Sex as a Protected Ground in International and Domestic Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 1-124
Author(s):  
Christine Forster ◽  
Vedna Jivan

Abstract This volume in the Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Discrimination Law addresses sex as a protected ground in international and domestic law. It compares sex discrimination protection through three thematic lenses. Firstly, it charts and compares the evolution and development of sex discrimination protection in international human rights law in three treaty-bodies – the CEDAW Committee, the HRC and the CESCR. Secondly, it then takes up the evolution and development of sex discrimination protection in three domestic law frameworks – the United States, Australia and India. Finally, the development of sex discrimination protection in international law is compared with the development of sex discrimination protection in the domestic legal contexts of the three country examples, with the implications of that comparison analysed. This volume seeks to show that despite differences in the way that international approaches to sex discrimination are translated into domestic law and differences in social, political and cultural contexts women face similar limitations in accessing justice through sex discrimination frameworks.

Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier

This chapter focuses on the two sources of international law: custom and treaties. Customary international law is the term used to describe rules that are so widely accepted and so deeply held that they help to define what it means to belong to a civilized society. The question of whether customary international law is binding on the United States came before the U.S. Supreme Court as long ago as 1900 in a case called Paquete Habana. Whereas treaty law often covers the same ground as customary international law. Torture is forbidden by customary international law, for example, and prohibitions against torture are also set forth in several multilateral treaties. The effect is to reinforce recognition that a particular norm set forth in a treaty has the status of customary law.


Author(s):  
Gillian MacNaughton ◽  
Angela Duger

This chapter provides an overview of the means through which international human rights law is translated into domestic law, policy, and practice. To have an influence on public health, international human rights law must be translated into domestic action. As international human rights law is largely state centered, it relies upon national and subnational governments to implement it—to promote and protect human rights and to provide remedies to victims of human rights violations. Based upon international rules on domestic implementation, there are four general approaches to translate international law into domestic action: human rights education, policymaking, judicial actions, and engagement with international human rights mechanisms. National and subnational governments use these four approaches to translate international human rights law into domestic law, policy, and practice for health, while nongovernmental organizations and international human rights mechanisms play important roles in monitoring these processes.


Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier

This chapter discusses custom and treaties as the two sources of international law. It explains the customary international law as the term used to describe rules that are widely accepted and deeply held and are used to define what it means to belong to a civilized society. It also recounts the case called “Paquete Habana” in the U.S. Supreme Court that addresses the question of whether customary international law is binding on the United States. The chapter talks about the treaty law or conventional law as the source of multilateral conventions that often covers the same ground as customary international law. It analyzes the prohibitions against “torture” that are set forth in several multilateral treaties and reinforce recognition that a particular norm set forth in a treaty has the status of customary law.


Author(s):  
MacNaughton Gillian ◽  
Duger Angela

This chapter provides an overview of the means through which international human rights law is translated into domestic law, policy, and practice. To have an influence on public health, international human rights law must be translated into domestic action. As international human rights law is largely state centered, it relies upon national and subnational governments to implement it—to promote and protect human rights and to provide remedies to victims of human rights violations. Based upon international rules on domestic implementation, there are four general approaches to translate international law into domestic action: human rights education, policymaking, judicial actions, and engagement with international human rights mechanisms. National and subnational governments use these four approaches to translate international human rights law into domestic law, policy, and practice for health, while nongovernmental organizations and international human rights mechanisms play important roles in monitoring these processes.


Author(s):  
Ronald C. Slye

Domestic courts play an important role in the adjudication of international law, including international human rights law. The relationship between international and domestic law has often been characterized as a continuum between monism and dualism. In a monist system, international law is automatically a part of domestic law, and a conflict between the two is resolved in favor of international law. In a dualist system, domestic law is superior to international law within the domestic legal system, while international law is superior to domestic law within the international legal system. A conflict between domestic law and international law is thus not always resolved in the same way in both systems. In addition, one of the areas with the most active use of international law in a domestic legal system is under a theory of universal jurisdiction. Universal jurisdiction most often involves both the incorporation of international law into a domestic legal system and the assertion outward (extraterritorially) of domestic judicial system. Universal jurisdiction arose initially in the context of criminal prosecutions, but is also found to some extent in civil litigation, particularly in the United States. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a state may assert jurisdiction over an offender regardless of the nationality of the offender or victim, the place of commission of the wrongful act, or any other link to the state asserting jurisdiction.


2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Buergenthal

Thank you very much for inviting me to participate in this conference. Because the subject of your conference is so very important, I feel I need to begin with a caveat: I am not a Holocaust scholar. As a university professor, I have devoted myself to international law and international human rights law rather than Holocaust studies, which has emerged, at least in the United States, as an academic discipline all of its own.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

International Human Rights Law has emerged as an academic subject in its own right, separate from, but still related to, International Law. This book explains the distinctive nature of the new discipline by examining the influence of the moral concept of human rights on general international law. Rather than make use of moral philosophy or political theory, the work explains the term ‘human rights’ by examining its usage in international law practice, on the understanding that words are given meaning through their use. Relying on complexity theory to make sense of the legal practice in the United Nations, the core human rights treaties, and customary international law, The Idea of International Human Rights Law shows how a moral concept of human rights emerged, and then influenced the international law doctrine and practice on human rights, a fact that explains the fragmentation of international law and the special nature of International Human Rights Law.


Author(s):  
Samantha Besson

As a companion to the five regional reports in this volume, this chapter’s aim is a double one: first, to bring the comparison up to the regional level, and second, to analyse the international and domestic institutions, procedures, and mechanisms that affect how international human rights instruments influence domestic law. The chapter is therefore both a study in comparative international human rights law and a contribution to its methodology. Its structure is four-pronged. The first section clarifies the aim, object, and method of the comparison. The second section presents a comparative assessment of the Covenants’ domestic influence across regions and develops a grid of comparative analysis. The third section addresses the authority of the Committees’ interpretations of the Covenants, relying on a bottom-up comparative law argument. The fourth section discusses the role of human rights comparison and of regional human rights law in enhancing the legitimacy of the Committees’ future interpretations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 092405192110169
Author(s):  
Matthieu Niederhauser

The implementation of international human rights law in federal States is an underexplored process. Subnational entities regularly enjoy a degree of sovereignty, which raises questions such as whether they implement obligations of international law and how the federal level may ensure that implementation takes place at the subnational level. This article aims to answer these questions, using the implementation of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Convention) in Switzerland as a case study. To implement the Convention at the cantonal level, federal actors decided to use networks of civil servants in charge of domestic violence issues, who act as governmental human rights focal points (GHRFPs). This article is based on original empirical data, on 25 interviews with State officials who participate in this implementation. The findings show how complex GHRFPs networks work in practice to implement the Convention and highlight the role played by numerous non-legal State actors in this process. As a result, the article argues that international human rights law implementation becomes more diversified both within and across federal States.


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