6,061 research outputs found
Putting dignity to bed? The taxing question of the UK’s housing rights ‘relapse’
No full textDespite being ‘wrapped up in . . .ideological discourse,’ the UK’s recent statutory cap on Housing Benefit (a form of welfare payment aimed at helping unemployed or low-paid tenants pay their rent) has significantly affected the lives of ‘some of the most vulnerable members’ of society. Recent domestic case law has examined a range of rights-relevant issues, such as the legal definition of justifiable discrimination, equality, the nature of the overlap between fundamental rights, and the fluid scope of judicial deference and the margin of appreciation as these apply to human rights issues, especially those which are underpinned (or, perhaps more accurately, undermined) by socio-economic decision-making. Taken together the decisions provide fairly detailed guidance, if only very limited hope, for anyone seeking to argue that the various impacts of harsh austerity measures might amount to unlawful human rights infringements at national level. There is little sign that a meaningfully juridical right to adequate housing is being embedded in domestic law here, with judicial concern over preserving finite, scarce resources generally serving to ‘trump’ the various arguments put forward by housing rights advocates
Law and adoption in the UK: a conversation with Alice Diver
No full textProfessor Emily Hipchen (Editor of Adoption & Culture (adoptionandculture.org), Director of Nonfiction Writing, Senior Lecturer in English, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island ) in conversation with Dr Alice Diver (School of Law, QUB, N Ireland) about some of the themes underpinning her recent publication, “Monstrous Othering”: The Gothic Nature of Origin-Tracing in Law and Literature” (November, 2021).The session opens with a brief discussion of their own respective experiences as ‘mother and baby home’ adoptees in the U.S. and Canada in the 1960’s, before turning to an analysis of how the particular adoptee brand of ‘fearful otherness’ is often represented -and indeed perpetuated – in certain works of 'monstrous orphan' fiction e.g. Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein,’ Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, and Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go.’ In respect of achieving meaningful sociolegal and cultural reforms, language is key. The debates surrounding the wording of Ireland’s controversial Birth Information and Tracing Act (2022) highlighted how lingering prejudices still attach to the topic of adoption and to the need to find one's origins. Discriminatory barriers to access - and contact with genetic relatives – still exist: the use of labels matters too, as the controversy over the use of the term ‘birth mother’ within the legislation (since amended to ‘mother’) also evidenced. Though mainly relevant to adoptee rights, and adoption law and policy, debates and discourse on language may also impact on other areas where losses of origins occur, such as surrogacy and international adoption
Introduction
No full textThe concept of genetic stigma, in the sense of being othered on the basis of one’s birth status or ancestry, is seen frequently in various works of literature—and in the mechanisms of law or custom—across a wide range of eras. This book looks to differing genres (folklore, faery tales, classic novels, children’s literature, science fiction) where orphans, foundlings, and adoptees have been othered, discriminated against, or somehow disenfranchised.<br/
Adoption’s ‘golden age’: from orphan rescue to the rights of the child
No full textVarious mythologies have attached to the ‘adoption industrial complex’ which established itself in the late nineteenth century, both within and across national borders, bolstered by the belief that many orphans and foundlings are easily uprooted and happy to be transplanted.<br/
Legal fictions, dystopian truths: [re]writing family life rights
No full textForced adoption and orphanisation have frequently been depicted in various works of dystopian fiction: usually they underscore the corrupt nature of a revolutionary or totalitarian regime. Civil and political rights violations (torture, slavery, deprivation of liberty, or loss of life) are often the key plot points, but the absence of family life rights may lead to the most emotive scenes or resonate deeply with readers.<br/
Customs and ‘laws’ of orphanisation: bastards and foundlings in folklore and fairy tale
No full textAbsence of natal origin has long been framed as a worrying sign of otherness: often steeped in stigma, it can both spark and signify unfairness, inequality, and societal injustice. This chapter offers analysis of the sociolegal and cultural significances that seem to underpin the need for knowable and authentic ancestral identity.<br/
Justiciability of Human Rights Law in Domestic Jurisdictions
Full text linkThis collection of 16 essays by 19 contributors calls into question the notion of domestic justiciability across a wide range of human rights issues, such as health, human dignity, criminal justice, property and transitional democracy. The authors offer critical analyses of a number of rights frameworks, focusing in considerable detail upon specific countries (e.g. Libya, Colombia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, India) and regions (e.g. Europe, Africa) to highlight the various challenges which continue to vex human rights advocates and scholars. In doing so they pinpoint some of the major tensions that still exist within developing and developed jurisdictions, via a myriad range of perspectives. The essays collectively present a diverse assortment of themes unified by a single ‘golden thread’ – that of the domestic interpretations given to human rights protections. They raise questions as to how such rights might be made substantive at the level of domestic implementation, and query the extent to which these rights can, or even should, be enforced by the courts. The potential strains in the relationship between human rights and the rule of law, is further called into question by another central theme: that of human dignity. A fundamental dilemma arises in respect of the extent to which a ‘right’ to dignity can best be promoted, protected or monitored by domestic decision-makers. Similar issues are apparent within the context of the protection of those human rights which increasingly tend to engage social, political or economic considerations and interests. Whilst these arguments are often framed principally in terms of ‘rights,’ the collective message that emerges from this book is that such rights may often be, in fact, essentially non-justiciable. Readers of this text will perhaps feel compelled to reflect carefully and fully upon what it tells us about human rights law generally, and the extent to which such rights may be truly amenable to adjudication by the courts
Alice and Cliff Donahue
No full textPhotograph - Friends of Alice B. and William Clifford Donahue, Athabasca, Alberta. Seated, left to right: Cliff Donahue, Joe Mikkelsen, Beryl Mikkelsen, and Marge Logan. Standing, left to right: Don Logan, Alice B. Donahue, Aaron Jones, Lorene Jones, and Beatrice Par
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