Neutral Partisan Lawyering and International Human Rights Violators

This Essay considers the applicability of a particular model of legal ethics, neutral partisanship, to American lawyers’ representation of those who violate, or are accused of violating, international human rights. I maintain that neutral partisanship, a deficient model for American lawyers in their domestic practice, is even more problematic when applied in the international arena. The central question is this: are there limits, short of engaging in illegal conduct, that should constrain lawyers in the representation of those who violate international human rights? Neutral partisanship holds that any lawyer may, or, more strongly, must, pursue any legal end for any client by any legal means. I disagree, both in general and with respect to international human rights practice in particular

Policies for small and medium-sized towns: European, national and local approaches

© 2017 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG This paper addresses the ‘policy dimension’ of the TOWN project drawing on the implications of the case studies for policy(ies) for small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) across Europe. It first considers approaches at European and national levels to SMSTs arguing in recent years there has been limited recognition that SMSTs have a significant role to play in the European territory. The paper provides an illustrative selection of towns from the ten case study countries. The research shows that the category SMSTs contains a varied and often dissimilar group of towns in a wide variety of regional contexts. This is true not only between countries but within them. The results indicate that while there are actions to support SMSTs that can be done at European level a prescriptive ‘one-size fits all’ approach should be avoided. Policy approaches should be developed within particular national and regional contexts supported by the European level