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Human Rights Advocacy in the United States

3rd Edition
Martha F. Davis | Johanna Kalb | Risa E. Kaufman | Rachel López
ISBN: 9781647085629
Subject: International-Human Rights
Format: Print - Hardbound
Page Count: 915
Copyright: 2023 | Status: In Stock
Other Formats Available

This pedagogically innovative book is the only law school casebook focused on human rights advocacy in the United States. It illuminates a range of both emerging challenges and persistent theoretical and doctrinal issues while equipping students to thoughtfully engage human rights law and strategies in their own practice of law. Readings and case studies expose students to the history, tactics, and critiques of the U.S. human rights movement as well as the legal and practical challenges of human rights implementation in the United States. Skills exercises introduce practice-oriented approaches to integrating human rights in U.S. based advocacy, including through engagement with international treaty bodies, regional mechanisms, U.S. courts, and policymakers. Additionally, the appendices provide the text of relevant human rights treaties.

Appropriate for both introductory and advanced seminars, as well as clinical and other experiential offerings, the materials engage students on a remarkable range of human rights issues, including climate change, reproductive justice, immigration, the rights of Indigenous peoples, racially discriminatory policing, and the human right to housing. Chapters also explore fundamental issues of federalism, sovereignty, judicial review, and legal ethics.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 03/29/2023

Martha F. Davis, Northeastern University School of Law

Johanna Kalb, University of Idaho College of Law

Risa E. Kaufman, New York University School of Law

Rachel López, Drexel University School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

  • A new print or digital casebook
  • Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
  • 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:
  • Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
  • Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

The Third Edition is updated to reflect the changing U.S. political and legal landscape as well as the enduring value of the human rights framework. In line with challenges facing U.S. lawyers and human rights activists, the Third Edition places greater emphasis on racial justice, environmental justice, and reproductive justice issues. It includes deeper consideration of Indigenous peoples and human rights, more attention to the role that human rights play in collective mobilization, and expanded consideration of critical perspectives on human rights advocacy. New examples focus on the impacts of the Black Lives Matter movement and advocacy around water unaffordability.

The Third edition explores how, in the midst of fundamental shifts in U.S. politics and constitutional jurisprudence, human rights offer a powerful normative frame of individual rights and government obligations, as well as important strategies for movement-based activism.

Learn more about this series.