Global Commitments to Human Rights in National Courts in the Age of Obama

Abstract

This article was the Kirby lecture presented in March 2009 at the Southern Cross University in Sydney, Australia. Adrien Wing’s keynote speech was in support of Australian retired Justice Michael Kirby’s legacy that national courts can and should gain strength from international law. The author advances the idea that the interaction of international and national law is one of the greatest challenges in the century ahead, and many countries including the United States and Australia are just in the infancy of realizing this important fact. There is also a slow, but growing, worldwide trend (even in some common law jurisdictions) to use international law more in the national courts. It is the author’s hope, and many others around the world, that President Obama will be a man of change in terms of urging the fostering of a greater synergy between American and international law.

Keywords: Comity of American law, Human Rights, Comparative Law, President Obama, Obama, Justice Kirby, Australia, International Law, American law, Australia and International law, Kirby legacy

JEL Classification: K10, K49, K30, K39