Customary international law is one of the principal sources of public international law. Although its existence is uncontroversial, until now the content of customary international law in the area of human rights has not been analyzed in a comprehensive manner. This book, from one of international law's foremost scholars and practitioners, provides an unparalleled account of the customary international law of human rights. It discusses the emergence of this customary law, the debates about how it is to be identified, and the efforts at formulation of customary norms. In doing so, the book provides a useful and accessible introduction to the content of international human rights. The author uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a basis to examine human rights norms, and determine whether they may be described as customary. He makes use of relatively new sources of evidence of the two elements for the identification of custom: State practice and opinio juris. In particular, the book draws on the increasingly universal ratification of major human rights treaties and the materials generated by the Universal Periodic Review mechanism of the Human Rights Council. The book concludes that a large number of human rights norms may indeed be described as customary in nature, and that courts should make greater use of custom as a source of international law.
The fall of dictatorial regimes and the eruption of destructive civil conflicts around the world have led to calls for holding individuals accountable for human rights atrocities. This book offers a comprehensive study of the promise and limitations of international criminal law as a means of enforcing international human rights and humanitarian law. It provides a searching analysis of the principal crimes under the law of nations, such as genocide and crimes against humanity and an appraisal of the most important prosecutorial and other mechanisms developed to bring individuals to justice. After applying their conclusions in a detailed case study, the authors offer a series of compelling conclusions on the prospects for accountability. This fully updated new edition also contains expanded coverage of the increasing numbers of international criminal trials including the cases of Bosnia, Serbia, and East Timor. It also explores individual accountability for terrorist acts and accountability for acts undertaken in the name of counter-terrorism policy, and provides expanded coverage of aggression and crimes against peace.
This book explores the effects of institutional fragmentation in international human rights law, by comparing the rights jurisprudence of three human rights courts and bodies, namely the European Court for Human Rights, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights and the Human Rights Committee. Contributions cover the areas of freedom of expression (journalism and the media), right to privacy, freedom of assembly and freedom of association (political parties), and measure the extent of fragmentation of human rights protection. Moreover, the volume argues that, while the conflict of laws approach, favoured by the International Law Commission, might work in avoiding outright conflict in obligation, in practice it is not an approach that presents a viable research agenda when it comes to understanding the causes and consequences of institutional fragmentation. This is especially evident in areas like international human rights, where the possibility of a silent drift between the jurisprudence of the three courts is a real possibility. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights.
In this book Kerry O'Halloran analyses a subject of international interest - religion - and examines related contemporary issues from a human rights perspective. The book takes the view that while the impact of Islamic State violence has dramatically demonstrated the destructive power of religious extremism for contemporary western societies, there are also good grounds for the latter to examine the extent to which their laws and policies - nationally and internationally - are contributing to religion's currently destabilizing social role. It makes the case for a fuller understanding of the role of religion or belief and argues for a rebalancing of the functional relationship between Church and State both nationally and internationally. Beginning with an overview of religion, including an examination of key concepts and constructs, the chapters go on to outline the international framework of related human rights provisions and note the extent of their ratification. It proceeds by identifying a set of themes - such as the Constitutional positioning of religion; law and policy in relation to secularism; faith schools; equality legislation and the religious exemption; and the tension between free speech and religion - and undertakes a comparative evaluation of how these and other themes indicate significant differences in six leading common law jurisdictions as illustrated by their associated legislation and case law. It then considers why this should be and assesses any implications arising. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of law, religious studies, political science, human rights and social policy.
In 1980, Professors McDougal, Lasswell, and Chen published the original edition of Human Rights and World Public Order to present a "comprehensive framework of inquiry" from which to approach international human rights law, and international law, and inadequacies therein in the discourse of that time by combining theme, structure, method, and process. As a classic text of the New Haven School of International Law, this book explores human rights and international law in the broadest sense, taking into account social sciences research while embracing all values secured, or consequently fulfilled, or needed to thus be achieved. The book endured as a lasting contribution that reframed human rights within the New Haven School tradition, and as a magnificent work of scholarship freed from the confines of positivism and the static concerns of any one political or historical period. Co-author Lung-chu Chen spearheaded the re-issuance of this venerable title, complete with a contemporary, fresh Introduction to unveil this work to a new generation of scholars, students, and practitioners of international law and human rights. This Introduction surveys the major developments in human rights since 1980, including many doctrines and concepts that have emerged since. It covers contemporary events to provide today's readers with the opportunity to contextualize the chapters and to apply the book's framework to future endeavors.
This book was written as a dissertation for the Doctorate of Laws, University of Amsterdam. I am most grateful, first of all, to Professor A. J. P. Tammes, who acted as Promotor. Throughout my working at this study he managed to afford at the same time guidance, inspiration, and complete freedom. I have also benefited much from the suggestions and advice of Dr. Th. e. van Boven of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Member of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, who was a very helpful Co referent. In earlier stages of the work, the critical remarks by Mr. S. A. Kuipers, Dr. H. Meijers and Miss J. M. van Wouw were of great im portance to me. So was the experience of participating in the program of graduate studies of the Columbia University School of Law, in I968- I969. lowe gratitude to the Amsterdam Law Faculty for having offered this opportunity to me. I am indebted to Miss Sinja Alma for her transforming a chaotic manuscript into a neat typescript in a most capable and patient manner; to Miss E. D. ]. ]ongens for her assistance in sorting out the United Nations documentation; and to Howard S. Gold (Gersono vitch), who was so kind as to correct the faults in my English. Since I went on tinkering with the text I am to blame for all linguistic errors in it. The research for this study was concluded in October, I972.
Soft law increasingly shapes and impacts the content of international law in multiple ways, from being a first step in a norm-making process to providing detailed rules and technical standards required for the interpretation and the implementation of treaties. This is especially true in the area of human rights. While relatively few human rights treaties have been adopted at the UN level in the last two decades, the number of declarations, resolutions, conclusions, and principles has grown significantly. In some areas, soft law has come to fill a void in the absence of treaty law, exerting a degree of normative force exceeding its non-binding character. In others areas, soft law has become a battleground for interpretative struggles to expand and limit human rights protection in the context of existing regimes. Despite these developments, little attention has been paid to soft law within human rights legal scholarship. Building on a thorough analysis of relevant case studies, this volume systematically explores the roles of soft law in both established and emerging human rights regimes. The book argues that a better understanding of how soft law shapes and affects different branches of international human rights law not only provides a more dynamic picture of the current state of international human rights, but also helps to unsettle and critically question certain political and doctrinal beliefs. Following introductory chapters that lay out the general conceptual framework, the book is divided in two parts. The first part focuses on cases that examine the role of soft law within human rights regimes where there are established hard law standards, its progressive and regressive effects, and the role that different actors play in the incubation process. The second part focuses on the role of soft law in emerging areas of international law where there is no substantial treaty codification of norms. These chapters examine the relationship between soft and hard law, the role of different actors in formulating new soft law, and the potential for eventual codification.
Advances in human rights law have bypassed much of the developing world. A majority of the citizens in these nations subsist on less than $US 2 per day, and 30,000 people die daily from hunger and readily preventable causes. The dysfunction of international human rights law permeates all levels of international law. This book analyses the parlous state of international law and the failure of human rights doctrine. It suggests that fundamental reform is necessary to enhance global human flourishing. The United Nations should be abolished. In its place is proposed is a genuine world democracy, consisting of an international legislature (the G193 - the number of countries on earth) where voting rights are commensurate with the number of people in each country. Genuine enhancement of global flourishing can best be achieved by the elimination of discrimination, especially in the form of racism. The world should move to an open border policy, where people can settle in any country of their choosing, subject to the nation having the resources to absorb new arrivals. Rather than debating about sending aid to the starving, the starving should be permitted to travel to opulent shores. This would result in a loose equilibrium between resources, such as food and water, and human need. Only once these fundamental reforms occur will human rights ideology and international law realise their potential. This book is about defining that path.
The Right to Development in International Law rigorously explores the right to development (RTD) from the perspectives of international law as well as the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and the Islamic concept of social justice in Pakistan. The volume draws on a wide range of relevant sources to analyse the legal status of international cooperation in contemporary international law, before exploring the domestic application of the right to development looking at the example of Pakistan, a country that is undergoing radical transformation in terms of its internal governance structures and the challenges it faces for enforcing the rule of law. Of particular importance is the examination of the RTD and Shariâe~ah law in Pakistan which adds a new perspective to the RTD debate and enriches the discussion about human rights and Shariâe~ah across the world. Through focusing on Pakistan the book links international perspectives and the international human rights framework with the domestic constitutional apparatus for enforcing the RTD within that jurisdiction. In doing so, Khurshid Iqbal argues that the RTD may be promoted through existing constitutional mechanisms if fundamental rights are widely interpreted by the superior courts, effectively implemented by the lower courts and if Shariâe~ah law is progressively interpreted in public interest. Iqbalâe(tm)s work will appeal to researchers, professionals and students in the fields of law, human rights, development, international law, South Asian Studies, Islamic law and international development studies.
World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law examines the functional dynamics between these concepts based upon the author's professional experiences dealing with real world situations, problems, and crises: from the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations; Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Israel, and Syria; Bosnia and Herzegovina; successfully litigating genocide at the World Court; indicting Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; prosecuting American torture and enforced disappearances at the International Criminal Court; opposing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; citizen civil resistance against state crimes; protecting Indigenous Peoples, etc. The reader can see how the author defined these predicaments from the perspective of international law and human rights, and then proceeded to grapple with them and to rectify them. This book demonstrates the power of international law and human rights to make a positive difference for international peace and justice as well as for the good of humanity in the real world of international power politics. By reading this book the citizen will be empowered and inspired to do the same.
