CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Naboya, Janeca Cortez |
|---|---|
| Title | Forget-Me-Not: A Comparative Study on the (Mis)Application of the Political Question Doctrine to the claims of Comfort Women |
| Summary | Since the late 1990s, the surviving Filipina comfort women have been seeking assistance from the Executive in filing a case against Japan, to no avail. In a last desperate effort, the women filed a case with the Supreme Court asking that the Executive be compelled to espouse their claims against the Japanese government. Unfortunately, they were also unsuccessful in that respect. In the controversial case entitled Vinuya vs. Romulo , the Supreme Court ruled that they could not compel the Executive to espouse the claims of the women, as it was within the prerogative of the Executive alone to decide on questions relating to foreign relations. The Supreme Court supported based its decision on the political question doctrine, and cited the cases of Baker v. Carr and US v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp to bolster the rationale behind its ruling. The Supreme Court reasoned that the separation of powers doctrine prevents an encroachment into decisions best left to the Executive, i.e. the conclusion of international treaties and the determination of their content. . The research becomes relevant because in light of the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the author believes that there is a need to re-examine the political question doctrine and its application to human rights issues. It is important to examine what the Judiciary believes its role entails, and where it feels it should draw the line. Ironically, that line seems to be where political questions and human rights issues coincide. As the branch supposedly tasked with the administration of justice and the protection of laws, it is difficult to comprehend why the mandate of the Judiciary could so easily be overruled by technicalities. Legally speaking, the Judiciary did have a valid reason to decline from ruling on the said issue. Ultimately however, this leads to a deadlock., Sso whom then will the victims to turn to? The author aims to discover the possibility that perhaps, inherently, there is an incompatibility between the political question doctrine and human rights issues. |
| Supervisor | Moschel, Mathias |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/naboya_janeca.pdf |
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