*** MALTE BROSIG (Ed.): Human Rights in Europe. A fragmented regime? Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2006, 336 pp. ISBN 3-631-54458-8.
Alhtough they are not always respected, we tend human rights for granted as self-evident and long-standing, but the formulation of human rights is relatively recent, the result of long political and legislative processes. After the Second World War, Europe set up the Council of Europe in 1949 to provide a legal framework for human rights. As Malte Brosig remarks at the outset, ideas of fragmentation and lack of coherence do tend to come to mind, however, when considering the human rights system in Europe. In addition to the European Covnetnion of Human Rights (itself supplemented by fourteen separate protocols, not all of which have yet been signed by all the Convention's signatories), there are many other laws issued by other organs of power, like European Union legislation and national constitutions. Brosig comments: "It can also be described as the most coercive and succeful regional human rights regime reg arding its legal obligationsa and the largely positive human rights record European States display on the whole".
This book looks at human rights across the entire continent rather than just in the European Union, but it has plenty to say about the EU as well. Although the EU had a relatively modest role in the initial establishment of human rights systems in Europe, it frequently refers to human rights as a basis for the European identit and EU policies (like foreign relations).
After a general introductory chapter by Malte Brosig, the book exposes the fragmentation of the human rights system in Europe by taking a close look at the various stakeholders (Council of Europe, European Union, OSCE, etc) and studying how the various standards (court rulings, charters and conventions) mesh to form Europe's special human rights system. This part of the book also clarifies the interaction and complementarities and tensions between the European Court of Human Rights (the Council of Europe), the European Court of Justice and national constitutional courts. Katarzyna Cuadrat-Grzybowska considers the situation whereby the EU has managed, after a long historical, legislative and political process, to include a section on fundamental rights and human rights in the constitutioanl treaty, and some analysts have put ofrward the idea of a European Commission Directorate General for Human Rights, but does the EU really have the ful l democratic legitimacy required to this end? The following chapter looks at the tricky question of minority rights. The wars in the former Yugoslavia generated renewed interest in the question in Europe, but the Europen Union has been distinctly lukewarm about developing binding legislation in this domain. The question of minorities is far from insignificant in Europe and also far from 'settled', as is demonstrated by essays on the difficult situation facing the Roma in several countries of East and Central Europe and the Russian minority in Estonia, for example.
The book also looks at the role human rights play in the EU's foreign policy. As Malte Brosig explains, "It is indeed remarkahble that the EU tries to establishitself as an international actor partly by justifying utilising human rights norms as a legitimate basis for its foreign policy". In the EU's attempts to make its foreign policy more coherent and meaty, human rights can provide common ground for EU Member States and give the EU greater legitimacy across a wide range of foreign policy interventions. Alongside a general essay on this topic, the impact of human rights on the EU's relations with Russia is studied, and the impact of human rights on the EU's relations with three countries wishing to join the EU, namely Bulgaria, Turkey and Macedonia. Birsen Erdogan looks, for example, at changes in human rights in Turkey, particularly in the light of the struggle between Kemalists and traditionalists, the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK against the security backdrop, and the prospect of Turkey joining the EU. An essay by David Chandler provides a critical backdrop to the book. Noting that "Statements of human rights NGOs and states and international institutions acting in the name of human rights are often taken at face value as if the nobility of aim conferred immunity from sociological analysis or political critique", he takes a very independent-minded look at the theoretical and poltical underpinnings of the assumption of universal human rights and how they interact with democracy, civic rights and traditional policies. David Chandler demonstrates, for example, how human rights activism (from an ethical standpoint) sometimes clashes with the concept of democracy (which is a means and not an ethical end in itself) and how human rigths are more of a "wish list" than traditional civic and political rights. "The human rights critique is in many ways a stunningly confident attack on the politica l sphere under the cover of ethics and morality", but "the imperative of action to defend human rights ironically entails a realpolitik" from self-proclaimed defenders of human rights rather than from the victims of humam rights violations.
This book does not aim to describe human rights violations or action in defence of human rights in Europe, but rather to provide a highly comprhensive picture of the genesis and current form of the human rights system in the European Union and the wider Europe.
Frederik Ronse
*** SEBASTIEN VAN DROOGHENBROECK: La Convention européenne des droits de l'homme. Trois années de jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme 2002-2004. Larcier (De Boeck Services, 4 Fond Jean-Pâques, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Tel: (32-10) 482500 - Fax: 482519 - E-mail: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.deboeck.com ). "Les Dossiers du Journal des tribunaux" series, Nos. 57/1 and 2. 2006, 204 and 282 pp, €62 and €65. ISBN 2-8044-2371-9 and 2-8044-2371-9.
The ever more prolific European Court of Human Rights delivered 2265 rulings on issues of substance between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2004 and no less than 57,665 decisions on admissibility. This mushrooming has continued since because at the end of 2005, there were some 82,100 cases waiting to be settled. Hence the huge utility of this commentary on published European Court of Human Rights case law, given the nature of the beast, which takes up two volumes. The first looks at case law concerning Articles 1 to 6 of the Convention, and the second at Articles 7 to 59 and the additional protocols. A professor at the 'Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis' in Brussels, Sébastien van Drooghenbroeck comments in more detail on rulings of principle and revision rulings and rulings confirming the continuity of solutions which did not necessarily appear definitive in the past. The selection of decisions about admissibil ity was guided mainly by the 'presumption of interest' which determines the Court's choice of which decisions to publish in the collection of cases. The author also pays particular attention to rulings regarding Belgium. At the end of each volume there is an alphabetical list of rulings and admissibility decisions, the full text of which can then be consulted on the Court's website. There is a general index of subject matter at the end of the second volume. This book will prove to be an invaluable reference tool for many readers.
(MT)
*** CHRISTIAN PHILIP: Les droits fondamentaux dans l'espace pénal européen. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" series, No. 3330. 2006, 56 pp, €3-50. ISBN 2-11-121189-3.
This newsletter examines several initiatives by the European Commission to boost fundamental rights in the EU penal area, namely the draft framework decision on procedural rights in criminal proceedings, the Green Paper on the presumption of innocence and the Green Paper on conflicts of competence and the ne bis in idem principle whereby nobody can be prosecuted, judged or punished twice for the same crime. French parliamentarian Christian Philip makes a few suggestions about how the principles of subsidiarity and the diversity of legal traditions in the EU Member States can be respected and how mutual trust in Member States' legal systems can be enhanced.
(MT)
*** EVELYNE SHEA: Le travail pénitentiaire: un défi européen. Etude comparée: France, Angleterre, Allemagne. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole-Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - E-mail: harmattan1@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.librairieharmattan.com ). "Logiques sociales" series. 2006, 242 pp, €21-50. ISBN 2-296-01121-7.
Prison work seems essential. A source of revenue and and an area for training, it is supposed to facilitate the prisoner's future return to work and ordinary life outside and give meaning to a period of detention that is often experienced negatively. For the prison service, it provides the option of cutting the cost of keeping prisoners locked up and, more importantly, it keeps prisoners occupied (and therefore less violent) and makes the maintenance of order in the prison an easier task. The problem is that the last aspect is the only one which is really relevant these days, as is demonstrated in this book, which examines the tensions created by prison work which has not been able to fully free itself from its troubled past. The time of forced labour has passed, of course, along with slavery and chain gangs, but various investigations in France bear witness to the fact that detainees still work for only a fraction of the amount earned by workers on the outside, and the prisoners work without a contract, without job stability, with few rights and no way of defending their rights, not to mention the fact that the work they are assigned is often work that companies cannot get their own workforce to do given the monotonous and devalued nature of it. Evelyne Shea, a lawyer specialising in criminology who currently works in Padua (Italy) for an association helping former prisoners adapt to ordinary life again, starts off by noting that things may not have moved on so far from the ideas of slavery as one might like to think. She looks into the reasons for this unsatisfactory situation, examining whether the problem is unique to France by studying the situation in France, naturally enought, but also the situation in Germany and England, three countries expressing a desire to find new solutions to the problem but which do not recommend the same approaches or the same priorities. In the first part of the book, the author starts by painting the legal backdrop - the current aims of prison work, the underlying principles, organisation and management, and the legal status granted to prisoners etc. The theoretical part of the book is supplemented in the second part by research out in the field, interviewing prisoners at nine penal establishments, which Eveylne Shea analyses in the third part of the book, examining current constraints and obstacles before going on to suggest possible reforms. The author refuses to believe that the huge number of obstacles to normal, rehabilitating and profitable work cannot be overcome, and argues in favour of rapid reform.
(MT)
*** NOEMIE BIENVENU: Le médecin en milieu carcéral. L'Harmattan (see above). "Bibliothèques de droit" series. 2006,126 pp, €12-20. ISBN 2-296-00939-5.
The "Bibliothèques de droit" series publishes work by young researchers on topical issues or little-known subjects from a legal perspective. It meets its objectives perfectly in this book, in which a graduate from both Nantes in France and Cardiff in the UK compares and contrasts the work of prison doctors in France with prison doctors in England and Wales. After describing how healthcare is organised in both countries and the specific nature of the work of prison doctors, the author considers the implications of the transfer in recent years of responsibility for inmate medical care to public health authorities with regard to EU rules in this domain.
(PBo)
*** PHILIPPE MARY: La nouvelle loi pénitentiaire. Retour sur le processus de réforme. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (Crisp, 1A place Quetelet, B-12010 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2110180 - Fax: 2197934 - Internet: www=.crisp.be) Collection « Courrier hebdomadaire », No. 1916. 2006, pp51, €6.90.
It is only recently that Belgium has had legislation specifically for prisons. Previously, the matter was the responsibility of the Executive. This Courrier hebdomadaire traces this law's difficult drafting process. The author demonstrates that the application of the law could be hindered by persistent problem of prison overcrowding, and resistance from prison wardens, in whose eyes the issue of inmates' rights can appear to call their way of working into question. A critical and sceptical work.
(PBo)
*** Rapport 2005. Organe international de contrôle des stupéfiants (Centre international de Vienne, B.P. 500, A-1400 Vienna. Tel: (43-1) 26060 - Fax: 260605867 - E-mail: secretariat@incb.org - Internet: http://www.incb.org ). 2006, 126 pp. ISBN 92-1-248142-6.
The 2005 Annual Report of this United Nations body takes an in-depth look at the functioning of the international drugs control system, analysing the situation continent by continent. It pays particular attention at the outset to encouraging the growing of other crops to replace drugs.
(PBo)