In the last decade a new tool has been developed in the global war against official corruption through the introduction of the offense of "illicit enrichment" in almost every multilateral anti-corruption convention. Illicit enrichment is defined in these conventions to include a reverse burden clause which triggers an automatic presumption that any public official found in "possession of inexplicable wealth" must have acquired it illicitly. However, the reversal of the burden of proof clauses raises an important human rights issue because they conflict with the accused individual 's right to be presumed innocent. Unfortunately, the recent spate of international legislation against official corruption provides no clear guidelines on how to proceed in balancing the right of the accused to be presumed innocent against the competing right of society to trace and recapture illicitly acquired national wealth.

Combating Economic Crimes therefore sets out to address what has been left unanswered by these multilateral conventions, to wit, the level of burden of proof that should be placed on a public official who is accused of illicitly enriching himself from the resources of the State, balanced against the protection of legitimate community interests and expectations for a corruption-free society. The book explores the doctrinal foundations of the right to a presumption of innocence and reviews the basic due process protections afforded to all accused persons in criminal trials by treaty, customary international law, and municipal law. The book then goes on to propose a framework for balancing and situationalizing competing human rights and public interests in situations involving possible official corruption.

Freedom of Information (FOI) in China is often perceived as a recent and intriguing phenomenon. This book presents a more complex and detailed understanding of the evolution of FOI in China, using information flow analysis to explore the gradual development of government receptivity to FOI in an information environment through time. The book argues that it is necessary to reassess the widely divergent origins of FOI reform in China, and asserts that social, political and legal factors should have central roles in understanding the development of FOI in China. The book uses information flow analysis to find that FOI reform in China formed part of a much longer process of increased transparency in the Chinese information environment, which gradually shifted from the acceptance of proactive disclosure to that of reactive disclosure. FOI thus has become a beneficiary of this gradual transformation of the Chinese information environment.

Bio-Privacy: Privacy Regulations and the Challenge of Biometrics provides an in-depth consideration of the legal issues posed by the use of biometric technology. Focusing particularly on the relationship between the use of this technology and the protection of privacy, this book draws on material across a range of jurisdictions in order to explore several key questions. What are the privacy issues in the biometric context? How are these issues currently dealt with under the law? What principles are applied? Is the current regulation satisfactory? Is it applied consistently? And, more generally, what is the most appropriate way to deal with the legal implications of biometrics? Offering an analysis, and recommendations, with a view to securing adequate human rights and personal data protection, Bio-Privacy: Privacy Regulations and the Challenge of Biometrics will be an important reference point for those with interests in the tension between freedom and security.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Making Anti-Racial Discrimination Law examines the evolution of anti-racial discrimination law from a socio-legal perspective. Taking a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book does not simply look at race and society or race and law but brings these areas together by drawing out the tension in the process, in different countries, by which race becomes a policy issue which is subsequently regulated by law. Moving beyond traditional social movement theory to include the extreme right wing as a social actor, the study identifies the role of extreme right wing confrontation in agenda setting and law-making, a feature often neglected in studies of social action. In so doing, it identifies the influence of both the extreme right and liberalism on anti-racial discrimination law. Focusing primarily on Great Britain and Germany, the book also demonstrates how national politics feeds into EU policy and identifies some of the challenges in creating a high and uniform level of protection against racial discrimination throughout the EU.

Using primary archival materials from Germany and the UK, the empirical richness of this book constitutes a valuable contribution to the field of anti-racial discrimination law, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The book will interest specialists and academics in law, sociology and political science as well as non-specialists, who will find this study stimulating and useful to expand their knowledge of anti-racial discrimination law or pursue teaching goals, policy objectives and reform agendas.

Human rights seemingly offer universal protection. However, irregular migrants have, at best, only problematic access to human rights. Whether understood as an ethical injunction or legally codified norm, the promised protection of human rights seems to break down when it comes to the lived experience of irregular migrants. This book therefore asks three key questions of great practical and theoretical importance. First, what do we mean when we speak of human rights? Second, is the problematic access of irregular migrants to human rights protection an issue of implementation, or is it due to the inherent characteristics of the concept of human rights? Third, should we look beyond human rights for an effective source of protection? Written is an accessible style, with a range of socio-legal and doctrinal approaches, the chapters focus on the situation of the irregular migrant in Europe and the United States. Throughout the book, nuanced theoretical debates are put in the context of concrete case studies. The critical reflections it offers on the limitations and possibilities of human rights protections for irregular migrants will be invaluable for students, scholars and practitioners.

First published in September 1992, the book traces the nature and development of the fundamental legal relationships among slaves, masters, and third parties. It shows how the colonial and antebellum Southern judges and legislators accommodated slavery's social relationships into the common law, and how slave law evolved in different states over time in response to social political, economic, and intellectual developments.

The book states that the law of slavery in the US South treated slaves both as people and property. It reconciles this apparent contradiction by demonstrating that slaves were defined in the law as items of human property without any legal rights. When the lawmakers recognized slaves as people, they burdened slaves with added legal duties and disabilities. This epitomized in legal terms slavery's oppressive social relationships. The book also illustrates how cases in which the lawmakers recognized slaves as people legitimized slavery's inhumanity. References in the law to the legal humanity of people held as slaves are shown to be rhetorical devices and cruel ironies that regulated the relative rights of the slaves? owners and other free people that were embodied in people held as slaves. Thus, it is argued that it never makes sense to think of slave legal rights. This was so even when the lawmakers regulated the individual masters? rights to treat their slaves as they wished. These regulations advanced policies that the lawmakers perceived to be in the public interest within the context of a slave society.

Lacking a single immigration code, Chinese immigration law is widespread, encompassing a variety of laws, regulations and policies, some of which are internal and closed. There is also no immigration cases system. These factors have combined to make the study and understanding of the system difficult for those outside or unfamiliar with this area of Chinese law. To add to this complexity, since the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, Chinese immigration law has been experiencing significant change. In particular, that brought about by the acceptance of a market economy in 1991, and with access to World Trade Organization membership in 2001. Due to the dilation of the legislation, the issue of conflict between Chinese immigration law and other Chinese laws has become serious. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date, and readily-accessible reference to Chinese immigration law. It provides the necessary detail, insight and background information for a thorough understanding of this complex system. The book has been written on the basis of Chinese statutes while also including coverage of the relevant international instruments. The work draws on and compares Chinese and English language sources, making it an invaluable resource for both Chinese and non-Chinese readers alike.

Asylum, Welfare and the Cosmopolitan Ideal: A Sociology of Rights puts forward the argument that rights must be understood as part of a social process: a terrain for strategies of inclusion and exclusion but also of contestation and negotiation. Engaging debate about how 'cosmopolitan' principles and practices may be transforming national sovereignty, Lydia Morris explores this premise through a case study of legal activism, civil society mobilisation, and judicial decision-making. The book documents government attempts to use destitution as a deterrent to control asylum numbers, and examines a series of legal challenges to this policy, spanning a period both before and after the Human Rights Act. Lydia Morris shows how human rights can be used as a tool for radical change, and in so doing proposes a multi-layered 'model' for understanding rights. This incorporates political strategy, public policy, civil society mobilisation, judicial decision-making, and their public impact, and advances a dynamic understanding of rights as part of the recurrent encounter between principles and politics. Rights are therefore seen as both a social product and a social force.

By examining the highly contested legal debate about the regulation of pornography through an epistemic lens, this book analyzes competing claims about the proper role of speech in our society, pornography's harm, the relationship between speech and equality, and whether law should regulate and, if so, upon what grounds. In maintaining that inegalitarian pornography generates discursive effects, the book contends that law cannot simply adopt a libertarian approach to free speech. While inegalitarian pornography may not be determinative of gender inequality, it does contribute, reinforce, reflect and help maintain such unfairness. As a result, we can place reasonable gender-based regulations on inegalitarian pornography while upholding our most treasured commitments to dissident speech just as other liberal democracies with strong free speech traditions have done.

This study was drafted during an eventful and turbulent period in terms of European fundamental rights. After about four decades of gradual development of a fundamental rights doctrine by an increasingly problem-oriented casuistry of the European Court of Justice, the way to a fundamental rights codification at the Community/Union level was paved with the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on 7 December 2000, which today embodies the key subtance of the European acquis in the area of fundamental rights. Initially, this Charter was adopted as a mere solemn proclamation, without a direct legally binding effect. A new dimension was opened by the Lisbon Reform Treaty of 13 December 2007 (in force since 1 December 2009), into which the Charter was structurally incorporated by a cross-reference in the Treaty, which declares the Charter to be legally binding and of the same legal value as the Treaty law. On this basis, the second focal point, the institutional protection of fundamental rights, i. e., the system of judicial protection in the legal order of the Community/Union, is analysed. In conclusion, the theory is represented that the existing system of institutional protection can be adapted with minor adjustments in such a manner that it provides comprehensive and effective remedies for violations of individual fundamental rights. The creation of a specific fundamental rights complaint as a new, additional procedural Instrument with subsidiary character is, therefore, deemed to be unnecessary.

The year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1965-a landmark decision that made the United States the diverse nation it is today. In The Law that Changed the Face of America, congressional journalist and immigration expert Margaret Sands Orchowski delivers a never before told story of how immigration laws have moved in constant flux and revision throughout our nation's history. Exploring the changing immigration environment of the twenty-first century, Orchowski discusses globalization, technology, terrorism, economic recession, and the expectations of the millennials. She also addresses the ever present U.S. debate about the roles of the various branches of government in immigration; and the often competitive interests between those who want to immigrate to the United States and the changing interests, values, ability, and right of our sovereign nation states to choose and welcome those immigrants who will best advance the country.

This book examines the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings in the EU with a comparative analysis of how British and Italian law has approached the issues. The work also analyzes the role of cooperation between the police and judiciary in combating criminal organizations involved in these crimes. The author draws on evidence from the Italian cities of Rimini and Siracusa and from the Italian transit island of Lampedusa to show how an innovative approach can help provide solutions to the problems arising from this sort of criminal activity. The result is a valuable resource for academics and students working in the areas of migration, refugee, criminal justice and EU law. Policy-makers and practitioners working with refugee and immigration issues will also find much of interest in this book.

This book provides an in-depth and timely analysis of the member states' compliance patterns with the key European Union Anti-Discrimination Directives. It examines the various structural, administrative, and individual aspects which significantly affect the degree and the nature of compliance patterns in select European Union member states.

In American history, students are taught about the three branches of government. Most of the time is spent learning about the Executive and the Legislative bodies, but the Judicial branch has had a monumental effect on the course of American history, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of civil rights. Race and National Power: A Sourcebook of Black Civil Rights from 1862 to 1954 gathers together a collection of primary documents on the history of law and civil rights, specifically in regard to race. The sources covered include key Supreme Court decisions, some opinions from other courts as well, and texts written by ordinary people - the victims and perpetrators of racism and the lawmakers who wrote the statutes the courts must interpret. With helpful headnotes and introductions, Race and National Power: A Sourcebook of Black Civil Rights from 1862 to 1954 is the perfect resource for anyone studying legal history or race in America.

In American history, students are taught about the three branches of government. Most of the time is spent learning about the Executive and the Legislative bodies, but the Judicial branch has had a monumental effect on the course of American history, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of civil rights.

Race and National Power: A Sourcebook of Black Civil Rights from 1862 to 1954 gathers together a collection of primary documents on the history of law and civil rights, specifically in regard to race. The sources covered include key Supreme Court decisions, some opinions from other courts as well, and texts written by ordinary people ? the victims and perpetrators of racism and the lawmakers who wrote the statutes the courts must interpret.

With helpful headnotes and introductions, Race and National Power: A Sourcebook of Black Civil Rights from 1862 to 1954 is the perfect resource for anyone studying legal history or race in America.

The end of the Cold War has ushered a restructuring of the institutions of the European Community, culminating into its enlargement to Eastern Europe, under the aegis of economic integration, democracy and human rights.

This book examines the development and the role of human rights in the European Union, from its inception as an economic co-operation project to an organisation of European States with a political agenda that goes beyond its borders. It argues that human rights have become an important component of the foreign policy of the European Union and that this role has grown from the inception of the Union through the Cold War and thereafter onto the process of enlargement of the Union. The book goes on to analyse the EU's policy on minorities, as a particular example of human rights. It considers the level of their protection within the EU and the framework of international law, and compares minority rights in the older Member States including France, Germany and the UK, with newer Eastern European states.

This book discusses all critical privacy and data protection aspects of biometric systems from a legal perspective. It contains a systematic and complete analysis of the many issues raised by these systems based on examples worldwide and provides several recommendations for a transnational regulatory framework. An appropriate legal framework is in most countries not yet in place. Biometric systems use facial images, fingerprints, iris and/or voice in an automated way to identify or to verify (identity) claims of persons. The treatise which has an interdisciplinary approach starts with explaining the functioning of biometric systems in general terms for non-specialists. It continues with a description of the legal nature of biometric data and makes a comparison with DNA and biological material and the regulation thereof. After describing the risks, the work further reviews the opinions of data protection authorities in relation to biometric systems and current and future (EU) law. A detailed legal comparative analysis is made of the situation in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The author concludes with an evaluation of the proportionality principle and the application of data protection law to biometric data processing operations, mainly in the private sector. Pleading for more safeguards in legislation, the author makes several suggestions for a regulatory framework aiming at reducing the risks of biometric systems. They include limitations to the collection and storage of biometric data as well as technical measures, which could influence the proportionality of the processing. The text is supported by several figures and tables providing a summary of particular points of the discussion. The book also uses the 2012 biometric vocabulary adopted by ISO and contains an extensive bibliography and literature sources.

The right to health, having been previously neglected is now being deployed more and more often in litigation, activism and policy-making across the world. International bodies such as the WHO, UNAIDS, World Bank and WTO are increasingly using or being evaluated with reference to health rights, and international NGOs frequently use the language of rights in campaigning and in more concrete litigation.

This book brings together an impressive array of internationally renowned scholars in the areas of law, philosophy and health policy to critically interrogate the development of rights based approaches to health. The volume integrates discussion of the right to health at a theoretical level in law and ethics, with the difficult substantive issues where the right is relevant, and with emerging systems of global health governance. The contributions to this volume will add to our theoretical and practical understanding of rights based approaches to health.

This book develops a legal argument as to how persons with intellectual disability can flourish in a liberal setting through the exercise of human rights, even though they are perceived as non-autonomous. Using Ronald Dworkin's theory of liberal equality, it argues that ethical individualism can be modified to accommodate persons with intellectual disability as equals in liberal theory. Current legal practices, the case law of the ECtHR on disability, the provisions of the UNCRPD and a comparative analysis of English and German law are discussed, as well as suggestions for positive measures for persons with intellectual disability. The book will interest academics, human rights activists and legal practitioners in the field of disability rights.

It is hard to believe that there was a time, not long ago, when there was no right to obtain government information, no protection against hazards in children's toys and other consumer products, no federal safety standards for motor vehicles, and no insurance to protect an investors' money and securities in brokerage accounts. These and other consumer rights were created only after fierce political battles in the decade between 1966 and 1976. People's Warrior is the untold story of that era and one of its towering leaders, Congressman John Moss. Based on previously undisclosed materials and interviews with key players of the time People's Warrior tells the story of a stormy decade in America, one in which key laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Consumer Product Safety Act were enacted by Congress, despite overwhelming political opposition. It is also the improbable story of one man's life and determination. Moss fought for twelve years, against three presidents and at times his own party, for a freedom of information law that has stood the test of time and been copied around the world. Although at first stymied by special interests, he won sweeping consumer protection reforms. He went on to challenge Wall Street in an intense battle to enact major new investor protection laws. What happened to Moss and his progressive agenda in later decades, and what the future may bring for that agenda, make up the final part of this compelling story of a man and an era.

Asylum, Welfare and the Cosmopolitan Ideal: A Sociology of Rights puts forward the argument that rights must be understood as part of a social process: a terrain for strategies of inclusion and exclusion but also of contestation and negotiation. Engaging debate about how 'cosmopolitan' principles and practices may be transforming national sovereignty, Lydia Morris explores this premise through a case study of legal activism, civil society mobilisation, and judicial decision-making. The book documents government attempts to use destitution as a deterrent to control asylum numbers, and examines a series of legal challenges to this policy, spanning a period both before and after the Human Rights Act. Lydia Morris shows how human rights can be used as a tool for radical change, and in so doing proposes a multi-layered 'model' for understanding rights. This incorporates political strategy, public policy, civil society mobilisation, judicial decision-making, and their public impact, and advances a dynamic understanding of rights as part of the recurrent encounter between principles and politics. Rights are therefore seen as both a social product and a social force.

This collective volume examines how EU citizenship reconstructs in unexpected ways what citizenship as a status means and stands for. EU citizenship can neither be accurately described as a citizenship status similar to national citizenship, nor as an immigration one. The book examines the tension at the heart of attempts to grasp the nature of EU citizenship as supranational status in relation to family reunification, social rights and expulsion. It shows that while events such as Brexit stress the importance of EU citizenship, the construction of supranational citizenship along the axis of non-discrimination and equality remains a work in progress that requires the efforts of all actors involved - institutions, implementing authorities, courts and citizens.

This book looks at the challenges and contemporary issues raised by human rights in the island countries of the South West Pacific which have come under the influence of the common law - where the legal systems are complex and perceptions of rights varies widely.

Drawing on a wide range of resources to present a contemporary and evolving picture of human rights in the island states of the South Pacific region, the book considers the human rights aspects of constitutions, legal institutions and structures, social organisation, culture and custom, tradition and change. The materials provide legal, historical, political, social and cultural insights into the lived experience of human rights in the region supported by illustrative material from case-law, media reports, and policy documents. The book also locates the human rights concerns of Pacific islanders firmly within the wider theoretical and international domain while at the same time maintaining focus on the importance of the unique identity of Pacific island nations and people.

Human Rights in the South Pacific will appeal to anyone interested in the region or in human rights including international rights advocates, investors and developers, policy makers, representatives of government and civic society and those wishing to acquire a better understanding of what countries emerging from colonial rule face in developing but still retaining their identity.

This volume comprises national reports on migration and migration law from 17 countries representing all continents. The vast majority of these are countries of immigration, which means they face specific challenges in terms of managing migratory flows that are increasingly linked with climate change and scarce natural resources worldwide, and they need to find viable ways to integrate humanitarian migration. Unlike so many recent publications in the field of international migration law, this book brings together reports on diverse countries that are rarely regarded as part of one and the same picture, depicting globalized migration in the contemporary era that to a large extent challenges state sovereignty. The contributions delineate the legal regimes that individual states are continually developing and modifying with a view to managing and controlling access of individual persons to their respective territories. They also show how the restrictive measures that states resort to in the event of failure to manage migration could have a lasting legal impact. The General Report preceding the country reports provides a comparative overview of the national reports, and is divided into two parts. The first, more technical in nature, addresses the classic questions relating to admission to and residence in a country. The second, more reflective section, examines the relationship between laws and migration in a wider and multidisciplinary perspective. To allow a robust comparison, the country reports all follow a similarly wide-ranging structure; to the extent possible, they also cover the historical, sociological and demographic factors that help explain legal regimes and migratory flows in each country. Each country report includes analyses of recent legislative developments and delicate questions that are still awaiting adequate (legal) responses as well as perspectives for the future.