Abstract
Akbulut O and Aktoprak E, Minority Self-government in Europe and the Middle East: From Theory to Practice (Studies in international minority and group rights, Volume 15, Brill Nijhoff 2019)
This volume, Minority Self-Government in Europe and the Middle East: From Theory to Practice, is novel from several perspectives. It combines theory with facts on the ground, going beyond legal perspectives without neglecting existing laws and their implementation. Theoretical discussions transcend examining existing autonomy models in certain regions. It offers new models in the field, discussing such critical themes as environmentalism. Traditional concepts such as self-determination and well-known successful autonomy examples, including the Åland Islands, Basque and Catalonian models, are examined from different perspectives. Some chapters in this volume focus on certain regions (including Turkey, Syria, and Iraq) which have only recently received scholarly attention. Chapters complement one another in terms of their theoretical inputs and outputs from the field.
Belov M, The Role of Courts in Contemporary Legal Orders (Eleven International 2019)
This book aims to address the rising importance of courts in contemporary legal orders. It explores the role of courts on national, international, supranational and global level. The book provides for a multidiscursive analysis – theoretical and comparative, exemplified with case-studies. The book is timely and topical analysis of pressing issues related to the enhanced role of courts in politics and the increased impact of politics on courts. It explores fundamental issues such as the legitimacy of courts, judicial activism, theory and philosophy of judicial decision-making, and the impact of politics, ethics, logic and technology on legal argumentation. It provides an analysis of the role of courts in supranational and global constitutionalism. Furthermore, the role of constitutional courts, administrative courts and criminal courts as well as the most important international and supranational courts is critically assessed. Special attention is devoted to the role of courts in the context of democratic backsliding, illiberal democracies and populist constitutionalism. Key issues related to the impact of courts on environmental and human rights’ protection are also addressed. The book finishes with the provocative chapter on the alternatives to courts.
Casla K, Politics of International Human Rights Law Promotion in Western Europe: Order versus Justice (Routledge studies in human rights, Routledge 2020)
This book offers a critical reinterpretation of Western European States’ programmatic support for International Human Rights Law (IHRL) since the 1970s. It examines the systemic or structural constraints inherent to the international legal system and argues that order trumps justice in Western Europe’s promotion of international human rights norms. The book shows that IHRL evolved as a result of a tension between two forces: A European understanding of international society, based on order, the centrality of the State and a minimalist conception of human rights; and a civil society and UN-promoted, mostly Western, particularly European but broader conception of human rights, based on justice. As such, human rights norms emerge and develop when (some) states’ idea of order meets with advocates’ idea of justice. We are living a historical juncture of shifting tectonic plates with rising nationalism in the Global North, ever growing power in the Global South and a declining presence of Europe in global affairs. The conditions under which IHRL emerged have fundamentally changed and unpacking the factors beneath the international recognition of human rights has never been more pressing.
D’Costa B and Glanville L, Children and the Responsibility to Protect (Brill Nijhoff 2019)
In Children and the Responsibility to Protect, Bina D’Costa and Luke Glanville bring together more than a dozen academics and practitioners from around the world to examine the intersections of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle and the theory and practice of child protection. Contributors consider themes including how the agency and vulnerability of children is represented and how their voices are heard in discussions of R2P and child protection, and the merits of drawing together the R2P and Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) agendas, as well as case studies of children’s lives in conflict zones, child soldiers, and children born of conflict-related sexual violence.
Fenton-Glynn C, Children’s Rights and Sustainable Development: Interpreting the UNCRC for Future Generations (Treaty implementation for sustainable development, Cambridge University Press 2019)
Children often fare the worst when communities face social and environmental changes. The quality of food, water, affection and education that children receive can have major impacts on their subsequent lives and their potential to become engaged and productive citizens. At the same time, children often lack both a private and public voice, and are powerless against government and private decision-making. In taking a child rights-based approach to sustainable development, this volume defines and identifies children as the subjects of development, and explores how their rights can be respected, protected and promoted while also ensuring the economic, social and environmental sustainability of our planet.
Gerards J.H., General Principles of the European Convention on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2019)
The European Convention on Human Rights is one of the world’s most important and influential human rights documents. It owes its value mainly to the European Court of Human Rights, which applies the Convention rights in individual cases. This book offers a clear insight into the concepts and principles that are key to understanding the European Convention and the Court’s case-law. It explains how the Court generally approaches the many cases brought before it and which tools help it to decide on these cases, illustrated by numerous examples taken from the Court’s judgements. Core issues discussed are the types of Convention rights (such as absolute rights); the structure of the Court’s Convention rights review; principles and methods of interpretation (such as common ground interpretation and the use of precedent); positive and negative obligations; vertical and horizontal effect; the margin of appreciation doctrine; and requirements for the restriction of Convention rights.
Liefaard T, Rap S and Rodrigues P, Monitoring Children’s Rights in the Netherlands: 30 years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Monitoring Children’s Rights in the Netherlands, Leiden University Press 2019)
This book aims to provide insight in the state of children in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the implementation of children’s rights as laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and developments in this regard over the years. The book provides a source of information for further scientific research, development of policies and legislation and societal and political debate. The first part of the publication presents a general picture of the most important developments and trends in children’s rights implementation in the Netherlands, through an overview of statistics, law reform and policymaking, also in the context of significant international developments. The second part offers an in-depth study of a relevant, topical and/or emerging children’s rights theme. The book starts with an editorial commentary in which the different parts are connected and overall reflections are given. The book aims to contribute to the education and (post-academic) training of students and professionals from the Netherlands and abroad.
May J.R. and Daly E, Human Rights and the Environment: Legality, Indivisibility, Dignity and Geography (Elgar encyclopedia of environmental law; VII, Edward Elgar Publishing 2019)
Much has been written, discussed, advocated and litigated about human rights and the environment over the last two decades. With 45 structured entries from a global collection of expert scholars, this volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law provides an authoritative source of reference and features new commentary on the role of the rule of law in responding to the variegated impacts of environmental challenges on the human condition.
This comprehensive volume offers fresh perspectives to the conversation by focusing especially on four subjects that shed new light on the subject of environmental human rights: the challenges of identifying the fundamental legal sources for the protection of human rights and the environment, the recognition of the indivisibility of human rights and environmental law, the centrality of the right to human dignity as the lodestar of human rights law, and the uniqueness of geographic particularities. Fundamentally, the entries demonstrate that there is much to do, learn and share on this vital topic.
Meulen, B. M. J. van der and others, The Functional Field of Food Law: Reconciling the Market and Human Rights: Liber Amicorum Bernd van der Meulen (European Institute for Food Law series; no. 11, Wageningen Academic Publishers 2019)
Two worlds that in academia remain largely separated are brought together in this book in a unique way; the world of food safety law and the world of the right to food. Key features include: (1) an up to date reflection of the status quo on food law related research written by those who are at the forefront of research in the functional field of food law; (2) a collection of contributions from all continents of the world; and (3) covering human rights, international law, European law and non-European law dimensions. This book is written as a Liber Amicorum in honour of Professor Bernd van der Meulen, who was the Chair of Law and Governance at Wageningen University (2001-2018), and established food law as an academic discipline in the Netherlands. In 29 contributions the functional field of food law is discussed. The contributors are researchers and academics from around the globe, and are above all friends who have worked with Bernd during his time at Wageningen University. In this book, they share their latest insights, research and thoughts on this fascinating and highly relevant field.
Pocar F, International Human Rights Institutions and Enforcement (Human rights law (Cheltenham, England); 10, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited 2019)
This timely two-volume set collects together the most influential legal scholarship on the enforcement of human rights at institutional level, both regional and international. The first volume includes articles that discuss charter-based and reporting monitoring procedures as well as the role of high commissioners and treaty bodies. The articles in the second volume focus on the movement towards establishing quasi-judicial procedures, and the judicial enforcement of human rights and interim measures, concluding with a thoughtful consideration of the potential for universal judicial enforcement – a world court of human rights. Together with an original introduction by the editor, this insightful collection will be an essential research resource for those studying, working or teaching in this important field.
Queralt J and Van der Vossen B, Economic Liberties and Human Rights (Political Philosophy for the Real World, Routledge 2019)
The status of economic liberties remains a serious lacuna in the theory and practice of human rights. Should a minimally just society protect the freedoms to sell, save, profit and invest? Is being prohibited to run a business a human rights violation? While these liberties enjoy virtually no support from the existing philosophical theories of human rights and little protection by the international human rights law, they are of tremendous importance in the lives of individuals, and particularly the poor. Like most individual liberties, economic liberties increase our ability to lead our own life. When we enjoy them, we can choose the occupational paths that best fit us and, in so doing, define who they are in relation to others. Furthermore, in the absence of good jobs, economic liberties allow us to create an alternative path to subsistence. This is critical for the millions of working poor in developing countries who earn their livelihoods by engaging in independent economic activities. Insecure economic liberties leave them vulnerable to harassment, bribery and other forms of abuse from middlemen and public officials. This book opens a debate about the moral and legal status of economic liberties as human rights. It brings together political and legal theorists working in the domain of human rights and global justice, as well as people engaged in the practice of human rights, to engage in both foundational and applied issues concerning these questions.
Ruys T, Angelet N and Ferro L, The Cambridge Handbook of Immunities and International Law (Cambridge University Press 2019)
Few topics of international law speak to the imagination as much as international immunities. Questions pertaining to immunity from jurisdiction or execution under international law surface on a frequent basis before national courts, including at the highest levels of the judicial branch and before international courts or tribunals. Nevertheless, international immunity law is and remains a challenging field for practitioners and scholars alike. Challenges stem in part from the uncertainty pertaining to the customary content of some immunity regimes said to be in a ‘state of flux’, the divergent – and at times directly conflicting - approaches to immunity in different national and international jurisdictions, or the increasing intolerance towards impunity that has accompanied the advance of international criminal law and human rights law. Composed of thirty-four expertly written contributions, the present volume uniquely provides a comprehensive tour d’horizon of international immunity law, traversing a wealth of national and international practice.
Schultz J, The International Protection Alternative in Refugee Law: Treaty Basis and Scope of Application under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Its 1967 Protocol (International Refugee Law Series Brill 2018)
Under what circumstances can a state refuse refugee status to a person whose risk of persecution exists in only part of her country of origin? This book is the first monograph to examine the treaty basis and criteria for the ‘internal protection alternative’ (IPA), an exception to refugee status increasingly invoked by state parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Through a critical analysis of the relationship between refugee law and related fields, Schultz finds that the legal scope for IPA practice is narrower than is commonly claimed. Since persons subject to an IPA analysis have a well-founded fear of persecution within their countries of origin, any limit on their right to refugee status must involve a careful balancing of the impact of continued displacement against the state’s interest in preserving its restricted protection resources. She argues that the doctrine of implied limits in human rights law can provide analytic structure to the IPA concept and reduce the risk of overly broad application.
Wallace S, The Application of the European Convention on Human Rights to Military Operations (Cambridge University Press 2019)
The European Convention on Human Rights is being applied to military operations of every kind from internal operations in Russia and Turkey, to international armed conflicts in Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere. This book exposes the challenge that this development presents to the integrity and universality of Convention rights. Can states realistically investigate all instances where life is lost during military operations? Can the Convention offer the same level of protection to soldiers in combat as it does to its citizens at home? How can we reconcile the application of the Convention with other international law applicable to military operations? This book offers detailed analysis of how the Convention applies to military operations of all kinds. It highlights the creeping relativism of the standards applied by the European Court of Human Rights to military operations and offers guidance on how to interpret and apply the Convention to military operations.