Abstract
Aleinikoff TA and Zamore L, The arc of protection: Reforming the international refugee regime (Stanford University Press 2019)
A unique and comprehensive overview on the numerous international rules governing migration, this text brings together and analyses the disparate norms and treaties within international and European law. It is a critical study of the role of international law in regulating the movement of persons, offering an ideal introduction to the field.
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. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in human rights law, public international law, international relations, critical legal theory and in European politics.
Chetail V, International migration law (Oxford University Press 2019)
A unique and comprehensive overview on the numerous international rules governing migration, this text brings together and analyses the disparate norms and treaties within international and European law. It is a critical study of the role of international law in regulating the movement of persons, offering an ideal introduction to the field.
Cittadino F, Incorporating indigenous rights in the international regime on biodiversity protection: Access, benefit-sharing and conservation in indigenous lands (Issn Ser. BRILL 2019)
In Incorporating indigenous rights in the international regime on biodiversity protection, Federica Cittadino convincingly interprets the Convention on Biological Diversity (‘CBD’) and its related instruments in light of indigenous rights and the principle of self-determination. Cittadino’s harmonisation of these formally separated regimes serves at least two main purposes. First, it ensures respect for the human rights framework that protects indigenous rights whilst implementing the biodiversity regime. Second, harmonisation allows for the full operationalisation of the indigenous related provisions of the CBD framework that concern traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and protected areas. Federica Cittadino successfully demonstrates that the CBD may allow for the protection of indigenous rights in ways that are more advanced than under current human rights law.
Coutts S, Citizenship, crime and community in the European Union (Modern studies in European law; volume 93, Hart Publishing 2019)
Discussions on Union citizenship tend to focus on two areas: firstly, that of the rights of free movement and non-discrimination of migrant citizens, especially in relation to welfare benefits; secondly on the political dimension of Union citizenship and its role in the European Union’s governance and constitution. This book offers an innovative approach to the study of Union citizenship. It does look at the rights of Union citizenship and the place of citizenship in the European constitution and the European integration process but does this through an analysis of its interaction with another, highly relevant, area of law, that of criminal law. In doing so it contributes to and enriches our understanding of Union citizenship by drawing out heretofore neglected aspects and implications.
Czech P and others, European yearbook on human rights 2019 (Intersentia Uitgevers NV 2019)
The European yearbook on human rights 2019 brings together renowned scholars, emerging voices and practitioners. Split into parts devoted to recent developments in the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE as well as through reports from the field, the contributions engage with some of the most important human rights issues and developments in Europe. The Yearbook helps to better understand the rich landscape of the European regional human rights system and is intended to stimulate discussions, critical thinking and further research in this field.
Gonzalez-Salzberg DA, Sexuality and transsexuality under the European Convention on Human Rights: A queer reading of human rights law (Hart Publishing 2019)
This book undertakes a critical analysis of international human rights law through the lens of queer theory. It pursues two main aims: first, to make use of queer theory to illustrate that the field of human rights law is underpinned by several assumptions that determine a conception of the subject of human rights as gendered and sexual in specific ways. This gives rise to multiple legal and social consequences, some of which challenge the very idea of universality of human rights. And second, the book proposes that human rights law can actually benefit from a better understanding of queer critiques, since queer insights can help human rights to further approach its aim of universality. In order to achieve these main aims the book focuses on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the leading legal authority in the field of international human rights law. The use of queer theory as the theoretical approach for these tasks serves to deconstruct several aspects of the Court’s jurisprudence dealing with gender, sexuality, and the nuclear family, to later suggest possible paths to reconstruct such features in a queer(er) and more universal manner.
Kälin W and Künzli J, The law of international human rights protection (Second edn, Oxford University Press 2019)
At a time when human rights are coming under increasing pressure, in-depth knowledge and understanding of their foundations, conceptual underpinnings and current practice remain crucial. The second edition of Walter Kèalin and Jèorg Kèunzli’s authoritative book provides a concise but comprehensive legal analysis of international human rights protection at the global and regional levels. It shows that human rights are real rights creating legal entitlements for those who are protected by them and imposing legal obligations on those bound by them. Based, in particular, on a wide-ranging analysis of international case-law, the book focuses on the sources and scope of application of human rights and a discussion of their substantive guarantees. Further chapters describe the different mechanisms to monitor the implementation of human rights obligations, ranging from the regional human rights courts in Africa, the Americas and Europe and the UN treaty bodies to the international criminal tribunals, the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council. The book is based on an understanding of human rights as legal concepts that address basic human needs and vulnerabilities, and highlights the indivisibility of civil and political rights on the one and economic, social and cultural rights on the other hand. It also highlights the convergence of international human rights and international humanitarian law and the interlinkages with international criminal law as well as general international law, in particular the law of State responsibility.
Oppenheimer D, The ubiquity of positive measures for addressing systemic discrimination and inequality: A comparative global perspective (BRILL 2019)
In The ubiquity of positive measures for addressing systemic discrimination and inequality: A comparative global perspective, part of the Brill series on Comparative Discrimination Law, David Oppenheimer compares positive measures for addressing inequality and systemic discrimination, including discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, disability, and religion. Across the globe, such measures are ubiquitous, commonly applied in employment, admission to selective colleges and universities, selection for legislative seats, and membership on corporate boards. They are variously described as ‘positive measures’, ‘affirmative action’, ‘positive action’, ‘compensatory action’, or ‘special measures’. These policies began in the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, as a part of the social/political movements to end slavery, grant universal suffrage, end colonialism, grant equal rights to women and men regardless of social status or property, eliminate the caste system, adopt measures of proportional representation, embrace the benefits of diversity, and endorse universal equality. Nearly every large nation in the world has adopted at least some special measure plans, with continuing experiments using quotas, reservations, set-asides, reparations, preferences, tie-breakers, targeted recruiting efforts, diversity measures, equity and inclusion policies, anti or unconscious bias training, and public disclosure requirements.
Raday F, Economic woman: Gendering economic inequality in the age of capital (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy Ser. Routledge 2019)
The author introduces the concept of economic woman and makes her visible in duality with and opposition to the exclusive model of economic man. Economic man has epitomized neo-liberal capitalism, which embraces competition and maximization of profit, resulting in a steep increase in economic inequality. The book demonstrates that women’s inequality is a crucial factor in economic inequality, which cannot be fully understood without relating to women’s situation, and that economic woman cannot thrive in the conditions of economic inequality created under global neo-liberalism. Emphasising the international human rights guarantees of women’s right to equality in all fields of life, the author documents woman’s increased participation in political, public, financial and corporate institutions, employment and entrepreneurship, with some women reaching high profile positions. Nevertheless, using global data, she reveals that economic woman lags behind, with a severe economic power deficit, an unfulfilled promise of equal employment opportunity, a gendered impact of poverty and barriers to gender equality in the family. The book analyses the trap of women’s increased burden of breadwinning in the context of discriminatory laws and practices, infrastructural failures and policy gaps, which preempt achievement of gender equality in economic life. The book is intended for the general reader, academics, students, policy makers and NGOs. It shows economic woman at a global crossroads between a universal paradigm of gender equality and pervasive barriers to equal economic opportunity. The author demonstrates that tackling gender inequality, restoring welfare priorities and reducing economic inequality are inextricably linked. Human rights and governments have a vital role to play in addressing them all, to create a sustainable economic infrastructure for the lives of women and men.
Rynkowski M, Religious courts in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Brill Research Perspectives Ser. BRILL 2019)
Religious courts have for centuries been part of the European legal landscape. Almost all churches and religious communities have their own judicial systems, often composed of courts or tribunals ordered hierarchically. The aim of this paper is to present cases from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, in which a religious court was involved at the stage of domestic proceedings. The twelve cases in question originate from a number of European States, from Italy to Finland and from the UK to Turkey – and in one particular case, Israel. The applicants belonged to many denominations, predominantly Christian. The Court of Human Rights (and before that, the Commission of Human Rights) has been concerned, in the main, with religious courts in terms of compliance with the requirement for a fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Court has come to various conclusions – for example, it accepted that courts of the Church of England comply with the requirement, it questioned whether the cathedral chapter of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Finland did so, and it indirectly criticized proceedings before the Roman Rota of the Catholic Church. The most recent judgment from September 2017, Nagy v Hungary, and in particular many associated dissenting opinions, demonstrate that the matter is worthy of study, particularly in the contemporary context of religious freedom. Nevertheless, the cases are so different that it is difficult to discern a coherent line of jurisprudence, and the Court itself hardly ever refers to its own previous judgments in this field.
Salvadego L, The respect for fundamental human rights in the fight against human trafficking and migrant smuggling across the central Mediterranean Sea (Brill research perspectives. Transnational crime, Brill 2019)
This study analyzes counter-smuggling and counter-trafficking operations carried out in the Mediterranean, mainly focusing on the EU operations Sophia and Themis. The purpose is to assess a number of issues linked with naval operations from a human rights perspective. These issues include the applicable law, the exercise of criminal jurisdiction over smugglers and traffickers, national strategies of coastal States as regards migration control policy and, finally, international responsibility for human rights violations perpetrated in connection with these operations. Although the study is primarily aimed at both Ph.D. students and legal scholars specialized in the field, it also seeks to provide insights that may be of guidance to NGOs, legal practitioners and legislators within the EU and its Member States.