Human rights talk . . . and self-determination, too!

Notre Dame Law Review

Volumn 73, Issue 5, 1998, Pages 1391-1411

  Rodríguez Orellana, Manuel ^{a,b,c,d,e,f,g}  

^a Puerto Rican Independence Party ^*  (Puerto Rico)

^b Inter Amer Univ of Puerto Rico   (United States)

^c NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^e BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^f BOSTON COLLEGE   (United States)

^g HARVARD LAW SCHOOL   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0032383909     PISSN: 07453515     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (109)

1. International and Comparative Aspects of Family Law, Northeastern University School of Law (summer 1987). The course exposed students to the basic concepts of international law development, leading to its manifestations in international human rights, where the institution of the family has become a subject of human rights law. See, e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 16, G.A. Res. 217, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., U.N. Doc. 1/777 (1948); European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Nov. 4, 1950, arts. 8 & 12 (entered into force in 1970); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 23 & 24, G.A. Res. 2200, U.N. GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316/Annex (1966) (entered into force in 1976); International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, arts. 10 & 11, Dec. 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200 & (XXI), Annex (entered into force in 1976); American Convention on Human Rights, arts. 4, 17-19, Nov. 22, 1969, OEA/ser. A/16 (entered into force in 1978); Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, princ. VII, Aug. 1, 1975 (Helsinki Accords). Basic notions of Family Law were covered from a Comparative Law perspective in this course, which also entailed travel to the Republic of Nicaragua for two weeks. In 1987, Nicaragua had just established a new constitution with specific provisions protecting the rights of the family. A "field" component called for meetings with legislators, policy-makers, government officials, attorneys, law students, and law professors to study and discuss the wide-ranging international consultation process which had preceded the adoption and implementation of the 1987 constitution and its new policies.
2. "The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a neutral vowel: various diacritical marks determine its sound." WEBSTER'S NEW UNIVERSAL UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY, (2d ed. 1983).
3. JORGE L. BORGES, EL ALEPH 192 (Madrid 1997). The story appears in a collection of short stories of the same name, originally published in 1949. This Spanish edition corresponds to the one revised by Borges himself and published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974 (All translations from Spanish throughout this article are mine.).
4. Id. at 191-92.
5. Id. at 194.
6. Mary Ann Glendon, Why Cross Boundaries?, 53 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 971, 974 1996) (footnote omitted).
7. Id.
8. Id. at 971.
9. Id.
10. Id. at 972.
11. JORGE L. BORGES, El escritor argentino y la trodición (Discusión), in I OBRAS COM. PLETAS 267 (1989).
12. T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent, in CRITICISM: THE MAJOR TEXTS 525 (Walter Jackson Bate ed., 1952).
13. Arturo Echavarría, América y (en) Europa: Borges y la traditión literaria, in 1 CONJURADOS: ANUARIO BORGIANO 55, 56 (1996).
14. Id. at 57.
15. Id. at 58 (describing conversation between Jorge L. Borges and Puerto Rican Borgian scholar, Arturo Echavarría).
16. Id. at 58-59.
17. "Nuestro patrimonio es el universo." BORGES, supra note 11, at 274.
18. Much of this shines through in her rational and passionate book on the law profession and the legal system in the United States, MARY ANN GLENDON, A NATION UNDER LAWYERS: HOW THE CRISIS IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION IS TRANSFORMING AMERICAN SOCIETY (1994). A random sampler: One ex-con facing an armed robbery charge, however, tried to revoke his choice [to have a volunteer from the bar association] when I showed up to represent him. He wanted a real lawyer, not some girl who was obviously just out of law school. He was very annoyed when the judge refused his request, and disappointed again when [a co-counsel] and I declined his invitation to represent him further after securing a not guilty verdict for him. Id. at 62. "According to a Johns Hopkins University survey, lawyers are more than three times as likely to suffer from symptoms of depression as adults among the general population." Id. at 87. "How did it come about that, within a decade [from her law school years] professional training, the scholarly quest for truth, and the law itself began to lose their appeal among law professors?" Id. at 198.
19. Among my personal favorites of her work are the eye-opening RIGHTS TALK: THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE (1991), and the first edition of her casebook with co-authors Michael Wallace Gordon and Christopher Osakwe, COMPARATIVE LEGAL TRADITIONS (1985) because it dared explore the legal process and methods of a fledgling socialist legal tradition arising from the Bolschevik Revolution in Russia, in the midst of the Reagan years' swan song of the "Evil Empire."
20. Among my personal favorites of her work are the eye-opening RIGHTS TALK: THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE (1991), and the first edition of her casebook with co-authors Michael Wallace Gordon and Christopher Osakwe, COMPARATIVE LEGAL TRADITIONS (1985) because it dared explore the legal process and methods of a fledgling socialist legal tradition arising from the Bolschevik Revolution in Russia, in the midst of the Reagan years' swan song of the "Evil Empire."
21. Carlos I. Gorrín-Peralta, Human Rights: Individual and Collective Freedom for the Satisfaction of Human Needs, in 3 RESEARCH IN LAW AND POLICY STUDIES 109, 110-11 (1995).
22. SAMUEL P. HUNTINGTON, THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER 20 (1996).
23. Id. at 91.
24. But see Farced Zakaria, The Rise of Illiberal Democracy, 76 FOREIGN AFF., Nov.-Dec. 1997, at 22 (discussing the tensions of democracy arising from the election of authoritarian regimes and Western concepts of constitutional liberalism).
25. HUNTINGTON, supra note 21, at 193.
26. Id. at 42.
27. Id. at 43.
28. See id. at 26-27 (Map 1.3), 45-48.
29. Id. at 69. For a general discussion on "Modernization and Westernization," see id. at 56-78.
30. Id. at 68. Huntington's clarification of what "modernization" is not reminds me of an exchange I had in November 1997 with a visiting member of the New York State Assembly. He insisted that Puerto Rico was culturally "American" because he had visited the mountain town of Aguas Buenas hoping to find typical Puerto Rican culture, but he found a McDonald's fast food restaurant at the town's center. Huntington would have this to say: The argument now that the spread of pop culture and consumer goods around the world represents the triumph of Western civilization trivializes Western culture. The essence of Western civilization is the Magna Carta not the Magna Mac. The fact that non-Westerners may bite into the latter has no implications for their accepting the former. Id. at 58. Evidently, my visitor friend confused "Puerto Rican culture" with "backwardness"; I have eaten sushi in New York and gallo pinto in Florida without confusing the United States with either Japan or Nicaragua.
31. Id. at 78.
32. Id. at 20.
33. Id. at 194 (labeling it "unconditional surrender" on the part of the United States).
34. HUNTINGTON, supra note 21, at 196 (quoting an unnamed American human rights supporter).
35. As of 1993, the United States, a major sponsor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, had consented to the ratification of only three major human rights agreements: (1) in 1989, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1946; (2) in 1990 (without implementing legislation), the U.N. Convention Against Torture; and (3) in 1992, the Convention on Civil and Political Rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 came into effect on March 23, 1976; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 came into effect a little earlier, on January 3, 1976, and has been ratified by over 130 nations. The United States, however, has not ratified the latter and ratified the former only recently, as noted above, with a number of Reservations, Understandings, and Declarations which subordinate the terms of this Covenant to U.S. domestic law. See 138 CONG. REC. 4781, 4783 (1992).
36. See Glendon, A Tale of Two Cities: Belfast and Atlanta, in RIGHTS TALK, supra note 19, at 146-58 (discussing the divergent treatment afforded to homosexual behavior in private under U.S. law in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), and under international norms of the European Convention on Human Rights in the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Dudgeon v. United Kingdom, 4 EUR. H.R. REP. 149 (1981)).
37. See Glendon, A Tale of Two Cities: Belfast and Atlanta, in RIGHTS TALK, supra note 19, at 146-58 (discussing the divergent treatment afforded to homosexual behavior in private under U.S. law in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), and under international norms of the European Convention on Human Rights in the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Dudgeon v. United Kingdom, 4 EUR. H.R. REP. 149 (1981)).
38. Gorrín-Peralta, supra note 20, at 110.
39. Id.
40. BORGES, supra note 3, at 194.
41. See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, art. 53.
42. OPPENHEIM'S INTERNATIONAL LAW 7-8 (R.Y. Jennings and A. Watts eds., 9th ed. 1992), reprinted in HENKIN ET AL., INTERNATIONAL LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS 92 (3d ed. 1993).
43. OPPENHEIM'S INTERNATIONAL LAW 7-8 (R.Y. Jennings and A. Watts eds., 9th ed. 1992), reprinted in HENKIN ET AL., INTERNATIONAL LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS 92 (3d ed. 1993).
44. See Id.
45. Seen in an American program broadcast several times through cable television in Puerto Rico on "E" network in 1997.
46. See OPPENHEIM'S INTERNATIONAL LAW, supra note 40, at 7-8.
47. See Id. See also IAN BROWNLIE, PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW 515 (3d ed. 1979); Roger S. Clark, Free Association - A Critical View, in PROCEEDINGS: CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE POLITICAL STATUS OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS (1989)[hereinafter PROCEEDINGS]; MARK W. JANIS, AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW 54 (1988).
48. See Id. See also IAN BROWNLIE, PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW 515 (3d ed. 1979); Roger S. Clark, Free Association - A Critical View, in PROCEEDINGS: CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE POLITICAL STATUS OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS (1989)[hereinafter PROCEEDINGS]; MARK W. JANIS, AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW 54 (1988).
49. See Id. See also IAN BROWNLIE, PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW 515 (3d ed. 1979); Roger S. Clark, Free Association - A Critical View, in PROCEEDINGS: CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE POLITICAL STATUS OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS (1989)[hereinafter PROCEEDINGS]; MARK W. JANIS, AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW 54 (1988).
50. Debra A. Valentine, Note, The Logic of Secession, 89 YALE L.J. 802 (1980) (citations omitted).
51. The interdependence of peoples has been advanced as an argument to down-grade the importance of political independence in today's world. However, the notion of independence has to be placed in context as much as the notion of interdependence. See ALAN JAMES, SOVEREIGN STATEHOOD: THE BASIS OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY 25, 177-79 (Paul Wilkinson ed., 1986). See also I.K. Minta, The Lomé Convention: A Case Study of North-South Relations, 37 (1979) (unpublished thesis, Harvard University): The "age of interdependence" is here, but there have surely been other ages of interdependence, such as the interdependence of colonies and mother countries, and hegemonic powers and client states. [One could add, masters and slaves!] The fact of interdependence does not justify the terms . . . .
52. The interdependence of peoples has been advanced as an argument to down-grade the importance of political independence in today's world. However, the notion of independence has to be placed in context as much as the notion of interdependence. See ALAN JAMES, SOVEREIGN STATEHOOD: THE BASIS OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY 25, 177-79 (Paul Wilkinson ed., 1986). See also I.K. Minta, The Lomé Convention: A Case Study of North-South Relations, 37 (1979) (unpublished thesis, Harvard University): The "age of interdependence" is here, but there have surely been other ages of interdependence, such as the interdependence of colonies and mother countries, and hegemonic powers and client states. [One could add, masters and slaves!] The fact of interdependence does not justify the terms . . . .
53. G.A. Res. 1514, U.N. GAOR, 15th Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 67, U.N. Doc. A/4684 (1960).
54. Conference on Security and Co-Operation in Europe, Final Act (Helsinki), Aug. 1, 1975, art. 1, princ. VIII, DEP'T ST. BULL., Aug. 1975, at 81 [hereinafter Final Act (Helsinki)].
55. Conference on Security and Co-Operation in Europe, Final Act (Helsinki), Aug. 1, 1975, art. 1, princ. VIII, DEP'T ST. BULL., Aug. 1975, at 81 [hereinafter Final Act (Helsinki)].
56. See G.A. Res. 1541, U.N. GAOR, 15th Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 29, U.N. Doc. A/ 4684 (1960). See also JOSÉ TRÍAS MONGE, PUERTO RICO: THE TRIALS OF THE OLDEST COLONY IN THE WORLD 141-59 (1997); Clark, Self-Determination and Free Association - Should the United Nations Terminate The Pacific Islands Trust?, 21 HARV. INT'L L.J. 1 (1980); Clark, supra note 44; Paul M. Leary, The Historical Development of Free Association Status in the Pacific and the Caribbean, in PROCEEDINGS, supra note 44; Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, In Contemplation of Micronesia: The Prospects for the Decolonization of Puerto Rico Under International Law, 18 U. MIAMI INTER-AM. L. REV. 457 (1987).
57. See G.A. Res. 1541, U.N. GAOR, 15th Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 29, U.N. Doc. A/ 4684 (1960). See also JOSÉ TRÍAS MONGE, PUERTO RICO: THE TRIALS OF THE OLDEST COLONY IN THE WORLD 141-59 (1997); Clark, Self-Determination and Free Association - Should the United Nations Terminate The Pacific Islands Trust?, 21 HARV. INT'L L.J. 1 (1980); Clark, supra note 44; Paul M. Leary, The Historical Development of Free Association Status in the Pacific and the Caribbean, in PROCEEDINGS, supra note 44; Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, In Contemplation of Micronesia: The Prospects for the Decolonization of Puerto Rico Under International Law, 18 U. MIAMI INTER-AM. L. REV. 457 (1987).
58. See G.A. Res. 1541, U.N. GAOR, 15th Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 29, U.N. Doc. A/ 4684 (1960). See also JOSÉ TRÍAS MONGE, PUERTO RICO: THE TRIALS OF THE OLDEST COLONY IN THE WORLD 141-59 (1997); Clark, Self-Determination and Free Association - Should the United Nations Terminate The Pacific Islands Trust?, 21 HARV. INT'L L.J. 1 (1980); Clark, supra note 44; Paul M. Leary, The Historical Development of Free Association Status in the Pacific and the Caribbean, in PROCEEDINGS, supra note 44; Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, In Contemplation of Micronesia: The Prospects for the Decolonization of Puerto Rico Under International Law, 18 U. MIAMI INTER-AM. L. REV. 457 (1987).
59. See G.A. Res. 1541, U.N. GAOR, 15th Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 29, U.N. Doc. A/ 4684 (1960). See also JOSÉ TRÍAS MONGE, PUERTO RICO: THE TRIALS OF THE OLDEST COLONY IN THE WORLD 141-59 (1997); Clark, Self-Determination and Free Association - Should the United Nations Terminate The Pacific Islands Trust?, 21 HARV. INT'L L.J. 1 (1980); Clark, supra note 44; Paul M. Leary, The Historical Development of Free Association Status in the Pacific and the Caribbean, in PROCEEDINGS, supra note 44; Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, In Contemplation of Micronesia: The Prospects for the Decolonization of Puerto Rico Under International Law, 18 U. MIAMI INTER-AM. L. REV. 457 (1987).
60. Valentine, supra note 45, at 803. See also LEE C. BUCHHEIT, SECESSION: THE LEGITIMACY OF SELF-DETERMINATON (1978); MALCOLM N. SHAW, INTERNATIONAL LAW 182, 215-18 (4th ed. 1997); Ved P. Nanda, Self-Determination Under International Law: Validity of Claims to Secede, 13 CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. 257 (1981).
61. Valentine, supra note 45, at 803. See also LEE C. BUCHHEIT, SECESSION: THE LEGITIMACY OF SELF-DETERMINATON (1978); MALCOLM N. SHAW, INTERNATIONAL LAW 182, 215-18 (4th ed. 1997); Ved P. Nanda, Self-Determination Under International Law: Validity of Claims to Secede, 13 CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. 257 (1981).
62. Valentine, supra note 45, at 803. See also LEE C. BUCHHEIT, SECESSION: THE LEGITIMACY OF SELF-DETERMINATON (1978); MALCOLM N. SHAW, INTERNATIONAL LAW 182, 215-18 (4th ed. 1997); Ved P. Nanda, Self-Determination Under International Law: Validity of Claims to Secede, 13 CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. 257 (1981).
63. See SHAW, supra note 50, at 177. There were in all fifteen mandated territories under the Mandate system. Those in the Middle East became independent states, and others in Africa and the Pacific (except for South West Africa) were transferred to the United Nations trusteeship system after the Second World War. Under both the Mandates and the Trusteeship systems, sovereignty was vested in the people of the territory, but exercised by the administering power presumably to promote "the well-being and development" of the peoples and their eventual self-government or independence. HENKIN, supra note 40, at 296-97. All Trust territories have allegedly achieved independence or self-government within another state. The last to do so were the Strategic Trust Territories of Micronesia: the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and more recently the Republic of Palau. While the United States can hardly be said to have strictly adhered to "the well-being and development" of the people of the islands of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrik in the Marshall Islands, which were mercilessly used for nuclear testing, the Compact of Free Association did provide for some damage relief for the inhabitants. See Rodriguez-Orellana, supra note 49, at 479-80, n.122.
64. LEAGUE OF NATIONS O.J. Spec. Supp. 4, at 8-9 (1920), in HENKIN, supra note 40, at 248.
65. See C. Fred Bergsten, Interdependence and the Reform of International Institutions, 30 INT'L ORG. 361 (1976).
66. See U.N. CHARTER art. 1, para. 2.
67. See U.N. CHARTER art. 55.
68. G.A. Res. 1514, supra note 47 (a consensus resolution adopted 89-0, with only 9 abstentions, one of which was the United States).
69. Id. at 68.
70. E.g., G.A. Res. 1541 (XV) (Dec. 15, 1960), and G.A. Res. 2625 (XXV) (Oct. 24, 1970).
71. Western Sahara, 1975 I.C.J. 12 at 32 (Oct. 16) (emphasis added). See also Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), 1971 I.C.J. 16 (June 21).
72. 1995 I.C.J. 90 (June 30).
73. Id. at 102.
74. Id.
75. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, supra note 1 and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, supra note 1.
76. Final Act (Helsinki), supra note 48.
77. SHAW, supra note 50, at 282.
78. Final Act (Helisnki), supra note 48, at 80-81.
79. Id. at 81.
80. Id. (emphasis added).
81. See HUNTINGTON, supra notes 32-33 and accompanying text.
82. East Timor (Portugal v. Australia), 1995 I.C.J. 90 at 102 (June 30).
83. See supra note 50 and accompanying text.
84. SHAW, supra note 50, at 182.
85. Letter from Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University, to Robert W. Hallgring, Hadley Professor of Law and Chairman of the Faculty Tenure Committee, Northeastern University School of Law (December 5, 1988) (copy on file with author).
86. Id.
87. The literature on Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States is voluminous, indeed. However, four recent publications on the subject are noteworthy. For a superb contemporary political analysis of Puerto Rico's right to independence, see Rubén Berríos Martínez, Puerto Rico's Decolonization, 76 FOREIGN AFF. Nov.-Dec. 1997, at 100. For a constitutional and historical synthesis of much of the previous and scholarly work by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and a principal architect of Puerto Rico's failed commonwealth status, see TRÍAS MONGE, supra note 49. A provocative analysis of Puerto Rico's 1993 non-binding status referendum is provided by García Passalacqua, The 1993 Plebiscite in Puerto Rico: A First Step to Decolonization, 93 CURRENT HIST. 103 (1994). And for an informative historical and political account of twentieth century developments, see RONALD FERNANDEZ, THE DISENCHANTED ISLAND: PUERTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1992).
88. The literature on Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States is voluminous, indeed. However, four recent publications on the subject are noteworthy. For a superb contemporary political analysis of Puerto Rico's right to independence, see Rubén Berríos Martínez, Puerto Rico's Decolonization, 76 FOREIGN AFF. Nov.-Dec. 1997, at 100. For a constitutional and historical synthesis of much of the previous and scholarly work by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and a principal architect of Puerto Rico's failed commonwealth status, see TRÍAS MONGE, supra note 49. A provocative analysis of Puerto Rico's 1993 non-binding status referendum is provided by García Passalacqua, The 1993 Plebiscite in Puerto Rico: A First Step to Decolonization, 93 CURRENT HIST. 103 (1994). And for an informative historical and political account of twentieth century developments, see RONALD FERNANDEZ, THE DISENCHANTED ISLAND: PUERTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1992).
89. The literature on Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States is voluminous, indeed. However, four recent publications on the subject are noteworthy. For a superb contemporary political analysis of Puerto Rico's right to independence, see Rubén Berríos Martínez, Puerto Rico's Decolonization, 76 FOREIGN AFF. Nov.-Dec. 1997, at 100. For a constitutional and historical synthesis of much of the previous and scholarly work by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and a principal architect of Puerto Rico's failed commonwealth status, see TRÍAS MONGE, supra note 49. A provocative analysis of Puerto Rico's 1993 non-binding status referendum is provided by García Passalacqua, The 1993 Plebiscite in Puerto Rico: A First Step to Decolonization, 93 CURRENT HIST. 103 (1994). And for an informative historical and political account of twentieth century developments, see RONALD FERNANDEZ, THE DISENCHANTED ISLAND: PUERTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1992).
90. A copy of a three-page typewritten document with the heading, United States of America, NON-PAPER ON PUERTO RICO (no date affixed), was also made available to the Puerto Rican Independence Party delegation to the 1997 hearings of the U.N. Decolonization Committee (copy on file with author).
91. This referenced declaration should not be confused with U.N. General Assembly Res. 1514 (XV) of 1960, approved seven years later as the authoritative United Nations interpretation of self-determination law, under the-title Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, see supra note 47 and accompanying text.
92. NON-PAPER ON PUERTO RICO, supra note 76.
93. Act of July 3, 1950, Pub. L. No. 600, 64 Stat. 319 (1950).
94. PUERTO RICO-CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT-ORGANIZATION, 2 U.S. CONG. AND ADMIN. SERVICE 2682-3 (1950).
95. H.R. REP. No. 105-131, at 17 (1997).
96. H.R. 856, overwhelmingly approved by the House Committee on Resources (44-1), passed the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on March 4, 1998, after more than ten hours of debate, by a vote of 209 to 208. As of the time of this writing, one "workshop" on Puerto Rico's status had been held by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and two more had been announced before any formal committee action in the spring of 1998.
97. H.R. REP. No. 105-131, at 17 (1997).
98. Id. at 19. Implementation of the current commonwealth arrangement under PRFRA occurred in 1952.
99. Id. at 20.
100. See THOMAS M. FRANCK, NATION AGAINST NATION 195-204 (1985).
101. A wide-spread government practice of keeping dossiers on persons suspected of being "subversives" by virtue of anticolonial or pro-independence advocacy in Puerto Rico for more than 30 years was denounced by the Puerto Rican Independence Party in 1986. The practice was theoretically discontinued after extensive litigation amply documenting it in Noriega Rodrígua. v. Hernández Colón, 122 D.P.R. 650 (1988) and 130 D.P.R. _ (1992). For a superb historical account documenting political persecution and other civil and political rights abuses against the pro-independence forces from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, see IVONNE ACOSTA, LA MORDAZA (1987). "Indiscretions" resulting in human rights violations in Puerto Rico, however, have occurred throughout American colonial rule. See Manuel Moraza Choisne, Some Examples of State Terrorism Against Its Own Citizens: Puerto Rico 1937, 1948-57 (1989) (unpublished paper, Harvard University) (copy on file with author).
102. A wide-spread government practice of keeping dossiers on persons suspected of being "subversives" by virtue of anticolonial or pro-independence advocacy in Puerto Rico for more than 30 years was denounced by the Puerto Rican Independence Party in 1986. The practice was theoretically discontinued after extensive litigation amply documenting it in Noriega Rodrígua. v. Hernández Colón, 122 D.P.R. 650 (1988) and 130 D.P.R. _ (1992). For a superb historical account documenting political persecution and other civil and political rights abuses against the pro-independence forces from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, see IVONNE ACOSTA, LA MORDAZA (1987). "Indiscretions" resulting in human rights violations in Puerto Rico, however, have occurred throughout American colonial rule. See Manuel Moraza Choisne, Some Examples of State Terrorism Against Its Own Citizens: Puerto Rico 1937, 1948-57 (1989) (unpublished paper, Harvard University) (copy on file with author).
103. For recent publications, see Manuel Rodríguez-Orellana, Legal and Historical Aspects of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement in the Twentieth Century, 60 REV. JUR. U.P.R. 567 (1991) (updating a 1988 published paper to include 1989-1991 developments on Puerto Rico's status in the U.S. Congress); Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, Quebec y Puerto Rico: Un hemisferio y dos soledades, 67 REV. JUR. U.P.R. (accepted for publication 1998); Manuel Rodríguez-Orellana, The Relationship Between Puerto Rico and the United States: Politics as Usual?, in CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS - A TIME OF CHANGE: RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND AMERICAN SAMOA, GUAM, THE NORTHERN MARIANAS, PUERTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS (Boughton & Leary eds., 1993).
104. For recent publications, see Manuel Rodríguez-Orellana, Legal and Historical Aspects of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement in the Twentieth Century, 60 REV. JUR. U.P.R. 567 (1991) (updating a 1988 published paper to include 1989-1991 developments on Puerto Rico's status in the U.S. Congress); Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, Quebec y Puerto Rico: Un hemisferio y dos soledades, 67 REV. JUR. U.P.R. (accepted for publication 1998); Manuel Rodríguez-Orellana, The Relationship Between Puerto Rico and the United States: Politics as Usual?, in CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS - A TIME OF CHANGE: RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND AMERICAN SAMOA, GUAM, THE NORTHERN MARIANAS, PUERTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS (Boughton & Leary eds., 1993).
105. For recent publications, see Manuel Rodríguez-Orellana, Legal and Historical Aspects of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement in the Twentieth Century, 60 REV. JUR. U.P.R. 567 (1991) (updating a 1988 published paper to include 1989-1991 developments on Puerto Rico's status in the U.S. Congress); Manuel Rodriguez-Orellana, Quebec y Puerto Rico: Un hemisferio y dos soledades, 67 REV. JUR. U.P.R. (accepted for publication 1998); Manuel Rodríguez-Orellana, The Relationship Between Puerto Rico and the United States: Politics as Usual?, in CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS - A TIME OF CHANGE: RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND AMERICAN SAMOA, GUAM, THE NORTHERN MARIANAS, PUERTO RICO AND THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS (Boughton & Leary eds., 1993).
106. Glendon, Letter, supra note 73.
107. Id.
108. GLENDON, RIGHTS TALK, supra note 19, at 158.
109. See supra note 15 and accompanying text.