The Rule of Law in Europe (eBook)

Recent Challenges and Judicial Responses

María Elósegui, Alina Miron, Iulia Motoc (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2021 | 1st ed. 2021
X, 288 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-56001-0 (ISBN)

Infos

This book discusses the nature of the challenges that have confronted European democracies in recent years. In the past decade, the rule of law in Europe has been put under strain by both external and internal factors. The term 'illiberal democracies' is sometimes used to describe the rise of a phenomenon in which the fundamental values of the European legal order, as enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, are called into question. The preservation of the independence of the judiciary, of the freedom of expression and the protection of journalists are among the values under threat. But these challenges are also present within the older democracies in which emergency regimes have become more common. As the European Union's sanctions regime shows, striking a balance between security and the rule of law, of which fundamental rights are an intrinsic part, is a constant challenge. 

Focusing on the European courts' responses to these threats, the book discusses how courts could provide the ultimate line of defense. The acid test of the rule of law might indeed be how it safeguards the judicial guarantees designed to protect core European values beyond the discretion of government.

María Elósegui is a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg. Full Professor of Philosophy of Law in the Faculty of Law of the University of Saragossa (Spain). PhD in Law, PhD in Philosophy. Bachelor Degree in Law, Bachelor Degree in Philosophy. MPhil in Law University of Saint Louis of Brussels. MPhil in Philosophy University of Glasgow (Scotland). Humboldt Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University Christians Albrecht in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). Visiting professor of the Max Planck Institute of International Law in Heidelberg (Germany), University of UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, and Berlin Institute of Human Rights. Member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe (ECRI) (2013-2017). Expert on women´s rights in UN conferences. Research and publications on legal argumentation, human rights and discrimination based on race and gender.

Alina Miron is a Professor of International Law at the University of Angers (France), co-director of the Master of International and European Law. She is also a lawyer at the Paris Bar. She has acted as counsel and advocate in number of cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea and before arbitral tribunals. Professor Miron's research covers areas like proceedings before international courts and tribunals, the law of international organizations and the application of international law by domestic judges.

Iulia Motoc is a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights and Professor of Law at the University of Bucharest, Romania. She has also served as a judge at the Constitutional Court of Romania an as the Vice-Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee, an UN Special Rapporteur and President of the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Motoc was member of Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities, Council of Europe and of the member of the Council of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. She was guest professor in several universities in US and Europe.  Motoc holds two PhD in international law and philosophy from the University of Aix-Marseille and for the University of Bucharest as well as a Masters' degree from the University Aix-Marseille. She published in the area of international law, European law and human rights.