Rule of Law: The Story of Human Rights in World History
2004 ORIAS Summer Teachers' Institute 
July 26-30

International Law:

International Law Background: Introduction to international law and its applications to U.S. domestic law. Asks students to consider the role of international law in the domestic legal system. [View as: Word document or PDF]

Human Rights Background: Introduction to different approaches to human rights advocacy through comparison of the International Committee of the Red Cross and more "activist" organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Activity asks students to consider how these organizations would respond differently to the same situation of a violation of human rights. [View as: Word document or PDF]

International Law Background

International law: "Public international law" is law that applies for more than one nation; it traditionally regulates relations among nations in matters such as trade and war and has been expanded in the last 50 years to include rights of individuals in the international community (human rights). "Private international law" deals with controversies between individuals that involve the interests of more than one nation, for example, an American national sells a factory in Iowa to a German national living in Berlin.

Potential Sources: Treaties, conventions, custom, municipal law (at times), legal writings. Decisions made by the International Court of Justice do not make precedent and so are not binding on future cases.

Areas of International law: Trade, environment, human rights, law of the sea, law of force, law of space, law of diplomacy.

Municipal law: National law, domestic law. When a nation signs an international treaty, this international law must then be translated to become part of the municipal law, i.e. the law of the land.

How does international law affect the U.S. legal system?
"The law of nations is a part of the law of the United States unless there is some statute or treaty to the contrary. International law is a part of the law of the United States only for the application of its principles on questions of international rights and duties. It does not restrict the United States or any other nation from making laws governing its own territory. A State of the United States is not a "state" under international law, since the Constitution does not vest it with a capacity to conduct foreign relations.

International law imposes upon the nations certain duties with respect to individuals. It is a violation of international law to treat an alien in a manner which [sic] does not satisfy the international standard of justice. However in the absence of a specific agreement an individual cannot bring the compliant. Only the state of which he is a national can complain of such a violation before an international tribunal. The state of nationality usually is not obligated to exercise this right and can decide whether to enforce it."(1)


Questions:
- What areas of law should be addressed by international law? By municipal law?
- Why might a government want to prevent an international law from becoming a national law?
- How do national governments enforce compliance with municipal law? Are these institutions present in the international legal system? How are international laws enforced? How should they be enforced?
- Where does the U.S. Constitution discuss translating international law into domestic law?
- What are some examples of international laws that have become national law in the U.S.?
- How do contemporary public and private international law compare with ancient and medieval ideas of natural law?

(1) "International Law: An Overview," Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, <http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/international.html>

 

Human Rights Background

While human rights are guaranteed by the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights, without a strong international judiciary or police, the enforcement of human rights has often depended on voluntary cooperation. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played a key role in bringing human rights violations to light and thereby increasing the likelihood of compliance.

Founded in 1863, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was the first group to meet with prisoners of war to ensure human treatment and later compliance with the Geneva Convention. The ICRC has pioneered its own method of working with governments to ameliorate prisoners' conditions. This approach emphasizes public neutrality and confidentiality, which helps the ICRC gain access to prisoners. The ICRC then reports its findings to the government in question. Reports emphasize compliance or non-compliance with precise rules.

More recently, human rights groups have taken a more "activist" approach to human rights advocacy. Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch speak publicly about their findings in the hope of shaming governments into compliance. Such groups use the increased interconnectedness of global media to bring national human rights violations to light in an international context. More often they discuss violations of broad moral standards, as opposed to specific rules and regulations.

Exercise:
A student has been arrested and imprisoned for organizing public protests against government policies in a UN Member State. She has not been informed of the reason for her arrest, nor has she been allowed contact with her family or a lawyer.

How would these two types of humanitarians respond to this situation?

Possible activities:
1) Make a visual representation of the different ways these groups would respond to the same event. (Possibilities include Venn Diagrams, concept webbing, etc.)

2) Divide into a "Red Cross Group" and an "Amnesty International Group." As each group draws up a plan of action, group members should list specific techniques, concerns, and, eventually, drawbacks of their approach to humanitarian activism.

page created by Hallie Fader, ORIAS, July 2004.

Sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS), Institute of East Asian Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Center for South Asia Studies, Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Institute of European Studies. 

Funding is provided by Title VI grants from the United States Department of Education.