The field of 'critical indigenous rights studies' is a complex one that benefits from an interdisciplinary perspective and a realist (as opposed to an idealised) approach to indigenous peoples. This book draws on sociology of law, anthropology, political sciences and legal sciences in order to address emerging issues in the study of indigenous rights and identify directions for future research. The first part of the volume investigates how changing identities and cultures impact rights protection, analysing how policies on development and land, and processes such as migration, interrelate with the mobilisation of identities and the realisation of rights. In the second part, new approaches related to indigenous peoples' rights are scrutinised as to their potential and relevance. They include addressing legal tensions from an indigenous peoples' rights perspective, creating space for counter-narratives on international law and designing new instruments. Throughout the text, case studies with wide geographical scope are presented, ranging from Latin America (the book's focus) to Egypt, Rwanda and Scandinavia.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted by the UN Commission on Human Rights in the aftermath of the World War II in an attempt to address the wrongs of the past and plan for a better future for all. With contributions from President Jimmy Carter, UNESCO Secretary General Audrey Azoulay and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, this collection of essays, Contemporary Human Rights Challenges: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its Continuing Relevance, by leading international experts offers a timely contemporary view on the UDHR and its continuing relevance to today's issues. Reflecting the structure of the UDHR, the chapters, written by 28 academics, practitioners and activists, bring a contemporary perspective to the original principles proclaimed in the Declaration's 30 Articles. It will be a stimulating accessible read, with real world examples, for anyone involved in thinking about, designing or applying public policy, particularly government officials, politicians, lawyers, journalists and academics and those engaged in promoting social justice. Examined through these universal principles, which have enduring relevance, the authors grapple with some of today's most pressing challenges, some of which, for example equality and gender related rights, would not have been foreseen by the original drafters of the Declaration, who included Eleanor Roosevelt, Rene Cassin and John Humphrey. The essays cover a wide range of topics such as an individual's right to privacy in a digital age, freedom to practise one's religion and the right to redress, and make a compelling and detailed argument for the on-going importance and significance of the Declaration and human rights in our rapidly changing world.

This title was first published in 2001. This work is a uniquely multi-disciplinary contribution to the existing bioethical literature on the topic of informed choice of medical services. It is also the first comprehensive bioethical text to confront the central issue of power in the clinical encounter and to argue for statutory protection of the right to informed choice. While the majority of bioethicists argue for a conciliatory, rather than adversarial, approach to the chronic problem of uninformed consent, the author of this work argues that the external regulation of medicine is essential if the right to informed choice is to be protected. This argument is based upon an extensive review of the bioethical, legal, political, medical, sociological and philosophical literature, as well as a wide range of empirical and anecdotal evidence, evolving from a detailed exploration of power and the limits of rationality in the clinical encounter.

Compared with other subdisciplines in Chinese linguistics, children's language acquisition is a significant field with relatively limited achievements. Based on data from a dynamic and developmental corpus, this book is a comprehensive exploration of the early development of Chinese-speaking children's language acquisition. Anchoring the discussions regarding phonetics, semantics and aspects of syntax in a cognitive and functional framework, the author conducts an in-depth analysis of many acquisition characteristics, such as the inevitable and incidental errors of their learning of initials; their ability to obtain the concept of time at a young age and the utilization of Le in the expression of the past tense; their understanding of subjectivity at a young age and the ability to express it; their learning of the degree of modality following the order of from probability to necessity; and children's acquisition of syntactic structures being impacted by genetics and also affected by the steps involved in syntactic processing. Although genetics, cognition and experience all play a role in children's language acquisition, this book focuses on the role of cognitive functions. By successfully explaining the acquisition rules based on some cutting-edge linguistic theories, the book will certainly be beneficial to scholars studying linguistics, psychology, cognitive science and early childhood educators.

Although scholars have shown longstanding interest in the boundaries of interpretation of the right not to be subjected to torture and other prohibited harm, the existing body of work does not sufficiently reflect the significance of the interpretive scope of degrading treatment. This book argues that the degrading treatment element of the right is a crucial site of analysis, in itself and for understanding the parameters of the right as a whole. It addresses how, methodologically, the scope of meaning and application of the right not to be subjected to degrading treatment should best be identified and considers the implications thereof. It systematically examines the diverse aspects of degrading treatment's scope, from foundations of legal interpretation to the drivers of humiliation. It draws on wide-ranging literature and extensive analysis of more than 1,500 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which has pioneered the right's interpretive growth. The book aims to explore how the interpretive possibilities, and limits, of the right not to be subjected to degrading treatment turn upon the axes of human dignity and state responsibility, and aims to show how this right's protection can be achieved as well as limited through processes of interpretation. Dignity, Degrading Treatment and Torture in Human Rights Law provides interpreters with analytical tools to advance the application of the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in international, regional and domestic human rights law. It will appeal to all who have an interest in understanding the right's meaning, development, and potential scope of application, as well as those with an interest in methodologies of human rights interpretation.

This book will aid understanding and interpretation of the Californian, UK and Australian Modern Slavery Acts, and will provide an in-depth three-way comparative analysis between the three Acts. Modern slavery is a new legal compliance issue, with new legislation enacted in California (Transparency in Supply Chains Act, 2010), the UK (Modern Slavery Act, 2015) and most recently, Australia (Modern Slavery Act, 2018). Such legislation mandates that business of a certain size annually disclose the steps that they are taking to ensure that modern slavery is not occurring in their own operations and supply chains. The legislation applies to businesses wherever incorporated or formed. Key aspects of primary focus will include lessons learned from the California, UK and Australian experience and central arguments on contentious issues, for example: monetary threshold for determining reporting entities, penalties for non-compliance, compliance lists and appointment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The book will also discuss how contentious issues were ultimately resolved and will undertake a comparative analysis of the Californian, UK and Australian Acts. Modern Slavery Legislation will be of interest to academics and students of business and human rights law.

In recent decades the international community has focused its attention on trafficking in persons, which is surely one of the most worrying phenomena of the 21st century. In Part I, this book examines trafficking in persons in the light of the recent definition of the phenomenon given by the UN Trafficking Protocol, and various other international legal instruments including treaties and 'soft law'. It analyses trafficking causes and consequences, and the most common forms of exploitation related to it.
Part II reviews the most important international conventions against slavery and the slave trade, and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. It also analyses the most important policy documents setting the basic standards of protection for trafficked victims - namely the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking - and comments on the extension of the jus cogens principle of international law that prohibits slavery, to argue that trafficking in persons ought rightly to be considered a part of it.
Part III deals with the Council of Europe and the European Union, and their fight against trafficking in people, arguing that the focus has been placed mistakenly on the prosecution of traffickers rather than on the protection of trafficked victims.
The book concludes with a recommendation to shift towards a more balanced approach to the phenomenon, and the overriding need to conduct further research on specific issues related to the spread of trafficking and the exploitation of its victims.

Documents Annex: http://www.nyupress.org/justtradeannex/index.html It is generally assumed that pro-trade laws are not good for human rights, and legislation that protects human rights hampers vibrant international trade. In a bold departure from this canon, Just Trade makes a case for reaching a middleground between these two fields, acknowledging their coexistence and the significant points at which they overlap. Using actual examples from many of the thirty-five nations of the Western Hemisphere, the authors-one a human rights scholar and the other a trade law expert-carefully combine their knowledge to examine human rights policies throughout the world, never overlooking the very real human rights problems that arise from international trade. However, instead of viewing the two kinds of law as isolated, polar, and sometimes hostile opposites, Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol and Stephen J. Powell make powerful suggestions for how these intersections may be navigated to promote an international marketplace that embraces both liberal trade and liberal protection of human rights.

An introductory text to the philosophy of human rights, this book provides an innovative, systematic study of the concepts, ideas, and theories of human rights. It examines the principal philosophical issues that arise in specific areas of rights, such as women's rights, minority rights, or disability rights, and addresses the human rights aspects of world problems such as global poverty and humanitarian intervention. Along with the presentation of these established subjects, the book provides a vibrant critique of both the liberal fundamentals of human rights and the legal and political aspects of the concrete practice by individuals and organizations. Key Features: Presents a thorough philosophical introduction to human rights for anyone from any subject (e.g., international law, politics, public policy, philosophy). While grounded in philosophy, demonstrates a clear, organized understanding of real-world aspects of the field, with a deep analysis of vital, current issues. Is attentive to critical stances on human rights and to stultifying privations in the field. Offers a well-organized overall structure, moving from historical treatment, to conceptual analysis, to a set of current issues, and finally to criticism.

A consensus has emerged that corporations have societal and environmental responsibilities when operating transnationally. However, how exactly corporations can be held legally accountable for their transgressions, if at all, is less clear. This volume inquires how regulatory tools stemming from international law, public law, and private law may or may not be used for transnational corporate accountability purposes. Attention is devoted to applicable standards of liability, institutional and jurisdictional issues, and practical challenges, with a focus on ways to improve the existing legal status quo. In addition, there is consideration of the extent to which non-legal regulatory instruments may complement or provide more viable alternatives to these legal mechanisms. The book combines legaldoctrinal approaches with comparative, interdisciplinary, and policy insights with the dual aim of furthering the legal scholarly debate on these issues and enabling higher quality decision-making by policymakers seeking to implement regulatory measures that enhance corporate accountability in this context. Through its study of contemporary developments in legislation and case law, it provides a timely and important contribution to the scholarly and sociopolitical debate in the fastevolving field of international corporate social responsibility and accountability.

This monograph analyses the questions raised by the legal effects of peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens). A comprehensive study of this problem has been lacking so far in international legal doctrine. Peremptory norms, although often criticised and even more often approached with sceptical nihilism, nevertheless attract growing doctrinal and practical attention and have increasing importance in determining the permissible limits on the action of State and non-State actors in different areas. In view of this overriding impact on what might otherwise be instances of the law-making process, peremptory norms concern a constitutional aspect of international law. Peremptory norms are non-derogable norms, and the concept of derogation is among the key concepts analysed here. Derogation from peremptory norms can be attempted in a wide variety of situations, but if peremptory norms are to operate as norms and not merely as aspirations they must generate consequences that are also peremptory. This effects-oriented character of peremptory norms is examined in a variety of fields. Despite the growing relevance of peremptory norms in practice, doctrine has failed to treat the issue comprehensively and has often been limited to examining specific aspects of the problem, such as the impact of peremptory norms in the law of treaties. This fresh effort to examine and explain the phenomenon of peremptory norms in key areas fills an important doctrinal gap through presenting in a systematic way the effects of peremptory norms and reappraising the significance of such effects, bearing in mind their overall nature. It also demonstrates that the hierarchical superiority of peremptory norms is not limited to the sphere of primary legal relations but becomes most crucially relevant after a specific peremptory norm is breached. A norm's peremptory character is relevant not only for its substance but also for its consequences; peremptoriness consists primarily in the capacity to impact through its effects upon conflicting acts, situations and agreements.

This book examines the traffic in women for marriage, a phenomenon that has been largely overlooked in international efforts to address the problem of human trafficking. In contrast to current international and state-based approaches to trafficking, which tend to focus on sex trafficking and trafficking for forced labour, this book seeks to establish how marriage as an institution is often implicated in the occurrence of trafficking in women. The book aims firstly to establish why marriage has tended not to be included in dominant conceptions of trafficking in persons and secondly to determine whether certain types of marriage may constitute cases of human trafficking, in and of themselves. Through the use of case studies on forced marriage, mail-order bride (MOB) marriage and Fundamentalist Mormon polygamy, this book demonstrates that certain kinds of marriage may in fact constitute situations of trafficking in persons and together form the under-recognised phenomenon of 'marriage trafficking'. In addition, the book offers a new perspective on the types of harm involved in trafficking in women by developing a framework for identifying the particular abuses characteristic to marriage trafficking. It argues that the traffic in women for marriage cannot be understood merely as a subset of sex trafficking or trafficking for forced labour, but rather constitutes a distinctive form of trafficking in its own right. This book will be of great interest to scholars and postgraduates working in the fields of human rights theory and institutions, political science, international law, transnational crime, trafficking in persons, and feminist political theory.

This book examines how the judicialization of politics, and the politicization of courts, affect representative democracy, rule of law, and separation of powers. This volume critically assesses the phenomena of judicialization of politics and politicization of the judiciary. It explores the rising impact of courts on key constitutional principles, such as democracy and separation of powers, which is paralleled by increasing criticism of this influence from both liberal and illiberal perspectives. The book also addresses the challenges to rule of law as a principle, preconditioned on independent and powerful courts, which are triggered by both democratic backsliding and the mushrooming of populist constitutionalism and illiberal constitutional regimes. Presenting a wide range of case studies, the book will be a valuable resource for students and academics in constitutional law and political science seeking to understand the increasingly complex relationships between the judiciary, executive and legislature.

Written in accessible language, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of a topical subject that is being widely debated across Europe. The work presents an overview of emerging case law from the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as from national courts and equality bodies in European countries, on the wearing of religious symbols in public spaces. The author persuasively argues that bans on the wearing of religious symbols constitutes a breach of an individual's human rights and contravene existing anti-discrimination legislation. Fully updated to take account of recent case law, this second edition has been expanded to consider bans in public spaces more generally, including employment, an area where some of the recent developments have taken place.

This book unpacks the tension between free speech and the social justice priority to support all students. Drawing on court cases, institutional policies and procedures, and notable campus practices, this book answers the question: How do campus leaders develop interests of social justice and create a campus that is inclusive and inviting of all identities while also respecting students' free speech rights? This useful guide provides insights about the myriad of challenges that campus leaders have faced, along with practical approaches to address these issues on their own campuses. Experts Sun and McClellan interrogate the assumptions, thoughts, events, rules, and actions often at-play when free expression clashes with a college's mission of diversity, inclusion, and social justice. This book helpfully guides campus leaders to consider a series of legal frameworks and promising policies as solutions for balancing social justice and free speech.

This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the complicated power relations surrounding the recognition and implementation of Indigenous Peoples' rights at multiple scales. The adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 was heralded as the beginning of a new era for Indigenous Peoples' participation in global governance bodies, as well as for the realization of their rights - in particular, the right to self-determination. These rights are defined and agreed upon internationally, but must be enacted at regional, national, and local scales. Can the global movement to promote Indigenous Peoples' rights change the experience of communities at the local level? Or are the concepts that it mobilizes, around rights and political tools, essentially a discourse circulating internationally, relatively disconnected from practical situations? Are the categories and processes associated with Indigenous Peoples simply an extension of colonial categories and processes, or do they challenge existing norms and structures? This collection draws together the works of anthropologists, political scientists, and legal scholars to address such questions. Examining the legal, historical, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the Indigenous Peoples' rights movement, at global, regional, national, and local levels, the chapters present a series of case studies that reveal the complex power relations that inform the ongoing struggles of Indigenous Peoples to secure their human rights. The book will be of interest to social scientists and legal scholars studying Indigenous Peoples' rights, and international human rights movements in general.

The development of an international human rights jurisprudence on criminalization is in its relative infancy. Nonetheless, systematic examination of international decisions on acts engaging the criminal law reveals an emerging human rights approach to the acceptability, or not, of criminalization. This book provides an in-depth characterization of the reasoning and principles that underpin those decisions. The work builds upon and adds value to existing literature by bringing together two fields of study - international human rights law and criminal theory - that usually receive separate treatment. It provides an in-depth analysis of human rights criminalization jurisprudence and presents a systematic identification of underlying reasoning and concepts that influence international human rights decisions on criminalization. The work thus advances both fields independently, as well as providing an example of inter-(sub)disciplinary analysis. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and students working in the areas of International Human Rights Law, Criminal Law, and Moral Philosophy.

During the 20th century many countries embarked on a process of constitutional secularization by which the role of religion gradually became limited. Yet, by the late 20th century, and increasingly following the end of the Cold War, this development began to be challenged. This book examines the return of religion in constitutions through the concept of constitutional de-secularization. It places this phenomenon in the context of the constitutional memory of the countries in which it has taken place and critically examines it against the development and standards of constitutionalism, as the prevailing constitutional legal and political theory. Central to this analysis is the impact of constitutional de-secularization on the regulation of equality in liberty, that is, both the regulation of constitutional rights and the scope for equality of those who are granted such rights. The book argues that equal liberty forms an essential part of constitutionalism as a theory, and that constitutionalism therefore entails a continuous development towards expanding it. The first and second part of the book presents a conceptual framework for the study of constitutional de-secularization. The third part presents and analyses three cases of constitutional de-secularization in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. The book will be of interest to researchers and policy-makers interested in constitutional history and theory, and the role of religion in law and its compatibility with human rights.

This book examines the interpretation and application of the right to freedom of religion and belief of new minorities formed by recent migration by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC). New minorities are increasingly confronted with restrictions of their religious practices and have addressed their rights claims both to the ECtHR and the HRC through their individual complaint procedures, which resulted in several contradicting decisions. Based on a quantitative and qualitative empirical analysis of the relevant case law, focusing in particular on the reasoning adopted by the two bodies, this book finds that the HRC in its practice offers a significantly higher level of protection to new minorities than the ECtHR. Such divergence may be explained by various institutional and conceptual differences, of which the concept of the margin of appreciation is the most influential. It is contended that the extensive use of the concept of the margin of appreciation by the ECtHR in the case law regarding new minorities' right to freedom of religion and belief, and the absence of such concept in the HRC's case law, could be explained by different understandings of the role of an international human rights body in conflicts between the majority and minorities. This book argues that such divergence could be mitigated with various tools, such as the inclusion of cross-references to the case law of other relevant bodies as well as to instruments specifically established for the protection of minorities. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and practitioners in the area of international human rights law, international public law in general and law and religion.

Modern international criminal law typically traces its origins to the twentieth-century Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, excluding the slave trade and abolition. Yet, as this book shows, the slave trade and abolition resound in international criminal law in multiple ways. Its central focus lies in a close examination of the often-controversial litigation, in the first part of the nineteenth century, arising from British efforts to capture slave ships, much of it before Mixed Commissions. With archival-based research into this litigation, it explores the legal construction of so-called 'recaptives' (slaves found on board captured slave ships). The book argues that, notwithstanding its promise of freedom, the law actually constructed recaptives restrictively. In particular, it focused on questions of intervention rather than recaptives' rights. At the same time it shows how a critical reading of the archive reveals that recaptives contributed to litigation in important, but hitherto largely unrecognized, ways. The book is, however, not simply a contribution to the history of international law. Efforts to deliver justice through international criminal law continue to face considerable challenges and raise testing questions about the construction - and alternative construction - of victims. By inscribing the recaptive in international criminal legal history, the book offers an original contribution to these contentious issues and a reflection on critical international criminal legal history writing and its accompanying methodological and political choices.

The book sets out to interrogate and challenge many of the distinctions drawn in the human rights discourse; but it also highlights and critiques the different and incomplete ways in which legal philosophers and international lawyers see human rights. These issues are dealt with by some of the leading - and most readable - authors in the field.' - Christof Heyns, University of Pretoria, South Africa and UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions'This volume will make a lasting contribution to how we address the dilemmas that human rights theory and practice encounter - for instance, between democracy and human rights, negative and positive rights, or individual and group rights. Philosophers have become indispensable to lawyers' arguments about why human rights matter, and how they must be interpreted: this book superbly illustrates why.' - Olivier De Schutter, University of Louvain, Belgium and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food Reflecting on the various dichotomies through which human rights have traditionally been understood, this book takes account of recent developments in both theories of rights and in international human rights law to present new ways of thinking about some long-standing problems. Leading legal and political philosophers, social theorists and scholars of international law discuss traditional dilemmas and taxonomies in human rights theory, engaging with contemporary scholarship and current practice. The book examines various tensions, such as those between legal and moral rights, positive and negative rights, universal and particular rights, and group and individual rights. Encouraging new thinking about conventional understandings of human rights, this book will strongly appeal to international lawyers, legal and political philosophers, as well as graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students in law and philosophy. Contributors: T. Campbell, P. Emerton, D. Ivison, D. Kinley, E. MacDonald, S. Marks, J. Mowbray, T. Pogge, W. Sadurski, J. Waldron, N. Walker, K. Walton

This volume purports to explore the legal and political issues triggered by the new wave of secessionism. More specifically, those issues concern the interplay between notions of democracy (and democratic ends and means) and law (and the rule of law and constitutionalism). Against this background, the editors use amorality in order to escape the terrain of the justification of secession by making a distinction between the democratic theory of secession and the theory of democratic secession. In the first section, the theoretical nexus democracy-secession has been approached both from a legal and political theory perspective. The second section of the book examines the instruments that the theory of democratic secession invokes in order to justify secession and presents both legal and political science contributions. The third section focuses on social movements and political actors. The fourth section focuses on two case studies due to the awareness of the importance of the difference between secession in a democratic occidental context (which call into play the discussion of the democratic theories) and separations in a non-democratic context (where the nexus between secession and democracy is not really central).

This book delves into the reasons behind and the consequences of the implementation gap regarding the right to prior consultation and the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America. In recent years, the economic and political projects of Latin American States have become increasingly dependent on the extractive industries. This has resulted in conflicts when governments and international firms have made considerable investments in those lands that have been traditionally inhabited and used by Indigenous Peoples, who seek to defend their rights against exploitative practices. After decades of intense mobilisation, important gains have been made at international level regarding the opportunity for Indigenous Peoples to have a say on these matters. Notwithstanding this, the right to prior consultation and the FPIC of Indigenous Peoples on the ground are far from being fully applied and guaranteed. And, even when prior consultation processes are carried out, the outcomes remain uncertain. This volume rigorously investigates the causes of this implementation gap and its consequences for the protection of Indigenous Peoples' rights, lands, identities and ways of life in the Latin American region.

Advances in the field of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) have been revolutionary. This book focuses on the use of ARTs in the context of families who seek to conceive a matching sibling donor as a source of tissue to treat an existing sick child. Such children have been referred to as 'saviour siblings'. Considering the legal and regulatory frameworks that impact on the accessibility of this technology in Australia and the UK, the work analyses the ethical and moral issues that arise from the use of the technology for this specific purpose. The author claims the only justification for limiting a family's reproductive liberty in this context is where the exercise of reproductive decision-making results in harm to others. It is argued that the harm principle is the underlying feature of legislative action in Western democratic society, and as such, this principle provides the grounds upon which a strong and persuasive argument is made for a less-restrictive regulatory approach in the context of 'saviour siblings'. The book will be of great relevance and interest to academics, researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of law, ethics, philosophy, science and medicine.

This book presents an ethnography of dispute processing by non-state forums and actors in rural India. As such it sheds light on a much neglected and contested topic. Arising in the context of recent legal and political debates that question the legitimacy of non-state actors engaged in dispute processing, the book explores the nature, form, and functioning of such forums and actors in two locations in rural India. Focusing on a fishermen's community belonging to the caste of Hindu Machimar Kolis in coastal Maharashtra and an agrarian community in Uttarakhand with members from the Pandit, Thakur, Bhotia, and Harijan caste groups, this study shows the manner in which non-state forums and actors engage with state law and its regulatory systems.