By: Gwyneth Smith, J.D. ’27 and Shrinithi Venkatesan, J.D. ’25 Our world is rapidly aging. As a result of the […]
Archive for ‘Human Rights’
Addressing Ambiguous Loss for Families of the Wartime Missing in Kosovo – Part II
By: Valerie Brankovic
The psychological challenges faced by families of the missing “undermine relationships among communities” and prevent the social fabric from healing for post-conflict states. This paper recommends that Kosovo authorities implement a two-pronged strategy to address the unique challenges posed by families’ ambiguous loss. First, Kosovo’s government should renew its recognition of the plight of families of the missing. Second, the government and civil society…
Addressing Ambiguous Loss for Families of the Wartime Missing in Kosovo – Part I
By: Valerie Brankovic
More than 25 years after the conclusion in 1999 of the war between Serbia and Kosovo, an estimated 1,595 people remain missing due to wartime violence and enforced disappearances. Most of the missing are ethnic Albanians, although ethnic Serbs and some from the minority Roma are also included in that figure. Kosovo’s missing persons problem is not unique: violent conflicts frequently involve disappearances of individuals living in the impacted regions.
Aparna Polavarapu Speaks at the Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice’s 2024 Symposium on Restorative Justice
By: Katie Smart, J.D. ’26 and Shrinithi Venkatesan, J.D. ’25
On Friday, March 1, 2024, William & Mary Law School’s Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice hosted its 2024 Symposium on Restorative Justice. Aparna Polavarapu, a speaker at the event, discussed international human rights law as it relates to restorative justice in her presentation, “Human Rights, Human Duties: Making a Rights-Based Case for Community-Based Restorative Justice.”
Human Rights and Ethical Lawyering: The Need for a Lawyer’s Hippocratic Oath
By: Caitlin Parets, Scarlett Del Giudice Boyer, & Jenik Radon
Lawyers around the world are bound by codes of ethics designed to protect the legal profession and the individuals it serves, but lawyers need a Hippocratic Oath. Rooted in antiquity and still professed today by medical practitioners, modern iterations of the Hippocratic Oath include promises not only to use one’s medical knowledge to the best of one’s ability but also to “not use [one’s] medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties.” [. . .] Lawyers would benefit from a similar ethical consideration for human rights because sometimes simply following the law does not sufficiently capture ethical practices. The wisdom of Emmanuel Lulin, a lawyer and the Chief Ethics Officer for L’Oréal, sums it up beautifully: “Ethics is not about obeying the law. Ethics is about adhering to shared values. . . . Because very often things can be lawful but awful.” [. . .]
The 2022 Global Energy Crisis: Yet Another Opportunity Missed by the EU?
By Andra Tofan, Oscar Zou, & Jenik Radon
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an energy powerhouse, has woken the EU up to the inevitable truth that (over)dependence on other countries’ supplies based on mere economic necessity is not only unwise but risky in the long run. As the European Commission’s President Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen declared, “[t]he European Union has therefore decided to . . . turn towards more reliable, trustworthy partners.” Two questions naturally arise. First, what does “reliable and trustworthy” mean? Second, how do we ensure partners stay “reliable and trustworthy” in the long run? [. . .]