Human Rights and Community Justice: A View from Red Hook, Brooklyn
The Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC), the small community court in Brooklyn, New York, seems miles away from lofty, academic debates on human rights. However, in its own way,...
Is it Time for the US Supreme Court to Come Out of the Closet?
In a follow-up post to his previous analysis of Windsor v. United States, Karl Laird examines which constitutional provisions were invoked in the US Supreme Court decision. Now that a...
Shelby County v Holder: Disconcerting Aspects of the US Supreme Court’s Decision and its Impact on the Right to Vote
On the second day of what many consider one of the most eventful weeks in US Supreme Court history, the Court issued its decision on the Voting Rights Act (VRA)...
The Questions Raised by Striking Down DOMA
In light of the release of Windsor v the United States, Karl Laird analyzes the US Supreme Court’s reasoning, noting the Court still avoids the hard questions. It took Justice...
Why Fisher v University of Texas is Irrelevant outside the US
The US Supreme Court’s decision in Fisher v University of Texas, released on Monday, has received much international attention. As Claire Overman and Reva Siegel explain in their recent posts,...
A Restriction of the Status Quo: Fisher v University of Texas
Many expected a major ruling on the constitutionality of affirmative action from the United States Supreme Court in Fisher v. University of Texas. But the Court substantially upheld prior precedent...
Fisher v University of Texas: A Glimmer of Hope for Affirmative Action in the United States?
The US Supreme Court has today handed down judgment in the eagerly anticipated case of Fisher v University of Texas. It concerns the compatibility of the university’s admissions programme with...
Gene patenting overruled but leaves lasting repercussions for minorities
Last month, Angelina Jolie penned an op-ed piece in The New York Times about her decision to undergo genetic testing for BRCA mutations (breast cancer susceptibility genes 1 and 2),...
US National Security Agency Surveillance: A Problem of “Allegality”
The recent revelations about the surveillance activities of the US National Security Agency are an excellent example of one of the most intractable challenges facing legal systems and human rights...
Drone Strikes and Domestic Crimes?
As Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, has recently pointed out, international human rights and humanitarian law would not necessarily seem to require the wholesale abolition of...
Silencing Rape on U.S. College Campuses: Evaluating the Clery Act
The Steubenville rape verdict a few months ago has sparked a broader conversation about the United States’ endemic “rape culture”, and the responsibility of innocent bystanders and institutions to report...
Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum and the Future of Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Violations Committed Abroad
By Kate Mitchell – On 17 April 2013, the United States Supreme Court delivered judgment in Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum. The Court held that the Alien Torts Statute (ATS)...
