Courts and Climate Change: Breakthrough for Judicial Activism in the Netherlands
The 24th of June 2015 was a historic day for climate litigation: the district court in The Hague ordered the Dutch government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at...
The Out of School Children Case: A Model for Court-Facilitated Dialogue?
An Indian citizen enjoys a constitutionally guaranteed right to free and compulsory primary education (Article 21A of the Constitution of India and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory...
Growing Pains in Timor Leste
Timor Leste’s stability is under focus following the recent killing by security forces of Mauk Moruk, a long-time opponent of former Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão and leader of a group...
Prisoner Voting Rights in New Zealand: Standing Up for Democracy by Way of Constitutional Shake-Up
On 24 July 2015 in Taylor v Attorney General, a New Zealand High Court Judge effectively declared that New Zealand’s Parliament fell well short of its rights standards when it...
The Mandatory Death Penalty and Narratives of the Common Law
Some people say the common law is all about narrative. A story gets told, then retold and retold and with each retelling it changes a little. Most of the work...
Small Steps in the Journey Towards Gender Equality on the South African Bench
The 9th July 2015 was an important day for the South African judiciary. For the first time in our history, an all-woman short-list was interviewed for a vacancy on the...
A Supreme Court at the Centre of a Deeply Divided Society
From January 01 to April 01 2015 I worked as a Foreign Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel. This internship was generously funded by Oxford Pro Bono Publico...
Will Obergefell Stifle Growing Support for LGBTQ Rights?
In his recent post The Beginning Rather Than The End, Karl Laird discusses the potential policy backlash that may result from the recent Obergefell decision. In analyzing Obergefell, however, it...
Empathy, Craft and other Lessons to Learn from the US Same-Sex Marriage Decision
Three narratives provide the human face to the text of Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark US Supreme Court decision recognizing the right of same-sex couples to participate in the institution...
Fighting for the Right to Education in South Africa
‘Ninety percent of children are now enrolled in primary education in the developing world’. A statistic of success, often used to demonstrate the influence of the MDGs and the goal...
The Beginning Rather Than the End: Obergefell v Hodges and the Continuing Struggle for LGBT Equality
There is no doubt that the Supreme Court’s judgment in Obergefell v Hodges is an historic one. That is not to say, however, that the struggle for LGBT equality is...
US Supreme Court Requires Recognition of Marriage Equality
The US Supreme Court has ruled, in Obergefell, by a 5-4 majority, that the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution requires States to license same-sex marriage, and to recognise same-sex...
