Thursday 5 November 2020

Shifting Centres of Gravity in Human Rights Protection Now in Paperback

It is my pleasure to announce that the book professor Oddný Mjöll Arnardóttir (University of Iceland) and myself (Utrecht University) co-edited a few years ago, Shifting Centres of Gravity in Human Rights Protection. RethinkingRelations between the ECHR, EU, and National Legal Orders, has now been published in paperback! It focuses on what we then dubbed the shifting gravities of the protection of human rights in the triangle: European Union, European Convention on Human Rights, and national jurisdictions. It includes contributions from a wide range of authors who are experts on one or several of the interlinkages in this human rights triangle. This is the abstract:

'The protection of human rights in Europe is currently at a crossroads. There are competing processes which push and pull the centre of gravity of this protection between the ECHR system in Strasbourg, the EU system in Luxemburg and Brussels, and the national protection of human rights.

This book brings together researchers from the fields of international human rights law, EU law and constitutional law to reflect on the tug-of-war over the positioning of the centre of gravity of human rights protection in Europe. It addresses both the position of the Convention system vis-à-vis the Contracting States, and its positioning with respect to fundamental rights protection in the European Union. The first part of the book focuses on interactions in this triangle from an institutional and constitutional point of view and reflects on how the key actors are trying to define their relationship with one another in a never-ending process. Having thus set the scene, the second part takes a critical look at the tools that have been developed at European level for navigating these complex relationships, in order to identify whether they are capable of responding effectively to the complexities of emerging realities in the triangular relationship between the EHCR, EU law and national law.'