Slavery and its definition

Had the abolitionists of the past, the likes of Abraham Lincoln or William Wilberforce, been able to see into the twenty-first century, what might have struck them as very strange was that while they had come far in ending slavery and suppressing human exploitation, they seemed to have lost sight of what the term "slavery" means. This, despite the fact that for more than eighty-five years there has been a consensus in international law as to the legal definition of slavery. In the case of slavery the element of possession is fundamental. It allows people to drain the swamp and leave the definitional quagmire which has marginalised the legal definition of slavery. With the legal definition of slavery marginalised, people looked elsewhere to define slavery. A survey of the academic literature on contemporary slavery -- including much of the legal literature on the subject -- would show that, in the main, it has turned to the work of Kevin Bales and his sociological reading of what constitutes slavery

No One Shall Be Held in Slavery or Servitude: A critical analysis of international slavery conventions

Traces the development of slavery definitions in international agreements from 1815 to 2001. Overview of slavery definitions in international law; Historical analysis of the evolution of slavery definitions in international agreements; Analysis of the main characteristics of slavery in international agreements; Types of social theory that can be used in illuminating slavery; Discussion on the dimensions of slavery

Slavery is bad for business: analyzing the impact of slavery on national economies

Public discourse on human trafficking and modern-day slavery is reaching a tipping point -- it is coming to be understood as a global problem with economic and policy implications far beyond simple reports of cross-border human trafficking. A decade ago most educated citizens considered slavery a phenomenon of the past, relegated to history textbooks. Today a strong narrative has reached global proportions: activists, epistemic communities, NGOs, IGOs, and governments are acknowledging the scope and extent of slavery in the twenty-first century. One need only point to Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s bestseller Half the Sky, President Barack Obama’s 2012 speech at the Clinton Global Intiative, or the awareness that celebrities such as Mira Sorvino and Jada Pinkett Smith are raising about the subject to illustrate how far the antislavery movement has progressed.1 Yet despite such civic mindedness, surprisingly little data and empirically driven research exist on slavery today. Although some headway has been made in estimating its prevalence -- most notably in the form of contributions by Kevin Bales and by the International Labor Organization (ILO) -- apart from a rough estimate of how many slaves exist in the world today (21 to 27 million), scholars and policy makers know little about the risk factors -- let alone the business impact -- that contemporary slavery has on the global community.2 Indeed, most extant research, although useful, is qualitative, not allowing for statistical models.3 To what extent is slavery empirically bad for business? For whom is the business of slavery profitable, and for whom is it economically burdensome

Slavery is bad for business: analyzing the impact of slavery on national economies

Public discourse on human trafficking and modern-day slavery is reaching a tipping point -- it is coming to be understood as a global problem with economic and policy implications far beyond simple reports of cross-border human trafficking. A decade ago most educated citizens considered slavery a phenomenon of the past, relegated to history textbooks. Today a strong narrative has reached global proportions: activists, epistemic communities, NGOs, IGOs, and governments are acknowledging the scope and extent of slavery in the twenty-first century. One need only point to Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s bestseller Half the Sky, President Barack Obama’s 2012 speech at the Clinton Global Intiative, or the awareness that celebrities such as Mira Sorvino and Jada Pinkett Smith are raising about the subject to illustrate how far the antislavery movement has progressed.1 Yet despite such civic mindedness, surprisingly little data and empirically driven research exist on slavery today. Although some headway has been made in estimating its prevalence -- most notably in the form of contributions by Kevin Bales and by the International Labor Organization (ILO) -- apart from a rough estimate of how many slaves exist in the world today (21 to 27 million), scholars and policy makers know little about the risk factors -- let alone the business impact -- that contemporary slavery has on the global community.2 Indeed, most extant research, although useful, is qualitative, not allowing for statistical models.3 To what extent is slavery empirically bad for business? For whom is the business of slavery profitable, and for whom is it economically burdensome

Taking Shots at Private Military Firms: International Law Misses its Mark (Again)

Part I of this Article takes a brief tour through military history on the consistent use of mercenaries through the ages, which Peter Singer illuminates masterfully in Corporate Warriors. Next, a brief overview on the binding nature (or not) of international custom and treaty is explored in Part II and then the codifications of international law are taken up in Part III, beginning with the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Several United Nations (“U.N.”) instruments are analyzed for their efficacy in changing the long-standing customary international law on the use of mercenaries and whether or not each is applicable to PMF contractors. Part IV closes out the Article by discussing alternative bodies of domestic law that provide criminal accountability, including the recent case of Alaa Mohammad Ali, a civilian contractor working in Iraq who was convicted on June 23, 2008 by court martial under the recent changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (“UCMJ”)

Forced marriage, slavery, and plural legal systems: An African example

Slavery, long abolished under international law, left a devastating imprint on Africa. However, enslavement of women through forced marriages remains a common phenomenon in many African states. These African states share the common feature of legal pluralism where traditional legal systems continue to be observed alongside national laws in which slavery is outlawed. Where traditional practices condone the marriage of underage girls who are legally unable to consent, the questioning of age-old accepted forms of marriage can generate strong reactions. This article traces the position of forced and child marriages in international law, and investigates how legality becomes a moveable target when legal systems exist in parallel. Despite international and African Union conventions on slavery and human rights declaring that marriages not based on the full and free consent of both parties are considered a violation of human rights and a form of slavery, these practices persist. These instruments are assessed to gauge the level of conformity (or variance) of African state practice where forced marriages commonly occur. Importantly, the reasons behind noncompliance and the impact of legal pluralism are explored in African states where forced marriages commonly occur

Early innovations in social research: the Poverty Survey of Charles Booth

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX202322 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery

The anti-slavery movement will welcome this important compilation of work on debt bondage slavery. In the academic and policy analysis of contemporary slavery, many of the fundamental areas of enslavement are yet to be explored and brought into systematic presentation. This work by the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver helps to build up our understanding of debt bondage, as well as adding to the emerging discipline of contemporary slavery studies. Debt bondage slavery is one of the oldest forms of slavery that continues into the present day. The date of the establishment of hereditary debt bondage in the Indian sub-continent is lost in the pre-history of that region. Untold millions have lived and died under its yoke. In spite of its longevity, the system continues to be under-studied and little understood, which is why this publication is so very welcome. By way of introduction it is helpful to review some of the early definitions of debt bondage, in addition to examining some of the forms it takes

Slavery is Bad for Business: Analyzing the Impact of Slavery on National Economies

This article, using a novel dataset, demonstrates that slavery is empirically bad for business. Building upon the work of Robert Smith, the authors analysis examines the relationship between the prevalence of slavery in a country (in terms of the proportion of the population enslaved) and several economic measures (the United Nations Human Development Index, growth domestic product in terms of purchasing power parity, access to financial services, and the Gini coefficient). In each instance, controlling for alternative explanations, greater levels of slavery are associated with a decline in economic growth and human development. The findings imply that beyond the morality of the issue, slavery is objectively harmful for total economic output and social development. This article begins with a discussion of how slavery is profitable for slaveholders and then proceeds with a discussion of how it undermines social and economic output at the macro level