Document Type

Article

Publication Title

DePaul Law Review

Abstract

Much of the focus of this Symposium has been on the exportation of U.S. laws and procedural practices to the rest of the world. I suspect that this focus will seem quite natural to most Americans, who are accustomed to thinking that our legal system, especially our constitutional commitment to fundamental rights, provides a model that other countries would be well advised to emulate. This confident, perhaps arrogant, self-conception as a moral beacon for the rest of the world has deep roots in U.S. history and seems as strong today as it has ever been. In contrast, many Americans are apt to be far less comfortable with the notion that when it comes to justice, we may have something to learn from other nations-that we may benefit from the importation, not just the exportation, of rights. It is just this uncomfortable reversal of roles, however, that I wish to explore. I focus particularly on the bearing of the U.S. Constitution on the importation of international human rights norms. What processes does the Constitution direct Americans to pursue when they seek the incorporation of globally validated human rights norms into domestic law? Is the Constitution cosmopolitan or parochial with respect to rights?

First Page

579

Volume

52

Publication Date

2002

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