This note is part of a series of articles exploring the legal implications of Israel's 2008-2009 'Operation Cast Lead' offensive against Hamas in Gaza and explores the legal implications of the offensive and Israel's control of Gaza's borders in light of the human right to adequate food. The...

The original mandate of the UN Special Representative on business and human rights said that he should 'develop materials and methodologies for undertaking human rights impact assessments.' Since then, tools for human rights impact assessment (HRIA) have developed by different actors. This...

Concerns have been expressed over the role of WIPO in influencing the intellectual property policies of other specialized agencies of the United Nations. This article reviews the policies of FAO, WHO and UNESCO, in addition to WIPO itself, and finds very interesting patterns of cooperation....

This Article explains that Great Lakes water is a commons and a public trust; this water should be delivered as a freely accessible public good for domestic use; and the United States and Canada should not allow private corporations to take Great Lakes trust water out of the public commons...

There is no denying that human rights NGOs play an increasingly significant role at the international scene, their contributions to the development of human rights docket (treaties, principles and standards) and active participation in the implementation of the bill of rights at national levels...

This paper first considers the policy reasons for why the international community should define terrorism, focusing on arguments that terrorism: (a) seriously violates human rights; (b) jeopardizes the State, deliberative politics and the constitutional order which sustains rights; (c) is...

Intellectual property and human rights must learn to live together. Traditionally, there have been two dominant views of this "cohabitation," namely a conflict view, which emphasizes the negative impacts of intellectual property on rights such as freedom of expression or the right to health and...

Most of the oil wells in Nigeria are accompanied by a raging flame that burns twenty-four hours a day, reaching hundreds of feet into the sky, killing the surrounding vegetation with searing heat, emitting a deafening roar, and belching a cocktail of smoke, soot, and toxic chemicals into the air...

In a series of reports the United Nations Special Representative on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations, John Ruggie, has emphasized a tripartite framework regarding business and human rights that includes the state “duty to protect,” the TNC “responsibility to...