Papers by Hooman Movassagh
In an ever more converging world that is accustomed to the phenomenon of globalization, two force... more In an ever more converging world that is accustomed to the phenomenon of globalization, two forces, one in economics and another in human rights, are more prominent than others. Human rights have, since the 50’s, increasingly gained influence and scope and become a yardstick whereby State actions are measured. The ethical repercussions of human rights are profound and, even though they lack forceful machinery for full implementation, States have consistently shown sensitivity to evaluations of their human rights practices. This itself has motivated them to implement a variety of policies to distance themselves from condemnations of their practice. Due to the theoretical and practical importance of this issue, it is necessary to analyze the ethical basis of human rights. In this paper, a brief description of different ethical positions is provided, followed by an evaluation of the ethical basis of the international system of human rights, drawing upon certain elements of this system.
تحقیقات حقوقی, Jun 24, 2014
Indiana Health Law Review, 2016
The National Organ Transplant Act has been unsuccessful in overcoming human organ shortages in th... more The National Organ Transplant Act has been unsuccessful in overcoming human organ shortages in the United States. There are calls for compensating human organ donations that refer to the "Iranian Model." The Iranian model is a compensated scheme for organ donations that is often mistakenly thought of as a "sale" of organs. The reality is, within the context of the Iranian legal system, the compensation is for the act of donation and is characterized as a contract of "reward." Given the specific regulations on the different forms of contract under the Iranian Civil Code, this characterization holds significant legal and ethical importance. A sale of human organs under the Civil Code would result in the immediate ownership of the organ by the purchaser, whereas this would be an absurd result under Iranian law. A proper understanding of the Iranian model is essential for potential regulatory reform in the United States. This paper sets out a precise clarification of the legal intricacies of human organ donations in Iran.
Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 2014
This article examines peace education in Iran at the primary and secondary levels. It starts by b... more This article examines peace education in Iran at the primary and secondary levels. It starts by briefly reviewing the fundamental issues that need to be addressed to achieve a culture of peace in any given society, such as cycles in social relations that may establish endemic poverty, violence, and discrimination. The paper highlights the measures necessary to supersede these cycles and social arrangements and examines the need for promotion of peace education and empowerment across all segments of society. Among such measures, peace education is considered essential because it serves the dual roles of advancing awareness and providing capacity and skill to initiate social change. The case of Iran and the challenges that hinder the development of peace education in Iran are then examined. These include a lack of critical and diverse perspectives, lack of understanding on the part of most teachers and peace trainers about the importance of peace and all its aspects, and the content o...
Human Rights Law Review, 2010
In this article it is submitted that the text of the Optional Protocol to the International Coven... more In this article it is submitted that the text of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as finally adopted on 10 December 2008, is to be seen as the outcome of a drafting process that was dominated by ideological prejudices rather than concerns with potential effectiveness. It goes without saying that political and
Annals of Internal Medicine, 1979
Razlažu se pojedini aspekti konvencije o ljudskim pravima i biomedicini te popratni protokol o za... more Razlažu se pojedini aspekti konvencije o ljudskim pravima i biomedicini te popratni protokol o zabrani kloniranja ljudskih bica. Zakljucak je da pravne norme sublimiraju moralna nacela koja proizlaze iz svijeta života.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2009
Persian Abstract: شبيه سازي انسان از جمله فن آوريهايي است كه به خاطر جنبههاي مختلف اخلاقي آن به ش... more Persian Abstract: شبيه سازي انسان از جمله فن آوريهايي است كه به خاطر جنبههاي مختلف اخلاقي آن به شدت مورد اختلاف است. صاحبنظران در موافقت و مخالفت با اين فن آوري استدلالهايي مطرح كردهاند كه در تضاد با يكديگر بوده، بر مباني فكري متفاوتی بنا شده اند. دولتها نيز در وضع قوانين رويكردهاي متفاوتي به اين فن آوري داشته اند. به دليل ابعاد جهاني اين فن آوري، دولتها خواستار تنظيم معاهده اي بين المللي براي قاعده مند كردن آن شدند. اين خواسته، با وجود آنكه در سطح اروپا امكان پذير بوده، در سطح جهاني با شكست مواجه شده و به تصويب اعلاميه اي ضعيف در مجمع عمومي سازمان ملل متحد منتهي شده است. با آنكه دولتها همگي بر نظام بين المللي حقوق بشر به عنوان مبناي مشترك بحث درباره اين موضوع اتفاق داشتند، تفاسير مختلفي كه از قواعد و مفاهيم اين نظام ارايه كردند در عمل مانع از حصول توافق بين آنها شد. در اين رساله، ضمن بررسي انتقادي رويكردهاي مختلف به شبيه سازي انسان، ضرورت مبنا قرار گرفتن نظام بين المللي حقوق بشر براي قاعده مند كردن شبيه سازي در سطح بين المللي توجيه شده است. سپس، قواعد مرتبط اين نظام با شبيه سازي بررسي شده اند و در نهايت، مفاهيمي كه نظام بين المللي حقوق بشر با آنها ساخته و پرداخته شده، تحليل شده اند تا سازگارترين رويكرد به شبيه سازي انسان با نظام بين المللي حقوق بشر معرفي گردد.English Abstract: Human cloning is one of the most hotly debated scientific issues of our time. Theorists have provided conflicting opinions in agreement and disagreement with this technology, such opinions often being based on differing ethical theories. States have also adopted diverging approaches to this technology. Due to the global ramifications of human cloning, States have sought the conclusion of a global treaty for the regulation thereof. Although this has been possible within the regional setting of Europe, the global attempt at regulation has failed and simply resulted in the adoption of a weak resolution by the UN General Assembly. Although States were in agreement about the international system of human rights as being the general theory of ethics, guiding the discussions for regulation, the divergent interpretations provided by States on the rules and concepts of this system were such as to preclude the possibility of a meaningful agreement.In this thesis, after critically reviewing the different positions on the ethical aspects of human cloning, the necessity of basing the international system of human rights as the general ethical theory for the international regulation of this technology is justified. Then, the relevant rules of the said system are reviewed and finally, an analysis of the core concepts of the international system of human rights as they relate to the subject at hand is provided in order to introduce the most compatible approach to human cloning with the international system of human rights.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P), 2015
Thirteen years ago the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty published i... more Thirteen years ago the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty published its voluminous report on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). As international law knows no central legislator and state practice is often contradictory and inconsequential, doctrine may fill an important lacuna by devising overarching structures in an otherwise largely disordered legal reality. This may at least partly explain why in this field the conceiving of new concepts and approaches is so popular. R2P is presented as a wholly new instrument that is equivalent to an epochal step of development in international law. R2P applies to grave human rights breaches with "large scale loss of life or large scale ethnic cleansing". R2P is now a firmly established concept, and therefore it should be fairly unproblematic to look back, even if a strong relationship with humanitarian intervention thereby becomes evident. Keywords: ethnic cleansing; human rights; humanitarian intervention; international law; Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Policy-oriented jurisprudence or the "New Haven School" as it was once called, was pres... more Policy-oriented jurisprudence or the "New Haven School" as it was once called, was presented by Harold Lasswell and Myres McDougal and continues to be of significance in the philosophy of law today. Usually classified as one of the sociological schools of jurisprudence, it purports to provide a philosophy of law whereby the goal of a public order of human dignity is considered to be the goal of law, and indeed of the wider social context in which law operates. The school also sets out eight values and describes processes and conceptions whereby its goal is to be achieved. This paper provides a critique of this jurisprudence and analyses its internal structure to show its inconsistency. It concludes that policy-oriented jurisprudence cannot achieve the goal of human dignity based on the other elements of its philosophical system.
Persian Abstract: پديده ها و دستاوردهاي علوم زيستي و پزشكي كه موضوع آنها انسان است، همواره با سوا... more Persian Abstract: پديده ها و دستاوردهاي علوم زيستي و پزشكي كه موضوع آنها انسان است، همواره با سوالات اخلاقي بسياري همراه بوده اند. پاسخگويي به اينگونه سوالات اخلاقي نيز مستلزم بهره گرفتن از نظريات كلي اخلاقي است كه تفاوتهاي فاحش و بنياديني با يكديگر دارند. به تدريج رشته اي به نام اخلاق زيستي ايجاد شده كه از جمله رشته هاي در حال توسعه است و در سطح جهاني مورد توجه قرار گرفته. هدف از اين رشته پاسخگويي به سوالات اخلاقي مربوط به علوم زيستي و پزشكي است. از جمله مسايلي كه در اخلاق زيستي اهميت بسزايي دارد، مبناي فلسفي يا نظريه كلي است كه بر اساس آن مي توان پديده ها و دستاوردهاي جديد علمي و پزشكي را قاعده مند كرد و داوريهاي اخلاقي مناسبي انجام داد. در اين مقاله، ضمن بيان برخي از اين مباني فلسفي، نشان داده خواهد شد كه رويكرد مناسب در سطح بين المللي هم به لحاظ منطقي و هم به لحاظ عملي، رويكرد مبتني بر نظام بين المللي حقوق بشر است و همين رويكرد توسط دولتها اتخاذ شده است. English Abstract: Biological and medical innovations and phenomena, the subject of which are the human individual, often entai...
Oxford Scholarship Online
One critique of some common-law comparative legal academies is their intensively “court-centric” ... more One critique of some common-law comparative legal academies is their intensively “court-centric” focus, which, some believe, “marginalize[s]” the role of the legislative branch. The same may be said of the extant comparative international law literature: most of it concerns the interpretive approaches of national courts. In fact, one of the field’s seminal pieces characterizes comparative international law as involving “comparative analyses of various domestic court decisions.” Not surprisingly, then, nearly all of this volume’s contributions deal mostly or exclusively with courts and judicial decisions. We agree that courts can play a large part in diversifying how international law works across different systems, but we contend that the foundation of the comparative international law project lies elsewhere. We argue that among the most important and underappreciated interpretative acts—and therefore, those currently most needing study—are the international law interpretations of n...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
One critique of some common-law comparative legal academies is their intensively “court-centric” ... more One critique of some common-law comparative legal academies is their intensively “court-centric” focus, which, some believe, “marginalize[s]” the role of the legislative branch. The same may be said of the extant comparative international law literature: most of it concerns the interpretive approaches of national courts. In fact, one of the field’s seminal pieces defines comparative international law as the process of “seeking to identify and interpret international law by engaging in comparative analyses of various domestic court decisions.” Not surprisingly, then, nearly all of this volume’s contributions deal mostly or exclusively with courts and judicial decisions. While we agree with this volume’s other contributors that courts can play a significant part in diversifying how international law works across different systems, we contend that the foundation of the comparative international law project lies elsewhere. We argue that among the most important and under-appreciated interpretative acts — and therefore, those currently most needing study — are the international law interpretations of national legislatures.
and by virtue of Article 5 of the Foetus Donation to Infertile Couples Act of 2003, has approved ... more and by virtue of Article 5 of the Foetus Donation to Infertile Couples Act of 2003, has approved the following Executive Byelaw for the aforesaid Act: Foetus Donation to Infertile Couples Act Executive Byelaw Chapter one: Definitions and general provisions Article 1-In this Byelaw, the following terms shall have the corresponding meanings set out hereunder: A-Act: means the Foetus Donation to Infertile Couples Act of 2003. B-Foetus: is the embryo resulting from in vitro fertilization of lawfully wed couples, for the period from conception to a maximum of five days. The foetus may be either fresh or frozen. C-Foetus donation: the voluntary and free submission of one or several foetus(es) from couples fulfilling the requirements set forth in the Act and this Byelaw to the authorized specialized infertility cure centres for transfer to requesting couples who satisfy the conditions set forth in the Act. Chapter two: Conditions governing foetus donation and receipt Article 2-The donating couple shall meet the following conditions: A-A lawful marital bond and relationship. B-Normal physical and mental health and an appropriate intelligence quotient. C-Lack of addiction to narcotics and other addictive substances. D-Freedom from affliction by incurable diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis and…. Note-Authorized specialized infertility cure centres shall, prior to receiving the foetus from the donors, ascertain that the above conditions have been met. Article 3-Foetus donation must be by written consent and with the approval of the donating couple and must take place within authorized specialized infertility cure centres through confirming their identity and in complete confidentiality.
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Papers by Hooman Movassagh
States have also adopted diverging approaches to this technology. Due to the global ramifications of human cloning, States have sought the conclusion of a global treaty for the regulation thereof. Although this has been possible within the regional setting of Europe, the global attempt at regulation has failed and simply resulted in the adoption of a weak resolution by the UN General Assembly. Although States were in agreement about the international system of human rights as being the general theory of ethics, guiding the discussions for regulation, the divergent interpretations provided by States on the rules and concepts of this system were such as to preclude the possibility of a meaningful agreement.
In this thesis, after critically reviewing the different positions on the ethical aspects of human cloning, the necessity of basing the international system of human rights as the general ethical theory for the international regulation of this technology is justified. Then, the relevant rules of the said system are reviewed and finally, an analysis of the core concepts of the international system of human rights as they relate to the subject at hand is provided in order to introduce the most compatible approach to human cloning with the international system of human rights.