The Status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in National and International Law
THE STATUS OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW Hurst Hannum* CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 289 I. THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION IN NATIONAL LAW .......... 292 A. Reference to the Universal Declaration in National Courts .................................. 292 1. The Universal DeclarationAs a Rule of Deci- sion ............................. 296 2. The Universal DeclarationAs an Aid to Consti- tutional or Statutory Interpretation ........ 298 3. Judicial Rejection of the Universal Declaration As Relevant to Interpretationsof Domestic Law ............................. 311 B. Influence of the Universal Declaration on Legislative and Administrative Acts ..................... 312 IlI. STATUS OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION IN CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW .......... 317 A. Views of the InternationalCourt of Justice ........... 335 B. The Content of Customary Law Evidenced in the Decla- ration .................................. 340 * Associate Professor of International Law, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. This article is based on a report prepared by the author as Rapporteur of the Committee on the Enforcement of International Human Rights Law of the International Law Association. The author would like to thank Richard B. Lillich, Chairman of the Committee; current or former Committee members Andrew Byrnes, Subrata Roy Chowdhury, Emmanuel Decaux, John Dugard, Kshama Femando, Jan Helgesen, Matthias Herdegen, Christof H. Heyns, John P. Humphrey, Menno T. Kamminga, Vladimir A. Kartashkin, Mathias-Charles Krafft, Anthony P. Lester, Dennis Mahoney, Momir Milojevic, Matti PellonpM, Rodney N. Purvis, Voitto Saario, Dhruba B. S. Thapa, Antonio A. Cangado Trindade, Raul Vinuesa, and Mandigui V. Yokabdjim; and Research Assistants Jennifer Gergen, Laura Gil, Kingsley Moghalu, and Jean-Louis Robadey for their comments and assistance in gathering often difficult-to-find information.
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