove systemic racism from the nation’s social […]