Books

Economic Globalization and Compliance with International Environmental Agreements
Dinah Shelton, A. Kiss and K. Ishibashi (eds.) (Kluwer, 2003).

Economic Globalization and Compliance with International Environmental Agreements is an innovative and in-depth consideration of the challenges economic globalization poses for the effective application of multilateral environmental accords. The introductory part of the book examines particular challenges of economic globalization. Part II tackles the interrelationship of global and regional environmental agreements and free trade regimes. It first looks at trade and other economic measures mandated by various environmental agreements, then at environmental measures in economic agreements. The third part of the book turns to compliance, analyzing the potential positive and negative impact of multilateral institutions, states, and transnational corporate activity. The last chapter considers the impact on compliance of modern dispute avoidance and dispute settlement mechanisms.

Chapters

David Burrell, C.S.C., “Narratives Competing For Our Souls” in Terrorism and International Justice, ed. James Sterba (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 88-100.

Burrell focuses on Israel/Palestine, showing how the occupation of Palestinian territory, in the wake of the 1967 war, without offering citizenship to those living in the territory occupied, has created a volatile contradiction at the heart of Israeli polity. The situation is not unlike that which triggered civil war in the United States, as the juxtaposition of “all human beings are created equal” with the classic compromise that “slaves shall count as 3/5 of a person” culminated in violence. Unable to incorporate so many Palestinians and demographically remain a Jewish state, by ruling over those whom it refuses to so incorporate, Israel’s self-description as a “Jewish state” is ethically challenged, as recent events have dramatically borne out.

David Cortright, George A. Lopez and Alistair Millar, “Sanctions, Inspections and Containment: Viable Policy Options in Iraq,” in Iraq: Threat and Response, ed. Gerhard Beestermoller and David Little (Munster, Germany: Lit Verlag, 2003), pp. 127-147.

Viable non-military options were available for assuring the disarmament of Iraq and containing the potential Iraqi weapons threat. In this chapter, written for a June 2002 colloquium in Hamburg, Germany sponsored by the Institute for Theology and Peace, Cortright, Lopez and Millar outline a series of concrete policy options for achieving these objectives. The proposed options include better enforcement of targeted sanctions, rigorous UN weapons inspections, and an enhanced containment border-monitoring system. The authors offer detailed recommendations for how these policy approaches could address the security threat posed by the government of Saddam Hussein. They make the case that war was not necessary to achieve declared policy objectives in Iraq.

Denis Goulet, “A Christian NGO Faces Globalisation: CRS as Development Agent,” Local Ownership Global Change, ed. Roland Hoksbergen and Lowell M. Ewert (Monrovia, CA: World Vision International, 2002), pp. 204-233.

CRS (Catholic Relief Services), an NGO created in 1943 as a relief agency has now, in a world marked by globalization, become a development agent and advocate of human rights, social justice, environmental soundness, and the settlement of conflicts. As they took on welfare functions abandoned by states, NGOs became heavily dependent on funding from governments or international institutions, while striving to continue being “close to the people they serve” and retaining their ethically-grounded independence of action. After re-examining its mission, philosophy of action, and criteria for choosing projects and partners, CRS now evaluates its work through “a justice lens” and engages its members to view their specific work — in agriculture, micro-credit, women’s empowerment, health, and technical assistance — as concrete arenas for promoting better development policy, creating new partnerships of action, promoting peace, and educating its constituency (Roman Catholics in the United States) to the need for structural change toward more just global economic systems, the integral defense of human rights, empowerment of the poor, and the promotion of peace.

Articles

Dinah Shelton, “The Boundaries of Human Rights Jurisdiction in Europe,” 13 Duke Journal of International and Comparative Law, vol. 13 (Winter 2003): 95-153.

Over the past half-century, complex systems of norms, institutions and procedures have regionalized many aspects of human rights law in Europe. The strengthening and proliferation of European regional bodies monitoring the human rights performance of their Member States raise fundamental issues of governance. In this article, Shelton first presents an overview of the three regional systems of Europe concerned with human rights. She then examines the role of the two regional courts, the ECHR and the ECJ, as supervisory bodies established to ensure compliance with regional obligations. Part III considers the problem of potential conflicts of jurisdiction among the various regional bodies. The conclusion evaluates the impact of the European human rights systems on the laws and practices of the Member States.

Dinah Shelton, “Righting Wrongs: Remedies in the Law of State Responsibility,” American Journal of International Law, vol. 96, (Oct. 2002): 833-856.

This article examines the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Wrongful Acts, as they codify and progressively develop the international law of remedies. The essay begins with a review of the traditional law and practice concerning reparations and proceeds to an overview of the content of the relevant articles. Shelton examines progressive measures designed to restore and maintain the international rule of law and then more conservative rules designed to provide remedial justice for a state or states, highlighting the different, sometimes inconsistent approaches to the two parts.

Dinah Shelton, “Hierarchy of Norms and Human Rights: Of Trumps and Winners,” University of Saskatchewan Law Review, vol. 65 (2002): 299-331.

Throughout the development of international human rights and humanitarian law, legal philosophers, activists and government representatives have argued about the primacy of human rights law over other subject areas of international regulation. In this article, Shelton examines the question of the primacy of human rights law generally or at least the primacy of certain human rights over other subject areas of international and domestic law. She also explores questions concerning the relative importance of different rights.

Dinah Shelton, “Protecting Human Rights in a Globalized World,” Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, vol. 25 (2002): 235-255.

The shift in sovereignty accompanying globalization has meant that non-state actors are more involved than ever in issues relating to human rights. This development poses challenges to international human rights law, because for the most part that law has been designed to restrain abuses by powerful states and state agents. While globalization has enhanced the ability of civil society to function across borders and promote human rights, other actors have gained the power to violate human rights in unforeseen ways. This article looks at the legal frameworks for globalization and for human rights, then asks to what extent globalization is good for human rights and to what extent human rights are good for globalization. It then considers several legal responses to globalization as they relate to the promotion and protection of human rights. Shelton concludes that responses to globalization are signifi- cantly changing international law and institutions in order to protect persons from violations of human rights committed by non-state actors.

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