The French Ministry of Higher Education and Research has posted a handful of thematic legal guides on their EducNet site. Guides are able for copyright, protection of children online, cultural property, privacy, human rights, and regulation of teachers and professors. All information is available only in French.
Guides Juridique Legamedia
http://www.educnet.education.fr/legamedia
Here is the full-text (in French) of the May 19th, 2010 bill passed by the French National Assembly on July 13th that prohibits covering one’s face in public.
Projet de loi 2520: Interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l’espace public. 19 mai 2010
Le présent projet de loi interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l’espace public, délibéré en conseil des ministres après avis du Conseil d’État, sera présenté à l’Assemblée nationale par la ministre d’État, garde des sceaux, ministre de la justice et des libertés, qui sera chargée d’en exposer les motifs et d’en soutenir la discussion.
Article 1er
Nul ne peut, dans l’espace public, porter une tenue destinée à dissimuler son visage.
Article 2
I. – Pour l’application de l’article 1er, l’espace public est constitué des voies publiques ainsi que des lieux ouverts au public ou affectés à un service public.
II. – L’interdiction édictée à l’article 1er ne s’applique pas si la tenue est prescrite par une loi ou un règlement, si elle est autorisée pour protéger l’anonymat de l’intéressé, si elle est justifiée par des raisons médicales ou des motifs professionnels, ou si elle s’inscrit dans le cadre de fêtes ou de manifestations artistiques ou traditionnelles.
Article 3
La méconnaissance de l’interdiction édictée à l’article 1er est punie de l’amende prévue pour les contraventions de la deuxième classe.
L’obligation d’accomplir le stage de citoyenneté mentionné au 8° de l’article 131-16 du code pénal peut être prononcée en même temps ou à la place de la peine d’amende.
Article 4
Au chapitre V (« Des atteintes à la dignité de la personne ») du titre II du livre II du code pénal, il est créé une section 1 ter ainsi rédigée :
« Section 1 ter
« De l’instigation à dissimuler son visage
« Art. 225-4-10. – Le fait, par menace, violence ou contrainte, abus de pouvoir ou abus d’autorité, d’imposer à une personne, en raison de son sexe, de dissimuler son visage est puni d’un an d’emprisonnement et de 15 000 € d’amende.
Article 5
Les dispositions des articles 1er à 3 entrent en vigueur à l’expiration d’un délai de six mois suivant la promulgation de la présente loi.
Article 6
La présente loi s’applique sur l’ensemble du territoire de la République.
Article 7
Le Gouvernement remettra au Parlement un rapport sur l’application de la présente loi dix-huit mois après sa publication. Ce rapport présentera les mesures d’accompagnement mises en œuvre par les pouvoirs publics ainsi que les difficultés rencontrées.
Text of the bill is available online at:
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/projets/pl2520.asp
Legislative reports and other legislative history documents available at:
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/dissimulation_visage_espace_public.asp
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation has posted online the full-text of the following book:
Children’s Rights in Namibia
edited by Oliver C. Ruppel
Windhoek: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2009
http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_18139-544-2-30.pdf
http://www.kas.de/proj/home/pub/8/2/dokument_id-18139/index.html
Table of Contents:
In February the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Gender and Land Rights Database.
http://www.fao.org/gender/landrights
hat tip to Don Ford.
From the FAO press release:
The Gender and Land Rights Database produced in consultation with national statistics authorities, universities, civil society organizations and other sources worldwide, offers up-to-date information on how men and women in 78 countries differ in their legal rights and access to land. It can be searched by both country and thematic issues, including national and international legal frameworks, customary law, land tenure institutions, civil society institutions and land-related statistics.
In most of the world, women lag well behind men in ownership of agricultural land and access to income from land, even though women are major producers of food crops and play crucial roles in providing and caring for their households.
“Disparity in land access is one of the major causes for social and economic inequalities between males and females in rural areas. It jeopardizes food security at the household and community levels, and has an impact on national food security and development. It is vital information for policy makers. But until now, finding information on this phenomenon in one place has been difficult to come by,” Marcela Villarreal, Director, FAO Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division said as the new database was placed online.
The new information tool, available to anyone with access to the Internet, provides policymakers and other users with a better picture of the major social, economic, political and cultural factors which affect access to land and enforcement of women’s land rights.
The database covers both national and customary laws governing land use; property rights and inheritance; international treaties and conventions; land tenure and related institutions; civil society organizations that work on land issues, and other related statistics.
By searching country profiles, users can find out the answers to specific questions on topics like the total number of land holders, the total number of women land holders and the number of rural households headed by women. They can also call up comparisons on a given topic between two or more countries.
“Decision-makers at all levels now have, on the one hand, a comprehensive source of information on the more relevant factors affecting the equality of land rights in their countries and, on the other hand, the possibility to make comparisons between trends and situations in their own and other countries,” FAO Gender and Development Research Officer Zoraida Garcia said.
“They can then use this information to tailor their own decisions and strategies, but also to have a clearer idea of the possible impacts which those strategies might have on the real economic empowerment of women, and on the well-being of rural communities,” she added.
“FAO had so many requests on a regular basis from member states and others in the international community who wanted to understand how gender disparities affected and were impacted by the land tenure situation. That’s why we developed this tool, to help provide a comprehensive view of the issue,” Garcia explained.
Asia Catalyst has launched the Asian AIDS Law Database
http://www.yazhoudiaocha.com/laws/
From the description and press release
This database presents and links to English-language information about HIV/AIDS-related statutes from countries in Asia. Chinese-language information is provided where available. The database is a
free, user-friendly resource, searchable in Chinese and English, to help researchers to find HIV/AIDS-related statutes throughout Asia. It is the first database exclusively dedicated to this purpose. The database has over 100 records, ranging from Cambodia’s draft law on drug control to the national policy on HIV/AIDS of Bangladesh.
Asia Catalyst is a US-based resource for grassroots organizations working on HIV/AIDS in Asia.
hat tip : Professor Donald Clarke
Available on SSRN:
Judgment in the First Case Before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: A Missed Opportunity or Mockery of International Law in Africa?
Chacha Bhoke Murungu
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1526539
Full-text of the court’s decision can be found at the Minnesota Human Rights Library: In the Matter of Michelot Yogogombaye v. Republic of Senegal.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/comcases/1-2008.pdf
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/comcases/1-2008b.pdf
Article Abstract:
On 15 December 2009 the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (‘the African Human Rights Court, or ‘the court’) sitting in Arusha, Tanzania delivered its first ever judgment. The purpose of this article is to reflect and comment on several issues and principles found in this first ever case to be filed before the court. In the course of discussion, the article will present the conclusion reached by the court and the Separate Opinion of Judge Fatsah Ouguergouz. At first, a discussion is on the arguments raised by the applicant, Mr Michelot Yogogombaye against Senegal in respect of the on-going legal proceedings instituted in Senegal against Hissene Habre, former President of Chad, charging him with crimes against humanity, particularly torture committed in Chad between 1982 and December 1990. Then, a discussion is on Senegal’s preliminary objections to the application touching on the lack of jurisdiction by the court on the basis that Senegal has not made a declaration under article 34(6) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Protocol) allowing individuals to institute cases against it before the court.Although the judgment of the court did not go into the merits of the case, this article discusses the implications that the judgment would have had on the developments of international law in Africa, had it gone into merits and substance of the case. It examines several key issues that had been raised by the applicant before the court. These include ‘functional immunity’ of former heads of state in relation to serious human rights violations as alluded to by the applicant; the principle of ‘universal jurisdiction’; retroactivity of penal laws; status of a political asylee under the law on refugees; issues of access to the court by individuals under the concept of personal jurisdiction (jurisdiction ratione personae) as reflected in article 5(3) of the Protocol, and whether the court may ‘receive’ applications from individuals against a state which has not made an express declaration under article 34(6) of the Protocol. In this connection, the article follows the interpretation of the words ‘receive’ and shall’ as found in articles 5(3) and 34(6) of the Protocol, and offers its own interpretation of ‘individuals’ as used in the same provisions of the Protocol. Further, it examines the possibility of the court’s judgment to suspend the decision of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) mandating Senegal to try Hissene Habre. The article further examines whether the court had been seized with an opportunity to develop its own jurisprudence on international law in Africa, in line with the provisions of the Protocol.
In addition to the questions raised, the article also examines whether the applicant in the case had indeed understood some of the principles he contended that Senegal has violated in prosecuting Hissene Habre or his arguments are simply a mockery of international law and obligations of states in the prosecution and punishment of individuals who commit human rights violations.
To understand the context of the judgment of the court, it is necessary that the application and preliminary objections as well as statement of defense filed before the court be discussed as a whole. But, before attempting to discuss the judgment of the court, it is necessary to consider the pre-existing legal proceedings against Mr Hissene Habre and Senegal before different legal and judicial institutions in the world. These proceedings will inform the readers about the context within which the present judgment of the court came into being. For brevity reasons, it suffices to highlight here that Hissene Habre sits at the centre of various legal proceedings before national and international judicial bodies. The prior legal proceedings that had been instituted against Mr Hissene Habre in Senegal and Belgium, as well as against Senegal before the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are the ones that also have an impact on the first case before the African Human Rights Court. What follows below is now a discussion on the judgment in the first case before the African Human Rights Court and its
Today’s Times of London runs two articles focusing on criticisms of UK”s Human Rights Act
Repealing the Human Rights Act May Not Be as Alarming as it Seems
Prof. Vernon Bogdanor
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article7030952.ece?&EMC-Bltn=PNSCX2F
Businesses are Behind the Big Increases on Human Rights Cases
Frances Gibb
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/columnists/article7031129.ece?&EMC-Bltn=PNSCX2F
NYU School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice has released the following report:
Rights Within Reach: Securing Equality and Human Rights in Nepal’s New Constitution
http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/rightswithinreach.pdf
From the report’s conclusion:
Ending centuries of caste-based discrimination and ensuring Dalit rights in both public and private spheres must be a central feature of Nepal’s long awaited social, political, and economic transformation.
The new Constitution will serve as the basis for the development and enforcement of legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial, and educational measures that are necessary to secure this transformation. The drafting of the new Constitution presents the Constituent Assembly with the profound opportunity to demonstrate Nepal’s commitment to human rights and to affirm the inherent dignity of all individuals. Many of the Thematic Committees’ proposals for the new Constitution take significant steps toward meeting these goals. However, as noted throughout this Statement and the accompanying Chart, in order for Nepal to meet its human rights obligations, certain revisions to the proposals are needed. In addition, rights that are not currently reflected in the proposals must be included and guaranteed. CHRGJ strongly encourages members of the Constituent Assembly to consider these recommendations as they deliberate on and draft the new Constitution.
Hart Publishing has released Volume 1 of a new journal: Transnational Legal Theory
Transnational Legal Theory
TOC, Volume 1 Issue 1 2010
Articles
Pluralism in Postnational Risk Regulation: The Dispute Over GMOs and Trade
Nico Krisch
Human Rights in the Emerging World Order
Joseph Raz
Transnational Governance by Local Rules: How a Global Economic Policy Perspective Could Help
Dan Danielsen
Reviews
Global Legal Pluralism and “Private” International Law
Paul Berman
Jus in bello Through the Lens of Individual Moral Responsibility: McMahan on Killing in War
David Lefkowitz
Human Rights qua Normative Practice – Sui generis or legal?
Samantha Besson
The Pursuit of a Worthwhile Life: Griffin on Human Rights
Terrance McConnell
Journal Description
The objective of Transnational Legal Theory is to publish high-quality theoretical scholarship that addresses transnational dimensions of law and legal dimensions of transnational fields and activity.
Central to Transnational Legal Theory‘s mandate is publication of work that explores whether and how transnational contexts, forces and ideations affect debates within existing traditions or schools of legal thought. Similarly, the journal aspires to encourage scholars debating general theories about law to consider the relevance of transnational contexts and dimensions for their work. With respect to particular jurisprudence, the journal welcomes not only submissions that involve theoretical explorations of fields commonly constructed as transnational in nature (such as commercial law, maritime law, or cyberlaw) but also explorations of transnational aspects of fields less commonly understood in this way (for example, criminal law, family law, company law, tort law, evidence law, and so on). Submissions of work exploring process-oriented approaches to law as transnational (from transjurisdictional litigation to delocalized arbitration to multi-level governance) are also encouraged.
Equally central to Transnational Legal Theory‘s mandate is theoretical work that explores fresh (or revived) understandings of international law and comparative law ‘beyond the state’ (and the interstate). The journal has a special interest in submissions that explore the interfaces, intersections, and mutual embeddedness of public international law, private international law, and comparative law, notably in terms of whether such inter-relationships are reshaping these sub-disciplines in directions that are, in important respects, transnational in nature. Other areas of interest for the journal include the interaction of systems or orders along such axes as the following examples: constitutional law theory on the reception of various forms of external law by states’ legal orders; jurisdictional theory on the external projection of states’ legal orders; public law theory on the evolution of regional legal orders; panstate religious normativity; and the theorization of law as “global” in preference or contradistinction to law as either international or transnational. Legal theory is understood broadly to encompass a variety of inter- and subdisciplinary theoretical approaches to law or to law-like normativity, including, to name only some, philosophy of law, legal sociology, legal history, law and economics, and international relations theory
The objective of Transnational Legal Theory is to publish high-quality theoretical scholarship that addresses transnational dimensions of law and legal dimensions of transnational fields and activity.
Central to Transnational Legal Theory‘s mandate is publication of work that explores whether and how transnational contexts, forces and ideations affect debates within existing traditions or schools of legal thought. Similarly, the journal aspires to encourage scholars debating general theories about law to consider the relevance of transnational contexts and dimensions for their work. With respect to particular jurisprudence, the journal welcomes not only submissions that involve theoretical explorations of fields commonly constructed as transnational in nature (such as commercial law, maritime law, or cyberlaw) but also explorations of transnational aspects of fields less commonly understood in this way (for example, criminal law, family law, company law, tort law, evidence law, and so on). Submissions of work exploring process-oriented approaches to law as transnational (from transjurisdictional litigation to delocalized arbitration to multi-level governance) are also encouraged.
Equally central to Transnational Legal Theory‘s mandate is theoretical work that explores fresh (or revived) understandings of international law and comparative law ‘beyond the state’ (and the interstate). The journal has a special interest in submissions that explore the interfaces, intersections, and mutual embeddedness of public international law, private international law, and comparative law, notably in terms of whether such inter-relationships are reshaping these sub-disciplines in directions that are, in important respects, transnational in nature. Other areas of interest for the journal include the interaction of systems or orders along such axes as the following examples: constitutional law theory on the reception of various forms of external law by states’ legal orders; jurisdictional theory on the external projection of states’ legal orders; public law theory on the evolution of regional legal orders; panstate religious normativity; and the theorization of law as “global” in preference or contradistinction to law as either international or transnational. Legal theory is understood broadly to encompass a variety of inter- and subdisciplinary theoretical approaches to law or to law-like normativity, including, to name only some, philosophy of law, legal sociology, legal history, law and economics, and international relations theory
Article available on SSRN:
Staying Alive: Public Interest Law in Contemporary Latin America
Stephen Melli
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1518002
Abstract:
This paper explores the current state of public interest lawyering in three Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Based on a series of open-ended interviews with lawyers, judges and social movement activists, it compares public interest lawyering in these countries now with how it was practiced when the author interviewed some of the same individuals in the early to mid 1990s. Its analysis is set within the context of important geopolitical and socio-legal phenomena: the current global economic crisis and the judicialization of politics and constitutionalization of rights that has swept across the region over the past two decades. The paper explores how these developments have influenced public interest lawyers, particularly in their interactions with various social movements. It also highlights the opportunities and challenges that these developments pose for public interest lawyers throughout Latin America.
