Monday 6 January 2014

Happy 2014 and New ECHR Readings

Dear readers, first of all my very best wishes for the new year 2014! My home base, the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) has started 2014 with a new online look by launching its new website which will keep you posted on all our research, teaching and other activities! Back to the ECHR now, with a range of recent publications:  
  
* An impressive electronic volume has been compiled by Tarlach McGonagle, based on the work of Dirk Voorhoof, entitled 'Freedom of Expression, the Media and Journalists: Case-law of the European Court of Human Rights'. It offers - open access -  a structured and extensive overview of virtually all the relevant case-law on the issue.

* My colleague here at SIM, Alexandra Timmer, who is a postdoctoral researcher and fellow ECHR specialist, has published: "A Quiet Revolution: Vulnerability in the European Court of Human Rights", in: Martha Fineman & Anna Grear (eds.), Vulnerability: Reflectionson a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics (Ashgate), p. 147-170. This is the abstract:

Without occasioning much comment, the European Court of Human Rights is increasingly relying on vulnerability reasoning. This chapter analyses that development. First it discusses the concept of vulnerability and its relationship to human rights on a theoretical level, particularly drawing on the work of Martha Fineman. Through an emphasis on universal vulnerability, Fineman’s work invites a reimagining of the human of human rights law. This chapter then examines and critiques how the Court conceives of vulnerability: it charts who are vulnerable according to the Court, and why. The ability of vulnerability, the chapter argues, is that it allows the Court to prioritize between different claims. Vulnerability reasoning likewise enables the Court to extend certain positive obligations. Vulnerability considerations are thus at the frontlines of the Strasbourg case law. However, as a social institution the Court is also vulnerable in and of itself. This is a reality that the ECtHR will have to take seriously in order to endure as a supranational human rights court. The Court’s legal reasoning about vulnerability, and the revolutionary potential of that reasoning, is therefore ultimately limited by the Court’s own vulnerability.

The newest issue of the Human Rights Law Review has been published (vol. 13, no. 4, December 2013) and it includes:

* Anthony Cullen & Steven Wheatley, ‘The Human Rights of Individuals in De Facto Regimes under the European Convention on Human Rights’.
* John Ip, ‘The Reform of Counterterrorism Stop and Search after Gillan v United Kingdom’.
* Martin Kuijer, 'The Right to a Fair Trial and the Council of Europe’s Efforts to Ensure Effective Remedies on a Domestic Level for Excessively Lengthy Proceedings '.
The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (vol. 24, no. 4, 2013) includes an EJIL Debate on the ECHR with the following contributions:
* Andrew Williams, 'The European Convention on Human Rights, the EU and the UK: Confronting a Heresy'.
* Stelios Andreadakis, 'The European Convention on Human Rights, the EU and the UK: Confronting a Heresy: A Reply to Andrew Williams'.

The most recent issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (vol. 17, nos. 7-8, 2013) features:

* Dragan Gulobovic, ‘Freedom of association in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights’.
Finally, the European Journal of Human Rights (no. 4, 2013) is dedicated to the topic of the EU's accession to the ECHR and it includes the following articles: 

* Vasiliki Kosta, Nikos Skoutaris & Vassilis P. Tzevelekos, ‘Introduction : the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights Introduction : l’adhésion de l’Union européenne à la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme’.
* Aida Torres Pérez, ‘Too many voices ? The prior involvement of the Court of Justice of the European Union / Trop de voix ? L’intervention préliminaire de la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne’.
* Olivier De Schutter, ‘The Two Lives of Bosphorus : Redefining the Relationships between the European Court of Human Rights and the Parties to the Convention / Les deux vies de Bosphorus : la redéfinition des rapports entre la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme et les Parties à la Convention’.
* Monica Claes & Šejla Imamović, ‘Caught in the Middle or Leading the Way ? National Courts in the New European Fundamental Rights Landscape / Entre deux feux ou ouvrant la voie ? Les juridictions nationales dans le nouveau paysage européen des droits fondamentaux’.
* Arman Sarvarian, ‘The Attribution of Conduct in the Law of International Reponsibility, the European Union and the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights / L’attribution de comportement dans le droit de la responsabilité internationale, l’Union européenne et la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme’.