Overview

""Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised."" So reads the legal definition of slavery agreed by the League of Nations in 1926. Further enshrined in law during international negotiations in 1956 and 1998, this definition has been interpreted in different ways by the international courts in the intervening years. What can be considered slavery? Should forced labour be considered slavery? Debt-bondage? Child soldiering? Or forced marriage?This book explores the limits of how slavery is understood in law. It shows how the definition of slavery in law and the contemporary understanding of slavery has continually evolved and continues to be contentious. It traces the evolution of concepts of slavery, from Roman law through the Middle Ages, the 18th and 19th centuries, up to the modern day manifestations, including manifestations of forced labour and trafficking in persons, and considers how the 1926 definition can distinguish slavery from lesser servitudes.Together the contributors have put together a set of guidelines intended to clarify the law where slavery is concerned. The Bellagio-Harvard Guidelines on the Legal Parameters of Slavery, reproduced here for the first time, takes their shared understanding of both the past and present to project a consistent interpretation of the legal definition of slavery for the future.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jean Allain (Professor of Public International Law, Queen's University Belfast)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.40cm , Height: 2.90cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.762kg
ISBN:  

9780199660469

ISBN 10:   0199660468
Pages:   416
Publication Date:   27 September 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Bellagio-Harvard Guidelines on the Legal Parameters of Slavery Introduction Section 1: Historical Readings of the Law of Slavery 1: Antony Honore: The Nature of Slavery 2: Richard Helmholz: The Law of Slavery in European ius commune 3: Bernard Freamon: Definition and Conceptions of Slave Ownership in Islamic Law 4: John Cairns: The Definition of Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Thinking: Not the True Roman Slavery 5: Seymour Drescher: From Consensus to Consensus: Slavery in International Law Section 2: The American Experience: Blurred Boundaries of Slavery 6: Paul Finkelman: Slavery in the United States: Persons or Property?, 7: Allison Mileo Gorsuch: To Indent Oneself: Ownership, Contracts, and Consent in Antebellum Illinois 8: Rebecca Scott: Under Color of Law: Siliadin v. France and the Dynamics of Enslavement in Historical Perspective 9: Stanley Engerman: The Rise, Persistence, and Slow Decline of Legal Slavery 10: William M. Carter, Jr.: The Abolition of Slavery in the United States: Historical Context and its Contemporary Application Section 3: The 1926 Definition in Context 11: Jean Allain: The Definition of Slavery into the Twenty-First Century 12: Robin Hickey: Seeking to Understand the Definition of Slavery 13: J. E. Penner: The Concept of Property and the Concept of Slavery 14: Joel Quirk: Defining Slavery in all its Forms: Historical Inquiry as Contemporary Instruction Section 4: Contemporary Slavery 15: Kevin Bales: Slavery in its Contemporary Manifestations 16: Holly Cullen: Contemporary International Legal Norms on Slavery: Problems of Judicial Interpretation and Application 17: Orlando Patterson: Trafficking, Gender, and Slavery: Past and Present 18: Professor Kevin Bales' Response to Professor Orlando Patterson 19: Professor Patterson Rejoiner: A Response to Professor Kevin Bales Appendices 1926 Slavery Convention 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery

Reviews

The book includes a great richness and variety of perspectives on slavery offered by some of the leading experts in this field. Silvia Scarpa, Leiden Journal of International Law

The book includes a great richness and variety of perspectives on slavery offered by some of the leading experts in this field. * Silvia Scarpa, Leiden Journal of International Law *

Author Information

Jean Allain is Professor of Public International Law at Queen's University, Belfast. He is Extraordinary Professor, Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is founding Editor of the Irish Yearbook of International Law and the author of The Slavery Conventions (2008) and Slavery in International Law (2012).

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