Should prisoners have voting rights? Should terminally ill patients have a right to assisted suicide? Should same-sex couples have a right to marry and adopt? The book examines how such questions can be resolved within the framework of the European Convention of Human Rights. 'European consensus' is a tool of interpretation used by the European Court of Human Rights as a means to identify evolution in the laws and practices of national legal systems when addressing morally sensitive or politically controversial human rights questions. If European consensus exists, the Court can establish new human rights standards that will be binding across European states. The chapters of the book are structured around three themes: a) conceptualisation of European consensus, its modus operandi and its effects; b) critical evaluation of its legitimacy and of its outputs; c) comparison with similar methods of judicial interpretation in other legal systems.

Chile's constitutional moment began as a popular demand in late 2019. This collection seizes the opportunity of this unique moment to unpack the context, difficulties, opportunities, and merits to enhance the status of environmental and social rights (health, housing, education and social security) in a country's constitution. Learning from Chilean and international experiences from the Global South and North, and drawing on the analysis of both academics and practitioners, the book provides rigorous answers to the fundamental questions raised by the construction of a new constitutional bill of rights that embraces climate and social justice. With an international and comparative perspective, chapters look at issues such as political economy, the judicial enforceability of social rights, implications of the privatisation of public services, and the importance of active participation of most vulnerable groups in a constitutional drafting process. Ahead of the referendum on a new constitution for Chile in the second half of 2022, this collection is timely and relevant and will have direct impact on how best to legislate effectively for social rights in Chile and beyond.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into force on 1 January 2005, creating a new statutory 'right to open government'. It imposed new duties on public authorities regarding the disclosure and handling of information. The fifth edition of this popular Guide offers the most up-to-date guidance on the Act, taking into account all the changes since the publication of the last edition. Most significantly, the developments have been in relation to the case law and this Guide features expert analysis of the most noteworthy decisions and their impact on this area of law. The Guide is essential reading those working within, or advising, public bodies; those advising clients with a personal, professional, or commercial interest in obtaining information; and those advising business clients on the accessibility of commercially sensitive information. The Blackstone's Guide series delivers concise and accessible books covering the latest legislative changes and amendments. First published soon after enactment, they offer expert commentary by leading names on the scope, extent, and effects of the legislation, plus a full copy of the Act itself. They provide a cost-effective solution to key information needs and are the perfect companion for any practitioner needing to get up to speed with the latest changes.

Within the Middle East there are a wide range of minority groups outside the mainstream religious and ethnic culture. This book provides a detailed examination of their rights as minorities within this region, and their changing status throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The rights of minorities in the Middle East are subject to a range of legal frameworks, having developed in part from Islamic law, and in recent years subject to international human rights law and institutional frameworks. The book examines the context in which minority rights operate within this conflicted region, investigating how minorities engage with (or are excluded from) various sites of power and how state practice in dealing with minorities (often ostensibly based on Islamic authority) intersects with and informs modern constitutionalism and international law. The book identifies who exactly can be classed as a minority group, analysing in detail the different religious and ethnic minorities across the region. The book also pays special attention to the plight of minorities who are spread between various states, often as the result of conflict. It assesses the applicable domestic legislative instruments within the three countries investigated as case studies: Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and highlights key domestic remedies that could serve as models for ensuring greater social cohesion and greater inclusion of minorities in the political life of these countries.

The Defamation Act constitutes a significant overhaul of UK defamation legislation, which follows years of concern about the detrimental effects that preceeding libel laws had on freedom of expression, and the extent to which the jurisdiction had become a magnet for libel claimants. This new Blackstone's Guide combines the full text of the Act and extracts of related relevant legislation with an expert narrative. It brings practitioners up-to-date with this complex piece of drafting. Its clear and practical layout make it the ideal reference source for anyone working in the area. The Blackstone's Guide series delivers concise and accessible books covering the latest legislative changes and amendments. First published soon after enactment, they offer expert commentary by leading names on the scope, extent, and effects of the legislation, plus a full copy of the Act itself. They provide a cost-effective solution to key information needs and are the perfect companion for any practitioner needing to get up to speed with the latest changes.

Written by a leading human rights and employment and practitioner, the new edition of Monaghan on Equality Law combines a comprehensive survey of UK equality law with an analytical critique of the legal framework and the concepts that underpin it. The text provides practical guidance on equality law as it applies to specific practice areas including employment, goods and services, housing, education, transport, and public law. It covers the history of equality law, domestically, regionally, and internationally. It also considers the social and political context for equality. It offers a detailed exploration of the domestic law, as well as reviewing the main EU and international human rights instruments addressing discrimination.
This book reviews the history of the Equality Act and its impact on the landscape of this area of law. It examines the innovative provisions introduced by the Act, including provisions addressing 'multiple' discrimination and statutory equality duties covering all protected grounds, and also considers the decisions arising from the case law emerging since the publication of the previous edition.
The text also covers new EU law addressing discrimination outside those areas presently and historically addressed by EU law, and a number of UN initiatives directed at addressing inequality and discrimination.

Bringing armed conflicts to an end is difficult; restoring a lasting peace can be considerably harder. Reclaiming Everyday Peace addresses the effectiveness and impact of local level interventions on communities affected by war. Using an innovative methodology to generate participatory numbers, Pamina Firchow finds that communities saturated with external interventions after war do not have substantive higher levels of peacefulness according to community-defined indicators of peace than those with lower levels of interventions. These findings suggest that current international peacebuilding efforts are not very effective at achieving peace by local standards because disproportionate attention is paid to reconstruction, governance and development assistance with little attention paid to community ties and healing. Firchow argues that a more bottom up approach to measuring the effectiveness of peacebuilding is required. By finding ways to effectively communicate local community needs and priorities to the international community, efforts to create an atmosphere for an enduring peace are possible.

Examining the role of 'open remedies' in human rights adjudication, this book provides a new perspective informing comparative constitutional debates on how to structure institutional relationships over fundamental rights and freedoms. Open remedies declare a human rights violation but invite the other branches of government to decide what corrective action should be taken. Open remedies are premised on the need to engage institutions beyond courts in the process of thinking about and acting on human rights problems. This book considers examples across the United States, South Africa, Canada, and internationally, emphasising their similarities and differences in design and the diverse ways they could operate in practice. he book investigates these possibilities through the first systematic legal and empirical study of the declaration of incompatibility model under the United Kingdom Human Rights Act. This new model provides a non-binding declaration that the law has infringed human rights standards, for the legislature's consideration. By design, it has the potential to support democratic deliberation on what human rights require of the laws and policies of the State, however, it also carries uncertainties and risks. Providing a lucid account of existing debates on the relative roles of courts and legislatures to determine the requirements of fundamental rights commitments, the book argues that we need to look beyond the theoretical focus on rights disagreements, to how these remedies have operated in practice across the courts and the political branches of government. Importantly, we should pay attention to the nature and scope of legislative engagement in deliberation on the human rights matters raised by declarations of incompatibility. Adopting this approach, this book presents a carefully argued view of how courts have exercised this power, as well as how the UK executive and Parliament have responded to its use.

This book provides insight on the effect of political violence and transitional justice in Africa focusing on Zimbabwe and comparing it to Rwanda, Uganda and Mozambique. The case of Zimbabwe is unique since political violence observed in some areas has manifested as contestations for power between members of various political parties. These political contestations have infiltrated family/clan structures at the community level and destroyed the human and social relations of people. Also, the author examines an understanding of how communities in the most polarized and conflict-ridden areas in Africa are addressing their past. The project would appeal to graduate students, academics, researchers and practitioners as it will help them to understand African justice systems and the complex network of relationships shaping justice processes during transitions.

Blackstone's Handbook of Ports & Border Security is a practical, portable handbook for police officers and other professionals concerned with security and crime prevention at all UK ports and borders. Over the past decade, significant legislative and operational changes have been introduced to strengthen British borders against international organized crime and terrorism. Police officers, counter-terrorism officers, immigration and customs officials are now required to work together within new operating procedures and organizations. This book brings together all the relevant legislation, as well as powers, procedures and strategies for those professionals. Divided into two parts, Part 1 offers clear and detailed explanations of strategy, operational guidance, case studies, and an outline of the functions of key agencies. Part 2 is devoted to the legislation itself, focusing primarily on the powers and procedures for police, immigration and customs officers, and the main offences relating to terrorist and extremist activity, organized crime, criminal assets, firearms, and aviation, rail and maritime security. Written by the Police National Legal Database, Part 2 features explanatory notes, related cases and points to prove.

Informed in 1944 that she was "not of the sex" entitled to be admitted to Harvard Law School, African American activist Pauli Murray confronted the injustice she called "Jane Crow." In the 1960s and 1970s, the analogies between sex and race discrimination pioneered by Murray became potent weapons in the battle for women's rights, as feminists borrowed rhetoric and legal arguments from the civil rights movement. Serena Mayeri's Reasoning from Race is the first book to explore the development and consequences of this key feminist strategy. Mayeri uncovers the history of an often misunderstood connection at the heart of American antidiscrimination law. Her study details how a tumultuous political and legal climate transformed the links between race and sex equality, civil rights and feminism. Battles over employment discrimination, school segregation, reproductive freedom, affirmative action, and constitutional change reveal the promise and peril of reasoning from race-and offer a vivid picture of Pauli Murray, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others who defined feminists' agenda. Looking beneath the surface of Supreme Court opinions to the deliberations of feminist advocates, their opponents, and the legal decision makers who heard-or chose not to hear-their claims, Reasoning from Race showcases previously hidden struggles that continue to shape the scope and meaning of equality under the law.

Capital cases involving foreigners as defendants are a serious source of contention between the United States and foreign governments. By treaty, foreigner defendants must be informed upon arrest that they may contact a consul of their home country for assistance, yet police and judges in the United States are lax in complying. Foreigners on America's Death Row investigates the arbitrary way United States police departments, courts, and the Department of State implement well-established rights of foreigners arrested in the US. Foreign governments have taken the United States into international courts, which have ruled that the US must enforce the treaty. The United States has ignored these rulings. As a result, foreigners continue to be executed after a legal process that their home governments justifiably find to be flawed. When one country ignores the treaty rights of another as well as the decisions of international courts, the established order of international relations is threatened.

This book provides the first comprehensive account of the role played by the European Convention on Human Rights during the conflict in Northern Ireland from 1968. Brice Dickson studies the effectiveness of the Convention in protecting human rights in a society wracked by terrorism and deep political conflict, detailing the numerous applications lodged at Strasbourg relating to the conflict and considering how they were dealt with by the enforcement bodies. The book illustrates the limitations inherent in the Convention system but also demonstrates how the European Commission and Court of Human Rights gradually developed a more interventionist approach to the applications emanating from Northern Ireland. In turn this allowed the Convention to become a more secure guarantor of basic rights and freedoms during times of extreme civil unrest and political turmoil elsewhere in Europe. The topics examined include the right to life, the right not to be ill-treated, the right to liberty, the right to a fair trial, the right to a private life, the right to freedom of belief, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of assembly, and the right not to be discriminated against. The book argues that, while eventually the European Court did use the applications from Northern Ireland to establish important human rights principles, their development was slow and arduous and some gaps in protection still remain. The book illustrates the limits of the European Convention as a tool for protecting human rights in times of crisis.

Offend, Shock, or Disturb is a comprehensive examination of free speech under the Indian Constitution. It explores Indian free speech jurisprudence from a doctrinal, comparative, and philosophical perspective. Taking as its point of departure the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of speech and expression under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(2) of the Constitution of India, the book discusses, clause by clause, the development of law from colonial times to present-day controversies. Issues relating to public order, sedition, obscenity and pornography, hate speech, film and online censorship, privacy and defamation, the contempt of court, the nature of speech and the relationship between free speech and economic structure, and the inter-relationships between them have been comprehensively examined. As free speech campaigns gain intensity by the day, the book presents the myriad understandings and limitations of the free speech law, and suggests possible pathways for the future.

This book contends that the right of access to justice (at national and international levels) constitutes a basic cornerstone of the international protection of human rights, and conforms a true right to the Law. It amounts, lato sensu, to the right to the realization of justice.
In such understanding, it comprises not only the formal access to a tribunal or judge, but also respect for the guarantees of due process of law, the right to a fair trial, and to reparations (whenever they are due), and the faithful execution of judgments. On its part, the right to an effective domestic remedy is a basic pillar of the rule of law in a democratic society. In its part, the right of international individual petition, together with the safeguard of the integrity of international jurisdiction, constitute the basic foundations of the emancipation of the individual vis-a-vis his own State.
This is a domain that has undergone a remarkable development in recent years. It is submitted that the right of access to justice belongs today to the domain of jus cogens. Without it, there is no legal system at all. The protection of the human person in the most adverse circumstances has evolved amongst considerations of ordre public. Such recent evolution has been contributing to the gradual expansion of the material content of jus cogens.
Furthermore, the very notion of "victim" (encompassing direct, indirect and potential victims) has been the subject of a considerable international case-law. Victims have had their cause vindicated in situations of utmost adversity, if not defenselessness (e.g., abandoned or "street children," undocumented migrants, members of peace communities in situations of armed conflict, internally displaced persons, individuals in infra-human conditions of detention, surviving victims of massacres)."

This book contends that the right of access to justice (at national and international levels) constitutes a basic cornerstone of the international protection of human rights, and conforms a true right to the Law. It amounts, lato sensu, to the right to the realization of justice.
In such understanding, it comprises not only the formal access to a tribunal or judge, but also respect for the guarantees of due process of law, the right to a fair trial, and to reparations (whenever they are due), and the faithful execution of judgments. On its part, the right to an effective domestic remedy is a basic pillar of the rule of law in a democratic society. In its part, the right of international individual petition, together with the safeguard of the integrity of international jurisdiction, constitute the basic foundations of the emancipation of the individual vis-a-vis his own State.
This is a domain that has undergone a remarkable development in recent years. It is submitted that the right of access to justice belongs today to the domain of jus cogens. Without it, there is no legal system at all. The protection of the human person in the most adverse circumstances has evolved amongst considerations of ordre public. Such recent evolution has been contributing to the gradual expansion of the material content of jus cogens.
Furthermore, the very notion of "victim" (encompassing direct, indirect and potential victims) has been the subject of a considerable international case-law. Victims have had their cause vindicated in situations of utmost adversity, if not defenselessness (e.g., abandoned or "street children," undocumented migrants, members of peace communities in situations of armed conflict, internally displaced persons, individuals in infra-human conditions of detention, surviving victims of massacres)."

Integration and New Limits on Citizenship Rights is a state-centered analysis of citizenship, immigration and social identity. It explores the increasing role of nation states as critical actors in using social policy to affect the social location of immigrants and ethnics and also to redefine what it means to be a full citizen.

This book offers insight on access to justice from rural areas in internationally comparable contexts to highlight the diversity of experiences within, and across rural areas globally. It looks at the fundamental questions for people's lives raised by the issue of access to justice as well as the rule of law. It highlights a range of social, geographic and cultural issues which impact the way rural communities experience the justice system throughout the world with chapters on Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Kenya, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, the USA and Wales. Each chapter explores three questions: 1. How do people experience the institutions of justice in rural areas and how does this rural experience differ to an urban experience? 2. What impact have changes in policy had on the justice system in rural areas, and have rural and urban areas been affected in different ways? 3. What impact does the law have on people's lives in rural areas and what would rural communities like to be better understood about their experience of the justice system? By bringing in the voices and experiences of those who are often ignored or side-lined by justice systems, this book will set out an agenda for ensuring social justice in legal systems with a focus on protecting marginalised groups.

In 2015, both Portugal and Spain passed laws enabling descendants of Sephardi Jews to obtain citizenship, an historic offer of reconciliation for Jews who were forced to undergo conversions or expelled from Iberia nearly half a millennia ago. Drawing on the memory of the expulsion from Sepharad, the scholarly and personal essays in Reparative Citizenship for Sephardi Descendants analyze the impact of reconciliation laws on descendants andcontemporary forms of citizenship.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the extent, method, purpose and effects of domestic and international courts' judicial dialogue on human rights. The analysis covers national courts' judicial dialogue from different regions of the world, including Eastern Europe, Latin America, Canada, Nigeria and Malaysia. The text is complemented by studies on specific subject matters such as LGTBI people's and asylum seekers' rights that further contribute to a better understanding of factors that stimulate or hold back judicial dialogue, and by first hand insights of domestic and European Court of Human Rights judges into their courts' involvement in judicial dialogue. The book features contributions from leading scholars and judges, whose combined perspectives provide an interesting and timely study.

Restricting Los Angeles Paparazzi: California's Legal Efforts Impacting Free Press Rights is a detailed analysis of California's anti-paparazzi laws aimed at protecting celebrities' privacy. Joshua N. Azriel provides an ethnographic, First Amendment-based critique of the state's privacy and anti-harassment laws and discusses the broader implications of these laws on free press rights. Azriel conducted fieldwork acting as a paparazzo taking photos of celebrities and interviewed paparazzi directly about whether they comply with the laws, providing readers with insight into the challenges and ethics of the paparazzi industry and firsthand perspectives of photographers in the field. Scholars of media studies, legal studies, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Sanctions against private individuals have been widely used in the fight against terrorism, but not without significant controversy. This book examines the complex institutional and substantive issues arising from the European Union's practice of listing and sanctioning private individuals suspected of supporting terrorism. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the issues raised by individual sanctions adopted to give legal effect to United Nations lists and those drawn up by the EU itself.
The book demonstrates that individual sanctions endanger the protection of fundamental rights and the functioning of the European legal order. While the ECJ has in principle confirmed that all Community sanctions are subject to full judicial review irrespective of whether they give effect to UN lists or EU lists, in practice individuals do not have the necessary procedural rights at their disposal. Additionally, protection from listings of individuals as terrorist suspects in the second and third pillar remains very limited. This raises the possibility that national constitutional courts could challenge the supremacy of European law in reaction to this disregard of fundamental rights and foundational principles.
The book provides a comprehensive analysis of these complex legal issues, and situates them in their international context. The basis of the book is a critical review of the case-law of the CFI and the ECJ on individual sanctions. Conclusions are drawn how the EU Courts should provide fundamental rights protection and suggestions are made how the adoption procedure of individual sanctions could comply with general principles of EU law.