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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights
This collection of essays interrogates how human rights law and
practice acquire meaning in relation to legal pluralism, ie, the
co-existence of more than one regulatory order in a same social
field. As a social phenomenon, legal pluralism exists in all
societies. As a legal construction, it is characteristic of
particular regions, such as post-colonial contexts. Drawing on
experiences from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, the
contributions in this volume analyse how different configurations
of legal pluralism interplay with the legal and the social life of
human rights. At the same time, they enquire into how human rights
law and practice influence interactions that are subject to
regulation by more than one normative regime. Aware of numerous
misunderstandings and of the mutual suspicion that tends to exist
between human rights scholars and anthropologists, the volume
includes contributions from experts in both disciplines and intends
to build bridges between normative and empirical theory.
This book is an account of the concept of equality from the
perspective of both theory and practice, and presents methods of
quantifying values. It considers both arguments and evidence, and
tackles equality in its different forms, including economic
equality, education, equality before the law, equality of
opportunity, and gender equality. The book shows that inequality is
a profoundly moral question, noting that there are good practical
reasons for its adoption. It presents a consideration of classical
theories from Aristotle to Hume, as well as contemporary approaches
such as those offered by Rawls, Haidt, Temkin, and Parfit. It also
contemplates issues such as the naturalistic fallacy, and considers
what is different about the Goleman view of moral sensitivity and
the ethical personality. The array of evidence includes the impact
of climate and various plants such as sugar and cotton on the slave
trade, the concept of Gaia, Darwinism, sex inequality, personality,
culture, psychological issues, and the quantification of ethics.
The book concludes with some practical suggestions for improving
equality. It aims to raise awareness of the ways in which equality
can be understood, and achieved. It will be relevant to students
and scholars in philosophy, human rights, and law.
This book deals with one of the most important issues of philosophy
of law and constitutional thought: how to understand clashes of
fundamental rights, such as the conflict between free speech and
privacy. The main argument of this book is that much can be learned
about the nature of fundamental legal rights by examining them
through the lens of conflicts among such rights, and criticizing
the views of scholars and jurists who have discussed both
fundamental legal rights and the nature of conflicts among them.
Theories of rights are necessarily abstract, aiming at providing
the best possible answers to pressing social problems. Yet such
theories must also respond to the real and changing dilemmas of the
day. Taking up the problem of conflicting rights, Zucca seeks a
theory of rights that can guide us to a richer, more responsive
approach to rights discourse.
The idea of constitutional rights is one of the most powerful
tools to advance justice in the Western tradition. But as this book
demonstrates, even the most ambitious theory of rights cannot
satisfactorily address questions of conflicting rights. How, for
instance, can we fully secure privacy when it clashes with free
speech? To what extent can our societies assist people in dying
without compromising the protection of life? Exploring the
limitations of the rights discourse in these areas, Zucca questions
the role of law in settling ethical dilemmas helping to clarify
thinking about the limitations of rights discourse.
Since 2015, Poland's populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been
dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and
subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the
will of the executive. Political rights have been radically
restricted, and the Party has captured the entire state apparatus.
The speed and depth of these antidemocratic movements took many
observers by surprise: until now, Poland was widely regarded as an
example of a successful transitional democracy. Poland's
anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book
sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did
it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal
democracy? These answers are formulated against a backdrop of
current worldwide trends towards populism, authoritarianism, and
what is sometimes called 'illiberal democracy'. As this book
argues, the Polish variant of 'illiberal democracy' is an oxymoron.
By undermining the separation of powers, the PiS concentrates all
power in its own hands, rendering any democratic accountability
illusory. There is, however, no inevitability in these
anti-democratic trends: this book considers a number of possible
remedies and sources of hope, including intervention by the
European Union.
This is the first book that explores whether there are any rules in
international law applicable to unilateral sanctions and if so,
what they are. The book examines both the lawfulness of unilateral
sanctions and the limitations within which they should operate. In
doing so, it includes an analysis of State practice, the provisions
of various international legal instruments dealing with such
sanctions and their impact on other areas of international law such
as freedom of navigation, aviation and transit, and the principles
of international trade, investment, regional economic integration,
and the protection of human rights and the environment. This study
finds that unilateral sanctions by a state or a group of states
against another state as opposed to 'smart' or targeted sanctions
of limited scope would be unlawful, unless they meet the procedural
and substantive requirements stipulated in international law.
Importantly, the book identifies and consolidates these
requirements scattered in different areas of international law,
including the additional rules of customary international law that
have emerged out of the recent practice of States and that increase
the limitations on the use of unilateral sanctions.
Highly topical and with an interdisciplinary focus, this book
explores the recent political and social developments in EU
citizenship. Bringing political scientists, sociologists and law
scholars together, this book analyses the implications of identity
categorisation regarding gender and generations in the EU and what
this means for the realisation of citizens?' rights, particularly
of women, young adults and migrant care workers throughout the EU.
Established researchers explore the stories of social and civil
rights in the EU, covering family mobility and migration issues,
the precarious positions of female migrant workers across member
states and the EU?s promotion of diverse family rights. Moreover,
the book focuses on the prominent issues facing the new generation
of young adults: particularly social mobility, civil rights and
political parties?' differing views on gender and family issues.
With insight into national and regional perspectives on these
significant topics, the authors argue that the European Parliament
is currently striving for a new consensus to unite member states
and dissipate current divisions. An important read for academics
and students from across the social sciences, specifically public
and social policy, gender studies and European studies, interested
in the future direction of the EU surrounding gender and
generational division. Contributors include: G.M. Dotti Sani, J.
Gal, T. Knijn, A. Krizsan, D. Lepianka, J. Long, M. Luppi, M.
Naldini, R. Oomkens, L. Rolandsen Agustin, A. Santero, B. Siim, J.
Sipic, D. Sirinic, C. Solera, L.J. van den Braken, M.A. Yerkes
In modern times, political and social reform often starts at the
bottom of the socioeconomic ladder; common people with ordinary
lives enact change through community organization and the desire to
improve their own lives and the lives of those around them.
Governments that support such movements can experience great
advances and achievements in the long term. Cases on Grassroots
Campaigns for Community Empowerment and Social Change presents a
series of real-world studies on political and social activism in
the information age, focusing on how empowerment of minority or
underserved populations can serve to enact sweeping reforms
regionally, nationally, or globally. This book is a critical
resource for political and private actors, including government
agencies, community organizers, political parties, and researchers
in the social sciences. This reference work features research on
timely topics such as women's empowerment, poverty, social activism
and social change, community building, and empowerment of
individuals in a variety of socioeconomic settings and roles.
With the ubiquitous nature of modern technologies, they have been
inevitably integrated into various facets of society. The
connectivity presented by digital platforms has transformed such
innovations into tools for political and social agendas. Politics,
Protest, and Empowerment in Digital Spaces is a comprehensive
reference source for emerging scholarly perspectives on the use of
new media technology to engage people in socially- and
politically-oriented conversations and examines communication
trends in these virtual environments. Highlighting relevant
coverage across topics such as online free expression, political
campaigning, and online blogging, this book is ideally designed for
government officials, researchers, academics, graduate students,
and practitioners interested in how new media is revolutionizing
political and social communications.
aImpressive, provocative and smart.Immigrant Rights in the Shadows
of U.S. Citizenship is breathtaking in its timeliness and its broad
scope.a
-- Erika Lee, author of "At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration
during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943"
aAn urgent collection of essays by both activists and scholars
that puts legislative and judicial histories into dialogue with
activists' struggles to bring about social justice for immigrant
communities. Its ever-present focus on social justice connects the
specificity of individual historical struggles to broader political
aspirations.a
--Wendy Kozol, Oberlin College
Punctuated by marches across the United States in the spring of
2006, immigrant rights has re-emerged as a significant and highly
visible political issue. Immigrant Rights in the Shadows of U.S.
Citizenship brings prominent activists and scholars together to
examine the emergence and significance of the contemporary
immigrant rights movement. Contributors place the contemporary
immigrant rights movement in historical and comparative contexts by
looking at the ways immigrants and their allies have staked claims
to rights in the past, and by examining movements based in
different communities around the United States. Scholars explain
the evolution of immigration policy, and analyze current conflicts
around issues of immigrant rights; activists engaged in the current
movement document the ways in which coalitions have been built
among immigrants from different nations, and between immigrant and
native- born peoples. The essays examine the ways in which
questions of immigrant rights engage broader issues of identity,
including gender, race, and sexuality.
It was the final speech of a long day, August 28, 1963, when
hundreds of thousands gathered on the Mall for the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In a resounding cadence, Martin
Luther King Jr. lifted the crowd when he told of his dream that all
Americans would join together to realize the founding ideal of
equality. The power of the speech created an enduring symbol of the
march and the larger civil rights movement. King s speech still
inspires us fifty years later, but its very power has also narrowed
our understanding of the march. In this insightful history, William
P. Jones restores the march to its full significance.
The opening speech of the day was delivered by the leader of the
march, the great trade unionist A. Philip Randolph, who first
called for a march on Washington in 1941 to press for equal
opportunity in employment and the armed forces. To the crowd that
stretched more than a mile before him, Randolph called for an end
to segregation and a living wage for every American. Equal access
to accommodations and services would mean little to people, white
and black, who could not afford them. Randolph s egalitarian vision
of economic and social citizenship is the strong thread running
through the full history of the March on Washington Movement. It
was a movement of sustained grassroots organizing, linked locally
to women s groups, unions, and churches across the country. Jones s
fresh, compelling history delivers a new understanding of this
emblematic event and the broader civil rights movement it
propelled."
In Ethnic Identity and Minority Protection: Designation,
Discrimination, and Brutalization, Thomas W. Simon examines a new
framework for considering ethnic conflicts. In contrast to the more
traditional theories of justice, Simon's theory of injustice shifts
focus away from group identity toward group harms, effectively
making many problems, such as how to define minorities in
international law, dramatically more manageable. Simon argues that
instead of promoting legislative devices like proportional
representation for minorities, it is more fruitful to seek
adjudicative solutions to racial and ethnic-related conflicts. For
example, resources could be shifted to quasi-judicial human-rights
treaty bodies that have adopted an injustice approach. This
injustice approach provides the foundation for Kosovo's case for
remedial secession, and helps to sort out the competing entitlement
claims of Malays in different countries. Indeed, the priority of
Thomas W. Simon's Ethnic Identity and Minority Protection is to
ensure the tales of designation and discrimination told at the
beginning of the work do not become the stories of brutalization
told at the end. In short, the challenge tackled in this text is to
assure that reason reigns over hate.
The history of Latin American journalism is ultimately the story of
a people who have been silenced over the centuries, primarily
Native Americans, women, peasants, and the urban poor. This book
seeks to correct the record propounded by most English-language
surveys of Latin American journalism, which tend to neglect
pre-Columbian forms of reporting, the ways in which technology has
been used as a tool of colonization, and the Latin American
conceptual foundations of a free press. Challenging the
conventional notion of a free marketplace of ideas in a region
plagued with serious problems of poverty, violence, propaganda,
political intolerance, poor ethics, journalism education
deficiencies, and media concentration in the hands of an elite,
Ferreira debunks the myth of a free press in Latin America. The
diffusion of colonial presses in the New World resulted in the
imposition of a structural censorship with elements that remain to
this day. They include ethnic and gender discrimination,
technological elitism, state and religious authoritarianism, and
ideological controls. Impoverished, afraid of crime and violence,
and without access to an effective democracy, ordinary Latin
Americans still live silenced by ruling actors that include a
dominant and concentrated media. Thus, not only is the press not
free in Latin America, but it is also itself an instrument of
oppression.
When does international law allow a State or group of States to
adopt trade measures in order to "coerce" another State to comply
with its international obligations to ensure respect for human
rights? In answering this question this book draws together complex
areas of international law which include the rules prohibiting
interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States, the rules
regulating extra-territorial exercises of jurisdiction, the law of
State responsibility and the international legal rules requiring
the protection of human rights and regulating international trade.
The literature on "Trade and ..." issues invariably focuses on a
limited number of these areas, or approaches the issues from an
international relations or economic perspective. This book will
assist specialists in international human rights law and
international trade law, academic and government lawyers who advise
on or implement international trade policy and those studying the
use of human rights related trade measures.
Winner of the 2013 John Hope Franklin Book Prize presented by the
American Studies Association A necessary read that demonstrates the
ways in which certain people are devalued without attention to
social contexts Social Death tackles one of the core paradoxes of
social justice struggles and scholarship-that the battle to end
oppression shares the moral grammar that structures exploitation
and sanctions state violence. Lisa Marie Cacho forcefully argues
that the demands for personhood for those who, in the eyes of
society, have little value, depend on capitalist and
heteropatriarchal measures of worth. With poignant case studies,
Cacho illustrates that our very understanding of personhood is
premised upon the unchallenged devaluation of criminalized
populations of color. Hence, the reliance of rights-based politics
on notions of who is and is not a deserving member of society
inadvertently replicates the logic that creates and normalizes
states of social and literal death. Her understanding of
inalienable rights and personhood provides us the much-needed
comparative analytical and ethical tools to understand the
racialized and nationalized tensions between racial groups. Driven
by a radical, relentless critique, Social Death challenges us to
imagine a heretofore "unthinkable" politics and ethics that do not
rest on neoliberal arguments about worth, but rather emerge from
the insurgent experiences of those negated persons who do not live
by the norms that determine the productive, patriotic, law abiding,
and family-oriented subject.
A revealing, comprehensive, and detailed account focusing on the
people and personalities behind the Montgomery, Alabama, Bus
Boycott in 1955–1956, which became the catalyst for a national
civil rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A History and
Reference Guide offers a comprehensive account of a critical
turning point in American history. It offers a richly detailed
chronological trip through post-World War II Southern society to
the early 1960s, then focuses on the day-to-day frustrations,
challenges, and victories of the people behind the protest that
inspired a nationwide movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott fills a
gap in available resources with its comprehensive portrait of
mid-1950s Montgomery—the mainly black, uneducated female
protestors, activist Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and the white society
desperate to keep intact the only culture they understood.
Firsthand news reports, editorials, quotes, eyewitness accounts,
and behind-the-scenes stories of political maneuvering help readers
experience this dramatic—and still reverberating—victory over
oppression.
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