In this enlightening book, John Mukum Mbaku analyses the main challenges of constitutional design and the construction of governance institutions in Africa today. He argues that the central issues are: providing each country with a constitutional order that is capable of successfully managing sectarian conflict and enhancing peaceful coexistence; protecting the rights of citizens ? including those of minorities; minimizing the monopolization of political space by the majority (to the detriment of minorities); and, effectively preventing government impunity. Mbaku offers a comprehensive analysis of various approaches to the management of diversity, and shows how these approaches can inform Africa?s struggle to promote peace and good governance. He explores in depth the existence of dysfunctional and anachronistic laws and institutions inherited from the colonial state, and the process through which laws and institutions are formulated or constructed, adopted, and amended. A close look at the constitutional experiences of the American Republic provides important lessons for constitutional design and constitutionalism in Africa. Additionally, comparative politics and comparative constitutional law also provide important lessons for the management of diversity in African countries. Mbaku recommends state reconstruction through constitutional design as a way for each African country to provide itself with laws and institutions that reflect the realities of each country, including the necessary mechanisms and tools for the protection of the rights of minorities. From students and scholars to NGOs, lawyers and policymakers, this unique and judicious book is an essential tool for all those seeking to understand and improve governance and development in Africa.

Who would go to prison on purpose? Incarcerated Resistance tells the stories of 43 activists from the School of the America's Watch and Plowshares movements who have chosen to commit illegal nonviolent actions against the state and endure the court trials and lengthy prison sentences that follow. Employing this high-risk tactic is one of the most extreme methods in the nonviolent toolkit and typically entails intentionally breaking the law, most often through crimes of trespass onto federal property or the destruction of federal property. Though they have knowingly broken the law and generally expect to be incarcerated, their goal is to raise awareness and to resist, not necessarily to go to jail. The majority of "justice action prisoners" seek not-guilty verdicts, and use the space of the courtroom and subsequent media attention as opportunities to share information about their issues of concern. Rooted in individual stories and told through a feminist framework that is attentive to relations of power, Incarcerated Resistance is as much about nuclear weapons and solidarity activism as it is about the U.S. prison system and patriarchal culture. Almost all war-resisting "justice action prisoners" are white, well-educated, Christian, and over the age of 60. Privilege, gender, and religious identity especially shape what happens to this committed group of nonviolent activists, as their identities may also be strategically deployed to bolster their acts of resistance, in important but fraught attempts to "use" privilege "for good." From the decision to act through their release from prison, nonviolent resistance illuminates the interconnected struggles required to upend systemic violence, and the ways that we are all profoundly affected by America's deep-seated structures of inequality.

This unique book examines whether there is sufficient human rights accountability for undertakings supported by bilateral state development and export credit agencies. In contrast to leading international development and financial actors such as the World Bank, the accountability of bilateral development and export credit agencies has, to date, remained widely unexplored. This book analyses the effectiveness of the human rights system in allowing affected individuals to claim accountability for human rights violations resulting from bilateral development and export credit agency supported undertakings. It provides a comprehensive examination of development and export credit agencies' legal nature and explores three legal pathways open to claimants: host state responsibility, home state responsibility and corporate responsibility. Furthermore, it includes empirical data on the corporate responsibility process in seven agencies. Barbara Linder concludes that there is a significant human rights accountability gap with regards to bilateral development and export credit agency supported undertakings. The final chapters make recommendations for strengthening human rights accountability and improving access to justice for adversely affected individuals. Academics and professional lawyers working at the intersection of human rights, development cooperation and investment will find this a compelling body of work. The book provides information on existing case law, highlights human rights accountability gaps and outlines illustrative case studies that will act as a valuable point of reference.

The national security and civil liberties tensions of the World War II mass incarceration link 9/11 and the 2015 Paris-San Bernardino attacks to the Trump era in America. This marked an era darkened by accelerating discrimination against, and intimidation of those asserting rights of freedom of religion, association and speech, and by increasingly volatile protests. This book discusses the broad civil liberties challenges posed by these past-into-the-future linkages highlighting pressing questions about the significance of judicial independence for a constitutional democracy committed both to security and to the rule of law. One of which is: Will courts fall passively in line with the elective branches, as they did in Korematsu v. United States, or serve as the guardian of the Bill of Rights, scrutinizing claims of "pressing public necessity" as justification for curtailing fundamental liberties? This book portrays the present-day significance of the Supreme Court's partially discredited, yet never overruled, 1944 decision upholding the constitutional validity of the mass Japanese American exclusion leading to indefinite incarceration. Second, it implicates prospects for judicial independence in adjudging Harassment, Exclusion, Incarceration disputes in contemporary America and beyond. Third, it engages the American populace in shaping law and policy at the ground level by placing the courts' legitimacy on center stage. This book addresses who we are as Americans and whether we are genuinely committed to democracy governed by the Constitution.

In our complex, consumerist societies, the intricacy of personal interactions and the number of goods and products available often prevents us from direct knowledge of what lies 'behind' food behaviors, ingredients, and the origins of the modern food and agriculture supply chain. Over the last decade or so, scholars, lawyers and engaged lay vegans have had many discussions about vegan rights and discrimination as issues intrinsic to animal rights, but the final frontier remains intact: the direct concerns of other animals. To give effect to the rights of animals, we must recognize and defend the human right-or duty, as many uphold-- to care about them. Including contributors from Australia, the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, this book explores the rights of vegans and how vegans can be protected from discrimination. Using an international socio-legal lens, the contributors discuss constitutional issues, vegan legal cases, the concept of protection for vegan 'belief' in human rights and equality law, the legal requirement to provide vegan food, animal agriculture and plant-based, vegan food in the context of the human right to food, and the rights of vegans in education and in health care. This book will be of interest to practicing lawyers, legal and critical legal scholars, scholars of vegan, and critical animal studies, and commentors on socio-political issues alike.

China's citizenship challenge tells a story of how labour NGOs contest migrant workers' citizenship marginalisation in China. The book argues that in order to effectively address problems faced by migrant workers, these NGOs must undertake 'citizenship challenge': the transformation of migrant workers' social and political participation in public life, the broadening of their access to labour and other rights, and the reinvention of their relationship to the city. By framing the NGOs' activism in terms of citizenship rather than class struggle, this book offers a valuable contribution to the field of labour movement studies in China. The monograph also proves exceptionally timely in the context of the state's repression of these organisations in recent years, which, as the book explores, were largely driven by their citizenship-altering activism. -- .

The papers collected in this volume highlight the complex dynamic relationship between citizenship - as membership status - and the constitutional law which provides the cornerstone of all polities. It shows the many different ways in which we must use constitutional law in order fully to understand how one becomes a citizen, and what the meaning of citizenship is. Edited by a leading authority in the field, this volume contains the key works which cover national, transnational and international aspects of the topic, and the book provides a particular focus on how constitutional law constructs and upholds the range of citizenship rights. With an original introduction by the editor, this timely collection will be a valuable source of reference for students, academics and practitioners interested in citizenship and constitutional law.

Sanctuary cities and urban struggles makes the first sustained intervention into exploring how cities are challenging the primacy of the nation-state as the key guarantor of rights and entitlements. It brings together cutting-edge scholars of political geography, urban geography, citizenship studies, socio-legal studies and refugee studies to explore how urban social movements, localised practices of belonging and rights claiming, and diverse articulations of sanctuary are reshaping the governance of migration. By offering a collection of empirical cases and conceptualisations that move beyond 'seeing like a state', Sanctuary cities and urban struggles proposes not a singular alternative but rather a set of interlocking sites and scales of political imagination and practice. In an era when migrant rights are under attack and nationalism is on the rise, the topic of how citizenship, rights and mobility can be recast at the urban scale is more relevant than ever. -- .

Can harsh interrogation techniques and torture ever be morally justified for a nation at war or under the threat of imminent attack? In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes, the United States and other liberal democracies were forced to grapple once again with the issue of balancing national security concerns against the protection of individual civil and political rights. This question was particularly poignant when US forces took prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq who arguably had information about additional attacks. In this volume, ethicist Paul Lauritzen takes on ethical debates about counterterrorism techniques that are increasingly central to US foreign policy and discusses the ramifications for the future of interrogation. Lauritzen examines how doctors, lawyers, psychologists, military officers, and other professionals addressed the issue of the appropriate limits in interrogating detainees. In the case of each of these professions, a vigorous debate ensued about whether the interrogation policy developed by the Bush administration violated codes of ethics governing professional practice. These codes are critical, according to Lauritzen, because they provide resources for democracies and professionals seeking to balance concerns about safety with civil liberties, while also shaping the character of those within these professional guilds. This volume argues that some of the techniques used at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere were morally impermissible; nevertheless, the healthy debates that raged among professionals provide hope that we may safeguard human rights and the rule of law more effectively in the future.

Does the increasing prominence of Asia also mark a new era for human rights in the region? This timely book uncovers the political drivers behind both recent regional and country-based changes to the recognition, promotion, and protection of rights. Human Rights in Asia focuses on the relationships between political regimes, institutions and cultures, and external actors, such as international organizations, NGOs, and business. The contributing authors provide important discussions on Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Phillipines. Thematic chapters then go on to frame these individually focused contributions, by examining the international pressure to 'normalize' rights regimes, and the relationship between Islam and rights in the region. Providing a unique combination of country-specific and thematic analysis, this book will be a fascinating and beneficial read for postgraduate and undergraduate students in human rights and international relations, as well as scholars in politics, human rights, international relations and government and NGO analysts. Contributors include: M.K. Connors, T.W.D. Davis, M. Ford, B. Galligan, A. Kent, A. McGregor, T. Milner, R.C. Pangalangan, S. Peou, G. Rodan, A. Saeed, R. Samaddar

The UN outlawed genocide in 1948, and the United States launched a war on terror in 2001; yet still today, neither genocide nor terrorism shows any sign of abating. This book explains why those efforts have fallen short and identifies policies that can prevent such carnage. The key is getting the causation analysis right. Conventional wisdom emphasizes ancient hatreds, poverty, and the impact of Western colonialism as drivers of mass violence. But far more important is the inciting power of mass, ideological hate propaganda: this is what activates the drive to commit mass atrocities and creates the multitude of perpetrators needed to conduct a genocide or sustain a terror campaign. A secondary causal factor is illiberal, dualistic political culture: this is the breeding ground for the extremist, "us-vs-them" ideologies that always precipitate episodes of mass hate incitement. A two-tiered policy response naturally follows from this analysis: in the short term, several targeted interventions to curtail outbreaks of such incitement; and in the long term, support for indigenous agents of liberalization in venues most at risk for ideologically-driven violence.

The proportionality test, as proposed in Robert Alexy's principles theory, is becoming commonplace in comparative constitutional studies. And yet, the question "are courts justified in borrowing proportionality?" has not been expressly put in many countries where judicial borrowings are a reality. This book sheds light on this question and examines the circumstances under which courts are authorized to borrow from alien legal sources to rule on constitutional cases. Taking the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil - and its enthusiastic recourse to proportionality when interpreting the Federal Constitution - as a case study, the book investigates the normative reasons that could justify the court's attitude and offers a comprehensive overview of its case law on controversial constitutional matters like abortion, same-sex union, racial quotas, and the right to public healthcare. Providing a valuable resource for those interested in comparative constitutional law and legal theory, or curious about Brazilian constitutional law, this book questions the alleged universality of the proportionality test, challenges the premises of Alexy's principles theory, and discloses more than 68 Brazilian Supreme Court decisions delivered from 2003 to 2018 that would otherwise have remained unknown to an English-speaking audience.

Fundamental rights for all people with disabilities, education and employment are key for the inclusion of people with autism. They play as facilitators for the social inclusion of persons with autism and as multipliers for their enjoyment of other fundamental rights. After outlining the international and European dimensions of the legal protection of the rights to education and employment of people with autism, the book provides an in-depth analysis of domestic legislative, judicial and administrative practice of the EU Member States in these fields. Each chapter identifies the good practices on inclusive education and employment of people with autism consistent with principles and obligations enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Articles 24 and 27). The book contains the scientific results of the European Project "Promoting equal rights of people with autism in the field of employment and education" aimed at supporting the implementation of the UN Convention in the fields of inclusive education and employment.

This book advances the study of the right to nationality, the prevention of statelessness, and the protection of stateless persons, taking Nigeria as a case study. Much recent literature on the subject of statelessness has been written from a US/European perspective. This work addresses this imbalance with an in-depth study of statelessness and best practice in how to prevent it in an African country. The book appraises international legal regimes on statelessness, their efficacy or otherwise in practice, what can be improved under international law, and the relevance of these regimes in the Nigerian context. The regional frameworks include those of the African Union, the Council of Europe, the EU, the Organization of American States, and the Arab League. Comparisons are also drawn with specific countries that already have an enshrined Statelessness Determination Procedure including Ivory Coast, the UK, France, Moldova, and the Netherlands, which does not have a formal procedure but has alternative means of identification. The book assesses the successes and challenges faced in these countries, and evaluates the chances for legal transplantation in Nigeria. Presenting an in-depth analysis of how statelessness is approached in the global south, the work will be of interest to researchers, academics, and policymakers working in this field as well as those concerned with nationality from an international law perspective.

This book assesses the role of social justice in legal scholarship and its potential future development by focusing upon the 'leading works' of the discipline. The rise of socio-legal studies over recent decades has led to a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of law, which prioritises placing law into its wider social context. Recognising the role that culture, economics and politics play in the development of law is important in order to fully understand the position and impact of law in society. Innovative and written in an engaging way, this collection includes leading and emerging scholars from across the world. Each contributor has been invited to select and analyse a 'leading work', a publication which has for them shed light on the way that law and social justice are interlinked and has influenced their own understanding, scholarship, advocacy, and, in some instances, activism. The book also includes a specially written foreword and afterword, which critically reflect upon the contributions of the 'leading works' to consider the role that social justice has played in law and legal education and the likely future path for social justice in legal scholarship. This book will be an essential resource for all those working in the areas of social justice, socio-legal studies and legal philosophy. It will be of wider interest to the social sciences more generally.

Why do governments pass freedom of information laws? The symbolic power and force surrounding FOI makes it appealing as an electoral promise but hard to disengage from once in power. However, behind closed doors compromises and manoeuvres ensure that bold policies are seriously weakened before they reach the statute book. The politics of freedom of information examines how Tony Blair's government proposed a radical FOI law only to back down in fear of what it would do. But FOI survived, in part due to the government's reluctance to be seen to reject a law that spoke of 'freedom', 'information' and 'rights'. After comparing the British experience with the difficult development of FOI in Australia, India and the United States - and the rather different cases of Ireland and New Zealand - the book concludes by looking at how the disruptive, dynamic and democratic effects of FOI laws continue to cause controversy once in operation. -- .

The size of Britain's homeless population has risen considerably since the introduction of the Housing (Homeless) Persons Act 1977. Recently, the Government announced plans radically to reform the existing legislation, a recognition of the political sensitivity of homelessness and the need for a coherent policy to tackle the problem. Housing the homeless is an issue which embraces housing, family and social security policy; it has also generated considerable interest for public lawyers, as the scope of discretionary powers provided by the Act has provoked a great deal of litigation in the High Court. In the original study the author presents a detailed empirical study of three local authorities implementation of the homelessness legislation. He focuses in particular on the processes of administrative decision-making at the lowest level, and reveals that `law' plays a very limited role in shaping administrative policy decisions. Placing law within a context of administrative action, the author illustrates how administrative law must be understood by reference to the complex institutional structures with which it is daily involved.

Two extremely positive reviews which cite the need for such a book; The direction to include caste within the Equality Act 2010 in the UK has led to heightened interest in the meaning of caste and its interpretation through law; Cross-market potential with the Asian Studies list; Will be of great interest to academics and students of human rights law, equality and discrimination law, international human rights law, minority rights and area studies (South Asia and its diaspora). It will also be of relevance to practitioners and those in the public and NGO sectors involved in the implementation and enforcement of equality law in the UK.

Using the high-profile 2017 blasphemy trial of the former governor of Jakarta, Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, as its sole case study, this book assesses whether Indonesia's liberal democratic human rights legal regime can withstand the rise of growing Islamist majoritarian sentiment. Specifically, this book analyses whether a 2010 decision of Indonesia's Constitutional Court has rendered the liberal democratic human rights guarantees contained in Indonesia's 1945 Constitution ineffective. Key legal documents, including the indictment issued by the North Jakarta Attorney-General and General Prosecutor, the defence's 'Notice of Defence', and the North Jakarta State Court's convicting judgment, are examined. The book shows how Islamist majoritarians in Indonesia have hijacked human rights discourse by attributing new, inaccurate meanings to key liberal democratic concepts. This has provided them with a human rights law-based justification for the prioritisation of the religious sensibilities and religious orthodoxy of Indonesia's Muslim majority over the fundamental rights of the country's religious minorities. While Ahok's conviction evidences this, the book cautions that matters pertaining to public religion will remain a site of contestation in contemporary Indonesia for the foreseeable future. A groundbreaking study of the Ahok trial, the blasphemy law, and the contentious politics of religious freedom and cultural citizenship in Indonesia, this book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of religion, Islamic studies, religious studies, law and society, law and development, law reform, constitutionalism, politics, history and social change, and Southeast Asian studies.

This book analyses the mobilisation of race, rights and the law in Malaysia. It examines the Indian community in Malaysia, a quiet minority which consists of the former Indian Tamil plantation labour community and the urban Indian middle-class. The first part of the book explores the role played by British colonial laws and policies during the British colonial period in Malaya, from the 1890s to 1956, in the construction of an Indian "race" in Malaya, the racialization of labour laws and policies and labour-based mobilisation culminated in the 1940s. The second part investigates the mobilisation trends of the Indian community from 1957 (at the onset of Independent Malaya) to 2018. It shows a gradual shift in the Indian community from a "quiet minority" into a mass mobilising collective or social movement, known as the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), in 2007. The author shows that activist lawyers and Indian mobilisers played a crucial part in organizing a civil disobedience strategy of framing grievances as political rights and using the law as a site of contention in order to claim legal rights through strategic litigation. Highly interdisciplinary in nature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers examining the role of the law and rights in areas such as sociolegal studies, law and society scholarship, law and the postcolonial, social movement studies, migration and labour studies, Asian law and Southeast Asian Studies.

As the 2020s began, protestors filled the streets, politicians clashed over how to respond to a global pandemic, and new scrutiny was placed on what rights US citizens should be afforded. Newly revised and expanded to address immigration, gay rights, privacy rights, affirmative action, and more, The Bill of Rights in Modern America provides clear insights into the issues currently shaping the United States. Essays explore the law and history behind contentious debates over such topics as gun rights, limits on the powers of law enforcement, the death penalty, abortion, and states' rights. Accessible and easy to read, the discerning research offered in The Bill of Rights in Modern America will help inform critical discussions for years to come.

Framed into the broader conceptual debate that addresses the controversial role of human rights in the foreign policies of states, this book aims to critically investigate whether, how and to what extent human rights matter in the definition of Italy's external action. The focus of this study, which considers a period ranging from the end of the Cold War to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, is placed on the whole 'human rights component' of foreign policy, which is intended as the combination of three dimensions that are part of the same policy effort but can analytically be distinguished among them: 'institutional dialogue'; 'multilateral initiative' and 'bilateral emphasis'. This book investigates the consistency of this whole foreign policy component between the content and scope of the human rights discourse of Italian foreign policy- makers domestically and internationally and the actual efforts put in place by the country to advance the global human rights agenda, its institutions and procedures in both multilateral and bilateral settings.

The book examines the extent to which the rights of Armenian minorities to exist, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own language in the community with other members of their group as well as their right to equality, non-discrimination and participation are respected, protected and fulfilled as it is required under international human rights law. Armenians in Lebanon and Turkey constitute a minority on four separate levels: ethnic, national, linguistic and religious. By examining the ways national and international human rights laws are enforced and protected, or violated and ignored, the thesis highlights the problems facing Armenians in Lebanon and Turkey since recent history until nowadays, and provides benefits which would be of great value to human and minority rights discourses.