In Protecting Stateless Persons: The Implementation of the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons across EU States, Katia Bianchini offers an in-depth comparative study of legislation, case-law and decision-making concerning the treatment of stateless persons in ten EU States. Focusing on whether and why statelessness determination procedures are needed, what their constituent elements should be, how the definition of "stateless person" is interpreted and applied, and what rights are attached to the granting of status, Katia Bianchini critically examines current national legal frameworks, and points a way forward for more effective legislation and practice in the area of statelessness. Against this backdrop, she adds insights into the wider debate on how human rights treaties should be implemented.

In Proving Discriminatory Violence at the European Court of Human Rights Jasmina Mackic unveils the evidentiary issues faced by the European Court of Human Rights when dealing with cases of discriminatory violence. In that context, she evaluates the Court's application of the standard of proof 'beyond reasonable doubt' and aims to answer the question whether that standard forms an obstacle in establishing the occurrence of discriminatory violence. In addition, she offers an assessment into the circumstances in which the burden of proof may shift from the applicant to the respondent state. The author also looks at the types of evidentiary materials that may be used by the Court in order to establish discriminatory violence.

Human dignity is a classical concept in public international law, and a core element of the human rights machinery built after the Second World War. This book reflects on the past, present and future of the concept of human dignity, focusing on the role of international lawyers in shaping the idea and their potential and actual role in protecting the rights of certain vulnerable groups of contemporary societies, such as migrant women at risk of domestic servitude, the LGB community and indigenous peoples.

There are many challenges that national and supranational judges have to face when fulfilling their roles as guardians of constitutionalism and human rights. This book brings together academics and judges from different jurisdictions in an endeavour to uncover the intricacies of the judicial function. The contributors discuss several points that each represent contemporary challenges to judging: analysis of judicial balancing of conflicting considerations; the nature of courts' legitimacy and its alleged dependence on public support; the role of judges in upholding constitutional values in the times of transition to democracy, surveillance and the fight against terrorism; and the role of international judges in guaranteeing globally recognized fundamental rights and freedoms. This book will be of interest to human rights scholars focusing on the issues of judicial oversight, as well as constitutional law scholars interested in comparative perspectives on the role of judges in different contexts. It will also be useful to national constitutional court judges, and law clerks aiming to familiarise themselves with judicial practices within other jurisdictions. Contributors: A. Abat i Ninet, E. Afsah, C. Ayala, A. Barak, O. Bassok, D.T. Bjoergvinsson, W. Hoffmann-Riem, D. Hope, D. Jenkins, H. Krunke, TJ McIntyre, M. Scheinin, B. Tuzmukhamedov, G. Ulfstein, A. Usacka

For several decades, social rights lacked proper recognition in international law, being qualified as aspirational goals rather than rights, and therefore not enjoying the same level of protection or status as other human rights. This comprehensive Research Handbook provides a comparative overview of the history, nature and current status of social rights at the universal and regional level. Tracing their evolution from rather modest beginnings, to becoming the category of rights responding most accurately to the 21st century's policy objectives of poverty eradication and equitable resource allocation, this Research Handbook assesses the mechanisms used to enhance the implementation and enforcement of social rights. Offering in-depth discussion of current debates in the field of social rights and international law, expert contributors analyse the ability of these rights to act as a tool to fight inequality, as well as to protect and ensure diversity. In so doing, they examine how social rights now play a central role in the shift from a state-centred to a value-based global order. This Research Handbook will be a useful resource for students and academics working on social rights in international human rights law and other fields of public international law. It will also be of value to lawyers, NGOs and state officials concerned with the enforcement and implementation of social rights. Contributors include: V. Bilkova, C. Binder, J.P. Bohoslavsky, D.M. Chirwa, A. Constantinides, J. Cortez da Cunha Cruz, E. De Brabandere, M. de Carvalho Hernandez, E. Dermine, M. Dobri , E. Ferrer Mac-Gregor, M. Goldmann, M. Gongora-Mera, J.A. Hofbauer, D. Ikawa, P. Janig, Z. K dzia, A. Kendrick, T. Kleinlein, E. Lopez-Jacoiste, K. Lukas, S. McInerney-Lankford, A. Mkhonza, M. Morales Antoniazzi, A. Muller, Y. Negishi, M. Nowak, K. Olaniyan, L.C. Pautassi, F. Piovesan, E. Schmid, J. Schoensteiner, F. Seatzu, A. Ubeda de Torre, F. Viljoen, R. Wilde, I.T. Winkler

Conflicts of laws arising from injuries to rights of personality-such as defamation or invasion of privacy-have always been difficult, if only because they implicate conflicting societal values about the rights of freedom of speech and access to information, on the one hand, and protection of reputation and privacy, on the other hand. The ubiquity of the internet has dramatically increased the frequency and intensity of these conflicts. This book explores the ways in which various Western countries have addressed these conflicts, but also advances new, practical ideas about how these conflicts should be resolved. These ideas are part of an international model law unanimously adopted by a Resolution of the Institut de droit international, which addresses jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The book provides extensive article-by-article commentary, which explains the philosophy and intended operation of the Resolution.

The European Convention on Human Rights is now crucial to decisions to be taken by the military and their political leaders in 'hard power' situations - that is, classical international and non-international armed conflict, belligerent occupation, peacekeeping and peace-enforcing and anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations, but also hybrid warfare, cyber-attack and targeted assassination. Guidance is needed, therefore, on how Convention law relates to these decisions. That guidance is precisely what this book aims to offer. It focuses primarily on States' accountability under the Convention, but also shows that human rights law, used creatively, can actually help States achieve their objectives.

The UK's engagement with the legal protection of human rights at a European level has been, at varying stages, pioneering, sceptical and antagonistic. The UK government, media and public opinion have all at times expressed concerns about the growing influence of European human rights law, particularly in the controversial contexts of prisoner voting and deportation of suspected terrorists as well as in the context of British military action abroad. British politicians and judges have also, however, played important roles in drafting, implementing and interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights. Its incorporation into domestic law in the Human Rights Act 1998 intensified the ongoing debate about the UK's international and regional human rights commitments. Furthermore, the increasing importance of the European Union in the human rights sphere has added another layer to the relationship and highlights the complex relationship(s) between the UK government, the Westminster Parliament and judges in the UK, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. The book analyses the topical and contentious issue of the relationship between the UK and the European systems for the protection of human rights (ECHR and EU) from doctrinal, contextual and comparative perspectives and explores factors that influence the relationship of the UK and European human rights.

After having been introduced by the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) in 2001 and after its affirmation by the UN World Summit in 2005 the concept of R2P has found broad approval both by international law doctrine and practice. It is fair to say that international law thinking has been profoundly influenced by this new approach. Nonetheless, many questions in this regard are still open. In this volume international lawyers discuss a series of fundamental aspect of R2P: the historical dimension, the relationship between R2P and general international law and the dynamics surrounding this concept. In particular it will be examined in which direction this concept will probably evolve. Contributors are: Alex Bellamy, Enzo Cannizzaro, Martina Caroni, Thomas Cottier, Hans-Georg Dederer, Fernand de Varennes, Oliver Diggelmann, Caro Focarelli, Andrea Gattini, Hans-Joachim Heintze, Peter Hilpold, Karolina Januszewski, Stefan Kadelbach, Federico Lenzerini, Manfred Nowak, Karin Oellers-Frahm, Nadakavukren Scheffer, Peter-Tobias Stoll, and Lotta Viikari

This open access book offers a new account on the legal conflict between privacy and trade in the digital sphere. It develops a fundamental rights theory with a new right to continuous protection of personal data and explores the room for the application of this new right in trade law. Replicable legal analysis and practical solutions show the way to deal with cross-border data flows without violating fundamental rights and trade law principles. The interplay of privacy and trade became a topic of worldwide attention in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations concerning US mass surveillance. Based on claims brought forward by the activist Maximilian Schrems, the ECJ passed down two high-profile rulings restricting EU-US data flows. Personal data is relevant for a wide range of services that are supplied across borders and restrictions on data flows therefore have an impact on the trade with such services. After the two rulings by the ECJ, it is less clear then ever how privacy protection and trade can be brought together on an international scale. Although it was widely understood that the legal dispute over EU-US data flows concerns the broad application of EU data protection law, it has never been fully explored just how far the EU's requirements for the protection of digital rights go and what this means beyond EU-US data flows. This book shows how the international effects of EU data protection law are rooted in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and that the architecture of EU law demands that the Charter as primary EU law takes precedence over international law. The book sets out to solve the problem of how the EU legal data transfer regime must be designed to implement the EU's extraterritorial fundamental rights requirements without violating the principles of the WTO's law on services. It also addresses current developments in international trade law - the conclusion of comprehensive trade agreements - and offers suggestion for the design of data flow clauses that accommodate privacy and trade.

Launched in 1965, the Australian Year Book of International Law (AYBIL) is Australia's longest standing and most prestigious dedicated international law publication. The Year Book aims to uniquely combine scholarly commentary with contributions from Australian government officials. Each volume contains a mix of scholarly articles, invited lectures, book reviews, notes of decisions by Australian and international courts, recent legislation, and collected Australian international law state practice. It is a valuable resource for those working in the field of international law, including government officials, international organisation officials, non-government and community organisations, legal practitioners, academics and other researchers, as well as students studying international law, international relations, human rights and international affairs. It focuses on Australian practice in international law and general international law, across a broad range of sub-fields including human rights, environmental law and legal theory, which are of interest to international lawyers worldwide.

Armed non-state actors (ANSAs) often have economic aims that international law needs to respond to. This book looks at the aim of Islamic State to create an effective government, with an economically independent regime, which focused on key oilfields in Syria and Iraq. Having addressed Islamic State's quest for energy resources in Iraq and Syria, the book explores the lawfulness of the war with Islamic State from a variety of legal aspects. It has been attempted to make inroads into the most controversial aspects of contradictions in the application of jus ad bellum and jus in bello, particularly when discussing the use of extraterritorial armed force against ANSAs, and the obligation to protect civilian objects, including the natural environment. The question is whether the targeting of energy resources should be regarded as a violation of the laws of armed conflict, even though the war with Islamic State being classified as a non-international armed conflict. Ambitious in scope, the study argues that legal theory and state practice are still problematic as to how and under what conditions states can justify resorting to military force in foreign territory, and to what extent they can target natural resources as being part of state property. Furthermore, it goes on to examine the differences between international and non-international armed conflicts, to establish whether there is any difference in the targeting of energy resources as part of the war-sustaining capabilities of either party. Through an examination of the Islamic State case, the book offers a comprehensive study to close the gaps in jus in bello by contextualising the questions of civilian protection, victimisation and state responsibility by evaluating the US's war-sustaining theory as a justification for the destruction of a territorial state's natural resources that are occupied by ANSAs.

This collection of essays by a variety of scholars, compiled to celebrate the silver anniversary of The International Journal of Children's Rights, builds on work already in the literature to reveal where we are now at and how the law concerned with children is reacting to new developments. New, or relatively new subject matter is explored, such as film classification, intersex genital mutilation, the right to development. Rights within the context of sport are given an airing. We are offered new perspectives on discipline, on the significance of "rights flowing downhill," on the so-called six " General Principles." The uses to which the CRC is put in legal reasoning in some legal systems is critically examined. Though not intended as an audit, the collection offers a fascinating image of where the field of children's right is at now, the progress that has been made, and what issues will require work in the future.

Ai Kihara-Hunt's Holding UNPOL to Account: Individual Criminal Accountability of United Nations Police Personnel analyzes whether the mechanisms that address criminal accountability of United Nations police personnel serving in peace operations are effective, and if there is a problem, how it can be mitigated. The volume reviews the obligations of States and the UN to investigate and prosecute criminal acts committed by UN police, and examines the jurisdictional and immunity issues involved. It concludes that these do not constitute legal barriers to accountability, although immunity poses some problems in practice. The principal problem appears to be the lack of political will to bring prosecutions, as well as a lack of transparency, which makes it difficult accurately to determine the scale of the problem.

Democratic societies expect their armed forces to act in a morally responsible way, which seems a fair expectation given the fact that they entrust their armed forces with the monopoly of violence. However, this is not as straightforward and unambiguous as it sounds. Present-day military practices show that political assignments, social and cultural contexts, innovative technologies and organisational structures, present military personnel with questions and dilemma's that can have far-reaching consequences for all involved - not in the last place for the soldiers themselves. A thorough training and education, in which critical thinking is developed and stimulated, seems therefore a necessary condition for morally responsible behaviour. This book aims to contribute to this form of 'reflective practitioning' in military practice.

Human Rights, Hegemony and Utopia in Latin America: Poverty, Forced Migration and Resistance in Mexico and Colombia by Camilo Perez-Bustillo and Karla Hernandez Mares explores the evolving relationship between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic visions of human rights, within the context of cases in contemporary Mexico and Colombia, and their broader implications. The first three chapters provide an introduction to the books overall theoretical framework, which will then be applied to a series of more specific issues (migrant rights and the rights of indigenous peoples) and cases (primarily focused on contexts in Mexico and Colombia,), which are intended to be illustrative of broader trends in Latin America and globally.

Rather than serving as civilian and humanitarian safe havens, refugee camps are notorious for their insecurity. Due to the host state's inability or unwillingness to provide protection, camps are often administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its implementing partners. When a violation occurs in these situations, to which actors shall responsibility be allocated? Through an analysis of the International Law Commission's work on international responsibility, Maja Janmyr argues that the 'primary' responsibility of states does not exclude the responsibilities of other actors. Using the example of Uganda, Janmyr questions the general assumption that 'unable and unwilling' is the same as 'unable or unwilling', and argues for the necessity of distinguishing between these two scenarios. Doing so leads to different conclusions in terms of responsibility for the state, and therefore for UNHCR and its implementing partners.

In the first Commentary on the United Nations Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons - known colloquially as the Pinheiro Principles - Khaled Hassine and Scott Leckie outline the restitution rights of persons who have faced forced displacement and the loss of their homes, lands and properties. The Commentary compiles and analyzes in considerable detail the legal contents of the Pinheiro Principles - a consolidated international instrument generated by the United Nations in 2005 to provide a solid normative framework on these questions and which legal duties exist for states and the international community to secure them. The book will be of vital interest for all actors concerned with applying restitution rights in practice.

The remarkable volume collects essays and studies on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and its application. Its aim is to offer a series of contributions, made by distinguished scholars and legal experts, on the Charter considered as a living legal instrument, with a view to understanding whether, five years after its entry into force and fifteen years after its first proclamation, it is being taken seriously, and whether its use and effective impact within the legal orders and practice of the European Union and Member States can realistically improve in the coming years.The contributions are structured and organized around three main themes, "The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as a Legal Instrument: General Issues", "The Charter and Social Rights", and "Assessing the Legal Impact of the Charter at the National Level". Scholars and experts participating in the book have conducted, under the supervision of its editor, extensive and in-depth analysis on the many issues raised by each of these themes. The result is a fascinating and varied collection of essays that combines high academic quality with great practical usefulness.

With the advent, in the twenty-first century, of the trafficking conventions and the criminalisation of enslavement before the International Criminal Court, the need to establish the black-letter law dealing with human exploitation has become acute. "Slavery in International Law" sets out the applicable law of human exploitation in the various sub-areas of international law, including general international law, human rights law, humanitarian law, labour law and the law of the sea; so as to create an overall understanding of what constitutes, in law, slavery and lesser types of human exploitation including: forced labour and servitudes such as debt bondage or servile marriage, as set out in the established definition of trafficking in persons .

The dominant conceptions of development and the right thereto have been confined to narrow, sectoral interpretations focusing on economic matrices and collective entities such as the state or peoples. This book delimits these key notions of the public order of the 21st century in an entirely new fashion. Drawing on fundamental precepts of policy-oriented jurisprudence, this book offers a comprehensive and systematic study and redefinition of development and the right to development guided by the goal of maximum access by all to the processes of shaping and sharing of all things humans value, including, empirically, aspirations to power, wealth, well-being, affection, enlightenment, skills, respect, and rectitude. This new paradigm of development offers fertile ground for legal and policy responses designed to bring about a public order of human dignity in all parts of the planet. The book was awarded the Society of Policy Scientists 2012 Harold D. Lasswell Prize.

This unique book, one of the first of its kind, discusses how human rights actually featured in UN peace operations in the deadly conflicts in the former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1996. It is based on original materials in the possession of the author, who was Director of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslava from 1992 to 1996 and also served as Director of the Office of the UN Special Representative in charge of all peacemaking, peacekeeping, and humanitarian operations in the region. The book brings out the strategic centrality of human rights in the wide-ranging humanitarian operations. It shows how the peacekeepers built in a human rights dimension for the first time in the history of UN peacekeeping. And it shows how the peace negotiators sought to build their peace proposals on the foundations of human rights. It shows the peacemakers advocating justice for the victims while proceeding with their negotiating efforts. The great value of this book is that the author, who was personally involved in all of the activities he writes about, shows how human rights were instilled in practice in UN peace operations over a period of some four years and it also reveals, for the first time, some innovative ideas advanced that might be helpful in future peace operations.

The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities: A Commentary, edited by Rainer Hofmann, Tove H. Malloy and Detlev Rein, presents an updated article-by-article assessment of the monitoring of the Convention's implementation. The Convention was opened for signature in 1995 and entered into force on 1 February 1998. Within a very short period of time, it was ratified by 39 Council of Europe member states, and it constitutes the first (and only) international treaty establishing legally binding obligations concerning the rights of persons belonging to national minorities. In this volume, the monitoring of the Convention is assessed by eminent experts in the field of minority protection. They survey the scope of application as interpreted by the Advisory Committee during the first four cycles of monitoring by analyzing its approach and offering their individual assessments of potential improvements. The volume thus updates and augments previous assessments.

Migration is an increasingly important reality for sub-national autonomous territories characterized by large historical communities or minorities. The diverse claims of these groups, on the one hand, and of new communities arising from migration, on the other, bring complexity to the management of migration issue in the territories. Migration and Autonomous Territories, edited by Roberta Medda-Windischer and Andrea Carla, draws on the fields of migration and minority studies, to analyze the challenges associated with the need to reconcile diversity and unity in autonomous territories. The volume compares the cases of South Tyrol and Catalonia, characterized both by the presence of large historical communities and minorities, and significant migration aims, and sheds new light on how sub-national units deal with migration.

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.