Lexington Books
Pages: 254
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-4985-3470-3 • Hardback • July 2016 • $109.00 • (£84.00)
978-1-4985-3472-7 • Paperback • May 2018 • $53.99 • (£42.00)
978-1-4985-3471-0 • eBook • July 2016 • $51.00 • (£39.00)
Stephen A. Simon is associate professor of political science and coordinator of the Program in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) at the University of Richmond.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Customary International Law and the Alien Tort Statute
Chapter 3: The Domestic Force of Treaties
Chapter 4: Limits in the Fight against Terrorism
Chapter 5: Foreign Law in Constitutional Interpretation
Chapter Six: Common Themes: Internationalists and Sovereigntists
Bibliography
Simon analyzes the developing battle between internationalist Supreme Court justices who push for greater accommodation of foreign law against those who view this not only as an infringement on American sovereignty but as a perversion of the country’s democratic principles. What is at stake is nothing less than whether the United States fully subscribes to human rights standards. The book is written with great intelligence and insight and it most assuredly will be the standard text in the scholarly treatment of the domestic incorporation of international human rights law.
— Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina at Asheville, and Lund University and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute
This is a wonderful book that informs our understanding of the role of international law in U.S. courts. By looking in great detail at the Supreme Court’s recent case law, Simon has produced a fresh perspective on international human rights law.
— Donald Earl Childress, Pepperdine University
Simon provides an invaluable and comprehensive analysis of Supreme Court cases considering the force of international human rights law within the American legal system. The book illustrates how the debate over the role of international human rights law in the U.S. is inextricably linked to broader social and political debates—including the legitimacy of an evolving understanding of fundamental rights, the role and relationship of our government’s three branches, the tensions between respect for individual rights and popular sovereignty, and the U.S.’s role in the broader world.
— Cynthia Soohoo, CUNY School of Law