Publication Date
2020
Abstract
Diverse areas of law regulate acts of rescue, often inconsistently. For example, maritime law mandates rescue, immigrant harboring law prohibits it, and tort law generally permits it but does not require it. Modern legal scholarship has focused principally on mandatory and permissive forms of rescue. With humanitarian actors facing prosecution for saving migrants' lives in the Arizona desert and elsewhere, however, scholarly treatment of the phenomenon of prohibited rescue is increasingly urgent. By analyzing disparate regimes of rescue, and focusing on migrant rescue specifically, this Article makes three contributions. First, it argues that the law of rescue generally privileges property rights and commercial interests over the ethical dimensions of rescue. Second, it develops a framework for evaluating rescue, one that focuses on rescuers' liberty, beneficiaries'dignity, and potential third- party harm. Third, it identifies and highlights creative ways to achieve humanitarian ends within the law.
Recommended Citation
Shalini B. Ray,
The Law of Rescue,
108
Calif. L. Rev.
619
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_articles/618