THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE: WHY VIOLENCE HAS DECLINED. Steven Pinker, Penguin, New York, NY 2011. ISBN 978-0-670-02295-3.There's been a shooting in a Sikh Temple this morning. A lone gunman entered a Colorado theater and opened fire. Syrians are now engaged in civil war. Faced with daily news stories of death and destruction, it is easy to believe that things are getting worse. Not so, explains Harvard psychologist, Steven Pinker in his new work, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined.Pinker combines in-depth historical research with rigorous psychological research to argue the case for a decline in global violence. As Pinker aptly points out, many people look at our age as one of unprecedented violence and terror to be viewed with pessimism. Drawing on historical analysis, psychological research and findings from related sciences such as anthropology, sociology, and economics Pinker argues that the data paint a very different picture. In the first chapter, Pinker takes the reader on a quick journey through the history of the world pointing out that the ancient and medieval worlds were very different than the world we live in today. Numerous prehistoric skeletons bear evidence of very violent deaths. Ancient people destroyed entire tribes. Romans carried out violent executions. Medieval Knights led lies of violence and other Europeans meted out horrendous punishments for acts which might not even be judged worthy of condemnation in today's democracies. Finally, the early 20th century saw two World Wars before the long peace ensued. In light of that history, Pinker argues that perhaps we should reconsider our assumptions about our own world.In the first section of the book, Pinker identifies six historical trends which could have led to declines in violence. The first trend he calls the Pacification Process by which people gave up nomadic hunting and gathering lives for lives of agriculture in cities. Competition and anarchy in the prehistoric world made violence necessary for survival. The development of agriculture called for greater cooperation between individuals and the formation of governments to impose order created a world where violence was not always in one's best interest. Statistical analysis supports the idea that the emergence of states lead to a decline in violence. The second trend, the Civilizing Process, is an idea he developed from the work of Norbert Elias. In the late medieval and early modern periods, etiquette and social norms began to be important in social interactions, economics and technology began to advance, and governments began to become more centralized. This trend was also accompanied by a decline in violence. The third trend is the Humanitarian Revolution during which people began to increasingly find practices, such as torture, capital punishment, war and slavery, morally questionable. Empathy, compassion, and peace became important characteristics. The fourth trend is the Long Peace, which stems from the realization that since World War II no two major world powers have gone to war and, in spite of predictions to the contrary, nuclear weapons have never been used. …

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

This book is a guide to the law that applies in the three international criminal tribunals, for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, set up by the UN during the period 1993 to 2002 to deal with atrocities and human rights abuses committed during conflict in those countries. Building on the work of an earlier generation of war crimes courts, these tribunals have developed a sophisticated body of law concerning the elements of the three international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes), and forms of participation in such crimes, as well as other general principles of international criminal law, procedural matters and sentencing. The legacy of the tribunals will be indispensable as international law moves into a more advanced stage, with the establishment of the International Criminal Court. Their judicial decisions are examined here, as well as the drafting history of their statutes and other contemporary sources.

The UN International Criminal Tribunals: The Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone

Why do states create enforceable international human rights norms that empower third parties to prevent and sanction domestic human rights abuses? Recent theories suggest that international institutions are shaped not only by power and interests but also by the content of arguments during intensive communication and argumentation processes. Moving beyond the simple notion that “communication matters,” I argue that states are likely to be persuaded by arguments that draw on widespread taken-for-granted norms, in particular, prohibitions on bodily harm, the importance of precedent in decision making, and the link between cooperation and progress. This model extends previous theories by specifying mechanisms and scope conditions for international change through persuasion. I illustrate the argument by examining the convention against torture, a costly international institution that allows domestic courts to prosecute crimes that occur in the territory of other states (universal jurisdiction). Because of its enforcement mechanisms, the torture convention poses a difficult case for theories explaining international institutions. If persuasion models can explain even costly institutions, they should be more widely considered as explanations for all kinds of international institutions.

Explaining Costly International Institutions: Persuasion and Enforceable Human Rights Norms

This article considers the ongoing effort by campaigners in Spain to gain official recognition of the human rights crimes of the Franco dictatorship. Despite estimates placing the number of Republican supporters summarily executed and buried in unmarked graves during and after the civil war at 30,000, demand for an official investigation has only surfaced in the past five years. The article offers an explanation both for the longevity of Spain's unspoken pacto del olvido (pact of forgetting) and for its recent unraveling, in the context of contemporary debates involving issues of transitional justice and memory politics.

Is Spain Recovering its Memory? Breaking the Pacto del Olvido

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non-binding or so-called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/publications/lines_international_journal_of_prisoner_mental_health_the_right_to_health_of_prisoners_in_international_human_rights_law_2008.pdf

The right to health of prisoners in international human rights law

Globally, the methodologies of legal education have not changed in any fundamental way, some methods dating back hundreds of years. Law schools have relied, for too long, on passive learning methods such as lectures or cases. Clinical legal education provides an alternative that is more than just another pedagogical method. It provides a way for students to experience their emerging professional selves, while providing services or projects with poor and underrepresented clients. This book documents both the historical origins of clinical experiments in the earliest days of US university legal education, and the now-global reach of clinical pedagogy as a proven tool for effective training of legal professionals.

The Global Evolution of Clinical Legal Education: More than a Method

The 1998 arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, based on the warrant of a Spanish court for crimes committed in Chile, was a landmark in the movement for international justice and accountability. The story behind the Spanish prosecutions, both legal and political, is little-known outside of a small circle of lawyers and activists who initially mounted the case in the Spanish Audiencia Nacional. This paper tells that story. Parallel actions against the military leadership of Chile and Argentina began in the Spanish courts in 1996 with the careful marshalling of evidence to show the pattern of torture and disappearances by the governments of both countries. This article documents the procedural history and the evidence offered in both the Chilean and Argentine prosecutions, and gives the context of Spanish law and procedure on which the prosecutions were based.

Prosecuting Pinochet: International Crimes in Spanish Domestic Law

Table of authorities Preface 1. An overview of international human rights and humanitarian law development and their protection mechanisms 2. Formal sources and principles of international human rights and humanitarian law 3. Incorporation of international human rights and humanitarian law in U.S. law 4. International human rights tribunal procedure and remedies 5. Substantive international human rights and humanitarian law protections 6. Theory and critique Index.

International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Treaties, Cases, and Analysis

Clinical legal education is one of the most exciting and well-accepted innovations in legal education during the 20th Century. This article defines what the author means by clinical legal education and discusses its world-wide dissemination, primarily through foundations and government funding: the Ford Foundation, the Open Society programs of George Soros, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the American Bar Association's CEELI program, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and some international financial institutions such as the World Bank. The article briefly examines 'best practices' in the globalization of clinics in Poland, South Africa and Chile.

Richard J. Wilson

Papers

The Global Evolution of Clinical Legal Education: More than a Method

Prosecuting Pinochet: International Crimes in Spanish Domestic Law

International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Treaties, Cases, and Analysis

Prosecuting Pinochet: International Crimes in Spanish Domestic Law

Training for Justice: The Global Reach of Clinical Legal Education