*** JAN WOUTERS, KATRIEN MEUWISSEN (Eds.): National Human Rights Institutions in Europe. Comparative, European and International Perspectives. Intersentia Publishing (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - Fax: 6587121 - email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). “International Law Series”. 2013, 330 pp, €95, £90, $133. ISBN 978-1-78068-114-6.
This book is well-timed because the European Union is currently developing its human rights policy to make it more coherent and strategic. The book brings together leading experts from academia, representatives of civil society and practitioners from both the European Union and the United Nations. They met physically at a conference eighteen months ago, organised by the Centre for Global Governance Studies at the Université Catholique de Leuven as part of work supported by the intergovernmental research network, COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The conference's aim was to list the challenges and opportunities connected with the proliferation since 1991 of national human rights bodies - there are now more than a hundred of them around the world in all five continents - and, above all, to discern ways of ensuring that these bodies work to ensure the best human rights in Europe. In line with the 'Paris Principles' guiding such bodies under the aegis of the UN, they need to build bridges between the various levels of the multidimensional system, particularly in Europe, where they have to work with EU mechanisms, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for European Cooperation and Security, and, in fine, United Nations rules.
This triple segmentation - national, regional and international - is echoed in the breakdown of the studies in this book, along with the recommendations. The essay preceeding these three sections paints the backdrop, pointing out that national human rights bodies are extremely diverse, reflecting the geography of regions around the world, political contexts and legal traditions. Head, since 2008, of Vienna University's interdisciplinary research platform "Human Rights in the European Context," Manfred Nowak points out that European countries are keen to cultivate diversity and alongside the fact that there is diversity in the type of human rights body, from commissions to institutes via mediators, there is also a high level of fragmentation in many of these countries' domestic human rights architectures. This academic expert therefore 'calls upon the EU to request its Member States to create fully independent, professional and pluralistic NHRIs with a strong preference for national human rights commissions with an over-arching mandate, including the examination of individual complaints.' He explains: 'In order to avoid fragmentation and a lack of synergies, he indicates that specialised human rights bodies, such as equal treatment commissions and national preventive mechanisms, might be placed under the umbrella of national human rights commissions.'
Against this backdrop, other authors then make more targeted analyses comparing the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the functioning of the Polish 'Commissioner for Citizens' Rights,' the recent creation of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, and the fragmented landscape in federalised Belgium, with Jogchum Vrielink and Stefan Sottiaux explaining that centralisation is not necessarily a panacea. The next section of the book looks at the European dimension of how these institutions function, particularly in the light of cooperation between them. European Data Protection Supervisor Peter J. Hustinx analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the national human rights authorities and their fruitful relations with the structure he himself heads. Antoine Buyse (of Utrecht University's Dutch Human Rights Institute) explains how the studied structures have managed to become the 'ears and arms' of the European Court of Human Rights, such they that have become indispensable for getting round the various problems the court faces. Finally, three other specialists scientifically demonstrate how the same institutions could become crucial partners for the future extension of human rights architecture within the European Union. Faithful readers of Agence Europe and its European Library will no doubt find the second section of the book more useful, but they will also be interested in the explanations in the final section, putting the national bodies into perspective in the international context. Pierre Bouvier
*** GIORGIO REPETTO (Ed.): The Constitutional Relevance of the ECHR in Domestic and European Law. An Italian Perspective. Intersentia Publishing (see above). 2013, 251 pp, €6, £61, $90. ISBN 978-1-78068-118-4.
Could the Council of Europe and its European Convention of Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights take over in an area where the failure of the European constitutional treaty has somewhat held back the constitutionalising by the European Union of the European legal landscape? This book is dedicated to finding an answer to this question. The question is pertinent for no fewer than forty-seven countries have accepted the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and the Convention of Human Rights is seen by some of these countries as being called upon to become the core of a trans-European convention to ensure the respect of a fundamental standard of human rights. However, as Giorgio Repetto points out at the start of his introduction, enthusiasm for this constitutional rhetoric very soon revealed its limits. Why? Because the Court of Human Rights ended up a victim of its own success, with the increasing number of cases sent to it showing that it was not simply possible for it to become a genuine source of coherence and forward planning in the organisation of pan-European public order. Secondly, because the system introduced by the Convention did not lay down an autonomous constitutional role because of the gradual resistance manifested by national public spheres to its case law and the unpredictability of its basic interpretation criteria. The question of constitutional pertinence can, however, be dealt with, explains the book's editor, a lecturer in public law at Perugia University in Italy, on a legal basis taking into account the interaction between judicial players, be they national or supranational, acting within a united framework. This book of essays is devoted to verifying said approach and is divided into two sections. In the first section, the Convention's potential is analysed from the viewpoint of its growing influence on national legislation. Taking the Italian legal framework as a case study, the authors study transformations that affect the Convention's domestic role: for example, its role as a source of law, its influence on the protection of highly sensitive laws like the assurance of a fair trial, and how it contributes to evolution of the paradigms of legal and constitutional interpretation. The second section of the book examines the constitutional pertinence of the Convention in terms of its role as a trans-European constitutional order. The authors look at the dynamics underlying the relationship between Strasbourg and the parties to the Convention (particularly in terms of the balance to be struck to ensure protection of rights and interests) and within the working framework drawn up with the European Union.(PBo)
*** GIJSBERT TER KUILE: Of Bills and Rights. Human rights proofing legislation - Comparing the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Intersentia Publishing (see above). 2013, 418 pp, €90, £86, $126. ISBN 978-1-78068-148-1.
How is the necessary compatibility of parliamentary legislation and human rights taken into account? This is what the author of this in-depth research wanted to know when he analysed the institutional legislative processes in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom at the start of the century. Now working at the Dutch Central Bank, where he is involved in introducing European Banking Union, after lecturing at the Université Catholique de Leuven, Leiden University and The Hague Academy for legislation), the author starts by describing the various institutions involved in the legislative process - Whitehall and Westminster for the
British government and the Council of State and States-Generals for the Netherlands). Only primary legislation is taken into account. In the second part of the book, the legislative processes are compared stage-by-stage. Finally, the third and final part of the book sees Gijsbert ter Kuile arguing that the compatibility of law with human rights is taken into account because there are numerous points in both legal systems where accountability is required on the political, judicial and administrative fronts. These compulsory points amount, says the author, to 'a web of accountability' that encourages the legislators to take action rather than having to mend the system, although at the end of the day, the final word rests with the politicians. (PBo)
*** MARJOLEIN VAN ROOSMALEN, BEN VERMEULEN, FRIED VAN HOOF, MARTEN OOSTING (Eds.): Fundamental Rights and Principles. Liber amicorum Pieter van Dijk. Intersentia Publishing (see above). 2013, 584 pp, €115, £109, $161. ISBN 978-1-78068-108-5.
Dutch lawyer Pieter van Dijk has spent his working life examining the theory and practice of fundamental rights. At the European level, his career took him after a brief traineeship at the European Commission in 1967 to being a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1996 to 1998 and a member of the Venice Committee at the Council of Europe from 1999-2011, a commission working for democracy though the rule of law. His national and international career, for example as a lecturer, is just as important and hence there is nothing surprising about the fact that some of the people he met during his life as a lawyer decided to dedicate this high quality Liber amicorum to him. All the essays cover an aspect of human rights, some of them having a European dimension, be it the European Union or the Europe of Strasbourg - with acute consideration of various aspects of the European Convention of Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights case law. For example, there are essays examining the role of the European Parliament in the European Union's fundamental rights architecture, or the relationship between the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice in the domain of immigration, or the EU joining the human rights convention.(PBo)
*** KATHARINA SCHERMULY: Grenzen funktionnaler Integration. Anforderungen an die Kontrolle europäischer Strafgesetzgebung durch den EuGH. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Frankfurter kriminalwissenschaftliche Studien," series, No. 140. 2013, 376 pp, €64-95. ISBN 978-3-631-63942-9.
Katharina Schermuly's thesis describes the often mistakenly underestimated influence of European law on the creation of criminal law and the central role of the European Court of Human Rights in the edification of criminal law as functional law, in other words drawn up above all with the objective of serving the European integration project. The author says that the role of the EU and the Court of Human Rights is to establish criminal law that meshes with the rule of law and the philosophy of the age of reason. Katharina Schermuly makes proposals that would help criminal law achieve this objective. She makes a no-holds-barred assessment of the functioning of the EU and the various areas of shadow, hoping that implementation of her proposals will help give Europe more legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. (GLe)
*** PETER LEESE, CARLY MCLAUGHLIN, WLADYSLAW WITALISZ (Eds.): Migration, Narration, Identity. Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Peter Lang (see above). "Text - Meaning - Context: Cracow Studies in English Language, Literature and Culture", No. 6. 2012, 185 pp, €39-95. ISBN 978-3-631-62824-9.
This book presents articles resulting from joint research on the representations of migration conducted in connection with the Erasmus Intensive Programme entitled "Migration and Narration" taught to groups of international students over three consecutive summers from 2010 to 2012. Experts from the world of academia clearly explain through the stories of various individuals, different aspects of the experience of migrants, and try to solve the question of migrants' identity and how they are presented in literature and the media. They favour a highly cultural and humanist approach, constantly pointing out that a 'migrant is first and above all a human being,' as the professor of social and cultural history at Copenhagen University, Peter Leese, explains in the introduction. Leese explains that the authors focus on: 'The human experience of migration in all its ambiguous and subjective aspects, in the historical circumstances and geographical variations that have altered that experience, and with it the world in which we all live.' (MT)