Human Rights – City Law Forum

Category: Human Rights (page 1 of 2)

Beyond the Virus – Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives on Inequalities Raised by COVID-19

Dr Adrienne Yong & Dr Sabrina Germain, City Law School

Beyond the Virus book cover

Originally published on the Social & Legal Studies blog

In late 2020, after the world had endured several lockdowns due to the unprecedented spread of a novel deadly virus, COVID-19 was front and centre in the minds of many academics. Importantly, this was not limited to just those in the medical profession, nor just those interested in biomedical sciences. The pandemic and its effects were of academic interest to most disciplines, including law, politics and other social sciences. As sociolegal scholars with an interest in justice in healthcare (Germain) and immigration and intersectionality (Yong), the pandemic piqued our curiosity because of its impact on widening existing inequalities for some of the most vulnerable in society in range of different areas. With a burning desire to publish an edited collection that would be an important contribution to a burgeoning area of literature, we set off to harness the expertise of a wider group of authors, doing cutting edge work in areas that were not just about the medical effects of the virus itself.

Facebook/Meta Oversight Board: International and Regional Law Applications

May 11, 2023 / City Law Forum / 0 Comments

Giulia Alves Maia

The Facebook / Meta Oversight Board (OB) is one of the most novel developments in law and governance in recent years. The Oversight Board has ignited a major debate about its character, form, operation, and effects. It has been modelled as a “Facebook Supreme Court”, and its structure and style of its reasoning, as well as its use of precedent, give the appearance that the OB operates in a similar way to a court. On 26 April 2023, City Law School hosted a hybrid event entitled The Facebook/Meta Oversight Board: International and Regional Law Applications to discussion these and other issues.

The UNGA request for an ICJ Advisory Opinion on Palestine: The role of demographic alterations in the process of de facto annexation and legal consequences under international law

February 22, 2023 / City Law Forum / 1 Comment

Andrea Maria Pelliconi

On 30 December 2022 – one day after the establishment of the new Israeli government – the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted Resolution A/RES/77/247 in which, referring to Article 65 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it requested the Court to give an advisory opinion (AO) clarifying the legal status and consequences of the Israeli occupation of Palestine’s territories. More specifically, the AO request asks the following questions:

“considering the rules and principles of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, relevant resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, and the advisory opinion of the Court of 9 July 2004:

(a) What are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures?

(b) How do the policies and practices of Israel referred to in paragraph 18(a) above affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status?”

‘If I Would Stay Alive, I Would Be Their Voice’: On the Legitimacy of International People’s Tribunals

June 6, 2022 / City Law Forum / 0 Comments

Dr Aldo Zammit Borda

This article considers that, in the current state of international justice, informal People’s Tribunals (PTs) constitute indispensable, quasi-judicial institutions that bridge gaps in access to justice, challenge official narratives (or silences) about atrocities and, potentially, open up new avenues towards justice and recognition.

Russian invasion of Ukraine – Legal Developments and Sources

March 2, 2022 / City Law Forum / 2 Comments

Jed Odermatt

An overview of the latest legal developments and sources related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

General Information

Ukraine Crisis: Research Briefing House of Commons Library, 1 March 2022
Russia’s War on Ukraine Verfassungsblog ongoing legal coverage and debate
Articles of War Lieber Institute for Law & Warfare at West Point
War in Ukraine Financial Times

Ethnic minority and migrant women’ struggles in accessing healthcare during COVID-19: an intersectional analysis

January 31, 2022 / City Law Forum / 1 Comment

Sabrina Germain & Adrienne Yong

In their recent published article in the interdisciplinary Journal for Cultural Research, Dr Sabrina Germain & Dr Adrienne Yong (Senior Lecturers at The City Law School) shine a spotlight on an area of the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has arguably been overshadowed throughout this public health crisis – the effect the pandemic has had on access to healthcare for women at the intersection of their ethnic minority status and gender, and their migration status and gender. Focusing on two distinct groups of women – ethnic minority women, and migrant women – Germain and Yong apply the theory of intersectionality coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to investigate barriers to accessing healthcare in the United Kingdom as they have been particularly exacerbated by the pandemic.

Second Edition of key text on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights launched in The City Law School

January 9, 2022 / City Law Forum / 0 Comments

A second and much-welcomed new edition of the ‘The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary’ (Hart Publishing) was launched in The City Law School building on 1 December 2021.

The book is edited by Steve Peers, Professor of EU Law at the University of Essex; Tamara Hervey, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at the City Law School; Jeff Kenner, Professor of EU Law at the University of Nottingham; and Angela Ward, Référendaire in the Chambers of Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen at the Court of Justice of the European Union, and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Shaping International Migration Law. A discussion of ‘The Interplay between the EU’s Return Acquis and International Law’ by Tamás Molnár

July 5, 2021 / City Law Forum / 0 Comments

Andrea Maria Pelliconi

On 16 June, 2021, the City Law School hosted a virtual launch of Dr Tamás Molnár’s new book The Interplay between the EU’s Return Acquis and International Law. The webinar, chaired by Dr Andrew Wolman, was organised by City’s International Law and Affairs Group (ILAG) and the Institute for the Study of European Laws (ISEL), and saw Professor Paul James Cardwell (University of Strathclyde) and Professor Elspeth Guild (Queen Mary University of London) as expert discussants. This post summarises the discussion and provides some reflections on Molnar’s book.

The EU Perspective on Labour and Social Standards in the EU-UK TCA: Reality and Expectations

May 26, 2021 / City Law Forum / 0 Comments

Tamara Hervey

This blog post provides an early analysis of the ‘non-regression’ provisions on Labour and Social Standards in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). After considering the ‘non-regression’ provisions in the context of the TCA as a whole, it contrasts the provisions with measures of EU law. It then turns to elaborate the content of the provisions. Finally, some aspects of their enforcement are discussed.

Coronavirus shows how hard it is for ethnic minority and migrant women to access healthcare

November 25, 2020 / City Law Forum / 0 Comments

Adrienne Yong and Sabrina Germain

We were told at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic that the virus did not discriminate. But the truth is that COVID-19 has brought to light the structural inequalities in healthcare that have existed for decades.

In the UK, people from an ethnic minority background are more likely to die from COVID-19 than white people. And during the first wave of the pandemic, the increased in overall deaths rates from all causes was higher among migrants than among people born in the UK.