Wednesday 6 June 2018

My New Article on the European Court of Human Rights as a Norm-Broker

I am very happy to announce that my new article, co-authored with my good colleague and friend dr Michael Hamilton (University of East Anglia) has just been published in the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 205-232). The article is entitled 'Human Rights Courts as Norm-Brokers'. This is the abstract:

'This article develops an understanding of human rights courts as ‘norm-brokers’. We regard ‘norm-brokering’ as an exegetic method of judicial reasoning, ultimately concerned with reason-giving and the quality of justification. It entails robust engagement with alternative norms raised in the course of human rights adjudication. Norm-brokering thus involves much more than the mere cataloguing of alternative norms—and, at a minimum, a methodical approach to the question of normative harmonization. We suggest that the process of norm-brokering contributes to ‘public reason’ by enhancing the intelligibility of judgments. This, in turn, helps confound legitimacy-based critiques of human rights courts. The argument is supported by an analysis of 10 years’ worth of European Court of Human Rights judgments, focusing on the ways in which norms from the Inter-American human rights system are relied upon (or not) by the Strasbourg Court.'

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Summer School on Fundamental Rights in the EU and ECHR

The University of Bologna, King’s College London and the University of Strasbourg are co-organising a summer school “The Protection of Fundamental Rights in Europe” (Bertinoro, 24-29 June 2018). This 18th edition, is hosted in the Castle of Bertinoro (see photo), and it involves around 30 hours of lectures on the topic of the protection of fundamental rights in both the EU and ECHR systems. According to the organisers: 

'The Summer School aims to provide graduates, practictioners and young researchers (Ph.D. candidates) with an in depth background of the protection of fundamental rights at European level. The general courses are about the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The single lectures tackle topics alike asylum and migration, national identites and EU law, relationship between the CJEU and the ECHR, EU external action, the margin of appreciation doctrine, commercial law and fundamental rights. 

Thanks to the support of the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forli, selected participants are fees-waived and complimentary half-board accommodation for 5 nights is included.'

Further information and the call for application can be found here