Congressional Support For Customary International Human Rights As Federal Common Law: Lessons Of The Torture Victim Protection Act

Transnational human rights litigation has succeeded at a steady pace since the Second Circuit\u27s 1980 decision, Filartiga v. Pena-Irala.\u27 In Filartiga, the court construed an eighteenth century statute - the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) - as granting both a cause of action and jurisdiction to two Paraguayan citizen

Authorization versus Regulation of Detention in Non-International Armed Conflicts

What does the law of armed conflict say about detention in non-international armed conflict? Is the law “utterly silent,” as some contend, with respect to the grounds for detention—regulating who may be confined and for what status or behavior? And do the in bello rules provide a source of affirmative authority that empowers belligerents to engage in detention? How those questions are resolved and, in particular, the basis for reaching the conclusions may have unintended consequences for the regulation of warfare. This article contends that the laws of war regulate the grounds for detention but do not authorize detention in non-international armed conflict. The article suggests some of the perverse effects of recent decisions by national and international bodies which, according to the author, may have reached the right result but for the wrong reasons

Norms and National Security: The WTO as a Catalyst for Inquiry

In this brief essay, I argue that, in principle, the United States\u27 position involves a wholly legitimate definition of security interests and that the US stance, rather than representing a retreat from international legal norms, reflects and contributes to them. In making this claim, I rely on the legal and social history following World War II that has integrated into the concept of security interests a concern for human rights conditions in other countries. Based on this history, I submit that the US invocation of the particular defense-that another state\u27s severe mistreatment of its citizens threatens US security interests-accords with emergent international norms. Of course, the US taking this position before the WTO may diminish compliance with international trading obligations. However, the dimension that I explore here- consistency with and furtherance of robust international norms of security-should be taken into account in rendering any broad assessment of the relationship between the US actions and international norms. Indeed, I use the opportunity of this essay to suggest a few implications this particular dimension has for understanding the construction and operation of international norms more generally. While the WTO controversy mainly provides the occasion for starting such a discussion, it is also important to analyze the discussion\u27s particular importance for the WTO. Let me first address some of those issues before examining the broader theme of normative constructions of security and human rights

How We Fight: Strategies at Emergence among Animal Rights and LGBTQ Rights Organizations

The common approach to the study of strategy among social movement organizations focuses on it as a causal variable related to various movement outcomes. This research examines strategy as an outcome to understand factors related to the determination of strategy by US social movement organizations. The analysis focuses on organizations operating within the Animal Rights / Protection and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) Rights movements, using Multinomial Logistic Regression models. These models explore and find some significance to the relationship between finances and strategy. Qualitative analyses of four organizations — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Animal Humane of New Mexico, Lambda Legal, and Equality New Mexico — explore the role of leaders and other external factors relating to the development of strategy. The analyses find leaders\u27 experience and skills, resources, and the organizational context as determinants of movement strategy. Implications for theoretical and methodological studies of organizations and implications for activists are suggested, including the utility of mixed-method approaches