Search

Begin New Search Topic Human Rights Political Geography Europe

71. Reconceptualizing Implementation: The Judicialization of the Execution of the European Court of Human Rights Judgments

Author:
Helen Keller and Cedric Marti
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article proposes a shift of perspective concerning the implementation of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments. Acknowledging that implementation of the Court’s judgments is primarily of a political and domestic nature, the authors argue that the process has become increasingly internationalized and judicialized by the ECtHR in recent years. Taking a broad, three-tiered perspective that distinguishes between the pre-judgment stage, the judgment itself and the post-judgment stage, the authors analyse the means by which the ECtHR has engaged in implementation of its judgments and explore the benefits of judicialization in this area to secure a key aspect in guaranteeing effective protection and the long-term future of the European Convention on Human Rights system, namely full and timely judgment compliance.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Law, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe and France

72. Bridging Comparative and International Law: Amicus Curiae Participation as a Vertical Legal Transplant

Author:
Anna Dolidze
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Legal transplants scholarship has thoroughly examined the transnational diffusion of legal institutions. Although Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice acknowledges that international law draws upon domestic legal systems, the exchange of legal institutions between states and international law has yet to receive similar treatment. This article highlights the process of vertical diffusion – that is, the borrowing of legal institutions between the nation-state and international law. Vertical diffusion takes place in two forms: downward and upward diffusion. Scholarship on the internalization and vernacularization of international law has highlighted the process of downward diffusion. This article offers a theory of internationalization of law and the emergence of internationalized legal transplants. It draws on a study of the internationalization of the amicus curiae participation procedure from the United Kingdom to the European Court of Human Rights. Three main conditions must be present for internationalization: the institution’s structural transformation that results in a law-making opportunity, norm entrepreneurs, and access to the decision-making body. The study of internationalized legal transplants is important to have a more fine-grained perspective on the making of international law. The evidence of the diffusion of legal institutions between domestic law and international law also creates a bridge between international law and comparative law scholarship.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Legal Theory, and Courts
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, and France

73. Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Issue: Rumor v. Italy

Author:
Ronagh J.A. McQuigg
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article focuses on the recent developments concerning domestic violence within the context of the Council of Europe. Since 2007, the European Court of Human Rights has issued a series of important judgments in cases involving domestic violence. The most recent of these is Rumor v. Italy, in which the Court issued its judgment on 27 May 2014. The article analyses this case in the context of the Court’s previous jurisprudence on domestic violence. In addition, on 1 August 2014, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence entered into force, and the article will include a number of reflections on the potential held by this Convention. No violation of the European Convention on Human Rights was found in Rumor; however, the question of whether Italy would have been in breach of the provisions of the new Convention, to which it is a party, had this Convention been in force at the time of the relevant events, will be examined.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Women, Gender Based Violence, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

74. EJIL Editors’ Choice of Books 2015

Author:
Sarah Nouwen, Christian Tams, Jan Klabbers, and Jean d'Aspremont
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
At the end of 2014, we invited the EJIL Board members to reflect on the books that had had a significant impact on them during the year. Their contributions, posted on EJIL: Talk!, were met with great interest and curiosity. As the end of another year approaches, we decided once more to invite our Board members to look back on their reading in 2015. In the following pieces Sarah Nouwen, Christian Tams, Jan Klabbers and Jean d’Aspremont write about the books they read or re-read this year and which they found inspiring, enjoyable or even ‘must reads’ for their own work or international law scholarship in general.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, History, and Courts
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and South Sudan

75. Survivors Speak: Reflections on Criminal Justice System Responses to Domestic Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Majda Halilović and Heather Huhtanen
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Domestic violence has increasingly been recognized as a societal problem and a criminal act as opposed to a private family matter. This is demonstrated by legislation that criminalizes acts of family violence and promotes gender equality and human rights. The question remains, however, whether criminal justice system professionals (police, prosecutors and judges) are applying existing legislation intended to hold perpetrators accountable, protect victims and their children and ultimately interrupt the damaging intergenerational pattern of domestic violence. This research explores the experiences of survivors of systematic domestic violence and contrasts those stories with common theories on the causes of domestic violence and criminal justice system practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The resulting publication reveals the extent to which systematic domestic violence is not appreciated as a serious criminal violation, and as a result, places victims, their children and the community at increased risk. Survivors Speak goes on to concretely identify evidence based risk factors within cases of domestic violence, validated through qualitative research in BiH. These risk factors can be used by criminal justice system professionals to appropriately assess and tailor the police, prosecutorial and judicial response to domestic violence, thereby enhancing victim and community safety and interrupting the intergenerational cycle of domestic violence
Topic:
Crime, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Law Enforcement, Gender Based Violence, Memory, and Violence
Political Geography:
Geneva, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

76. Historical Dialogue on Cham Issues

Author:
The Harriman Institute
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Professor Lambros Baltsiotis (Adjunct Lecturer, Research Centre for Minority Groups - Athens, Panteion University) and Professor Pellumb Xhufi (Professor of History, Albania Institute of History) participated in the second meeting. The organizers requested them to prepare scholarly perspectives of about 1,000 words commenting on the following statement: "Cham-Albanians suffered internment beginning in 1940, killings in 1944-45, and expulsion in 1945. Thousands of Cham-Albanians were killed in 1944 and 1945. These events occurred in a context and cycle of violence. It is alleged that Cham-Albanians were collaborators with the fascist and Nazi governments of Italy and Germany during World War II."
Topic:
Genocide, Human Rights, Violence, and World War II
Political Geography:
Europe, Germany, Balkans, Albania, and Italy

77. The European Convention on Human Rights, the EU and the UK: Confronting a Heresy

Author:
Andrew Williams
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The orthodox view of the ECHR and its Court as regime in the context of both the EU and UK has been that it has considerable value albeit with systemic flaws. The purpose of this article is to challenge this orthodoxy. Four inter-related submissions are made: that the ECHR has failed human rights conceptually (1); 'good' or lauded decisions of the ECtHR cannot remedy or sufficiently counter-balance this conceptual failure (2); 'bad' decisions further expose and exacerbate the failure (3); the procedural problems of the ECHR regime may contribute to the underlying failure of concept but their resolution cannot solve it (4). These submissions are to provoke a more intense assessment of value and how such value could be enhanced. It may be too late to see any influence on the accession process but this does not reduce the relevance of the critique for the future of human rights in both the EU and the UK. Ultimately an approach to the ECHR system needs to determine whether it continues to be lauded or its influence resisted (thus seeking reform or replacement - the alternative candidates being the EU Charter and/or a national Bill of Rights) and retained only as an iconic scheme of moral importance.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

78. The European Convention on Human Rights, the EU and the UK: Confronting a Heresy: A Reply to Andrew Williams

Author:
Stelios Andreadakis
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This reaction piece responds to the article by Andrew Williams entitled 'The European Convention on Human Rights, the EU and the UK: Confronting a Heresy'. In his article, Williams contends that we should not further support the 'orthodox' view that the Convention (ECHR) has been very successful in protecting and promoting human rights across Europe, offering four submissions to that end. It will be argued that Dr Williams' submissions regarding the ECHR's success and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)'s role are not well supported and justified. The relationship between the ECHR and a future UK Bill of Rights will also be explored in the piece, as there is no sufficient link between the author's arguments about the ECHR regime and the UK legal system, making it rather artificial to refer to the UK as a possible model for human rights.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

79. Horizontal Review between International Organizations: A Reply to Abigail C. Deshman

Author:
Rosa Rafaelli
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This short article aims to further the discussion over horizontal review between international organizations started by Deshman in her analysis of the role of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe after the H1N1 pandemic. The article compares the historical evolution of the European Parliament to that of the Parliamentary Assembly and examines how the EP's involvement with issues such as human rights and international relations served to build its identity, to gain international recognition, and to obtain more formal powers. It suggests possible additional reasons explaining the PA's willingness to perform horizontal review over action carried out by the WHO, and potential paths for future developments.
Topic:
International Relations and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

80. Shale gas in Europe: much ado about little?

Author:
Tania Zgajewski
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
Shale gas is an unconventional form of gas because its extraction is more difficult or less economical than that of conventional natural gas. It has become an important item of energy policy during the last years since new processes have allowed its extraction. In the medium term, shale gas should foster a reinforcement of the gas part in the world's energy mix. In 2011, the IEA released an influential report entitled "Are we entering a golden age of gas?" This report suggests that shale gas could help substantially boost global gas use. It also warns at the same time that this success could bring into question the international goal of limiting the long-term increase in the global temperature to 2° C above pre-industrial levels.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe