This volume supplements the current three volumes of A Systematic Guide to the Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights. It covers the years 1997 and 1998, and follows the same system as the previous volumes. Thus this volume, together with Volumes I, II and III, offers a compilation of relevant passages of all the Court's judgments from 1960 up to and including 1998, arranged according to the Articles of the Convention and its Protocols. The Guide will enable its users to find all the rulings of the Court which may be relevant to a given problem, and will reduce considerably the time and effort needed for research. It will continue to be updated at regular intervals.
The present edition of the Human Rights in Development Yearbook is the thirteenth edition in this series. With this volume, the yearbook’s formal structure has shifted from that of a journal to a thematic anthology. The theme of this year’s volume is “Reparations: Redressing Past Wrongs”. The articles contained in the publication primarily stem from contributions prepared for a conference entitled “The Right to Compensation and Related Remedies for Racial Discrimination” that was hosted by the Danish Centre for Human Rights in April 2001. The conference was organised in anticipation of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which was held in Durban in September 2001. The publication consists of 15 articles divided into four main parts addressing the subjects of “Reparations at the National and Regional Levels”, “Precedence and Standing of International Law”, “The Moral and Social Aspects of Reparation” and “Reflections”. Human Rights in Development is the result of a joint research project born out of longstanding co-operation between the following research institutes and centres for human rights: the Christian Michelsen Institute, Bergen; the Danish Centre for Human Rights, Copenhagen; the Icelandic Human Rights Centre, Reykjavik; the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Vienna; the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Montreal; the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht; the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, Oslo; the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund and Åbo Academy University, Åbo.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that there are major gaps in International Humanitarian Law and Public International Law in the area of humanitarian assistance. In response international organizations such as the UN and the EU are developing their own legal frameworks for humanitarian assistance and the body of customary law and so-called international disaster response law is growing steadily. This however shows that a coherent body of law is far from being a given. The legal reality of international law pertaining to emergency response is rather broadly spread over various international legal fields and related documents, covering situations of armed conflict and natural disasters. This book is one of the first attempts of linking different legal areas in the growing field of what could be called the international law of humanitarian assistance.
Human rights in the external relations of the EU may manifest itself in different manners; one of them is the conditionality policy that the EU applies to third countries. This study intends to explore the modalities of this conditionality policy, as well as its nature and reach. It also analyzes how the policy could be improved and be made more coherent and effective. The point of departure is the division made between two modes of conditionality: ex ante and ex post. In the first case the EU issues conditions, which must be fulfilled before the negotiation or conclusion of a given agreement or an action with a view to strengthening the relations. The second case, conditionality ex post , is when conditions are allready part of an agreement or an established relation. The so-called human rights clause, or democratic clause, incarnates the second modality. This study explores both types of conditionality, but puts a special emphasis on the second, given its legal nature, its reciprocity, and its systematic inclusion in all framework agreements. It is argued here that this clause could represent the basis of a fully-fledged human rights policy of EU. At present, however, the implementation of the clause has been fragmentary. The interpretation that has prevailed (the human rights clause being a mechanism of exclusively punitive nature), has constituted an obstacle for its implementation. In addition, the clause has been activated only as a response to breaches of democratic principles (and not human rights) in the ACP countries ( and not other regions). The human rights clause has been the victim of the 'sectorial approaches' where policy choices were determined by the instrument at issue. It is about time for the EU to revisit the interpretation of the clause in order to make of it a dynamic instrument, integrated in a global and coherent external human rights policy.
This book is a systematic commentary on half a century of case law on the Convention system made by a group of legal experts from various universities and legal disciplines. It provides a guide of the rights protected under ECHR as well as a better understanding, open to supranational scenarios, of fundamental rights in the respective Constitutions. Our intention is not only to make available a mere case law commentary. This work indeed offers succinct information on the most consolidated lines of case law and this is probably where it is most useful. Nevertheless there is also academic reflection, which we believe is nowadays essential as Europe is becoming more than a continent: it is, above all, a civilisation, with a common language of rights, a developing ius commune.