Human Rights Violations After 9/11 and the Role of Constitutional Constraints

Human Rights Violations After 9/11 and the Role of Constitutional Constraints PDF Author: Benedikt Goderis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
After 9/11, the United States and its allies took measures to protect their citizens from future terrorist attacks. While these measures aim to increase security, they have often been criticized for violating human rights. But violating rights is difficult in a constitutional democracy with separated powers and checks and balances. This paper empirically investigates the effect of the post-9/11 terror threat on human rights. We find strong evidence of a systematic increase in rights violations in the U.S. and its ally countries after 9/11. When testing the importance of checks and balances, we find that this increase is significantly smaller in countries with independent judicial review (counter-majoritarian checks), but did not depend on the presence of veto players in the legislative branch (majoritarian checks). These findings have important implications for constitutional debates on rights protection in times of emergency.

Human Rights Violations After 9/11 and the Role of Constitutional Constraints

Human Rights Violations After 9/11 and the Role of Constitutional Constraints PDF Author: Benedikt Goderis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
After 9/11, the United States and its allies took measures to protect their citizens from future terrorist attacks. While these measures aim to increase security, they have often been criticized for violating human rights. But violating rights is difficult in a constitutional democracy with separated powers and checks and balances. This paper empirically investigates the effect of the post-9/11 terror threat on human rights. We find strong evidence of a systematic increase in rights violations in the U.S. and its ally countries after 9/11. When testing the importance of checks and balances, we find that this increase is significantly smaller in countries with independent judicial review (counter-majoritarian checks), but did not depend on the presence of veto players in the legislative branch (majoritarian checks). These findings have important implications for constitutional debates on rights protection in times of emergency.

Human Rights in the Constitutional Law of the United States

Human Rights in the Constitutional Law of the United States PDF Author: Michael J. Perry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107038367
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
This book explicates the morality of human rights and elaborates three internationally recognized human rights that are entrenched in U.S. constitutional law: the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment; the right to moral equality; and the right to religious and moral freedom.

The PATRIOT Act, Other Post-9/11 Enforcement Powers and the Impact on California's Muslim Communities

The PATRIOT Act, Other Post-9/11 Enforcement Powers and the Impact on California's Muslim Communities PDF Author: Max Vanzi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
The California State Senate Office of Research examined the USA PATRIOT Act & assoc. Fed. powers that the gov't. acquired to protect the country against domestic terrorism following the attacks of 9/11. The office has looked at these issues from the perspective of members of Muslim communities in CA. The office discovered that a broad cross-section of these communities find the force of these new powers to be aimed against Muslims innocent of any connection to terrorist acts or known terrorist intentions. Contents: The PATRIOT Act -- An Overview; Selected Patriot Act Sections; The Roundup of Muslim Immigrants; Fed. Enforcement & the CA Connection: State & Local Issues; Foreign Students & Scholars; Conclusion; Stories; US-VISIT Fact Sheet.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law PDF Author: Michel Rosenfeld
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191640174
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1981

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Book Description
The field of comparative constitutional law has grown immensely over the past couple of decades. Once a minor and obscure adjunct to the field of domestic constitutional law, comparative constitutional law has now moved front and centre. Driven by the global spread of democratic government and the expansion of international human rights law, the prominence and visibility of the field, among judges, politicians, and scholars has grown exponentially. Even in the United States, where domestic constitutional exclusivism has traditionally held a firm grip, use of comparative constitutional materials has become the subject of a lively and much publicized controversy among various justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. The trend towards harmonization and international borrowing has been controversial. Whereas it seems fair to assume that there ought to be great convergence among industrialized democracies over the uses and functions of commercial contracts, that seems far from the case in constitutional law. Can a parliamentary democracy be compared to a presidential one? A federal republic to a unitary one? Moreover, what about differences in ideology or national identity? Can constitutional rights deployed in a libertarian context be profitably compared to those at work in a social welfare context? Is it perilous to compare minority rights in a multi-ethnic state to those in its ethnically homogeneous counterparts? These controversies form the background to the field of comparative constitutional law, challenging not only legal scholars, but also those in other fields, such as philosophy and political theory. Providing the first single-volume, comprehensive reference resource, the 'Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law' will be an essential road map to the field for all those working within it, or encountering it for the first time. Leading experts in the field examine the history and methodology of the discipline, the central concepts of constitutional law, constitutional processes, and institutions - from legislative reform to judicial interpretation, rights, and emerging trends.

Human Rights

Human Rights PDF Author: Louis Henkin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781587780547
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This law school casebook supplement includes international instruments establishing comprehensive human rights obligations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and treaties and declarations addressing specific areas of international human rights law. It includes specialized human rights instruments adopted under the auspices of regional organizations such as the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, the Organization of African Unity, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and select instruments relating to international courts.

Terror Detentions and the Rule of Law

Terror Detentions and the Rule of Law PDF Author: Dr. Robert H. Wagstaff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199347204
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States and the United Kingdom detained suspected terrorists in a manner incompatible with the due process, fair trial, and equality requirements of the Rule of Law. The legality of the detentions was challenged and found wanting by the highest courts in the US and UK. The US courts approached these questions as matters within the law of war, whereas the UK courts examined them within a human rights criminal law context. In Terror Detentions and the Rule of Law: US and UK Perspectives, Dr. Robert H. Wagstaff documents President George W. Bush's and Prime Minister Tony Blair's responses to 9/11, alleging that they failed to protect the human rights of individuals suspected of terrorist activity. The analytical focus is on the four US Supreme Court decisions involving detentions in Guantanamo Bay and four House of Lords decisions involving detentions that began in the Belmarsh Prison. These decisions are analyzed within the contexts of history, criminal law, constitutional law, human rights and international law, and various jurisprudential perspectives. In this book Dr. Wagstaff argues that time-tested criminal law is the normatively correct and most effective means for dealing with suspected terrorists. He also suggests that preventive, indefinite detention of terrorist suspects upon suspicion of wrongdoing contravenes the domestic and international Rule of Law, treaties and customary international law. As such, new legal paradigms for addressing terrorism are shown to be normatively invalid, illegal, unconstitutional, counter-productive, and in conflict with the Rule of Law.

Practice and Theory in Comparative Law

Practice and Theory in Comparative Law PDF Author: Maurice Adams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113953646X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
What does doing comparative law involve? Too often, explicit methodological discussions in comparative law remain limited to the level of pure theory, neglecting to test out critiques and recommendations on concrete issues. This book bridges this gap between theory and practice in comparative legal studies. Essays by both established and younger comparative lawyers reflect on the methodological challenges arising in their own work and in work in their area. Taken together, they offer clear recommendations for, and critical reflection on, a wide range of innovative comparative research projects.

The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research

The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research PDF Author: Peter Cane
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019163543X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1112

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Book Description
The empirical study of law, legal systems and legal institutions is widely viewed as one of the most exciting and important intellectual developments in the modern history of legal research. Motivated by a conviction that legal phenomena can and should be understood not only in normative terms but also as social practices of political, economic and ethical significance, empirical legal researchers have used quantitative and qualitative methods to illuminate many aspects of law's meaning, operation and impact. In the 43 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research leading scholars provide accessible and original discussions of the history, aims and methods of empirical research about law, as well as its achievements and potential. The Handbook has three parts. The first deals with the development and institutional context of empirical legal research. The second - and largest - part consists of critical accounts of empirical research on many aspects of the legal world - on criminal law, civil law, public law, regulatory law and international law; on lawyers, judicial institutions, legal procedures and evidence; and on legal pluralism and the public understanding of law. The third part introduces readers to the methods of empirical research, and its place in the law school curriculum.

Article 8 ECHR, Family Reunification and the UK’s Supreme Court

Article 8 ECHR, Family Reunification and the UK’s Supreme Court PDF Author: Helena Wray
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1509902589
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
How do courts reconcile protecting family life with immigration control in human rights cases? This book addresses that question through an analysis of 11 UK Supreme Court decisions on immigration and family life, mostly focusing on Article 8 ECHR, the right to respect for family life, and starting with Huang v SSHD in 2007. The analysis is set against a national context that includes the Human Rights Act 1998 and regular controversies over immigration. The book explains how the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence has developed in recent years, but, particularly in the absence of children, it often still awards little weight to claims by citizens and residents to be joined by family when immigration status is an issue. This reflects governments' resistance to encroachment on their control over borders. The Supreme Court decisions show that, despite powers conferred by the Human Rights Act, a more nuanced position in domestic law was difficult to articulate and sustain. The book explores the way in which these problems were reflected in the changing language, argumentation, and structure of judgments. These problems revealed judges to be strategic actors drawing on personal and institutional values and responding to the shifting political context. A more generous reading of Article 8 would be legally coherent but needs wider societal support to be realisable. The book ends with a discussion of how, if such support were present, the jurisprudence could give more weight to the needs of families. It is vital reading for anyone interested in families and immigration, and in the problems and potential of human rights adjudication.

International Law and New Wars

International Law and New Wars PDF Author: Christine Chinkin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107171210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
Examines the difficulties in applying international law to recent armed conflicts known as 'new wars'.