Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 55 | Issue 3 Article 7 Summer 6-1-1998 New Challenges for the American Lawyer in International Human Rights Susan L. Karamanian Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Human Rights Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Susan L. Karamanian, New Challenges for the American Lawyer in International Human Rights, 55 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 757 (1998), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol55/iss3/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. New Challenges for the American Lawyer in International Human Rights Susan L. Karamanian* I Introduction Every licensed lawyer in the United States takes an oath to support or uphold the Constitution of the United States and to support or uphold the laws of the respective state in which he or she is licensed. Every lawyer licensed to practice in a federal court in the United States similarly swears to uphold the laws of the United States Constitution. No explicit reference is made to the obligation of a lawyer to support or uphold international law, let alone the law of international human rights. For many practitioners and courts alike, international norms on human rights are irrelevant, for "it is American conceptions of decency that are dis- positive."' Domestic lawyers, however, more often are invoking the law of international human rights in an effort to expand the protection afforded their clients' civil, criminal, social, political, and economic rights.