Living up to the normative ideal of the human right to adequate housing in urban Ghana

This article constructs a holistic narrative on the right to adequate housing in Ghana by piecing together the fragmented literature on the various dimensions of the right using the traditional “qualitative” approach to literature review. Results of the thematically synthesized literature reveal that housing rights in urban Ghana pale empirically in comparison to its normative tenets. The right is violated in all its dimensions, ranging from high insecurity of tenure to the cultural unsuitability of many high-rise dwellings. Major causes identified include the normative framing of slums as illegitimate, defunct and unenforced rental legislation, poor integration of modern and vernacular housing designs, and poor justiciability of the right within the domestic legal system. The situation in Ghana mirrors those in other countries across the globe—however, with local peculiarities—and points to why empirical work on the right within diverse sociopolitical contexts is necessary.     

Mired in a Quagmire: Popular Interpretations of the Vietnam War

For the war in Vietnam, real perspective can only come when we extricate ourselves from the historical quagmire and start evaluating the conflict as more than just a mistake that deserves our condemnation.     

First Amendment Limits on Government Holiday Displays

Abstract

“No holiday season is complete . . . without one or more First Amendment challenges to public holiday displays.” While Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty typically appear at city hall without controversy, government holiday displays that include religious symbols—such as a Christian creche, a Jewish menorah, or a Muslim star and crescent—are more likely to attract legal scrutiny under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For governments that sponsor holiday displays with religious symbols, the resulting litigation can be costly. If the court concludes that the challenged display violates the Constitution, the government must pay the plaintiff’s costs and attorney fees. And even longstanding displays can be challenged—mere tradition is not a defense.