A Bill to enable the United Kingdom to implement the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and the Protocols to that Convention of 1954 and 1999. Brought from the Lords, 13 September 2016. Explanatory notes to the Bill, prepared by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, are published separately as Bill 66-EN (ISBN 9780215090430)
These Explanatory Notes relate to the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill [HL] as brought from the House of Lords on 13 September 2016 (Bill 66, ISBN 9780215093417)
Parliament and the Law (Second Edition) is an edited collection of essays, supported by the UK's Study of Parliament Group, including contributions by leading constitutional lawyers, political scientists and parliamentary officials. It provides a wide-ranging overview of the ways in which the law applies to, and impacts upon, the UK Parliament, and it considers how recent changes to the UK's constitutional arrangements have affected Parliament as an institution. It includes authoritative discussion of a number of issues of topical concern, such as: the operation of parliamentary privilege, the powers of Parliament's select committees, parliamentary scrutiny, devolution, English Votes for English Laws, Members' conduct and the governance of both Houses. It also contains chapters on financial scrutiny, parliamentary sovereignty, Parliament and human rights, and the administration of justice. Aimed mainly at legal academics, practitioners, and political scientists, it will also be of interest to anyone who is curious about the many fascinating ways in which the law interacts with and influences the work, the constitutional status and the procedural arrangements of the Westminster Parliament.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted by the UN Commission on Human Rights in the aftermath of the World War II in an attempt to address the wrongs of the past and plan for a better future for all. With contributions from President Jimmy Carter, UNESCO Secretary General Audrey Azoulay and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, this collection of essays, Contemporary Human Rights Challenges: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its Continuing Relevance, by leading international experts offers a timely contemporary view on the UDHR and its continuing relevance to today’s issues. Reflecting the structure of the UDHR, the chapters, written by 28 academics, practitioners and activists, bring a contemporary perspective to the original principles proclaimed in the Declaration’s 30 Articles. It will be a stimulating accessible read, with real world examples, for anyone involved in thinking about, designing or applying public policy, particularly government officials, politicians, lawyers, journalists and academics and those engaged in promoting social justice. Examined through these universal principles, which have enduring relevance, the authors grapple with some of today’s most pressing challenges, some of which, for example equality and gender related rights, would not have been foreseen by the original drafters of the Declaration, who included Eleanor Roosevelt, René Cassin and John Humphrey. The essays cover a wide range of topics such as an individual’s right to privacy in a digital age, freedom to practise one’s religion and the right to redress, and make a compelling and detailed argument for the on-going importance and significance of the Declaration and human rights in our rapidly changing world.
This new text provides practical guidance on the modern law relating to cultural objects which have been stolen, looted or illegally exported. It explains how English criminal law principles, including money laundering measures, apply to those who deal in cultural objects in a domestic or international setting. It discusses the recovery of works of art and antiquities in the English courts where there are competing claims between private individuals, or between individuals and the UK Government or a foreign State. Significantly, this text also provides an exposition of the law where a British law enforcement agency, or a foreign law enforcement agency, is involved in the course of criminal or civil proceedings in an English court. The growth of relevant international instruments, which include not only those devoted to the protection of mankind's cultural heritage but also those concerned with money laundering and serious organised crime, provide a backdrop to this discussion. The UK's ratification of the UNESCO Convention on Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970 in 2002 is considered. The problems posed in attempting to curb trafficking in art and antiquities are explored and the effectiveness of the current law is analysed.
Now available online: The Global Politics of Human Rights: Bringing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) into the 21st Century (2020), a publication from the Berlin Forum on Global Politics (BFoGP) in collaboration with the Institute for Global Dialogue and the RECLAIM! Universal Human Rights Initiative. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), even more than 70 years after its adoption, continues to provide the foundation for national and international laws concerned with human dignity and the universal and inalienable freedoms and claims of every person. A living document, the core principles enshrined in the UDHR are as relevant as ever to better the human condition and societies worldwide. This collected volume is an open knowledge publication, freely accessible under a Creative Commons license, which includes 24 articles written by numerous well-informed stakeholders from across the globe, who include human rights scholars and practitioners, experts and activists, researchers and members of civil society and non-governmental organizations. It addresses particular aspects of the history of the UDHR, the expansion and implementation of its Articles, its role in the prevention of violence, and its potential to address a changing world. As a whole, the publication serves two goals: on the one hand, it clarifies why the UDHR continues to be strongly relevant to the contemporary values, dynamics, and conditions of human rights in the 21st century; and, on the other hand, it illustrates how the UDHR and its Articles can be further adapted and implemented to uphold and safeguard human rights even in times when global politics often follow the siren songs of populism, authoritarianism, nativism, and extremism.
