Wednesday 24 August 2011

My New Book on Transitional Jurisprudence and the ECHR

It is my great joy to announce that a book edited by my good friend Michael Hamilton (Central European University & Ulster University) and myself, entitled 'Transitional Jurisprudence and the ECHR. Justice, Politics and Rights' has just been published by Cambridge University Press. After three years of work from initial idea to this final product, we are grateful for the contributions of many. This is the product of a cooperative research project on this theme between researchers from SIM at Utrecht University, Ulster University, Durham University, American University, and New York University. The foreword was written by Ruti Teitel. This is the abstract:

The European Convention on Human Rights has been a standard-setting text for transitions to peace and democracy in states throughout Europe. This book analyses the content, role and effects of the jurisprudence of the European Court relating to societies in transition. It features a wide range of transitional challenges, from killings by security forces in Northern Ireland to property restitution in East Central Europe, and from political upheaval in the Balkans to the position of religious minorities and Roma. Has the European Court developed a specific transitional jurisprudence? How do politics affect the ways in which the Court's judgments are implemented? Does the Court's case-law itself become woven into narratives of struggle in transitional societies? This book seeks to answer these questions by highlighting the unique role of Europe's main guardian of human rights, the Court in Strasbourg. It includes a comparison with the Inter-American and African human rights systems.
And this is the table of contents:
1. Introduction, Michael Hamilton and Antoine Buyse
2. Transitional emergency jurisprudence: derogation and transition, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin
3. Rights and victims, martyrs and memories: the European Court of Human Rights and political transition in Northern Ireland, Kris Brown
4. The ECHR and transition: confronting the consequences of authoritarianism and conflict, Christopher Lamont
5. Freedom of religion and democratic transition, James Sweeney
6. The truth, the past and the present: Article 10 of the ECHR and situations of transition, Antoine Buyse
7. Transition, political loyalties and the order of the state, Michael Hamilton
8. Transition, equality and non-discrimination, Anne Smith and Rory O'Connell
9. Closing the door on restitution: the European Court of Human Rights, Tom Allen and Benedict Douglas
10. The inter-American human rights system and transitional processes, Diego Rodriquez-Pinzon
11. The 'transitional' jurisprudence of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Gina Bekker
12. Conclusions, Antoine Buyse and Michael Hamilton.
Hopefully enjoy reading!