scholarly journals Judicial Enforcement of Socioeconomic Rights: A Comparison between Transformative Projects in India and South Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha G. Menell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
International Law ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Socioeconomic Rights ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Article 5

Cornell International Law Journal: Vol. 49 : No. 3 , Article 5.Constitutionally enshrined socioeconomic rights are a topic of enduring controversy. Societies overcoming exploitive regimes in the twentieth century have experienced popular demand for rapid economic and social transformation. Even before the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, emerging constitutional democracies debated the transformative potential of enforceable socioeconomic rights.Opponents of constitutionalizing socioeconomic rights have not disputed the need for transformation in such societies, but argue that such rights are non-justiciable because they present pressing questions of social policy best left to the democratically accountable actors in government. A related objection proposes that judicial enforcement of socioeconomic rights is dangerous to a system of separation of powers.

Picking Battles

2019 ◽  
pp. 216-232
Author(s):  
Rotem Giladi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
International Society ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Mandate System

Race is one of the more ubiquitous, yet least explored, shifts in twentieth-century international law. From law that was founded in key areas and concepts on racial distinctions, international law quickly came to denounce various manifestations of race theories and racial discrimination. The establishment of the UN reflected a racialized understanding of the international society assumptions of the League of Nations mandate system. The 1948 Universal Declaration addressed entitlement to human rights without distinction of race, yet the Genocide Convention extended protection to racial (identity of) minority groups. In South Africa, race policies provided both the impetus and multiple occasions for formulating claims about a new, de-racialized international law from 1946 onwards. At these struggles against apartheid, binary political confrontations could take form as competing visions of international law, both old and new. This chapter charts the sites of contestation over apartheid and its effects on international law.

In Lieu of a Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Linarelli ◽  
Margot E Salomon ◽  
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Current State ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This chapter recaps the main themes of the volume, ie that the international law of the global economy is in a state of disorder. Claims about the justice, fairness, or benefits of the current state of international law as it relates to the global economy are fanciful. A more credible picture emerges when one considers who is protected, against what, and those relations that are valued and those that are not. Moreover, these claims above all require a suspension of a reflective attitude about what international law actually says and does. When it comes to international economic law, power is masked behind a veil of neutrality when it certainly is not neutral in the interests it protects and offends. As for international human rights law, it overlooks the ways in which it props up extreme capitalism foreclosing the possibility of transformative structural change to neoliberal capitalism. In its most radical areas, human rights norms have been blocked from making demands on the design of the global economy precisely because of their transformative potential. Among the central critiques of international law presented in this book is that international law must be justifiable to those who are subject to it.

scholarly journals YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: WHAT ROLE CAN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) PLAY IN CURBING THIS SOCIAL ILL IN SWAZILAND (ESWATINI) AND SOUTH AFRICA?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simangele D. Mavundla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
International Law ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Youth Employment ◽  
African Youth ◽  
Corporate Social

This profound academic opinion advocates for youth employment by clearly arguing that even though the African Youth Charter (AYC) is not binding on states in as much as on corporates/businesses, at international law these same corporates/businesses have a role to play in ensuring that youth unemployment is curbed through invoking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It will be argued that CSR is no longer only associated with philanthropy, but it is now part and parcel of promoting and protecting human rights in communities where businesses operate, such that they cannot turn a blind eye to social ills such as youth unemployment.

Introduction

Veiled Power ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Doreen Lustig
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Private Business ◽  
Business Corporation ◽  
Conceptual Analogy ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Corporations have limited responsibilities in international law but enjoy far-reaching rights and privileges. International legal debates often conceive of this issue as a problem of business accountability for human rights violations. Conceptually, the issue of corporations in international law has focused on whether or not they are, or ought to be, recognized as ‘subjects’ of responsibility in international law and on the adequate conceptual analogy to the corporation. The introduction presents an alternative way of thinking about the role of international law and its relevance to the private business corporation. It traces the emergence of the contemporary legal architecture for corporations in international law and shows how modern international law constitutes a framework within which businesses and governments allocate resources and responsibilities—a framework that began to operate as early as the late-nineteenth century and continued throughout the twentieth century.

Famine Crimes in International Law

2003 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Marcus
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Major Element ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Ethiopian Government ◽  
The Government

Some of the worst human rights catastrophes of the twentieth century were famines created or manipulated by governments. In 1932 at least five million Ukrainians starved to death, while hunger was largely unknown across the border in Russia.The Soviet government imposed disastrous grain quotas on the Ukraine, then let its own citizens literally collapse in the streets while it exported grain to further its “revolutionary” objectives.The Ethiopian famine of 1983-1985, preserved in popular memory as a natural disaster of biblical proportions, most fiercely struck those parts of the country that harbored irredentist movements. In a stunning, but telling, rejoinder to international pity for the purportedly hapless Ethiopian government, the Ethiopian foreign minister told a U.S. chargé d’affaires that “food is a major element in our strategy against the secessionists.” Since 1994, more than two million out of a population of twenty-two million in North Korea have starved to death, while South Koreans, affected by similar weather patterns, have remained completely untouched by famine. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), trying to distribute aid earmarked for famine victims, have watched helplessly as the government callously interfered and have arrived at the conclusion that “the authorities are deliberately depriving hundreds of thousands of truly needy Koreans of assistance.”

An Old Judge Remembers

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Lagergren ◽  
George H. Aldrich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Hague

Gunnar Lagergren has performed many notable functions in the course of the twentieth century, most of which resulted in significant contributions to international law and, in particular, to the settlement of international disputes. As an arbitrator, he handled a number of important cases, including that between India and Pakistan concerning the Rann of Kutch and the Taba boundary arbitration between Egypt and Israel. He served with distinction on a number of important tribunals, including the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg and the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal at The Hague, where he was its first President.

scholarly journals Interpretation Consistent with International Law? The Detention of Asylum Seekers in South Africa

Refuge ◽  
2002 ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
Jaya Ramji
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
South African ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
International Standards ◽  
African Government ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
And Training

On paper, South African law concerning detention of asylum seekers appears consistent with international standards. However, the text of the Act is vague and overly broad, permitting interpretations inconsistent with international human rights standards. Further, in practice, officials often fail to uphold even the lowest standards of the Act, in violation of South African law. In order to protect the rights of asylum seekers, the South African government should institute formal guidelines and training programs, as well as a system of strong supervision and accountability, to ensure that the Act and Regulations are interpreted in a manner consistent with international law. Such a step will enable South Africa to live up to its noble post-apartheid human rights ideals.

scholarly journals The “Essence” of International Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 924-939
Author(s):  
Pierre Thielbörger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Socioeconomic Rights ◽  
International Human

AbstractWhile the “essence” of EU fundamental rights has received much attention following the CJEU’s Schrems decision, the concept of “essence” remains much less examined in international human rights law. Nonetheless, a concept of “essence” for human rights can also be found in international law. This Article discusses different aspects of the “essence” concept in international human rights law, namely non-derogability, non-restrictability, and minimum core, in three steps. First, the Article looks at civil political rights and socioeconomic rights separately and identifies two different approaches to the concept of essence for each of the two categories: While for civil and political rights the concept of essence is mainly linked to the notions of non-derogability and non-restrictability, for socioeconomic rights, the concept refers mainly to the states’ obligation to guarantee an essential level of protection independent of their resource limitations. Second, the Article continues by reading the two approaches together and identifies certain elements of an overarching “essence” concept. Finally, the Article discusses the relationship between the CJEU’s “essence” jurisprudence and the related concepts in international law and concludes with two theses: First, international law deserves more attention when reflecting on the EU’s concept of essence. It equally employs concepts of “essence” and also informs the development and interpretation of EU law. Second, when engaging with the question of whether the EU law should draw lessons from its international counterpart on the notion of “essence,” one must contemplate drawbacks for EU law that the concept has presented for international law.

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