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2231. More Women – But Which Women? The Rule and the Politics of Gender Balance at the European Court of Human Rights

Author:
Stéphanie Hennette Vauchez
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Building on the heightened attention that the optic of judicial selection receives in the world of international courts, this article focuses its attention on one particular criterion that is gaining in importance in that respect: gender. By choosing the European Court of Human Rights as a case in point, the article provides a unique analysis of the history of the 2004 Resolution of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly that formulated a rule of gender balance on the list of candidates presented by states for the post of judge at the Court. It first unearths the dynamics that allowed the adoption of the rule as well as all of the fierce opposition it triggered as well as the ways in which counter-mobilization eventually prevailed and watered down the initial rule, with the help of states, the Committee of Ministers and the Court itself (which delivered its first advisory opinion on the topic in 2008). It then looks beyond the static analysis of the rule as a mere constraint and addresses in a more dynamic fashion the multiple interpretations, strategies and, ultimately, politics it opens up. By providing a unique qualitative, comparative and exhaustive analysis of the curriculum vitae of all the 120-odd women who were ever listed as candidates to the Strasbourg judicial bench (1959–2012), the article delivers original data and analyses both the features that women candidates put forth when listed for the job and the strategies of states with regard to the gender criterion. It concludes that while there is a strong proportion of candidates that support the notion that states do not differentiate according to gender or require different qualities from men and women candidates, there is a comparable proposition that contrarily indicates that the world of international judicial appointments is far from gender neutral.
Topic:
Human Rights and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

2232. More Women – But Which Women? A Reply to Stéphanie Hennette Vauchez

Author:
Françoise Tulkens
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Having spent almost 14 years as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, the author responds to and shares the critical view expressed by Hennette Vauchez in her article on the presence of women judges at the European Court of Human Rights. Some steps forward have admittedly been made through the voluntary action of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, but there has also been resistance in the implementation of these new rules. The gains are fragile and there are risks of regression. This situation confirms Kenney's analysis: women's progress is not natural, inevitable nor irreversible. A reaction is all the more necessary and urgent since, in the coming months of 2015 and subsequently, many elections of judges to the Court will take place, due in particular to the non-renewable nine-year term of office of judges introduced by Protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

2233. More Women – But Which Women? A Reply to Stéphanie Hennette Vauchez

Author:
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article responds to a thoughtful intervention by Stéphanie Hennette Vauchez documenting the selection process for women seeking judicial appointment to the European Court of Human Rights. Written in the context of the author's experience as candidate for appointment to the Court, the analysis concentrates on the gendered dimensions of international institutional cultures, habits and practices that frame selection to judicial office as much as any formally applicable rules. I explore the ways in which ostensible access to international judicial bodies conceals the manifold ways in which Courts are coded masculine, and how female candidacy requires careful deliberation on performance, presentation and identity. Drawing on 'new institutionalism' theory, I underscore that female presence alone rarely undoes embedded institutional practices. Rather, transforming institutional practices and values must parallel female presence, thereby redefining the institution and the forms of power it exercises. The article concludes by reflecting on the importance of feminist judging, and argues that it is precisely the transformative political and legal changes sought by self-defined feminists that may stand the best chance of undoing the structures, habits and practices that continue to exclude women from being appointed and from engaging on terms of full equality when they arrive.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

2234. Holocaust Denial before the European Court of Human Rights: Evolution of an Exceptional Regime

Author:
Paolo Lobba
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Litigation concerning domestic restrictions on Holocaust denial has produced a 30-year-long jurisprudence of the European Court and European Commission of Human Rights. In spite of solemnly declared principles on free speech, the Strasbourg organs have progressively developed an exceptional regime in this regard based on the 'abuse clause' envisaged under Article 17. Had this detrimental treatment remained confined to its original sphere, it could have perhaps been considered as a negligible issue. However, the scope of the abuse clause was extended to encompass a growing class of utterances, including the denial of historical facts other than the Nazi genocide. This piece begins by examining the Strasbourg case law on Holocaust denial, with a view to enucleating the effects, scope and conditions of applicability of the special regime based upon Article 17. Once the shortcomings implied by this detrimental discipline have been exposed, it shall be argued that all expressions should be dealt with under the ordinary necessity test, in which the abuse clause ought to operate as an interpretative principle. In the alternative, and as a minimum, the Court should pay due regard to the political and social context of the country where restrictions on free speech were enforced, setting aside the uniquely harsh treatment reserved for Holocaust denial.
Topic:
Genocide and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

2235. Shining Cities on the Hill? The Global City, Climate Change, and International Law

Author:
Helmut Philipp Aust
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Cities are beginning to assert themselves as internationally relevant actors. This is particularly noticeable in the climate change context. This development has so far not been accorded a great deal of attention by international lawyers. The review essay discusses four new books by political scientists which offer us a closer look at the political dimension of 'global cities', a term originally coined by sociologist Saskia Sassen. The four books under review as well as this essay pay particular attention to the C40 association – a movement of self-styled city leaders in climate change governance. This group of cities has developed numerous ties with international organizations and private corporations. The review essay analyses how cooperative endeavours such as C40 challenge our understanding of the relationship between the city and the state and assesses how international law as a discipline could come to terms with these developments. It is argued that international law should fulfil two functions in this regard: recognition and contestation. Whereas cities may not yet be recognized subjects of international law, they are moving closer to this illustrious circle. In any case, their law-making processes are beginning to have a significant impact on processes of global governance.
Topic:
Climate Change, International Law, and Governance

2236. International Law and Global Justice: On Recent Inquiries into the Dark Side of Economic Globalization

Author:
Jochen von Bernstorff
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Global economic justice as a topic of moral philosophy and international law is back on the intellectual agenda and figures prominently in feuilletons, blogs and academic publications. A wave of recent studies by both international lawyers and moral philosophers on the dark side of economic globalization and the role of international law in this context is as such a remarkable phenomenon. The essay engages with diverging scholarly perspectives on global justice and international law as represented in the four volumes under review. Three substantive questions structure the non-comprehensive sketch of the global justice debate: (i) Is the current international economic order unjust? (ii) Can existing international legal rules and institutions be transformed or developed into a more just economic order? (iii) What is the potential role of international lawyers in this context?
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, and International Law

2237. Anne Peters. Jenseits der Menschenrechte: Die Rechtsstellung des Individuums im Völkerrecht [Beyond Human Rights: The Legal Status of the Individual in Public International Law]

Author:
Andreas Th. Müller
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Anne Peters' most recent book is an equally important and topical contribution to the international law discourse. At the core of her voluminous œuvre lies, as the subtitle indicates, the question of the 'legal status of the individual in public international law'. At the same time, the title Beyond Human Rights conveys the idea that the co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and former president of the European Society of International Law does not cover the subject matter in its entirety but, rather, has opted to leave aside, or rather to presuppose, the very area of international law where one would be inclined to look first for insight and inspiration, namely international human rights law. As the author acknowledges herself, international human rights are 'the pivotal and completely undisputed element of the international legal status of the individual' (at 27). In contrast, Peters' own study sets out for the more open and uncharted territory of so-called 'simple' rights and duties. It is with this peculiar perspective that the book seeks to tackle its guiding question – that is, how the phenomenon of a strongly increasing number of individual rights and duties that may be observed in contemporary international law 'can be described, systematised, and evaluated in a legally sound manner' (at 2).

2238. Giovanna Adinolfi. Poteri e interventi del Fondo monetario internazionale [Powers and Actions of the International Monetary Fund]

Author:
Annamaria Viterbo
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Developments over the last years have dramatically changed the field of monetary law. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the presence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in mainstream media has become constant, with international lawyers increasingly focusing on financial and monetary issues. Accordingly, international economic law studies and debates have gained a prominence unseen before. Nevertheless, in spite of the great importance the IMF has acquired, academic publications dedicated to it remain rather scarce. Therefore, the book Poteri e interventi del Fondo monetario internazionale by Giovanna Adinolfi comes at a time when an in-depth reflection on the IMF is greatly needed, thus filling a gap in academic research.

2239. Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer (ed.). Poverty and the International Economic Legal System: Duties to the World's Poor

Author:
Elaine Kellman
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Poverty and the International Economic Legal System is an edited collection of essays arising out of a conference held at the University of Basel in October 2011 with the intention of establishing a research agenda on the specific and previously under-explored relationship between poverty and international laws of trade, investment and finance. The book is divided into four parts. Following a brief introductory section in Part 1, contributions in Part 2 examine how the international laws of trade, investment, arbitration and finance impact on states' abilities to fulfil their duty to reduce poverty. Adopting a capabilities approach, Part 3 addresses the effects of international economic law on populations that are particularly susceptible to poverty or its effects, and, in Part 4, contributors take a step back to consider the key question underpinning the book – that is, whether states actually have duties to reduce poverty and, if so, what the character of such duties is. Given the breadth of the material considered, this review will focus on Parts 2 and 4.

2240. Toward a Turkish-Russian Axis? Conflicts in Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine, and Cooperation over Nuclear Energy

Author:
Şener Aktürk
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
This article analyzes Turkish-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War (1992-2014) from a neorealist perspective, while highlighting relevant analogies and major turning points. Georgia (2008), Syria (2011--), and Ukraine (2014--) crises have has been detrimental for the two countries, mutual economic interests with strategic significance, such as the increasing importance of Turkey as a potential reseller of Russian natural gas, have sustained a high level of cooperation between the two countries.
Political Geography:
Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, and Syria