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.

This interdisciplinary book explores the Northern Ireland conflict through a human rights framework. The book examines the conflict from the creation of the Northern Ireland state in 1921 to 2014. This timeframe allows an analysis of how human rights impacted upon the conflict in its broadest understanding (i.e. the pre-violent conflict, the violent conflict and the post-violent conflict phases). Furthermore, it allows for a better understanding of how the various stages of the conflict impacted upon how human rights are understood in Northern Ireland today. The study's main findings are that: (i) human rights had a significant impact on the development of the conflict; (ii) human rights violations were both underlying causes and direct causes of the descent into violence; (iii) the conflict coloured the view of human rights held by the main political actors; and (iv) human rights continue to be partially understood through the prism of the conflict. More generally, this interdisciplinary work explores the relationship between law, politics and conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of human rights, conflict resolution, British politics, law and security studies.

In both Europe and North America it can be argued that the associational and institutional dimensions of the right to freedom of religion or belief are increasingly coming under pressure. This book demonstrates why a more classical understanding of the idea of a liberal democracy can allow for greater respect for the right to freedom of religion or belief. The book examines the major direction in which liberal democracy has developed over the last fifty years and contends that this is not the most legitimate type of liberal democracy for religiously divided societies. Drawing on theoretical developments in the field of transnational constitutionalism, Hans-Martien ten Napel argues that redirecting the concept and practice of liberal democracy toward the more classical notion of limited, constitutional government, with a considerable degree of autonomy for civil society organizations would allow greater religious pluralism. The book shows how, in a postsecular and multicultural context, modern sources of constitutionalism and democracy, supplemented by premodern, transcendental legitimation, continue to provide the best means of legitimating Western constitutional and political orders.

Coercive Care asks probing and challenging questions regarding the use of coercion in health care and the social services. The book combines philosophical analysis with comparative studies of social policy and law in a large number of industrialized countries.

Judges often behave in surprising ways when they re-interpret laws and constitutions. Contrary to existing expectations, judges regularly abandon their own established interpretations in favor of new understandings. In Reconstructing Rights, Stephan Stohler offers a new theory of judicial behavior which demonstrates that judges do not act alone. Instead, Stohler shows that judges work in a deliberative fashion with aligned partisans in the elected branches to articulate evolving interpretations of major statutes and constitutions. Reconstructing Rights draws on legislative debates, legal briefs, and hundreds of judicial opinions issued from high courts in India, South Africa, and the United States in the area of discrimination and affirmative action. These materials demonstrate judges' willingness to provide interpretative leadership. But they also demonstrate how judges relinquish their leadership roles when their aligned counterparts disagree. This pattern of behavior indicates that judges do not exercise exclusive authority over constitutional interpretation. Rather, that task is subject to greater democratic influence than is often acknowledged.

This collection explores and illustrates issues arising from 'political' approaches to human rights in contrast to the more traditional 'moral' approaches. Moral approaches conceptualize and justify human rights in terms of priority rights which are both universal and moral. In contrast, political approaches focus on those human rights practices involved in the development and operation of human rights institutions, laws and political process, all in relative independence from their alleged moral foundations. The book contributes to the understanding and analysis of 'political approaches', including consideration of their diversity, and discussion of their strengths and weaknesses. The choice of contributors presents a balance between those theorists who favour some version of the political approach and those who are dubious about the perceived advantages. The chapters are grouped together in parts which constitute the distinctive issues addressed in the book. At a time when there is considerable uncertainty concerning their conceptual clarity, operation, feasibility, and their normative justifications, this volume will be of interest to those involved with the theory and practice of human rights, within law schools, and in politics and philosophy departments. It will also provide a useful resource for human rights practitioners and policy makers.

Human rights have traditionally been framed in a vertical perspective with the duties of States confined to their own citizens or residents. Interpretations of international human rights treaties tend either to ignore or downplay obligations beyond this 'territorial space'. This edited volume challenges the territorial bias of mainstream human rights law. It argues that with increased globalisation and the impact of international corporations, organisations and non-State actors, human rights law will become less relevant if it fails to adapt to changing realities in which States are no longer the only leading actor. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, the book explores potential applications of international human rights law in a multi-duty bearer setting. The first part of the book examines the current state of the human rights obligations of foreign States, corporations and international financial institutions, looking in particular at the ways in which they address questions of attribution and distribution of obligations and responsibility. The second part is geared towards the identification of common principles that may underpin a human rights legal regime that incorporates obligations of foreign States as well as of non-State actors. As a marker of important progress in understanding what lies ahead for integrating foreign States and non-State actors in the human rights dutybearer regime, this book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of international human rights law, public international law and international relations.

The First Amendment is perhaps the most important - and most debated - amendment in the US Constitution. It establishes freedom of speech, as well as that of religion, the press, peaceable assembly and the right to petition the government. But how has the interpretation of this amendment evolved? Milton Cantor explores America's political response to the challenges of social unrest and how it shaped the meaning of the First Amendment throughout the twentieth century. This multi-layered study of dissent in the United States from the early 1900s through the 1970s describes how Congress and the law dealt with anarchists, syndicalists, socialists, and militant labor groups, as well as communists and left-of-center liberals. Cantor describes these organizations' practices, policies, and policy shifts against the troubled background of war and overseas affairs. The volume chronologically explores each new challenge - both events and legislation - for the First Amendment and how the public and branches of government reacted. The meaning of the First Amendment was defined in the crucible of threats to national security. Some perceived threats were wartime events; the First World War instigated awareness of civil liberties, but in those times, security trumped liberty. In the peace that followed, efforts to curtail speech continued to prevail. Cantor analyzes the decades-long divisiveness regarding First Amendment decisions in the Supreme Court, coming down squarely in criticism of those who have argued for greater government control over speech.

Under the influence of the global spread of human rights, legal disputes are increasingly framed in human rights terms. Parties to a legal dispute can often invoke human rights norms in support of their competing claims. Yet, when confronted with cases in which human rights conflict, judges face a dilemma. They have to make difficult choices between superior norms that deserve equal respect. In this high-level book, the author sets out how judges the world over could resolve conflicts between human rights. He presents an innovative legal theoretical account of such conflicts, questioning the relevance of the influential proportionality test to their resolution. Instead, the author develops a novel resolution framework, specifically designed to tackle human rights conflicts. The book combines concerted normative theory with profound practical analysis, firmly rooting its theoretical arguments in human rights practice. Although the analysis draws primarily on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the book's core arguments are applicable to judicial practice in general. As such, the book should be of great interest to academics, postgraduate students and legal practitioners in Europe and beyond. The book is particularly suited for use in advanced courses on legal theory, human rights law and jurisprudence.

This book considers institutional racism as a problem that exists within modern societies. Its roots lie with the transatlantic slave trade and slavery and the solution involves ridding society of the problem. It is argued here that, first, there needs to be an acceptance of its existence, then developing the tools needed to deal with it and, finally, to implement those tools so that institutional racism can be permanently removed from society. The book has four themes: the first considers the nature of institutional racism, the second theme looks at instances of institutional racism through matters such as deaths in custody and skin lightening, the third considers the concept of reparations and the final area looks at the development of social movements as a way of pushing institutional racism up the political agenda. The development of a social movement is part of a social discourse which would, for example, push mentoring as a form of reparations. There is a need for more research on the manifestations of institutional racism and this book is part of that discourse. It is argued that the legacy of the slave trade and slavery is continuing and contemporary through the presence of institutional racism in society. This problem has not been addressed through legislation and policies devised to combat racial discrimination. Institutional racism needs to be understood as being located in the processes and procedures of societal institutions.

This insightful book analyses the role that EU general principles have taken in the protection of fundamental rights within the EU since the Lisbon Treaty. In particular, the author focuses on the relationship between written law (the Charter of Fundamental Rights) and unwritten law (the general principles) within the institutional framework of the EU. The book demonstrates that, due to their complementary and autonomous function, the general principles still play a key role in the protection of fundamental rights within the EU despite the binding force of the Charter. Analysis throughout the book shows that the role of general principles concerning fundamental rights is particularly evident when they reflect the specificities of the EU legal system, and contribute to ensuring its autonomy. These conclusions are supported through a comprehensive review of the relevant case law of the European Court of Justice in the field of fundamental rights protection. A particular focus is placed on convergences and discrepancies with respect to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. This work will be of great interest to scholars who are researching the protection of fundamental rights within the legal order of the EU. Human rights lawyers will also find this a compelling text.

Technology has attracted an increasing level of attention within studies of disability and disability rights. Many researchers and advocates have maintained skepticism towards technology out of the fear that technology becomes another way to 'fix' impairments. These skeptical views, however, contrast with a more positive approach towards the role that technology can play in eliminating barriers to social participation. Legal scholarship has started to focus on accessibility and accessible technology and in conjunction with the recently adopted United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has put a great emphasis on accessibility, highlighting the role that accessible technology plays in the promotion and protection of the rights of people with disabilities. Against this background, this book gathers together different contributions that focus on enhancing the production, marketing and use of accessible technology. Building upon previous academic studies and in light of the UNCRPD, accessible technology is considered a tool to increase autonomy and participation. Overall, this book attempts to show, through a multifaceted and inter-disciplinary analysis, that different regulatory approaches might enhance accessible technology and its availability. This title was previously published as a special issue of the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology.

In the spirit of the time, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 called for nondiscrimination for American citizens, seeking equality without regard for race, color, or creed. After the mid-1960s, to make amends for wrongs of the past, some people called for benign discrimination to give blacks a special boost. In business and government this could be accomplished through racial preferences or quotas; in public education, by considering race when assigning students to schools. By 1980 this course reached a crossroads. Raymond Wolters maintains that Ronald Reagan and William Bradford Reynolds made the "right turn" when they questioned and limited the use of racial considerations in drawing electoral boundaries. He also documents the Reagan administration's considerable success in reinforcing within the country, and reviving within the judiciary, the conviction that every person black or white should be considered an individual with unique talents and inalienable rights. This book begins with a biographical chapter on William Bradford Reynolds, the Assistant Attorney General who was the principal architect of Reagan's civil rights policies. It then analyzes three main civil rights issues: voting rights, affirmative action, and school desegregation. Wolters describes specific cases: at-large elections and minority vote dilutions; congressional districting in New Orleans; legislative districting in North Carolina; the debates over the Civil Rights Act of 1964; social science critiques of affirmative action; the question of quotas; and school desegregation and forced busing. Because Ronald Reagan and William Bradford Reynolds were men of the right, and because most journalists and historians are on the left, Wolters feels the "people of words" have dealt harshly with the Reagan administration. In writing this book, he hopes to correct the record on a subject that has been badly represented. Wolters points out that, beginning in the 1980s and continuing in the 1990s, the Supreme Court endorsed the legal arguments that Reagan's lawyers developed in the fields of voting rights, affirmative action, and school desegregation. In "Right Turn," Wolters responds to those who claimed that Reagan and Reynolds were racists who wanted to turn back the clock on civil rights, and he describes civil rights cases and controversies in a way that is comprehensible to general readers as well as to lawyers and historians.

A critical examination of the relationship of law and sexual orientation in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Law is one of the primary means through which lesbian and gay male sexuality is constructed, monitored and controlled. This text exposes the connection through an exploration of key questions of current interest and controversy. The author examines the motivations behind legal restrictions and their impact both upon sexual sub-cultures and dominant society. The book tackles the areas of controversy that have erupted in the 1980s and the 1990s: public funding restrictions on "homoerotic art"; sodomy laws; the regulation of safe sex educational materials; gay pornography and feminist theory; lesbians and gay men in the American military; sadomasochism and the law; and legal restrictions on the "promotion" of homosexuality. The author concludes with an examination of the challenges posed by the newly emerging queer identities and the likely direction of future struggles.

A critical examination of the relationship of law and sexual orientation in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Law is one of the primary means through which lesbian and gay male sexuality is constructed, monitored and controlled. This text exposes the connection through an exploration of key questions of current interest and controversy. The author examines the motivations behind legal restrictions and their impact both upon sexual sub-cultures and dominant society. The book tackles the areas of controversy that have erupted in the 1980s and the 1990s: public funding restrictions on "homoerotic art"; sodomy laws; the regulation of safe sex educational materials; gay pornography and feminist theory; lesbians and gay men in the American military; sadomasochism and the law; and legal restrictions on the "promotion" of homosexuality. The author concludes with an examination of the challenges posed by the newly emerging queer identities and the likely direction of future struggles.

This collection of articles critically examines legal subjectivity and ideas of citizenship inherent in legal thought. The chapters offer a novel perspective on current debates in this area by exploring the connections between public and political issues as they intersect with more intimate sets of relations and private identities. Covering issues as diverse as autonomy, vulnerability and care, family and work, immigration control, the institution of speech, and the electorate and the right to vote, they provide a broader canvas upon which to comprehend more complex notions of citizenship, personhood, identity and belonging in law, in their various ramifications.

Commentators on the media in Southeast Asia either emphasise with optimism the prospect for new media to provide possibilities for greater democratic discourse, or else, less optimistically, focus on the continuing ability of governments to exercise tight and sophisticated control of the media. This book explores these issues with reference to Malaysia and Singapore. It analyses how journalists monitor governments and cover elections, discussing what difference journalism makes; it examines citizen journalism, and the constraints on it, often self-imposed constraints; and it assesses how governments control the media, including outlining the development and current application of legal restrictions.

Although the number of elderly people in Britain is increasing steadily, the law in relation to their particular needs is a relatively neglected field. The Law and Elderly People was the first text to provide easily accessible information for those involved in advice-giving and service provision in this rapidly developing field. This second edition has been fully revised and completely updated to reflect the major legal and social changes which have recently occurred. Concerned for the independence and autonomy of both young elderly and the old elderly, the book covers employment and income, accomodation and housing, community and residential care, health provision and delivery and family relationships, thus providing an important guide to the most important legal issues.
The Law and Elderly People will be of practical help to all those concerned with the welfare of the elderly and to undergraduates and lecturers in social work, law and gerontology.

Although the number of elderly people in Britain is increasing steadily, the law in relation to their particular needs is a relatively neglected field. The Law and Elderly People was the first text to provide easily accessible information for those involved in advice-giving and service provision in this rapidly developing field. This second edition has been fully revised and completely updated to reflect the major legal and social changes which have recently occurred. Concerned for the independence and autonomy of both young elderly and the old elderly, the book covers employment and income, accomodation and housing, community and residential care, health provision and delivery and family relationships, thus providing an important guide to the most important legal issues.
The Law and Elderly People will be of practical help to all those concerned with the welfare of the elderly and to undergraduates and lecturers in social work, law and gerontology.

A timely and important contribution to the study of immigration court from a psychological perspective Every day, large numbers of immigrants undertake dangerous migration journeys only to face deportation or "removal" proceedings once they arrive in the U.S. Others who have been in the country for many years may face these proceedings as well, and either group may seek to gain lawful status by means of an application to USCIS, the benefits arm of the immigration system. Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court examines the growing role of mental health professionals in the immigration system as they conduct forensic mental health assessments that are used as psychological evidence for applications for deportation relief, write affidavits for the court about the course of treatment they have provided to immigrants, help prepare people emotionally to be deported, and provide support for immigrants in detention centers. Many immigrants appear in immigration court-often without an attorney if they cannot afford one-as part of deportation proceedings. Mental health professionals can be deeply involved in these proceedings, from helping to buttress an immigrant's plea for asylum to helping an immigration judge make decisions about hardship, competency or risks for violence. There are a whole host of psycho-legal and forensic issues that arise in immigration court and in other immigration applications that have not yet been fully addressed in the field. This book provides an overview of relevant issues likely to be addressed by mental health and legal professionals. Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court corrects a serious deficiency in the study of immigration law and mental health, offering suggestions for future scholarship and acting as a vital resource for mental health professionals, immigration lawyers, and judges.

The field of transitional justice has expanded rapidly since the term first emerged in the late 1990s. Its intellectual development has, however, tended to follow practice rather than drive it. Addressing this gap, Violence, Law and the Impossibility of Transitional Justice pursues a comprehensive theoretical inquiry into the foundation and evolution of transitional justice. Presenting a detailed deconstruction of the role of law in transition, the book explores the reasons for resistance to transitional justice. It explores the ways in which law itself is complicit in perpetuating conflict, and asks whether a narrow vision of transitional justice - underpinned by a strictly normative or doctrinal concept of law - can undermine the promise of justice. Drawing on case material, as well as on perspectives from a range of disciplines, including law, political science, anthropology and philosophy, this book will be of considerable interest to those concerned with the theory and practice of transitional justice.

The volume presents an extensive investigation into the process of reforms of detention powers in today's China and offers an in-depth analysis of the debates surrounding the reformist attempts. The chapters in this collection demonstrate that legislative and institutional reforms in this area result from political opportunities - openings and tensions at the central institutional levels of political authority - and contingent social and political factors. The book examines legal and institutional reforms to institutions of detention and imprisonment that have occurred since the 1990s, with a particular focus on the 21st century. Its content follows three particular lines of enquiry concerning the issue of deprivation of liberty in contemporary China. The first deals with the academic and theoretical debates on the subject of imprisonment and detention. The related chapters explain the difficulties encountered in this area of research and understandings of the discourses of reform through labour in Western and Chinese scholarship. The second deals with the specific issues of criminal and administrative forms of deprivation of liberty, examining in particular the institutional and legislative dimensions, considering the relationship between reforms and criminal justice policy agendas. The third assesses the meaning of institutional reforms in the context of the changing state-society relationship in contemporary China.

When and how might the term genocide appropriately be ascribed to the experience of North American Indigenous nations under settler colonialism? Laurelyn Whitt and Alan W. Clarke contend that, if certain events which occurred during the colonization of North America were to take place today, they could be prosecuted as genocide. The legal methodology that the authors develop to establish this draws upon the definition of genocide as presented in the United Nations Genocide Convention and enhanced by subsequent decisions in international legal fora. Focusing on early British colonization, the authors apply this methodology to two historical cases: that of the Beothuk Nation from 1500-1830, and of the Powhatan Tsenacommacah from 1607-77. North American Genocides concludes with a critique of the Conventional account of genocide, suggesting how it might evolve beyond its limitations to embrace the role of cultural destruction in undermining the viability of human groups.

This study examines a key aspect of regulatory policy in the field of data protection, namely the frameworks governing the sharing of data for law enforcement purposes, both within the EU and between the EU and the US and other third party countries. The work features a thorough analysis of the main data-sharing instruments that have been used by law enforcement agencies and the intelligence services in the EU and in the US between 2001 to 2015. The study also explores the challenges to data protection which the current frameworks create, and explores the possible responses to those challenges at both EU and global levels. In offering a full overview of the current EU data-sharing instruments and their data protection rules, this book will be of significant benefit to scholars and policymakers working in areas related to privacy, data protection, national security and EU external relations.

This remarkable book covers the impact of human rights on intellectual property law in the most comprehensive review ever undertaken. It is destined to influence the future development of this field and constitutes an essential resource for both scholars and practitioners.' - Jerome H. Reichman, Duke University School of Law, US'Professor Geiger has assembled an extraordinary group of leading legal scholars, human rights lawyers, judges, and international civil servants to provide comprehensive, up-to-the-minute coverage of all the major issues implicated by the interaction between human rights and intellectual property. This volume will be required reading for anyone interested in this increasingly important topic.' - Beebe Barton, New York University School of Law, US 'Intellectual property law draws boundaries around human creativity. In doing so it intersects with the principles and values of the human rights tradition. In this remarkable volume, Professor Christophe Geiger has brought together a great team of scholars to explore this intersection. The result is a Research Handbook that is comprehensive in its coverage of jurisdictions, issues and debates. It is an indispensable starting point for researchers wishing to understand the field and its many topics.' - Peter Drahos, Australian National University and Queen Mary University of London, UK Research Handbook on Human Rights and Intellectual Property is a comprehensive reference work on the intersection of human rights and intellectual property law. Resulting from a field-specific expertise of over 40 scholars and professionals of world renown, the book explores the practical and doctrinal implications of human rights considerations on intellectual property law and jurisprudence. The various chapters of the book scrutinize issues related to interactions among and between norms of different legal families and the role of human rights in the development of a balanced intellectual property legal framework. The innovative approach of the book is reflected in its structure: the first part provides a foundation for the human rights and intellectual property discourse; the second sheds light on the human rights implications for the development of intellectual property; and the third (characterized by a human rights perspective) is devoted to the specific issues of interaction between human rights and intellectual property. Exploring in depth a variety of interactions between human rights and intellectual property law, the book will be of great interest to academics and experts working within human rights, intellectual property, development, international relations and international public law. Contributors include: A. Abdel-Latif, T. Aplin, C. Avila Plaza, D.B. Barbosa, A.Brown, C. Chiarolla, J. Christoffersen, C.M. Correa, T. Dreier, P. Ducoulombier, L.Falcon, S. Farran, S. Frankel, D. Gangjee, M. Ganzhorn, C. Geiger, D. Gervais, G. Ghidini, J. Griffiths, H. Grosse Ruse-Khan, L.R. Helfer, P. von Kapff, A. Kupzok, J.D. Lipton, D. Matthews, T. Mylly, A. Peukert, A. Plomer, J.M. Samuels, M. Senftleben, X. Seuba, C. Sganga, R. Smith, A. Stazi, T. Takenaka, C. Trautmann, D. Voorhoof, C. Waelde, H. Wager, J. Watal, G. Westkamp, P.K. Yu