This past July, the Trump administration announced the creation of a new body with a curious name—the “Commission on Unalienable Rights.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the effort as an attempt to “ground our discussion of human rights in America’s founding principles.” However, universal human rights norms exist to hold states accountable: they cannot…
States and municipalities are increasingly attempting to use climate nuisance litigation to hold fossil fuel companies such as BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell, accountable for climate change. Climate plaintiffs across the country are requesting a total of approximately two hundred billion dollars in damages. If these plaintiffs manage to win their…
In the wake of the opioid crisis and the increasing role of prosecution as a way to combat the sale and use of drugs, this Note considers the twenty-year mandatory minimum sentencing enhancement for when “death results” under the Controlled Substances Act. In deciding Burrage v. United States, the Supreme Court settled the circuit split…
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 has been controversial for almost as long as it has been law. It allows individuals to get exemptions from laws of general applicability based on religious belief. There has been a large body of scholarship performing empirical analysis on RFRA, but notably missing is a post-Hobby Lobby study…
Abstract In July of 2019, the United States established a federal advisory commission that is poised to undercut economic and social rights protections by narrowly re-defining human rights to exclude them. Limiting the interpretation of human rights in this way has profound implications for human rights norms and for advocates. This limitation undercuts the reality…
What underlies the Administration’s effort to examine human rights through the State Department’s newly created Commission on Unalienable Rights? And what is at stake? The asserted purpose of the Commission, as announced in July 2019 by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is to examine human rights in light of “foundational documents” and provide advice to…
On March 9, 2015, a black student threw feces against a statue of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, located at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The incident sparked the formation of #RhodesMustFall, a black radical student movement that sought to address institutional racism at the university through its demand to decolonize the…
The United States Supreme Court issued a bombshell opinion regarding immigration court procedure on June 21, 2018: Pereira v. Sessions. On its face, the case is a boon for certain noncitizens seeking relief from deportation. Yet, as this Essay explains, Pereira’s implications are far greater. Although the Court’s opinion never mentions jurisdiction, Pereira necessarily means that immigration courts lack jurisdiction…
Human rights advocates often confront trauma and stress in their work. They are exposed to testimony about heinous abuses; work in insecure locations; visit physical sites of abuse; review forensic, photographic, and video evidence; directly witness abuses; experience threats; and can also suffer detention, be attacked, or be tortured themselves. Such exposure risks adversely impacting…
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Sandra Paunksniene, SIPA: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, guests and panelists. Tonight we gather to discuss, as mentioned, a timely and very important topic, health care in danger: the continuing violence against medical assistance in armed conflict. My name is Sandra Paunksniene. I work with the School…
Our article “Modern Self-Defense: The Use of Force Against Non-Military Threats” explores the legal bases States could draw on in using military force to respond to significant threats or harms that are not military in nature but that may be optimally tackled with some form of military action where the United Nations Security Council (Security Council) has…
States all over the world are enacting new laws that criminalize insults, and using existing insult laws with renewed vigour. In this article, we examine state practice, treaty provisions, and case law on insulting speech. We conclude that insulting speech is currently insufficiently protected under international law and regulated by confused case law and commentary. We explain that the three principal international treaties that regulate speech provide conflicting guidance on the right to insult in international…
For any given refugee crisis, securing equitable and sustainable arrangements for refugee protection and assistance remains a fundamental problem. An instructive example is the ongoing and deliberate regional containment of most Syrian refugees to countries neighboring Syria. Four countries in the Middle East currently bear a disproportionate and unsustainable share of the responsibility and cost,…
On May 31, 2016, the European Commission together with Facebook, Twitter, Google’s YouTube, and Microsoft (the ICT Companies) issued a voluntary Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online that requires removal of any hate speech, as defined by the European Union. The impetus for this Code included the rise of intolerant speech against…
The authors have graciously asked me to comment on their interesting and welcome proposal, and I am happy to do so. One must applaud all efforts to ameliorate the horrendous problem of refugee flows, one that is vastly greater today than in 1997 when I advanced my own “modest proposal” for refugee burden-sharing. The current…