Judicial Protection of Human Rights: Myth or Reality?

by Stanislaw Frankowski, Mark Gibney

Overview

The central question taken up by this essay collection is the degree to which judges have—or have not—served as protectors of human rights. Although the judiciary is nominally a part of the governing structure, it is also nearly always the case that it stands apart from the political actors who make and carry out policy. Thus, Gibney and Frankowski contend, judges have not designed or carried out the myriad human rights violations that are so common in the world today.

The key question asked in this volume is to what extent have courts merely abided by egregious practices, or perhaps have even lent a cover of legitimation—or conversely, the degree to which courts have purposely attempted to bring about some change in stemming governmental abuses. No single volume could cover every country experiencing gross levels of human rights abuses. The effort here has been to provide a cross section of judicial systems throughout the world, and to focus on judicial systems that have become involved in addressing human rights issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275960117
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/30/1999
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

MARK GIBNEY is Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. He has published extensively on legal and human rights issues, including Strangers or Friends: Principles for a New Alien Admission Policy (Greenwood, 1986) and Open Borders?, Closed Societies?: The Ethical and Political Issues (Greenwood, 1988).

STANISLAW FRANKOWSKI is Professor of Law at the St. Louis University School of Law.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Europe
Protection of Human Rights by the Judiciary in Romania by Monica Macovei
The Judicial Protection of the Constitutional Rights and Freedoms in Russia: Myths and Reality by Igor Petrukhin
Israel and the Occupied Territories
The Protection of Human Rights by Judges: The Israeli Experience by Stephen Goldstein
Judicial Protection in Israeli-Occupied Territories by John Quigley
Latin America
Judicial Protection of Human Rights in Latin America: Heroism and Pragmatism by Brian Turbaner
India, the Philippines, and China
Freedom from Torture, and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: The Role of the Supreme Court of India by Vijayashri Sripati
Judicial Defense of Human Rights during the Marcos Dictatorship in the Philippines: The Careers of Claudio Teehankee and Cecelia Munoz Palma by C. Neal Tate
Legal Culture, Legal Professionals, and the Future of Human Rights in China by Albert Melone and Xiaolin Wang
The Protection of Indigenous Rights: The Australian Example
"Retreat from Injustice": The High Court of Australia and Native Title by Garth Nettheim
The United States
U.S. Courts and the Selective Protection of Human Rights by Mark Gibney
Concluding Remarks
For Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

Examines the degree to which judges have or have not protected human rights, looking at a cross-section of judicial systems throughout the world, and focusing on systems in which the judiciary has been involved in questions concerning human rights. Contains sections on Europe, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Latin America, Australia, the US, and India, the Philippines, and China. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

The question as to whether judges do or do not protect human rights might be answered, to a degree, in a specific case study, but it is not really answered in a comparative perspective that integrates all of the chapters. That said, though, each of the individual chapters in the book is well-informed, insightful, and useful. To that end, the volume is perhaps best utilized by scholars focusing on specific areas, such as Israel or the Occupied Territories, instead of those interested in human rights more broadly defined.
— Law and Politics Book Review

John C. Blakeman