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Victims' Rights: A Reference Handbook
by Glenn LeighAn excellent resource for students, legislators, victims' advocacy groups, and journalists, defining and discussing issues of victims' rights in the US, current policies, crime-related legislation, and key Supreme Court cases. Offers a detailed chronology, biographical sketches of those involved in upholding and extending victims' rights, descriptions and contacts for organizations serving the interests of victims, and an annotated bibliography of print and nonprint sources. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs
by Vera Bergelson"Don't blame the victim" is a cornerstone maxim of Anglo-American jurisprudence, but should the law generally ignore a victim's behavior in determining a defendant's liability?Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongscriticizes the current criminal law approach and outlines a more fair, coherent, and efficient set of rules to recognize that victims sometimes co-author their own losses or injuries. Evaluating a number of controversial cases involving euthanasia, sadomasochism, date rape, battered wives, and "innocent" aggressors, Vera Bergelson builds a theoretical foundation for reform. Her approach to comparative criminal liability takes into account the actions of both the perpetrator and the victim and offers a unitary explanation for consent, self-defense, and provocation. This innovative book supplies a practical and coherent mechanism for evaluating the impact of a victim's conduct on a perpetrator's liability in a variety of circumstances, including those that are now artificially excluded from comparative analysis.
Victims’ Rights in Flux: Criminal Justice Reform in Colombia (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice #62)
by Astrid Liliana Sánchez-MejíaContributing to the literature on comparative criminal procedure and Latin American law, this book examines the effects of adversarial criminal justice reforms on victim’s rights by specifically analyzing the Colombian criminal justice reform of the early 2000s. This research focuses on the production, interpretation, and implementation of rules and institutions by exploring how different actors have employed the concept of victims and victims’ rights to promote their agendas in the context of criminal justice reforms. It also analyzes how the goals of these agendas have interplayed in practice. By the early 2000s, it seemed that the Colombian criminal justice system was headed towards a process characterized by broader victim participation, primarily because of the doctrine of the Constitutional Court on victims’ rights. But in 2002, the Colombian Attorney General promoted a more adversarial criminal justice reform. This book argues that this reform represented a sudden and unpredicted reversal of the Constitutional Court’s doctrine on victim participation, even though one of the central justifications for the reform was the need to satisfy human rights standards and adhere to the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court on victims’ rights. In the criminal justice reform of the early 2000s and its subsequent modifications, the promotion of a dichotomous interpretation of the adversarial model—which conceived the criminal process as a competition between prosecution and defense—served to limit victim participation. This study examines how conceptions of victims’ rights emerged out of the struggles between different and at times competing agendas. In the Colombian process of reform, victims’ rights have been invoked both as a justification for criminal sanctions and as an explanation for crime prevention and restorative justice. After assessing quantitative and qualitative data, this book concludes that punitive approaches to victims’ rights have prevailed over restorative justice perspectives. Furthermore, it argues that punitiveness in the criminal justice system has not resulted in more protection for victims. Ultimately, this research reveals that the adversarial criminal justice reform of the early 2000s has not substantially improved the protection of victims’ rights in Colombia.
The Victims’ Rights Movement: What It Gets Right, What It Gets Wrong
by Michael VitielloOutlines the successes and failures of the movement to support survivors of violenceThe Victims’ Rights Movement (VRM) has been one of the most meaningful criminal justice reforms in the United States. Every state and the federal government has adopted major VRM laws to enact protections for victims and increase criminal sanctions, and the movement has received support from politicians of all backgrounds. Despite recognition of its excesses, the movement remains an important force in the criminal justice arena.The Victims' Rights Movement offers a measured overview of the successes and the failures of the VRM. Among its widely acknowledged accomplishments are expanded resources to help victims deal with trauma, greater sensitivity to sexual assault victims in many jurisdictions, and increased chances of victims receiving restitution from perpetrators of harm. Conversely, the movement has led to excessive punishment for many defendants and destruction of defendants’ families. It has exacerbated racial inequality in the imposition of the death penalty and criminal sentencing generally, and falsely promises “closure” to crime victims and their families.Michael Vitiello considers whether the VRM serves those injured by crime well by focusing on “victimhood.” He urges a reframing of the movement to fight for universal health care and limits on access to weapons—two policies that would reduce the number of victims and help those who do become victims of crime.
Victors' Justice: From Nuremberg to Baghdad
by Danilo ZoloInternational tribunals are shown to be little more than a tool of Western imperialismVictors' Justice is a potent and articulate polemic against the manipulation of international penal law by the West, combining historical detail, juridical precision and philosophical analysis. Zolo's key thesis is that contemporary international law functions as a two-track system: a made-to-measure law for the hegemons and their allies, on the one hand, and a punitive regime for the losers and the disadvantaged, on the other. Though it constantly advertised its impartiality and universalism, international law served to bolster and legitimize, ever since the Tokyo and Nuremberg trials, a fundamentally unilateral and unequal international order.
La vida es un juego: Estrategia para Mario y Blanca
by Carlos MatallanasCarlos Matallanas, exdeportista y querido periodista deportivo afectado por la ELA, nos trae un breve y emocionante ensayo, estructurado a modo de manual de fútbol, sobre la importancia de tener una pasión. LAS REGLAS DE LA VIDA SON COMO LAS REGLAS DEL JUEGO: SE APRENDEN CON LA PRÁCTICA Y FORJAN EL CARÁCTER «Voy a hablaros de lo único que sé de verdad, la única disciplina que me llevó al eureka, donde encontré alguna respuesta crucial, que me hizo ser consciente de que algo, mucho o poco, había comprendido de este tinglado absurdo que llamamos vida». Carlos Matallanas, exdeportista y querido periodista deportivo, nos trae un breve y emocionante ensayo, estructurado a modo de manual de fútbol, sobre la importancia de tener una pasión. Nos habla de la vida como juego y del fútbol como metáfora de la existencia. Desde sus páginas, el autor transmite su amor por el deporte, pero utilizándolo como excusa para filosofar sobre temas como la perseverancia, la empatía, el respeto, la solidaridad o la resiliencia. El fútbol ha dado sentido a su vida, incluso para enfrentarse a su enfermedad, la ELA, que lo tiene inmovilizado en una cama desde la que escribe estas líneas a modo de ensayo para sus sobrinos y para todo aquel que lo quiera leer, «porque siempre habrá un niño mirándote y al que le debes dar el mejor de los testigos: tu ejemplo».
La vida que mereces: La cuarta vía para la realización personal en un entorno sostenible
by Álex Rovira Pascual OlmosUna alternativa al sistema actual basada en la búsqueda de un sendero que armonice lo material con lo espiritual, la productividad con la satisfacción personal. Vivimos en un entorno profundamente disfuncional que está dando lugar a mayores índices de corrupción, desempleo, desesperanza y la creciente falta de confianza en nuestros semejantes. Nos encontramos, por lo tanto, ante un reto crucial: recomponer, redefinir o reinventar un sistema social y político capaz de brindarnos a todos una vida digna, una convivencia fructífera y sostenible, en la que no tenga cabida el abuso, la especulación, el cortoplacismo ni la depredación. Ante el fracaso de otras vías, este libro pretende buscar soluciones que tengan en cuenta los ámbitos personales, laborales y sociales, en pos de un equilibrio básico o esencial que esté al alcance de todos. La alternativa que plantea La vida que mereces se basa en la construcción de un camino que armonice lo material con lo espiritual, la productividad con la satisfacción personal, la competitividad del sistema con la autorrealización de las personas. Álex Rovira y Pascual Olmos proponen un nuevo modelo asentado en tres principios: las motivaciones profundas de las personas, la creatividad y una tecnología social y ecológicamente responsable. Reseñas:«Estamos produciendo seres humanos enfermos para tener una economía sana.»Erich Fromm «Más allá de la ecología está el Eco-Ser, una nueva forma de armonía y equilibrio moral, que trata de asumir la naturaleza como parte de nuestro espíritu. En La vida que mereces, los autores Pascual Olmos y Álex Rovira trazan la Cuarta Vía para esa conquista.»Manuel Vicent, escritor y periodista «Lo único que nos llevaremos de este mundo es lo que hayamos sido capaces de dar. El líder en La vida que mereces lo da todo, busca la felicidad de los demás, saca lo mejor de cada quien y se fija en los aspectos positivos del equipo, que todos tenemos.»Luis Conde, socio fundador de Seeliger y Conde «La vida que mereces plasma la esencia de una sociedad y sus empresas cimentadas en el valor de las personas, que se asocia a una gestión ejemplar, ya sea pública o privada. La búsqueda de un futuro lleno de esperanza que merezca ser tomado y vivido por nuestros hijos como un legado ético.»Juan A. Corbalán, campeón internacional de baloncesto y director de teamsoul «¿La sostenibilidad se contrapone a la rentabilidad de una empresa? ¿La eficacia y la humanidad son incompatibles en el buen directivo? ¿Son los valores la antesala de la creación de valor? Los autores Pascual Olmos y Álex Rovira nos explican estas y otras interacciones que se dan en nuestra vida, en la empresa y en el mundo en que nos ha tocado vivir.»Alberto Durán, vicepresidente ejecutivo de la Fundación ONCE «Innovación social, sentido de la vida, compromiso, cuidar el talento y alentarlo, convicción, utopía... son las cuestiones sobre las que Pascual Olmos y Álex Rovira ponen el foco para trazar una Cuarta Vía que, como la besana, alumbra nuevos modelos de gestión, donde la naturaleza y la humanidad se abrazan y se sostienen.»Rosalía Mera, presidenta de la Fundación Paideia Galiza
Vidas Implosivas: El Robo Invisible y Las Consecuencias Humanas
by David P. WarrenCuando dos hombres enmascarados toman un concurrido banco de Los Ángeles a plena luz del día, la policía, SWAT y los medios cubren todos los ángulos visibles del banco. A pesar de cientos de ojos en el banco, casi un millón de dólares, y los propios ladrones, desaparecen sin dejar rastro. Los detectives de LAPD Stacey Gray y Jeff Butler comienzan a investigar el caso que desafía la lógica sin pistas y poca evidencia. Pronto, los secretos que cambian la vida quedan expuestos y sus mundos se vuelven del revés. ¿Quiénes son los ladrones y dónde está el dinero? Alabanza: ★★★★★ "Novela de alcaparras bien escrita. Mantuve mi interés todo el tiempo". ★★★★★ "Intersección única entre la policía local y el FBI teniendo en cuenta los dilemas morales y éticos en el camino. Entretenimiento de ritmo rápido". ★★★★★ "El tema es actual y los personajes interesantes. Una gran lectura".
Video Game Policy: Production, Distribution, and Consumption (Routledge Advances in Game Studies)
by Steven Conway and Jennifer deWinterThis book analyzes the effect of policy on the digital game complex: government, industry, corporations, distributors, players, and the like. Contributors argue that digital games are not created nor consumed outside of the complex power relationships that dictate the full production and distribution cycles, and that we need to consider those relationships in order to effectively "read" and analyze digital games. Through examining a selection of policies, e.g. the Australian government’s refusal (until recently) to allow an R18 rating for digital games, Blizzard’s policy in regards to intellectual property, Electronic Arts’ corporate policy for downloadable content (DLC), they show how policy, that is to say the rules governing the production, distribution and consumption of digital games, has a tangible effect upon our understanding of the digital game medium.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
by Oliver Dörr Kirsten SchmalenbachThe Commentary on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides an in-depth article-by-article analysis of all provisions of the Vienna Convention. The texts are uniformly structured: (I) Purpose and Function of the Article, (II) Historical Background and Negotiating History, and (III) Elements of the Article. The Vienna Convention on Treaties between States and IOs and between IOs is taken into account where appropriate. In sum, the present Commentary contains a comprehensive legal analysis of all aspects of the international law of treaties. Where the law of treaties reaches into other fields of international law, e.g. the law of state responsibility, the relevant interfaces are discussed and contextualized. With its focus on international practice, the Commentary is addressed to academia, as well as to practitioners of international law.
The Vietnam War: Revised 2nd Edition (Seminar Studies)
by Mitchell HallThe Vietnam War examines this conflict from its origins up until North Vietnam’s victory in 1975. Historian Mitchell K. Hall’s lucid account is an ideal introduction to the key debates surrounding a war that remains controversial and disputed in American scholarship and collective memory. The new edition has been fully updated and expanded to include additional material on the preceding French Indochina War, the American antiwar movement, North Vietnamese perspectives and motivations, and the postwar scholarly debate. The text is supported by a documents section and a wide range of study tools, including a timeline of events, glossaries of key figures and terms, and a rich "further reading" section accompanied by a new bibliographical essay. Concise yet comprehensive, The Vietnam War remains the most accessible and stimulating introduction to this crucial 20th-century conflict.
The View From Nowhere
by Thomas NagelHuman beings have the unique ability to view the world in a detached way: We can think about the world in terms that transcend our own experience or interest, and consider the world from a vantage point that is, in Nagel's words, "nowhere in particular". At the same time, each of us is aparticular person in a particular place, each with his own "personal" view of the world, a view that we can recognize as just one aspect of the whole. How do we reconcile these two standpoints--intellectually, morally, and practically? To what extent are they irreconcilable and to what extent canthey be integrated? Thomas Nagel's ambitious and lively book tackles this fundamental issue, arguing that our divided nature is the root of a whole range of philosophical problems, touching, as it does, every aspect of human life. He deals with its manifestations in such fields of philosophy as:the mind-body problem, personal identity, knowledge and skepticism, thought and reality, free will, ethics, the relation between moral and other values, the meaning of life, and death. Excessive objectification has been a malady of recent analytic philosophy, claims Nagel, it has led to implausibleforms of reductionism in the philosophy of mind and elsewhere. The solution is not to inhibit the objectifying impulse, but to insist that it learn to live alongside the internal perspectives that cannot be either discarded or objectified. Reconciliation between the two standpoints, in the end, isnot always possible.
A View From the Bench
by Joseph A. WapnerThe famous judge of TV (The People's Court) talks about his experiences on the bench and about the American judicial system.
A View from Two Benches: Bob Thomas in Football and the Law
by Doug FeldmannWhether in football or in the law, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas has always had the "best view from the bench."Bob Thomas got his start in football at the University of Notre Dame, kicking for the famed "Fighting Irish" in the early 1970s. Claimed off waivers by the Chicago Bears in 1975, Thomas helped to take the franchise from their darkest days to their brightest. Yet, on the cusp of the team's greatest moment, he was struck with a shocking blow that challenged his fortitude.In this dramatic retelling of Bob Thomas's fascinating life, renowned sports writer Doug Feldmann shows how neither football nor the law was part of Thomas's dreams while growing up the son of Italian immigrants in Rochester, New York, in the 1960s. Chasing excellence on both the gridiron and in the courtroom, however, would require resilience in ways he could not have imagined.As A View from Two Benches shows us, Bob Thomas reached the top of two separate and distinct professions, guided by a bedrock of faith that has impacted his decisions and actions as both a football player and a judge, helping him navigate the peaks and valleys of life. As Doug Feldmann reveals, Bob Thomas has always stayed true to the values he learned in his earliest days.Doug Feldmann's rich biography of an accomplished kicker and a proud justice of the law shows us that determination and resilience go a long way to a successful and impactful life.
View of Moralization: Study on Confucian Moral Thought
by Chenhong GeThis book summarizes the author’s extensive research on Confucian morality issues and focuses on elaborating the extremely important and unique role of moral thought in Confucian ideology. The book shares the author’s own standpoints on a range of issues – including where moral thoughts originated, what the major principles are, and what methods were adopted in Confucianism – to form a comprehensive and in-depth interpretation, and help readers achieve a better understanding.Moreover, the book focuses on the similarities and differences between Chinese and western cultures and presents an in-depth analysis of the differences and roots regarding various aspects, including Chinese and western historical development paths, thoughts and cultures, national spirits, national mentalities, and social governance models. The formation of either culture has its own practical reasons and historical roots. The book represents a major contribution, helping readers understand the similarities and differences between Chinese and western cultures and social civilizations, enabling them to integrate and learn from Chinese and western cultures, and promoting a better development for Chinese society and the international community alike. Combining detailed data and an approachable style, it contributes to the legacy of Confucianism by applying a critical attitude. The author thinks out of the box in terms of theoretical analysis and studies on certain issues. As such, the book will be of great academic value in terms of studying China’s ideological culture, especially its morality culture, and will benefit scholars and research institutions alike.
The Vig: A gripping crime thriller full of twists (Dismas Hardy)
by John LescroartThe later you pay, the steeper the price... Dismas Hardy returns in The Vig, the second instalment in John Lescroart's stirring series. Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and Scott Turow.'The plot twists and turns...Hardy is one of the more real and engaging characters in... crime solving' - Los Angeles Times Payback is murder.A beautiful woman paid it with her body. A seedy lawyer used somebody else's money. It's the vig - the exorbitant interest mob loan sharks take on their money. Now everyone has to pay... Down-and-out lawyer Rusty Ingraham left behind a murdered woman and a houseboat splattered with blood. All the evidence said Ingraham was in San Francisco Bay. Dead. But a friend of Ingraham's, former cop and prosecutor Dismas Hardy, isn't so sure. And Hardy has to find out, because a stone-cold killer, now paroled, once threatened to kill Ingraham and Dismas Hardy both. To save his own skin, Hardy must face down liars and killers on both sides of the law. From mob foot soldiers to broken-hearted lovers to renegade cops, a dozen lives are tied to the fate of Rusty Ingraham - and the payback has only just begun.What readers are saying about John Lescroart:'[John Lescroart] develops characters and storylines like no other author I have read''Lescroart is a very talented and imaginative crime writer''I am never disappointed by any books from John Lescroart'
Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City
by Ray KellyTwo-time New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly opens up about his remarkable life, taking us inside fifty years of law enforcement leadership, offering chilling stories of terrorist plots after 9/11, and sharing his candid insights into the challenges and controversies cops face today. The son of a milkman and a Macy's dressing room checker, Ray Kelly grew up on New York City's Upper West Side, a middle-class neighborhood where Irish and Puerto Rican kids played stickball and tussled in the streets. He entered the police academy and served as a marine in Vietnam, living and fighting by the values that would carry him through a half century of leadership-justice, decisiveness, integrity, courage, and loyalty. Kelly soared through the NYPD ranks in decades marked by poverty, drugs, civil unrest, and a murder rate that, at its peak, spiked to over two thousand per year. Kelly came to be known as a tough leader, a fixer who could go into a troubled precinct and clean it up. That reputation catapulted him into his first stint as commissioner, under Mayor David Dinkins, where Kelly oversaw the police response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and spearheaded programs that would help usher in the city's historic drop in crime. Eight years later, in the chaotic wake of the 9/11 attacks, newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg tapped Kelly to be NYC's top cop once again. After a decade working with Interpol, serving as undersecretary of the Treasury for enforcement, overseeing U.S. Customs, and commanding an international police force in Haiti, Kelly understood that New York's security was synonymous with our national security. Believing that the city could not afford to rely solely on "the feds," he succeeded in transforming the NYPD from a traditional police department into a resource-rich counterterrorism-and-intelligence force. In this vital memoir, Kelly reveals the inside stories of his life in the hot seat of "the capital of the world"-from the terror plots that nearly brought a city to its knees to his dealings with politicians, including Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama as well as Mayors Rudolph Giuliani, Bloomberg, and Bill DeBlasio. He addresses criticisms and controversies like the so-called stop-question-and-frisk program and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and offers his insights into the challenges that have recently consumed our nation's police forces, even as the need for vigilance remains as acute as ever.
Vigilance and Restraint in the Common Law of Judicial Review (Cambridge Studies In Constitutional Law #19)
by Dean R. KnightThe mediation of the balance between vigilance and restraint is a fundamental feature of judicial review of administrative action in the Anglo-Commonwealth. This balance is realised through the modulation of the depth of scrutiny when reviewing the decisions of ministers, public bodies and officials. While variability is ubiquitous, it takes different shapes and forms. <P><P>Dean R. Knight explores the main shapes and forms employed in judicial review in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the last fifty years. Four schemata are drawn from the case law and taken back to conceptual foundations, exposing their commonality and differences, and each approach is evaluated. This detailed methodology provides a sound basis for decisions and debates about how variability should be brought to individual cases and will be of great value to legal scholars, judges and practitioners interested in judicial review.<P> Proposes four distinctive models of variability in judicial review.<P> Provides a method of testing the strengths and weaknesses of different styles of legal reasoning.<P> Explains changes in the complex world of judicial review doctrine.
The Vigilant Citizen: Everyday Policing and Insecurity in Miami
by Thijs JeursenHow the problematic behavior of private citizens—and not just the police force itself—contributes to the perpetuation of police brutality and institutional racism“Warning: Neighborhood Watch Program in Force. If I don’t call the police, my neighbor will!”Signs like this can be found affixed to telephone poles on streets throughout the US, warning trespassers that the community is an active participant in its own policing efforts. Thijs Jeursen calls this phenomenon, in which individuals take on the responsibility of defending themselves and share with the police the duty to mitigate everyday insecurity, “vigilant citizenship.”Drawing on eleven months of fieldwork in Miami and sharing the stories and experiences of police officers, private security guards, neighborhood watch groups, civil society organizations, and a broad range of residents and activists, Jeursen uses the lens of vigilant citizenship to extend the analysis of police brutality beyond police encounters, focusing on the often blurred boundaries between policing actors and policed citizens and highlighting the many ways in which policing produces and perpetuates inequality and injustice. As a central premise in everyday policing, vigilant citizenship frames racist and violent policing as matters of personal blame and individual guilt, ultimately downplaying the realities of how systemically race operates in policing and US society more broadly. The Vigilant Citizen illustrates how a focus on individualized responsibility for security exacerbates and legitimizes existing inequalities, a situation that must be addressed to end institutionalized racism in politics and the justice system.
The Vigilant Investor: A Former SEC Enforcer Reveals How to Fraud-Proof Your Investments
by Pat HuddlestonMaking sound investments is tough enough without having to worry about unscrupulous financial advisers and outright frauds. But recently strengthened laws aren't enough to stop the "professionals" intent on profiting from - or just plain stealing - your money. As an Enforcement Branch Chief at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pat Huddleston witnessed countless people lose their life savings to reckless stockbrokers and fraudulent schemes. Now an SEC-recommended Receiver and CEO of a securities and investment fraud investigation agency, Huddleston has intimate knowledge of how scam artists and bad brokers operate. In The Vigilant Investor, he explains WHY we fall for investment scams, HOW con artists play on our emotions, and WHAT we can do to protect ourselves from predators. With its unique look into the science of financial decision making, the book blows up the popular myths and simplistic "do's and don'ts" of investing while sharing techniques anyone can use to perform due diligence even better than the "experts. " With gripping stories of actual cases, Huddleston sheds light on the dark corners of the investment industry and teaches investors and professionals alike how to spot fraud and guard themselves against financial catastrophe.
Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy
by Jon Michaels David NollFor readers of How Democracies Die, two legal scholars expose the MAGA Republican strategy to roll back civil, political, and privacy rights and subvert American democracy—and prescribe a plan for beating the Christian nationalists at their own game.Time and again, when confronted with serious challenges to their power and privilege, white Christian nationalists seek solace—and satisfaction—in state-supported forms of vigilantism. This was true at the dawn of the American republic, when Northern abolitionists threatened the Southern slavocracy. It was also true in the aftermath of the Civil War, when emancipated Black Americans and their Northern allies sought to fulfill the promises of Reconstruction. And though this pattern was seemingly broken after the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and &’60s—and abandoned once and for all—legal vigilantism has made a surprising, roaring comeback in the months and years following the failed coup of January 6, 2021. Committed to never again losing power, let alone experiencing the humiliation that followed on the heels of the ham-fisted insurrection, overlapping networks of right-wing lawyers, politicians, plutocrats, and preachers have resurrected state-supported vigilantism. Vigilante Nation tells this story of the American Right marginalizing, subordinating, and disenfranchising the increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan members of the American polity. This book exposes the vigilantes&’ plans, explains their methods—everything from book bans to anti-abortion bounties to attacks on government proceedings, including elections—and underscores the stakes. Now that supporters of democratic equality are numerous and dexterous enough to finally secure the broad promises of the civil rights revolution, the race is on for Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and the architects of Project 2025 to subvert our democracy before a countermovement can rise up to thwart their insidious plans.
Vigilantes beyond Borders: NGOs as Enforcers of International Law
by Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni J C SharmanHow and why NGOs are increasingly taking independent and direct action in global law enforcement, from human rights to the environment Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have generally served as advocates and service providers, leaving enforcement to states. Now, NGOs are increasingly acting as private police, prosecutors, and intelligence agencies in enforcing international law. NGOs today can be found investigating and gathering evidence; suing and prosecuting governments, companies, and individuals; and even catching lawbreakers red-handed. Examining this trend, Vigilantes beyond Borders considers why some transnational groups have opted to become enforcers of international law regarding such issues as human rights, the environment, and corruption, while others have not.Three factors explain the rise of vigilante enforcement: demand, supply, and competition. Governments commit to more international laws, but do a poor job of policing them, leaving a gap and creating demand. Legal and technological changes make it easier for nonstate actors to supply enforcement, as in the instances of NGOs that have standing to use domestic and international courts, or smaller NGOs that employ satellite imagery, big data analysis, and forensic computing. As the growing number of NGOs vie for limited funding and media attention, smaller, more marginal, groups often adopt radical strategies like enforcement.Looking at the workings of major organizations, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and Transparency International, as well as smaller players, such as Global Witness, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and Bellingcat, Vigilantes beyond Borders explores the causes and consequences of a novel, provocative approach to global governance.
Villain, Vermin, Icon, Kin: Wolves and the Making of Canada
by Stephanie RutherfordA wolf’s howl is felt in the body. Frightening and compelling, incomprehensible or entirely knowable, it is a sound that may be heard as threat or invitation but leaves no listener unaffected.Toothsome fiends, interfering pests, or creatures wild and free, wolves have been at the heart of Canada’s national story since long before Confederation. Villain, Vermin, Icon, Kin contends that the role in which wolves have been cast – monster or hero – has changed dramatically through time. Exploring the social history of wolves in Canada, Stephanie Rutherford weaves an innovative tapestry from the varied threads of historical and contemporary texts, ideas, and practices in human-wolf relations, from provincial bounties to Farley Mowat’s iconic Never Cry Wolf. These examples reveal that Canada was made, in part, through relationships with nonhuman animals. Wolves have always captured the human imagination. In sketching out the connections people have had with wolves at different times, Villain, Vermin, Icon, Kin offers a model for more ethical ways of interacting with animals in the face of a global biodiversity crisis.
Vindicating Socio-Economic Rights: International Standards and Comparative Experiences (Routledge Research in Human Rights Law)
by Paul O'ConnellNotwithstanding the widespread and persistent affirmation of the indivisibility and equal worth of all human rights, socio-economic rights continue to be treated as the "Cinderella" of the human rights corpus. At a domestic level this has resulted in little appetite for the explicit recognition and judicial enforcement of such rights in constitutional democracies. The primary reason for this is the prevalent apprehension that the judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights is fundamentally at variance with the doctrine of the separation of powers. This study, drawing on comparative experiences in a number of jurisdictions which have addressed (in some cases more explicitly than others) the issue of socio-economic rights, seeks to counter this argument by showing that courts can play a substantial role in the vindication of socio-economic rights, while still respecting the relative institutional prerogatives of the elected branches of government. Drawing lessons from experiences in South Africa, India, Canada and Ireland, this study seeks to articulate a "model adjudicative framework" for the protection of socio-economic rights. In this context the overarching concern is to find some role for the courts in vindicating socio-economic rights, while also recognising the importance of the separation of powers and the primary role that the elected branches of government must play in protecting and vindicating such rights. The text incorporates discussion of the likely impact and significance of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and looks at the implications of the Mazibuko decision for the development of South Africa’s socio-economic rights jurisprudence.
Vindication (A Matt Royal Mystery #11)
by H. Terrell GriffinPremier adult community with everything you could possibly want, need, or dream of doing in your retirement years is just a golf cart ride away—now the scene of a murderIn this John Grisham style mystery, Matt Royal, the retired lawyer-turned-beach-bum is called back into the courtroom to defend his girlfriend J. D. Duncan's Aunt Esther, who lives in the sprawling North Central Florida retirement community of The Villages. A best-selling author has been murdered after a book signing, and Aunt Esther has been arrested. Matt has a history with the local sheriff—one which may not bode well for his client. Matt reluctantly suits up for the courtroom, and J.D. takes a leave from the police department to go undercover. A bizarre specter from the past haunts their investigation every step of the way. As they delve further into the case, the pieces of the puzzle refuse to fall into any kind of coherent pattern. Jock Algren arrives with his special skill set to expose the real murderer and free Aunt Esther, but to no avail. Not until the case goes to trial and the evidence is revealed does the truth emerge—and a strange kind of justice prevails.