The exceptionality of America's Supreme Court has long been conventional wisdom. But the United States Supreme Court is no longer the only one changing the landscape of public rights and values. Over the past thirty years, the European Court of Human Rights has developed an ambitious, American-style body of law. Unheralded by the mass press, this obscure tribunal in Strasbourg, France has become, in many ways, the Supreme Court of Europe. Michael Goldhaber introduces American audiences to the judicial arm of the Council of Europe--a group distinct from the European Union, and much larger--whose mission is centered on interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council routinely confronts nations over their most culturally-sensitive, hot-button issues. It has stared down France on the issue of Muslim immigration; Ireland on abortion; Greece on Greek Orthodoxy; Turkey on Kurdish separatism; Austria on Nazism; and Britain on gay rights and corporal punishment. And what is most extraordinary is that nations commonly comply. In the battle for the world's conscience, Goldhaber shows how the court in Strasbourg may be pulling ahead.
The exceptionality of America's Supreme Court has long been conventional wisdom. But the United States Supreme Court is no longer the only one changing the landscape of public rights and values. Over the past thirty years, the European Court of Human Rights has developed an ambitious, American-style body of law. Unheralded by the mass press, this obscure tribunal in Strasbourg, France has become, in many ways, the Supreme Court of Europe. Michael Goldhaber introduces American audiences to the judicial arm of the Council of Europe--a group distinct from the European Union, and much larger--whose mission is centered on interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council routinely confronts nations over their most culturally-sensitive, hot-button issues. It has stared down France on the issue of Muslim immigration; Ireland on abortion; Greece on Greek Orthodoxy; Turkey on Kurdish separatism; Austria on Nazism; and Britain on gay rights and corporal punishment. And what is most extraordinary is that nations commonly comply. In the battle for the world's conscience, Goldhaber shows how the court in Strasbourg may be pulling ahead.
Based in Strasbourg, France, the European Court of Human Rights is a supra-national or international court established by the European Convention on Human Rights. It hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights provisions concerning civil and political rights set out in the Convention and its protocols. An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals, or one or more of the other contracting states, and, besides issuing judgments, the Court can also issue advisory opinions. The Convention was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, and all of its 47 Member States are contracting parties to the Convention. In this book, a brief history of the origins and development of the Court is presented. The book includes the recently (May 2013) updated Rules of Court and the appendix contains the most basic documents of the Court.
Helle Porsdam s new book is a readable and perceptive analysis of European and American perceptions of essential human rights and their roots in national and regional cultures. Professor Porsdam traces the notions of civil, political, social and economic interests as rights protected and implemented by law on both sides of the Atlantic. From Civil to Human Rights is a must read for Europeans, Americans, and everyone else who wants to learn more about the institutions, values, hopes and dreams that bring us together and hold us apart at the beginning of the 21st century. Peter L. Murray, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, US Is there a special human rights narrative emerging from the chastened soul of post-war Europe? What lies ahead for that great but shattered community? Helle Porsdam, a leader in the related fields of human rights and humane letters, bids fair to answer these and other pressing questions. Along the way her highly nuanced intellect addresses the frustrating differences among those contentious first cousins, Europe and the United States. The result is a wide-ranging, richly informed inquiry about Europe s rise from the ashes and the choices it must make to inspire rather than repulse the world around it. Richard Weisberg, Cardozo Law School, New York, US Europeans have attempted for some time to develop a human rights talk and now European intellectuals are talking about the need to construct European narratives . This book illustrates that these narratives will emphasize a political and cultural vision for a multi-ethnic and more cosmopolitan Europe. The narratives evolve around human rights, partly in the hope that they might function as a cultural glue in an increasingly multi-ethnic Europe, and partly because they are intimately connected with that part of enlightenment thinking that sought to promote democracy and the rule of law. Helle Porsdam discusses the development of human rights as a discourse of atonement for Europeans a discourse which has the potential to become a shared, transatlantic discourse. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book will be an invaluable research tool for postgraduate students and scholars within the fields of law, history, political science and international relations.
In this book, main events from the Court's history over the last half-century are retraced. As a whole, the publication tells of the Court's enduring commitment to the protection of fundamental human rights.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) entered into force on 3 September 1953 with binding effect on all Member States of the Council of Europe. It grants the people of Europe a number of fundamental rights and freedoms (right to life, prohibition of torture, prohibition of slavery and forced labour, right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, no punishment without law, right to respect for private and family life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, right to marry, right to an effective remedy, prohibition of discrimination) plus some more by additional protocols to the Convention (Protocols 1 (ETS No. 009), 4 (ETS No. 046), 6 (ETS No. 114), 7 (ETS No. 117), 12 (ETS No. 177) and 13 (ETS No. 187)). Any person who feels his or her rights under the ECHR have been violated by the authorities of one of the Member States can bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights, established under the Convention. The States are bound by the Court's decisions. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe make sure that the decisions are properly executed. Today the Court receives thousands of petitions annually, demonstrating the immense impact of the Convention and the Strasbourg Court. Professor Grabenwarter's Commentary deals with the Convention systematically, article-by-article, considering the development and scope of each article, together with the relevant case-law and literature.
The Council of Europe, the oldest European organisation, was founded in 1949 with the aim of unifying the continent as a whole. The decision to establish its headquarters in Strasbourg was, moreover, symbolic of the desire for reconciliation between peoples. From the outset the Council of Europe adopted an institutional structure comprising a committee of ministers and a parliamentary assembly - the first in Europe. This book retraces the history of the Organisation. Consisting initially of Western European states, the Council of Europe was destined to embrace all the continent's countries, but the Cold War delayed its enlargement. It is only since 1989 that the Council of Europe has become a truly pan-European organisation, now comprising 47 member states. Its mission is based on three major goals: protecting human rights, promoting democratic values and guaranteeing the rule of law. The Council of Europe is also very active in fostering co-operation in all areas of life: education, sport, culture, etc. Starting in 1959, the European Court of Human Rights grew to become the Organisation's flagship institution: its judgments are binding on the member states. As an intergovernmental organisation, the Council of Europe has had to contend with the growth of the European Union and has sought constantly to redefine its role in international relations. In these early years of the 21st century, will it succeed in securing a key position in the European institutional architecture?
Drawing on the case law of the Court, this volume analyses crucial developments over the years on both procedural and substantive issues before the Inter-American Court.
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Oxford, Wien. Collection de l'Association internationale d'histoire contemporaine de l'Europe publiee sous la direction de Jean-Claude Favez. This book deals with a remarkable period of human history from the end of Second World War to the end of the Cold War, when Europe established the world's most advanced human-rights regime. During this half century a continent, divided by arms and ideology, divested of its colonial empires, and faced with a huge influx of foreigners, drew on old ideas and on post-First World War experiments, to expand the political, judicial, and diplomatic practices of human-rights advocacy and protection. The book contains the major part of the contributions of the colloquium of the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences held in Oslo in August 2000. It represents one of the first collaborative, historical inquiries into the field of human rights. Cet ouvrage traite d'une periode importante de l'histoire europeenne, qui s'etend de la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale jusqu'a la fin de la guerre froide. Elle a ete marquee par l'instauration en Europe du regime des droits de l'homme le plus avance du monde. Durant ce demi-siecle, le continent europeen, divise sur le plan strategique et ideologique, depouille de ses possessions coloniales, confronte a un vaste afflux d'immigres, s'est engage a developper des instruments politiques, judiciaires et diplomatiques de protection et de defense des droits de l'homme. Ce livre reunit la majeure partie des contributions du colloque tenu a Oslo en aout 2000 dans le cadre du XIX(e) Congres international des sciences historiques. Il s'agit d'une des premieres enqueteshistoriques dans le domaine des droits de l'homme, entreprise avec la collaboration d'historiens de divers horizons. Contents/Contenu: Antoine Fleury: Introduction - Albert P. van Goudoever: The Problem of the International Protection of Human Rights since 1945: from International Legal Declarations to Commitment in Global Politics - Michael Biddiss: Human Rights and "Crimes against Humanity": the Development of a Supranational Concept at the Nuremberg Trials - Carole Fink: The European Court of Human Rights: Protecting Freedom of Expression - Bernard A. Cook: The Rights of Linguistic and Cultural Minorities in post-1945 Europe - Gerard Bossuat: La France, terre d'asile: l'avenir brouille d'un grand destin - Jozef Laptos: Les aspects politiques de l'action humanitaire de l'UNRRA envers les personnes deplacees en 1943-1947 - Tatiana A. Pavlova: The Human Rights Movement in the Soviet Union, 1945-1975 - C. Serban Radulescu-Zoner: Les violations des droits de l'homme en Roumanie (1945-1975): reactions contradictoires des milieux politiques franais - Josefina Cuesta Bustillo: Histoire comparee des droits sociaux dans les pays d'Europe occidentale de 1945 a 1950 - Peter Malcontent: Myth or Reality? The Dutch Crusade against the Human Rights Violations in the Third World, 1973-1981 - Giovanni Barberini: La politique du Saint-Siege dans le domaine des droits de l'homme - Antoine Fleury: Les autorites suisses et la question des droits de l'homme - Jaques Bariety: La France, les droits de l'homme et la genese de la conference d'Helsinki de 1975 - Mikhail M. Narinski: L'Union sovietique et le probleme des droits de l'homme dans la premiere moitie des annees soixantedix - Floribert H. Baudet: TheNetherlands and the Rank of Denmark: Prestige as Stimulus for Human Rights Policies - Carole Fink: Afterword.
