Description
Book SynopsisThis insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins.
Written by a group of established and emerging experts from diverse backgrounds, this book offers a fresh perspective on the questions and challenges facing the ECHR, bringing together different, and thus far isolated, strands of academic and political debate. Contributions combine historiographical insights with explorations of the current and pressing need for the ECHR to find a role for itself, especially in an environment where there is increased scepticism towards the idea of human rights protection. In particular, the critical conception of the Convention as an 'alarm bell mechanism' is examined and assessed in relation to its original goal to prevent authoritarian backsliding.
The European Court of Human Rights: Current Challenges in Historical Perspective will be an important source of reference to academic researchers and students with an interest in human rights, international law and the law and politics of international organisations. It will also appeal to policymakers and legal practitioners due to its examination of pertinent legal and political issues that challenge international organisations.
Trade Review‘The volume provides an excellent tour de force through both the history of the ECtHR as well as the Court's dealing with histories in its case law. It poses questions to the core of the self-understanding, not only of the ECtHR but also for the legal and political scholarship on the Court. The multiplicity of voices assembled by the editors provide a rich and nuanced analysis, which does not fall into the trap of nostalgia but highlights the complex contexts in which the Court has, continues, and will operate in the future.’ -- Silvia Steininger, Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie
'An original, unique and fundamental contribution to the widespread debate on the very idea of an international system for protecting human rights that directly affects the European Court of Human Rights, ''the conscience of Europe''. In revisiting history from a contemporary perspective, this work provides an outstanding critical analysis of the Court's alarm bell function in the most sensitive areas of human rights. An illuminating book in which the past enlightens the present. A must-read for everyone in the field.' -- Françoise Tulkens, Former Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights
'In what ways can the study of history inform current debates about the European Court of Human Rights? Uniting some of the academy's most thoughtful writers on the European Court, this volume explores the uses, misuses and insights of history in analyzing both the Court's jurisprudence and its evermore contested political role. The volume provides depth to current debates and will speak to lawyers, legal scholars, and historians of Europe alike.' -- Alexandra Huneeus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US
Table of ContentsContents: 1 Introduction: The European Court of Human Rights – the past in the present 1 Helmut Philipp Aust PART I CURRENT CHALLENGES OF THE COURT 2 From boom to backlash? The European Court of Human Rights and the transformation of Europe 21 Mikael Rask Madsen 3 Principled resistance to the European Court of Human Rights and its case law: a comparative assessment 43 Marten Breuer 4 Can Strasbourg be replicated at a global level? A view from Geneva 71 Yuval Shany PART II HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CURRENT CHALLENGES: THE DRAFTING HISTORY IN CONTEXT 5 The European Convention on Human Rights and postwar history: why origins matter 90 Marco Duranti 6 For the sake of unity: the drafting history of the European Convention on Human Rights and its current relevance 109 Esra Demir-Gürsel 7 Asylum and immigration under the European Convention on Human Rights – an exclusive universality? 133 Prisca Feihle PART III HISTORIES AS CASES AND IN THE CASES 8 History as an afterthought: the (re)discovery of Article 18 in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights 158 Bașak Çalı and Kristina Hatas 9 Rethinking effectiveness: authoritarianism, state violence and the limits of the European Court of Human Rights 177 Dilek Kurban 10 ‘Never Again’ as a cornerstone of the Strasbourg system: the traces of the Holocaust in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights 200 Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias 11 Historical truth before the European Court of Human Rights 221 Björnstjern Baade 12 The limits of the European Court of Human Rights vis-à-vis contestation and authoritarianism: concluding observations 244 Esra Demir-Gürsel Index 264
