Category Archives: Fundamental or Human Rights
‘The legal system is being weaponised to silence survivors of sexual and gender-based violence’
A new report, From Survivor to Defendant: How the law is being weaponised to silence victims of sexual violence by Index on Censorship reveals how survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the UK and Ireland are being silenced through abusive legal actions known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). Since 2017, the […]
Cherednychenko and de Bruin, ‘Horizontal Effect of Fundamental Rights’
ABSTRACT This Chapter examines the role of fundamental rights (or human rights) in private law disputes on climate-related issues, focusing on the horizontal effect of such rights in general private law, particularly tort law. The central question is: how and to what extent can and should fundamental rights enshrined in national constitutions and international instruments […]
‘New open access book: Intellectual Property and the Human Right to a Healthy Environment’
Elena Izyumenko is the editor of a new open access book about Intellectual Property and the Human Right to a Healthy Environment. The volume examines how intellectual property law — from trademarks and copyright to patents — interacts with the human right to a healthy environment. It asks how IP rules might both hinder and […]
Renee Lettow Lerner, ‘The Civil Jury Trial Clause of the Seventh Amendment’
ABSTRACT This essay discusses the Civil Jury Trial Clause – also known as the Preservation Clause – of the Seventh Amendment to the US Constitution. I provide background on English civil jury practice in common-law courts in the late eighteenth century and distinguish it from equity practice in the Court of Chancery. The essay describes […]
‘Big Tech, the Supreme Court and Brazil’s New Era of Civil Liability’
Brazil is at a crucial crossroads in the debate over the civil liability of providers of digital applications. Until recently, the model established by Article 19 of Law No 12,965 of 23 April 2014 – known as the Brazilian Internet Civil Framework (Marco Civil da Internet), Brazil’s pioneering internet law setting out users’ rights and […]
Moreno-Cervera de la Cuesta and Aránguez Díaz, ‘Forging the Corporate Duty to Mitigate Climate Change: Milieudefensie v Shell’
ABSTRACT The appellate judgment in Milieudefensie v ShelL reaffirms the corporate duty to mitigate climate change under Dutch tort law. However, the Court of Appeal overturned the lower court’s imposition of an absolute 45% emissions reduction target by 2030, deeming it inappropriate. This decision provides two key lessons for future litigation. First, while the court […]
John Pearson, ‘A matter of life and breath for Ella – the formally acknowledged threat of air pollution as a breach of the right to life’
ABSTRACT The death of Ella Kissi-Debrah in 2013 will be forever notable as the first instance in the United Kingdom of air pollution being recorded as contributing to the death of an individual. Whilst in itself a monumental shift in consideration of air pollution and the impact on human health, the recording by the coroner […]
Jordyn Selznick, ‘Enrichment, Exploitation, and the Evasion of Responsibility: A Proposal to Apply the Equitable Doctrine of Unjust Enrichment to Bridge the Accountability Gap and Provide Remedies to the Victims of Forced Labour Abroad’
ABSTRACT The International Labour Organization reported in 2021 that 17.3 million people globally were forced labourers in the private sector. As came to light in the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Nevsun Resources Ltd v Araya, Canadian multinational corporations (‘MNCs’) have used, and continue to use, forced labourers within their global supply chains. Several […]
Joe Atkinson, ‘Taking Human Rights Seriously at Work: The Past, Present and Future of Employment Law’
ABSTRACT Human rights are increasingly adopted as a perspective on employment law and the regulation of work. Yet there remains a lack of clarity over key questions such as how the relationship between employment law and human rights should be understood, why human rights law has had limited impact in this context and whether/how it […]
Heredia Ligorria, Schulte and Tigre, ‘Trends in Climate Legislation in the Caribbean’
ABSTRACT The report maps climate legislation across 16 Caribbean states, identifying 78 laws and decrees as of March 2025. It highlights the region’s growing recognition of the right to a healthy environment and distinguishes between climate-specific and climate-related legislation, with significant advances in climate framework laws, renewable energy, and disaster risk management. While progress is […]