Human Rights in Emergencies

This book examines current debates about how international human rights law regulates national authorities and international institutions during emergencies.

Evan J. Criddle (Edited by)

9781107115835, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 July 2016

302 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.59 kg

Public emergencies such as civil wars, natural disasters, and economic crises test the theoretical and practical commitments of international human rights law. During national crises, international law permits states to suspend many human rights protections in order to safeguard national security. States frequently overstep the limits of this authority, violating even peremptory human rights such as the prohibitions against torture and prolonged arbitrary detention. In this volume, leading scholars from law, philosophy and political science grapple with challenging questions concerning the character, scope, and salience of international human rights, and they explain how the law seeks to protect human rights during emergencies. The contributors also evaluate the law's successes and failures, and offer new proposals for strengthening respect for human rights.

Introduction: testing human rights theory during emergencies Evan J. Criddle
Part I. Designing a Human Rights Regime for Emergencies: 1. Constrained derogation in positive human rights regimes Gerald L. Neuman
2. Protecting human rights during emergencies: delegation, derogation, and deference Evan J. Criddle
3. Two models of normative frameworks for human rights during severe emergencies James W. Nickel
Part II. Law, Politics, and Power: 4. Emergency and escape: explaining derogations from human rights treaties Emily M. Hafner-Burton, Laurence R. Helfer and Christopher J. Fariss
5. The cloak and dagger game of emergency and war Fionnuala Ní Aoláin
6. The law of emergency and reason of state Thomas Poole
7. Human rights lawyers v. Carl Schmitt William E. Scheuerman
Part III. Emerging Challenges: 8. Human rights and derogation in peacekeeping: addressing a legal vacuum within the state of exception Scott Sheeran
9. Austerity measures and international economic, social, and cultural rights Diane A. Desierto.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Public international law [LBB], Law [L], Human rights [JPVH]