The plaintiffs brought a class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and about 6,000 other homeless persons against the City of Miami, Florida. They claimed that by arresting and seizing the property of the plaintiffs, the City’s police officers violated the plaintiffs’ rights under the United States and Florida Constitutions. The plaintiffs claimed that it …Read more

In 1970, Congress enacted Title X of the Public Health Service Act (the Act), which provided federal funding for family planning services. Section 1008 of the Act prohibited the use of Title X federal funding “for programs where abortion [was] a method of family planning.” The Regulations to the Act (the Regulations), introduced by the …Read more

Swain was arrested and charged with assault and aggravated assault. Due to his bizarre conduct during the incident and at the time of his arrest, Swain was transferred from jail to a mental health centre before trial. His condition improved with medication, and he was conditionally released into the community before trial. Swain continued to …Read more

On November 15 1983, the appellant (Kindler) was found guilty of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping in the State of Pennsylvania. Following his conviction, the jury heard further evidence and recommended the imposition of the death penalty. Before the formal imposition of the sentence, Kindler escaped from prison and fled to …Read more

The Appellants brought this case challenging an amendment to the Minors’ Consent to Health Services Act (the Act) on the basis that it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Subdivision 2 of the Act provided, with certain exceptions, that no abortion shall be performed on a …Read more

The Respondents, including a facility that provides abortions, a physician who performs abortions, and a minor woman who sought an abortion, brought suit challenging the constitutional validity of Ohio’s Amended Substitute House Bill 319, which made it a criminal offence, except in four specified circumstances, for a physician or other person to perform an abortion …Read more

The Goa, Daman and Diu Public Health Act, 1985 (the Act) under Section 53(1)(vii) (the Section) gave the State Government the power to “isolate persons found to be positive for Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), for such period and on such conditions as may be considered necessary.” The Section contained other provisions, including mandatory isolation …Read more

Reproductive Health Services (RHS), a non-profit organization, brought this class action suit challenging the constitutionality of a Missouri law (the Act) regulating the performance of abortions. The Act did the following: Set forth, in the preamble, that the “life of each human being begins at conception,” and that “unborn children have protectable interests in life, …Read more

The appellant, Mr Borowski, challenged the validity of s 251(4), (5) and (6) of the Canadian Criminal Code on the basis that the provisions contravened the rights of the fetus. He argued these provisions allowed for abortions to occur in circumstances that were too liberal, and, as such, they infringed a fetus’s rights to life, …Read more

Section 251(4) of the Criminal Code of Canada (the Code) permitted abortions to be performed only at accredited hospitals and then with approval from the performing hospital’s therapeutic abortion committee. Drs. Morgentaler, Smoling, and Scott had together established an abortion clinic in Toronto to perform abortions not approved by a therapeutic abortion committee.  Following public …Read more

This case considered the practice of “forced disappearances” by the Government of Honduras, which included secret surveillance, kidnapping and executions. The Court found as proved that “[d]uring the period 1981 to 1984, 100 to 150 persons disappeared in the Republic of Honduras, and many were never heard from again.” It recognized patterns in these disappearances …Read more

The Richmond Hill Insane Asylum in Grenada was bombed by military aircraft belonging to the United States in 1983. Petitioners, including Disabled Peoples’ International, presented the names of sixteen persons who were killed and six who were injured and claimed that the deaths and physical injuries of the mental patients were caused by purposeful armed …Read more

Respondents, including Pennsylvania physicians, abortion counselors and providers, brought this challenge to provisions of Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act 1982 (the Act). The Act imposed the following conditions on the provision of abortion services in Pennsylvania: 1.     The informed consent provision (§ 3205) required women to be informed of: The name of the physician performing the …Read more

The Appellant, Ford, was convicted of murder in a Florida state court and sentenced to death in 1974. There was no suggestion that he was incompetent at the time of the offense, at trial, or at sentencing. However in 1982, Ford began to manifest gradual changes in behavior, which, based on a psychiatric examination, indicated …Read more

Angel Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez (“AMVR”), a UNAH student, was arrested without warrant in Tegucigalpa on September 12, 1981. Eyewitnesses saw members of the National Investigation Directorate and G-2 (Intelligence) of the Armed Forces of Honduras apprehend and take AMVR to an unknown location. On September 9, 1981, the Government of Honduras recognized the jurisdiction of …Read more

The Respondents, Cleburne Living Center (CLC) and others, brought suit against the City of Cleburne (the City) and a number of its officials, alleging that a zoning ordinance, and its application, violated the equal protection rights of CLC and its potential residents. CLC intended to lease a building for the operation of a group home …Read more

Respondent, Lee, was charged with attempted robbery, malicious wounding, and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. The Commonwealth of Virginia sought to compel Respondent to undergo a surgical procedure to remove a bullet lodged in his chest; petitioners alleged that the bullet would provide evidence of Respondent’s guilt or …Read more

In the 1960s, the Government of Brazil approved plans to permit the development of the Amazon region, as well as the exploitation of its natural resources, despite Constitutional provisions and national legislation guaranteeing indigenous communities in the region full possession of the lands they occupied and the resources found therein. The root of the violation …Read more

The applicant was a British national who had been convicted of dangerous driving and unlawful possession of firearms. Because he suffered from mental illness, the court ordered his detention in a psychiatric hospital with out a time limit for his discharge. The applicant attempted to abscond from the psychiatric hospital twice, as a result of …Read more

Applicant, Luberti, an Italian national, shot and killed his mistress and was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. The applicant pleaded insanity and several experts concluded that the applicant was suffering from mental illness. These findings were accepted by the Court of Appeal and he was acquitted on grounds of mental incapacity and the applicant was …Read more

Respondent, Romeo, a severely mentally retarded adult male, was involuntarily committed to the Pennhurst State School and Hospital (Pennhurst), pursuant to the applicable involuntary commitment provision of the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act. While at Pennhurst, Respondent was injured on several occasions through his own violence and the reaction of other residents. He …Read more

The President of the Catholics for Christian Political Action and another filed a claim against the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts claiming they failed to fulfill their obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (the Declaration) and American Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) (the United States has …Read more

The applicant, a United Kingdom national who had previously been diagnosed with having a paranoid psychosis, claimed that the United Kingdom unlawfully deprived him of his liberty when authorities forcibly recalled him to a hospital for the criminally insane in which he had completed a prior sentence for a violent crime. At the time of …Read more

The Respondent, McRae, a Medicaid recipient seeking an abortion, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutional validity of the ‘Hyde Amendment’, which prohibited federal reimbursement under the Medicaid system for some abortions which were medically necessary. As established by an amendment to Title XIX of the Social Security Act in 1965, the Medicaid system …Read more

Applicant, a gay man, brought a complaint before the Commission alleging that laws criminalizing male homosexual conduct in Northern Ireland constituted unjustified interference with his right to respect for his private life (Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights) as well as unjustifiable discrimination on sexual grounds and residency grounds (Article 14). Due …Read more

The applicant claimed that English law violated provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention), after he found out that his wife was pregnant and planned to have a legal abortion without his consent. Specifically, the applicant claimed that England and Wales violated the right to life and the right to liberty and security …Read more

The Appellants challenged the constitutional validity of a Massachusetts law that required, in every instance, that the parents or guardian of a minor seeking an abortion be notified. The joined Appellants were an abortion clinic and a pregnant minor representing the class of unmarried minors in Massachusetts who had adequate capacity to give valid and …Read more

Winterwerp brought an action against the Netherlands following his detention in a psychiatric hospital. Winterwerp was committed to a psychiatric hospital in accordance with the emergency procedure then in force under the Act on State Supervision of Mentally Ill Persons. Six weeks later, during Winterwerp’s emergency detention, his wife applied for his provisional detention at …Read more

Respondent, Donaldson, was civilly committed to confinement as a mental patient in the Florida State Hospital in 1957; he was kept in custody against his will for nearly 15 years. Petitioner, O’Connor, the hospital’s superintendent, had repeatedly refused Donaldson’s requests to be released. Donaldson’s requests for ground privileges, occupational training, and an opportunity to discuss …Read more

Please note: This opinion is unusual as it does not include the factual background. These facts listed below are developed from alternative sources. Before the promulgation of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Act, 88 senators made a referral to the French constitutional court challenging the constitutionality of the new bill according to article 61 of …Read more