Latest Article Examines Human Rights Treaties

Professor Alexandra Harrington's article “Don’t Mind the Gap: The Rise of Individual Complaint Mechanisms Within International Human Rights Treaties,” forthcoming in the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, was featured recently on an international law, policy and practice blog.

In the article, Professor Harrington details the history of individual complaint mechanisms within international human rights treaty systems and examines the growth and development of the individual complaint mechanism overall. She argues against too much fragmentation in the human rights complaint system, using as an example a woman who is disabled; part of a minority group barred from voting; and the victim of torture. If she is only able to issue a complaint for one of these human rights violations, Professor Harrington explains, then the others may be overlooked.

Professor Harrington's research and writing focuses on all facets of international law, and she has presented her work at academic conferences around the world. Since joining the Albany Law School faculty, she has taught classes in international child rights, international organizations and public international law, as well as a professional responsibility seminar.

Most recently Professor Harrington was the Pilarcyzk Fellow in Graduate Legal Methodology Teaching at the McGill University Faculty of Law, where she also held several other scholarships and fellowships. Her doctoral thesis work at McGill addresses the impact of territorial anomalies on the international system and modern theories of statehood and sovereignty.

She has also served as a professor at the University of Montreal Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales summer programs and as a consultant to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.

Professor Harrington worked in private practice before pursuing her LL.M. in International Law from Albany Law School. While she worked toward her J.D. at Albany Law, she served as Professor Timothy Lytton's research assistant and also served as the editor-in-chief of the Albany Law Journal of Science & Technology.