Spoils for which victor? Human rights within the democratic state

In the wake of the EU's biggest enlargement, this book explores the adaptation of the constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for membership in the European Union. In response to the painful past, these new constitutions were notably closed to transfer of powers to international organizations, and accorded a prominent status to sovereignty and independence. A little more than a decade later, the process of amending these provisions in view of the transfer of sovereign powers to a supranational organization has proved a sensitive and controversial exercise. This book analyses the amendments against the background of comparative experience and theory of sovereignty, as well as the context of political sensitivities, such as rising euroscepticism ahead of accession referendums.

Reacting to the poor record of the UK Human Rights Act 1998 and similar provisions in protecting human rights, this book explores ways of promoting human rights more effectively through political and democratic mechanisms. The book expresses ideological scepticism concerning the relative neglect of social and economic rights and institutional scepticism concerning the failures of court-centred means for enhancing human rights goals in general. Criticizing the ‘juridification’ of human rights through the transferring of the prime responsibility for defining human rights violations to courts and advocating the greater ‘politicization’ of human rights responsibilities through such measures as enhanced Parliamentary scrutiny of existing and proposed legislation, a group of twenty-four human rights scholars present a variety of perspectives on the disappointing human rights outcomes of recent institutional developments and consider the prospects of reviving the moral force and political implications of human rights values. Thus, one chapter recounts the Human Rights Act failures with respect to counter-terrorism legislation, another charts how the ‘dialogue’ model reduces parliaments' capacities to hold governments to accountable for human rights violations, a further chapter considers which institutions best protect fundament al rights, and another chapter reflects on how the idea of human rights could be ‘rescued’ in Britain today. Other chapters deal with the historical human rights failures of courts during the Cold War and in Northern Ireland, the diverse outcomes of human rights judicial review, and examine aspects of the human rights regimes in a variety of jurisdictions, including Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Canada, Europe, and the United States.