Global Impact and Implementation of Human Rights Norms Conference

The Global Impact and Implementation of Human Rights Norms

March 11 - 12, 2011

Human rights norms are often studied as an independent body of law with tribunals dedicated to interpreting and enforcing those norms. However, human rights norms are also increasingly incorporated into the development of substantive law in fields as diverse as labor law, corporate governance, environmental law, torts, intellectual property, and armed conflict.The symposium will bring together scholars in diverse areas of substantive law to discuss the impact of human rights norms in their fields.

Questions will include:

• Are human rights norms used to define elements of causes of action, legal responsibility, or defenses?
• How are human rights norms taken into account in law reform efforts?
• Have human rights norms been the driving force behind law reform?
• To what extent is the law of human rights balanced with another area of law in judicial decisions?
• How is that balanced achieved?
• What are the consequences of greater incorporation of human rights norms?
• What happens when national and international institutions adopt conflicting interpretations of human rights norms?
• Is fragmentation necessarily problematic or can it serve useful purposes, such as facilitating experimentation with diverse approaches or providing a check on hegemonic ambitions?
• Alternatively, if harmonization should be a priority in this field, what kinds of processes and institutions are best positioned to advance it?

Keynote International Jurist Panel:

Richard Goldstone, Visiting Professor of Law (Georgetown, Harvard, Fordham, Stanford in spring 2011); former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Fausto Pocar, Judge in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; Professor of Law at the University of Milan; formerly member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee

Moderators:
Linda Carter, Director, Legal Infrastructure and International Justice Institute
Frank Gevurtz, Director, Global Center for Business and Development

Panel topics:
Human Rights and Labor Law
Facilitator: Professor Raquel Aldana

The Relationship Between Human Rights Norms and Corporate Governance
Facilitator: Professor Frank Gevurtz

The Environment and Human Rights (or natural resources or water law)
Facilitator: Professor Rachael Salcido

Human Rights Norms in the Context of an Armed Conflict and Security Issues
Co-facilitators: Professors Jarrod Wong and John Sims

The Role of Tort Law in Implementing Human Rights Norms
Facilitator: Professor Julie Davies

The Impact of Human Rights Norms on the Law of Intellectual Property
Facilitator: Professor Mike Mireles

The Impact of a Wider Dissemination of Human Rights Norms: Fragmentation or Unity?
Facilitator: Professor Omar Dajani