Historically, at English common law, the death penalty was mandatory for the crime of murder and other violent felonies. Over the last three decades, however, many former British colonies have reformed their capital punishment regimes to permit judicial sentencing discretion, including consideration of mitigating factors. Applying a comparative analysis to the law of capital punishment, Novak examines the constitutional jurisprudence and resulting legislative reform in the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, focusing on the rapid retreat of the mandatory death penalty in the Commonwealth over the last thirty years. The coordinated mandatory death penalty challenges - which have had the consequence of greatly reducing the world's death row population - represent a case study of how a small group of lawyers can sponsor human rights litigation that incorporates international human rights law into domestic constitutional jurisprudence, ultimately harmonizing criminal justice regimes across borders. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the study and development of human rights and capital punishment, as well as those exploring the contours of comparative criminal justice.

This book takes bold steps in forming much-needed philosophical foundations for restorative justice through deconstructing and reconstructing various models of thinking. It challenges current debates through the consideration and integration of various disciplines such as law, criminology, philosophy and human rights into restorative justice theory, resulting in the development of new and stimulating arguments. Topics covered include the close relationship and convergence of restorative justice and human rights, some of the challenges of engagement with human rights, the need for the recognition of the teachings of restorative justice at both the theoretical and the applied level, the Aristotelian theory on restorative justice, the role of restorative justice in schools and in police practice and a discussion of the humanistic African philosophy of Ubuntu. With international contributions from various disciplines and through the use of value based research methods, the book deconstructs existing concepts and suggests a new conceptual model for restorative justice. This unique book will be of interest to academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.

Human rights and peace issues and concerns have come about at a critical time. The world has recently witnessed a plethora of turning points that speak of the hopes and vulnerabilities which are inherent in being human and demonstrate that change in the service of human rights and peace is possible. At the same time, however, other events indicate that wherever there is life, there is vulnerability in a world characterized by instability and endemic human suffering. On top of all this, the collapse of the global financial system and the serious, rapid destruction of the environment have brought the world to a precarious state of vulnerability. Activating human rights and peace is, therefore, a project that is always in progress, and is never finally achieved. This enlightening collection of well thought through cases is aimed at academics and students of human rights, political science, law and justice, peace and conflict studies and sociology.

In the urgency to respond to the challenges posed by diversity in contemporary societies, the discussion of normative foundations is often overlooked. This book takes that important first step, and offers new ways of thinking about diversity. Its contribution to an ongoing dialogue in this field lies in the construction of a normative framework which endeavours to better understand the challenges of justice in diverse societies. By applying this normative framework to specific and broader examples of injustices in the spheres of religion, culture, race, ethnicity, gender and nationality, the book demonstrates how constitutional pluralist discourses can contribute both to new and legal responses to diversity. The book will be of interest to legal professionals, policy makers, law students and scholars concerned with exploring diversity in the 21st century.

This book brings together leading international scholars of law and religion to provide an overview of current issues in State-religion relations. The first part of the collection offers a picture of recent developments in key countries and regions. The second part is focused on Europe and, in particular, on the Nordic States and the post-communist countries where State-religion systems have undergone most profound change. The third and final part is devoted to four issues that are currently debated all over the world: the relations between freedom of expression and freedom of religion; proselytism and the right to change religion; the religious symbols; and the legal status of Islam in Europe and Canada. The work will be a valuable resource for academics, students and policy-makers with an interest in the interaction between law and religion.

This book establishes legisprudence, in contrast to jurisprudence, as a legal theory of rational law-making. It suggests that by rejecting the common wisdom about the nature of political law-making, legislation could be improved and streamlined. Using the methods, theoretical insights and tools of current legal theory and philosophy of law in a new way, the book suggests the creation of law by legislators rather than government. Raising new questions and problems of the validity of norms, the book opens a new perspective on legitimacy of norms, their meaning and the structure of the legal system. In distinguishing legitimacy and legitimation of law, the book ventures into the philosophical roots of legal theory and suggests the articulation of a new conception of sovereignty. In shifting the emphasis to the position of the legislator and legislation, this book opens a number of new insights into the relationship between legislative problems and legal theory. Its main claim is that legislation should be justified by the legislator.

Business corporations can and do violate human rights all over the world, and they are often not held to account. Emblematic cases and situations such as the state of the Niger Delta and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory are examples of corporate human rights abuses which are not adequately prevented and remedied. Business and human rights as a field seeks to enhance the accountability of business - companies and businesspeople - in the human rights area, or, to phrase it differently, to bridge the accountability gap. Bridging the accountability gap is to be understood as both setting standards and holding corporations and businesspeople to account if violations occur. Adopting a legal perspective, this book presents the ways in which this dual undertaking has been and could be further carried out in the future, and evaluates the extent to which the various initiatives in the field bridge the corporate accountability gap. It looks at the historical background of the field of business and human rights, and examines salient periods, events and cases. The book then goes on to explore the relevance of international human rights law and international criminal law for global business. International soft law and policy initiatives which have blossomed in recent years are evaluated along with private modes of regulation. The book also examines how domestic law, especially the domestic law of multinational companies' home countries, can be used to prevent and redress corporate related human rights violations.

Business corporations can and do violate human rights all over the world, and they are often not held to account. Emblematic cases and situations such as the state of the Niger Delta and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory are examples of corporate human rights abuses which are not adequately prevented and remedied. Business and human rights as a field seeks to enhance the accountability of business - companies and businesspeople - in the human rights area, or, to phrase it differently, to bridge the accountability gap. Bridging the accountability gap is to be understood as both setting standards and holding corporations and businesspeople to account if violations occur. Adopting a legal perspective, this book presents the ways in which this dual undertaking has been and could be further carried out in the future, and evaluates the extent to which the various initiatives in the field bridge the corporate accountability gap. It looks at the historical background of the field of business and human rights, and examines salient periods, events and cases. The book then goes on to explore the relevance of international human rights law and international criminal law for global business. International soft law and policy initiatives which have blossomed in recent years are evaluated along with private modes of regulation. The book also examines how domestic law, especially the domestic law of multinational companies' home countries, can be used to prevent and redress corporate related human rights violations.

As asymmetric 'wars among the people' replace state-on-state wars in modern armed conflict, the growing role of military medicine and medical technology in contemporary war fighting has brought an urgent need to critically reassess the theory and practice of military medical ethics. Military Medical Ethics for the 21st Century is the first full length, broad-based treatment of this important subject. Written by an international team of practitioners and academics, this book provides interdisciplinary insights into the major issues facing military-medical decision makers and critically examines the tensions and dilemmas inherent in the military and medical professions. In this book the authors explore the practice of battlefield bioethics, medical neutrality and treatment of the wounded, enhancement technologies for war fighters, the potential risks of dual-use biotechnologies, patient rights for active duty personnel, military medical research and military medical ethics education in the 21st Century.

In many criminal justice systems a new trend towards incapacitation can be witnessed. A ubiquitous want for control seems to have emerged as a consequence of perceived safety risks. This can be seen not only in the mass incarceration of offenders but also in the disqualification of offenders from jobs, in chemical castration in cases of sexual crimes, the increased use of electronic monitoring and in the life-long monitoring of individuals who pose certain risks. Trends towards incapacitation are now even spreading to public administration and the employment sector, in the refusal of licenses and the rejection of employees with past criminal records. This book discusses the topic of incapacitation from various angles and perspectives. It explores how theories of punishment are affected by the more recent emphasis on incapacitation and how criminal justice practice is changing as a consequence of this new emphasis. Many contributors express criticisms with this trend towards incapacitation. They argue for a better calibration of measures to the severity of the misconduct. In addressing an increasingly important development in criminal justice, the book will be an essential resource for students, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of criminal law, sentencing, probation and crime prevention.

With a bold vision and a distinctive message, Reddy stipulates that international peacekeeping can be designed and implemented using the principles of restorative justice. To prove this, Reddy discusses the congruence of crime, armed conflict and violent disorder, critiquing restorative justice and its nuanced character as a suitable application to complex civil wars. This book provides a comprehensive survey of peace operations and then focuses on the cases of Somalia and Bougainville. The comparison between their societal contexts, their conflicts, peace operations and final outcomes are crucial to this argument. Furthermore, this shows how the constraining, maximising and emergent values of restorative justice can be applied in a peacekeeping setting, from the overall command level through to the behaviours of deployed peacekeepers - with direct contemporary application. This sharp study makes for evocative reading as it introduces the new concept of regeneration as key to any restoratively arranged peace operation. Military, police, NGO and civilian peacekeeper practitioners, as well as academic theorists, can use this unique work to produce better and more lasting results for conflict ridden communities.

This volume provides a series of critical analyses of some of the contemporary debates in relation to the human rights of children, resituating them within visions which informed the text of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The studies embrace examination of some of today's widespread interpretations of the CRC, analysis of what is implied by a human rights-based approach in research and advocacy and consideration of advances and barriers to research and to several aspects of CRC implementation. With contributions by leading experts in the field, the book examines the CRC as an international instrument, its inherent dilemmas and some of the debates generated by the challenges of implementation. It embraces examinations of different levels of governance from the international to the state party, regional and local levels, including institutional developments and changes in law, policy and practice. The book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of children's rights and welfare.

This book examines the international, regional and domestic human rights frameworks that establish victim rights as a central force in law and policy in the twenty-first century. Accessing substantial source material that sets out a normative framework of victim rights, this work argues that despite degrees of convergence, victim rights are interpreted on the domestic level, in accordance with the localised interests of victims and individual states. The transition of the victim from peripheral to central stakeholder of justice is demonstrated across various adversarial, inquisitorial and hybrid systems in an international context. Examining the standing of victims globally, this book provides a comparative analysis of the role of the victim in the International Criminal Court, the ad hoc tribunals leading to the development of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, together with the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, Special Panels of East Timor (Timor Leste), and the Internationalised Panels in Kosovo. The instruments of the European Parliament and Council of Europe, with the rulings of the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights, interpreting the European Convention of Human Rights, are examined. These instruments are further contextualised on the local, domestic level of the inquisitorial systems of Germany and France, and mixed systems of Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands, together with common law systems including, England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the hybrid systems of Japan and Brazil. This book organises the authoritative instruments while advancing debate over the positioning of the victim in law and policy, as influenced by global trends in criminal justice, and will be of great interest to scholars of international law, criminal law, victimology and socio-legal studies.

How human rights principles, like the right to gender identity, freedom, integrity and equality, respond to the concerns of different groups of adults and children who experience gender harm due to the binary conception of sexuality and gender identity is the overall theme of this book. The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are analysed in the light of the dynamic jurisprudence of different human rights treaty bodies. Whether and how the status quo of gender duality is reproduced, in spite of international law's growing recognition of the multiplicity of sexualities and gender identities, is discussed. How transgender men, in countries that permit legal gender change, have been successfully prosecuted for gender fraud by female partners claiming to be unaware of their gender history is given attention. While human rights discourse related to LGBTI persons so far has been moulded on the experiences of adults this book gives voice to the concerns of gender-non confirming children. The jurisprudence of the Child Rights Committee, with focus on the complex social and legal issues faced by gender non-confirming children, is addressed. Through narratives, that give voice to these children's experiences, the book demonstrates how the legal gender assigned at birth impacts on their feeling of recognition, self-confidence and self-respect in the private, social, and legal spheres. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights.

David Bonner presents an historical and contemporary legal analysis of UK governmental use of executive measures, rather than criminal process, to deal with national security threats. The work examines measures of internment, deportation and restriction on movement deployed in the UK and (along with the imposition of collective punishment) also in three emergencies forming part of its withdrawal from colonial empire: Cyprus, Kenya and Malaya. These situations, along with that of Northern Ireland, are used to probe the strengths and weaknesses of ECHR supervision. It is argued that a new human rights era ushered in by a more confident Court of Human Rights and a more confident national judiciary armed with the HRA 1998, has moved us towards greater judicial scrutiny of the application of these measures - a move away from unfettered and unreviewable executive discretion.

The essays in this volume set out to provide a rational framework for legislation. Whilst legislation and regulation is the result of a political process, this volume considers whether they can also be the object of theoretical study. It examines the problems that are common to most European legal systems by applying the tools of legal theory to legislative problems ('legisprudence'). While traditional legal theory deals predominantly with the question of the application of law by a judge, legisprudence enlarges the scope of study to include the creation of law by the legislator. The essays published in the volume develop a new range of insights into the relationship between legislative problems and legal theory in a way that will interest legal scholars throughout the world. Specifically the work will attract the attention of those involved with constitutional law, EU law, human rights law and legal theory.

The responsibility to protect ('R2P') principle articulates the obligations of the international community to prevent conflict occurring, to intervene in conflicts, and to assist in rebuilding after conflicts. The doctrine is about protecting civilians in armed conflicts from four mass atrocity crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. This book examines interventions in East Timor, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Kosovo. The chapters explore and question UN debates with respect to the doctrine both before and after its adoption in 2005; contrasting state attitudes to international military intervention; and what takes place after intervention. It also discusses the ability of the Security Council to access reliable information and credible and transparent processes to enable it to make a determination on the occurrence of atrocities in a Member State. Questioning whether there is a need to find a closer operational link between the responsibilities to prevent and react and a normative link between R2P and principles of international law, the contributions examine the effectiveness of the framework of R2P for international decision-making in response to mass atrocity crimes and ask how an international system to deal with threats and mass atrocities can be developed in the absence of a central authority. This book will be valuable to those interested in international law, human rights, and security, peace and conflict studies.

Adopting a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach, this book focuses on the emerging and innovative aspects of attempts to target the accumulated assets of those engaged in criminal and terrorist activity, organized crime and corruption. It examines the 'follow-the-money' approach and explores the nature of criminal, civil and regulatory responses used to attack the financial assets of those engaged in financial crime in order to deter and disrupt future criminal activity as well as terrorism networks. With contributions from leading international academics and practitioners in the fields of law, economics, financial management, criminology, sociology and political science, the book explores law and practice in countries with significant problems and experiences, revealing new insights into these dilemmas. It also discusses the impact of the 'follow-the-money' approach on human rights while also assessing effectiveness. The book will appeal to academics and researchers of financial crime, organized crime and terrorism as well as practitioners in the police, prosecution, financial and taxation agencies, policy-makers and lawyers.

As globalization continues to spread and evolve, so nation-states attempt to govern financialization, tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, civil and military conflicts and environmental dangers, social polarization and the complexities in human rights implementation, by institutional and transnational means. This volume discusses these issues from different legal perspectives and highlights the challenges of governing human activity in an age of remarkable interconnectedness. Covering a broad range of policy areas and analysis of emerging forms of governance from liberal to critical and Marxist, the chapters are legal in their approach and form an important contribution to the growing study of emergent forms of authority, coordination and power developing in response to the challenges presented by some of the key contemporary governance issues in the first half of the twenty-first century.

Combining feminist legal theory with international human rights concepts, this book examines the presence, participation and treatment of children in a variety of contexts. Specifically, through comparing legal developments in the US with legal developments in countries where the views that children are separate from their families and potentially in need of state protection are more widely accepted. The authors address the role of religion in shaping attitudes about parental rights in the US, with particular emphasis upon the fundamentalist belief in natural lines of familial authority. Such beliefs have provoked powerful resistance in the US to human rights approaches that view the child as an independent rights holder and the state as obligated to proved services and protections that are distinctly child-centred. Calling for a rebalancing of relationships within the US family, to become more consistent with emerging human rights norms, this collection contains both theoretical debates about and practical approaches to granting positive rights to children.

This groundbreaking book is the first collection to investigate the law, political science and ethical perspectives collectively in relation to the right and value of life. Its contributions from international roster of scholars are organized around five themes: a theoretical positioning of life and death; War, armed conflict and detention; Death as punishment; Medical parameters for ending life; and medical policies for the preservation of life. In studying this issue in its contemporary contexts of "right" and "value," the volume fills the current scholarly lacuna in the general subject of the orientations of life. It presents a much-needed examination of key issues in a broad practical and theoretical context, and holds broad appeal for scholars, researchers, and students occupied with issues of war, armed conflict, the death penalty, and various contemporary medico-legal scenarios.

Bringing together a range of contributors from multiple countries, this interdisciplinary volume offers a unique field view of the rule of law and human rights reform in the reconciliation and reconstruction process. The contributors all worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the ten years after the Dayton Peace Accords were signed; here they pause to analyze and critique the work they did. The contributors offer insights from within a variety of international organizations, including the Office of the High Representative, the Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe, and the United Nations. Allowing those who were in the field to identify, discuss and reflect upon the programmes and policies, the collection reveals how the programmes were created, what laws they were pursuant to, and what alternatives were rejected and why. The authors not only assess both the positive and negative aspects and outcomes of their work, but also comment on lessons learned for future post-conflict reconstruction scenarios.

The digital age began in 1939 with the construction of the first digital computer. In the sixty-five years that have followed, the influence of digitisation on our everyday lives has grown steadily and today digital technology has a greater influence on our lives than at any time since its development. This book examines the role played by digital technology in both the exercise and suppression of human rights. The global digital environment has allowed us to reinterpret the concept of universal human rights. Discourse on human rights need no longer be limited by national or cultural boundaries and individuals have the ability to create new forms in which to exercise their rights or even to bypass national limitations to rights. The defence of such rights is meanwhile under constant assault by the newfound ability of states to both suppress and control individual rights through the application of these same digital technologies. This book gathers together an international group of experts working within this rapidly developing area of law and technology and focuses their attantion on the specific interaction between human rights and digital technology. This is the first work to explore the challenges brought about by digital technology to fundamental freedoms such as privacy, freedom of expression, access, assembly and dignity. It is essential reading for anyone who fears digital technology will lead to the 'Big Brother' state.

This book examines an interesting and relatively understudied area of the evolution of the international rule of law and the role of professional ethics. The rule of law has been gradually developed and promoted at the national level over centuries, however at the international level it has only recently received (more in rhetoric than in implementation) support from a macro perspective - developments of international rules and institutions, and from a micro perspective - ethical codes, independence and un-bias of professionals, working in international organizations and tribunals. The book offers analysis and recommends policies to strengthen the rule of law at international level to meet a major global governance demand in ensuring equity, justice, stability and consistency in international affairs.

In 1990, after the end of the Pinochet regime, the newly-elected democratic government of Chile established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to investigate and report on some of the worst human rights violations committed under the seventeen-year military dictatorship. The Chilean TRC was one of the first truth commissions established in the world. This book examines whether and how the work of the Chilean TRC contributed to the transition to democracy in Chile and to subsequent developments in accountability and transformation in that country. The book takes a long term view on the Chilean TRC asking to what extent and how the truth commission contributed to the development of the transitional justice measures that ensued, and how the relationship with those subsequent developments was established over time.It argues that, contrary to the views and expectations of those who considered that the Chilean TRC was of limited success, that the Chilean TRC has, in fact, over the longer term, played a key role as an enabler of justice and a means by which ethical and institutional transformation has occurred within Chile. With the benefit of this historical perspective, the book concludes that the impact of truth commissions in general needs to be carefully reviewed in light of the Chilean experience. This book will be of great interest and use to students and scholars of conflict resolution, criminal international law, and comparative legal systems in Latin America.