Identity in Postgenomic Times: Epigenetic Knowledge and the Pursuit of Biological Origins

2022 ◽  
pp. 016224392110691
Author(s):  
Sonja van Wichelen

As genetic knowledge continues to strengthen notions of identity in Euro-American societies and beyond, epigenetic knowledge is intervening in these legitimation frameworks. I explore these interventions in the realm of assisted reproduction—including adoption, donor conception, and gestational surrogacy. The right to identity is protected legally in many states and receives due attention in public and private international law. Originating from the context of adoption, donor-conceived and surrogacy-born persons have recently demanded the same protections and focused on the right to genetic knowledge. This article explores possible implications of epigenetic knowledge on identity. I start by articulating the deep influence of genetics on the notion of identity, and how this unfolds in legal contexts. Next, I examine how epigenetic findings that stress the importance of seeing biological life as situated and embedded in environments can challenge how adoption, donor conception, and gestational surrogacy are experienced and understood. While I argue that epigenetic knowledge can reify identity with the same determinism underpinning genetics, it can also allow for more biosocial understandings of identity that consider history and experience as entangled with biology.

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Edward Guntrip

International investment law balances public and private interests within the broader framework of international law. Consequently, when water supply services, which constitute a public good, are privatized and operated by foreign investors, questions arise regarding whether foreign investors could be held responsible for the right to water under international law. This article considers how the tribunal in Urbaser v. Argentina allocated responsibility for compliance with the right to water between the host State and the foreign investor when resolving a dispute over privatized water services. It highlights how the tribunal in Urbaser v. Argentina supports different understandings of public and private based on whether the human rights obligation is framed in terms of the duty to respect or protect. The article argues that the tribunal’s rationale overcomplicates the process of allocating responsibility for violations of the human right to water when water supply services have been privatized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (90) ◽  
pp. 189-205
Author(s):  
Radmila Dragišić

In this paper, the author explores the sources of European Union Law that regulate one segment of parental responsibility - the right of access to a child. The focal point of research is the transition from the conventional (interstate) regulation of judicial cooperation in marital disputes and parental responsibility issues to the regulation enacted by the European Union institutions, with specific reference to the Brussels II bis Regulation. First, the author briefly points out to its relationship with other relevant international law sources regulating this subject matter: the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in the Field of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children; and other international sources of law. Then, the author examines in more detail its relationship with the Brussels II bis recast Regulation, which will be applicable as of 1 August 2022. In addition, the paper includes an analysis of the first case in which the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided on the application of the Brussels II bis Regulation, at the request of granparents to exercise the right of access to the child. On the issue of determining the competent court which has jurisdiction to decide on how this right shall be exercised, the CJEU had to decide whether the competent court is determined on the basis of the Brussels II bis Regulation or on the basis of national Private International Law rules. This paper is useful for the professional and scientific community because it deals (inter alia) with the issue of justification of adopting a special source of law at the EU level, which would regulate the issue of mutual enforcement of court decisions on the right of access to the child. This legal solution was proposed by the Republic of France, primarily guided by the fundamental right of the child to have contact with both parents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (08) ◽  
pp. 225-240
Author(s):  
Hiba Thamer MAHMOOD

Acquiring the mother's nationality is a human right in general and the rights of the mother and child in particular stipulated in international conventions and the Iraqi constitution in force for the year 2005, in addition, the Iraqi Nationality Law stipulates the mother’s right to transmit nationality to her children, but according to conditions previously set by the Iraqi legislature, because it helps to reduce the issue of statelessness, is considered one of the important and contemporary jurisprudence topics, which stirred controversy among legal jurists between supporters and opponents, especially Islamic law jurists because the child is attributed to his father, and the state legislations differed in it, as well as in the legal implications of acquiring the mother’s nationality, including dual nationality, applicable law, inheritance issues and other Private international law matters. Therefore, the research dealt with the topic according to the comparative approach in two topics, the first study on the child's right to the nationality of his mother and was divided into two demands, the first requirement is what is the mother’s nationality, and the second requirement is about equality in the right to acquire a nationality, while the second topic examined the foundations of acquiring the mother’s nationality In the Iraqi Nationality Law, it was divided into two topics: The first requirement is the cases of acquiring the mother’s nationality in the Iraqi Nationality Law. The second requirement relates to how to acquire the mother’s nationality and its implications. Through the foregoing, where a number of results and proposals have been reached, we found that the transmit of nationality from the mother to the child born in the territory of a state would be beneficial in the event that the father's nationality had been rejected for political reasons, the issue of granting nationality by the mother to her children helped in the transfer of inheritance from the mother to the children and the acquisition of ownership, especially real estate, which states require the foreigner to have multiple conditions for approval of ownership, where countries have to unify their legislation regarding the mother's right to grant citizenship to her children based on the right of blood to limit the problems of international law, such as the issue of determining the applicable law, Actual nationality and other matters‎‎. Keywords: Mother's Nationality, Human Rights, Gender Equality, Acquisition of Nationality, Discrimination Against Women, International Conventions


1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted L. Stein

On November 5, 1982, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal decided a series of nine cases presenting issues of the greatest significance for the future course of that Tribunal’s work. The issue for decision in each case was the effect of a contractual choice-of-forum clause on the Tribunal’s own jurisdiction, an issue likely to arise in a great many cases. Squarely presented were issues pertaining to the relationship between public and private international law, the content of a state’s obligation under international law to maintain an adequate and effective system of local remedies, and the scope of “changed circumstances” as a ground for release from contractual obligations.


2018 ◽  
pp. 284-293
Author(s):  
Alex Mills

This chapter explores the practical entanglement of questions of public and private international law through an examination of the history of ten commercial aircraft belonging to Kuwait Airways Corporation. The aircraft were seized by Iraq after the unlawful 1990 invasion of Kuwait, flown to Baghdad, and handed over to Iraqi Airways. Proceedings seeking return of the aircraft and damages were commenced by Kuwait Airways against Iraqi Airways in the English courts, a further saga which led to more than thirty reported cases, including a remarkable five decisions of the House of Lords. The dispute raised a range of issues, including questions of jurisdiction, state immunity, and perhaps most significantly the potential for public international law to be given effect through domestic private law proceedings, in this case as a source of public policy denying effect to acts of Iraqi law which were contrary to UN Security Council resolutions.


Author(s):  
Pietro Franzina

International law scholarship has traditionally been understood in Italy as encompassing the study of both public and private international law. The two subjects are still considered jointly for recruitment purposes and are mostly taught by the same professors. Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, who regarded nationality as a foundation of both disciplines, had a major influence on the popularization of this approach in the mid-nineteenth century. The advent of positivism, a few decades later, entailed a general rejection of Mancini’s views but did not challenge the integrated approach to the different branches of international law. Rather, the positivist turns triggered a renewed reflection on the ties between the two subjects. The study of international law, some argued, should cover, alongside international rules, such municipal rules as deal with international matters. The chapter outlines the origin and evolution of the Italian integrated approach to international law and its perception by today’s scholars, in Italy and abroad.


Author(s):  
J.-G. Castel

SummaryThis article addresses the problems related to the use of the Internet in Canada in an international context. Does international law allow Canada to regulate the Internet and its actors even if they are located abroad? Under the constitution, which level of government has the authority to do so? In which circumstances have the courts in Québec and in the common law provinces personal jurisdiction over persons using the Internet in an international context and which law do these courts apply? When are Canadian courts prepared to recognize and enforce foreign judgments involving the Internet and its actors? The author deals with these questions and is of the opinion that in most situations the federal Parliament has the jurisdiction to prescribe and the Canadian courts have the jurisdiction to adjudicate with respect to the Internet and its actors in an international context without violating international law. However, to avoid conflicts of jurisdiction, it would be better to adopt an international convention covering the various aspects of the Internet.


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