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OxHRH

Constitutional Changes in Scotland – II: Incorporation of International Treaties, Devolution, and Effective Accountability

Katie Boyle - 1st April 2021

Access to Justice

This blog is the second of a two-part series on Scotland’s incorporation journey. Part 1 sets out the devolved landscape and discusses incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Part 2 examines the National Taskforce’s Report on a multi-treaty Bill incorporating four further UN treaties into domestic law. The National […]

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OxHRH

Constitutional Changes in Scotland – I: Incorporation of International Treaties, Devolution and Effective Accountability

Katie Boyle - 30th March 2021

Access to Justice| Children's Rights

Scotland is on the precipice of significant subnational constitutional change through a programme of incorporation of international treaties. On 16 March 2021, the Scottish Parliament unanimously enacted the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, incorporating the rights of the child into domestic devolved law. In addition, on 12 March 2021 Scotland’s National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership […]

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OxHRH

Why Dinah Rose QC Had an Obligation to Give up the Homophobic Cayman Islands Brief: A Response to Lord Hendy QC

Gilbert Marcus SC - 14th March 2021

Access to Justice

Justice Edwin Cameron’s criticism of Dinah Rose QC for persisting in holding a brief in the Privy Council to defend the Cayman Government’s homophobic prohibition on same-sex marriage has little to do with the cab rank rule, contrary to what Lord Hendy seems to think. Lord Hendy cites the Bar Standard Board’s Code of Conduct […]

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OxHRH

The Cab Rank Rule

Lord Hendy QC - 7th March 2021

Access to Justice

In his blog for the Human Rights Hub, Edwin Cameron criticised Ms Dinah Rose QC, the President of Magdalen, for accepting the brief, in the Privy Council, to defend the Cayman Islands government’s law against same-sex marriage. Having long been one of my few judicial heroes, it is not easy for me to disagree with […]

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OxHRH

The Human Rights Act, 1998

Anthony Bradley - 24th February 2021

Access to Justice

A striking feature of the history of Europe since the ending of WW II has been the origin, development, application and enforcement of the international movement for the protection of human rights. That movement has become a vital part of the government of the continent of Europe; it has affected both the larger and smaller […]

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Universal Jurisdiction in Switzerland: Challenges for the War Crimes Trial of Alieu Kosiah

Tetevi Davi and Stella Nasirumbi - 24th February 2021

Access to Justice| Conflict and Human Rights

On 3 December 2020, the trial of the Liberian former militia commander, Alieu Kosiah, opened in Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court. It is a trial of many firsts, with Kosiah being the first Liberian to be tried in connection with atrocities committed during the country’s civil wars, and the first person tried for war crimes in […]

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OxHRH

India’s Sexual Harassment Law Wouldn’t be Effective Unless We Fix the Issue of ‘Limitation’

Swapnil Tripathi - 7th February 2021

Access to Justice| Gender| Labour Rights

Recently, the High Court of Delhi (India) refused to entertain a challenge to the dismissal of a Judicial Officer, who was found guilty for sexually harassing a Court Officer by the Internal Complaint Committee. This is one of the rare cases  where India’s otherwise ineffective law on sexual harassment has proven effective. Often, the strict […]

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OxHRH

Art as Justice: Public Memory and Torture

Laurel E. Fletcher - 12th January 2021

Access to Justice

I teach human rights at a law school that will forever be associated with the Bush Administration’s torture policy. John Yoo, one of the principal authors of the Torture Memo authorizing “enhanced interrogation techniques,” sits on Berkeley Law faculty. The link between the school and this shameful history sparked a crisis as critics demanded the […]

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OxHRH

RBG: Advancing Justice in the Criminal Legal System

Vincent Southerland - 14th December 2020

Access to Justice

Over the course of her 27-year tenure as a United States Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg consistently voted to protect the rights of the marginalized and dispossessed, reflecting an unrelenting commitment to equal justice under law, regardless of one’s gender, race, or sexual orientation. In many ways, Justice Ginsburg extended that commitment to the […]

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Municipio de Mariana Ors v BHP Plc BHP Ltd – “access [to justice] denied”

Jade Weiner - 10th December 2020

Access to Justice| Business & Human Rights| Jurisdiction and Scope| Socio-Economic Rights

On 09 November 2020, Mr Justice Turner of the High Court, handed down a judgment that denied the jurisdiction of the English Court to adjudicate the liability of BHP Plc and BHP Ltd on the merits, for the catastrophic consequences caused by the 2015 Fundão dam collapse. The judgment struck out the claims of over […]

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B and C v. Switzerland: Assessing the Risk of Ill-Treatment against LGBTIs in Deportation Cases

- 10th December 2020

Access to Justice| Equality and Non-Discrimination

On 17 November 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) delivered B and C v. Switzerland, a case concerning the deportation of a homosexual Gambian national. While the Court noted that the mere existence of laws criminalising homosexual acts did not render deportation contrary to Article 3 ECHR, it concluded that the Swiss […]

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