Human rights are at a crossroads. This book considers how these rights can be reconstructed in challenging times, with changes in the pathways to the realization of human rights and new developments in human rights law and policy, illustrated with case studies from Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Contesting Human Rights traces the balance between the dynamics of diffusion, resistance and innovation in the field. The book examines a range of issues from the effectiveness of norm-promotion by advocacy campaigns to the backlash facing human rights advocates. The expert contributors suggest that new opportunities at and below the state level, and creative contests of global governance, can help reconstruct human rights in the face of modern challenges. Critical case studies trace new pathways emerging in the United Nations' Universal Periodic Review, regional human rights courts, constitutional incorporation of international norms, and human rights cities. With its innovative approach to human rights and comprehensive coverage of global, national and regional trends, Contesting Human Rights will be an invaluable tool for scholars and students of human rights, global governance, law and politics. It will also be useful for human rights advocates with a keen interest in the evolution of the human rights landscape. Contributors include: G. Andreopoulos, C. Apodaca, P.M. Ayoub, A. Brysk, P. Elizalde, A. Feldman, M. Goodhart, C. Hillebrecht, P.C. McMahon, S. Meili, M. Mullinax, A. Murdie, B. Park, W. Sandholtz, M. Stohl

Cell phone apps share location information; software companies store user data in the cloud; biometric scanners read fingerprints; employees of some businesses have microchips implanted in their hands. In each of these instances we trade a share of privacy or an aspect of identity for greater convenience or improved security. What Robert M. Pallitto asks in Bargaining with the Machine is whether we are truly making such bargains freely - whether, in fact, such a transaction can be conducted freely or advisedly in our ever more technologically sophisticated world. Pallitto uses the social theory of bargaining to look at the daily compromises we make with technology. Specifically, he explores whether resisting these 'bargains' is still possible when the technologies in question are backed by persuasive, even coercive, corporate and state power. Who, he asks, is proposing the bargain? What is the balance of bargaining power? What is surrendered and what is gained? And are the perceived and the actual gains and losses the same - that is, what is hidden? At the center of Pallitto's work is the paradox of bargaining in a world of limited agency. Assurances that we are in control are abundant whether we are consumers, voters, or party to the social contract. But when purchasing goods from a technological behemoth like Amazon, or when choosing a candidate whose image is crafted and shaped by campaign strategists and media outlets, how truly free, let alone informed, are our choices? The tension between claims of agency and awareness of its limits is the site where we experience our social lives - and nowhere is this tension more pronounced than in the surveillance society. This book offers a cogent analysis of how that complex, contested, and even paradoxical experience arises as well as an unusually clear and troubling view of the consequential compromises we may be making.

In the age of technological advancement, including the emergence of artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things, the need for privacy and protection has risen massively. This phenomenon has led to the enforcement of two major legal directives in the European Union (EU) that aim to provide vigorous protection of personal data. There is a need for research on the repercussions and developments that have materialized with these recent regulations and how the rest of the world has been affected. Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union is an essential reference source that critically discusses different aspects of the GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive as well as recent jurisprudential developments concerning data privacy in the EU and its member states. It also addresses relevant recent case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Court of Human Rights, and national courts. Featuring research on topics such as public transparency, medical research data, and automated decision making, this book is ideally designed for law practitioners, data scientists, policymakers, IT professionals, politicians, researchers, analysts, academicians, and students working in the areas of privacy, data protection, big data, information technology, and human rights law.