Damages for Violations of Human Rights


Book Description

This volume analyses the legal grounds, premises and extent of pecuniary compensation for violations of human rights in national legal systems. The scope of comparison includes liability regimes in general and in detail, the correlation between pecuniary remedies available under international law and under domestic law, and special (alternative) compensation systems. All sources of human rights violations are embraced, including historical injustices and systematical and gross violations. The book is a collection of nineteen contributions written by public international law, international human rights and private law experts, covering fifteen European jurisdictions (including Central and Eastern Europe), the United States, Israel and EU law. The contributions, initially prepared for the 19th International Congress of Comparative law in Vienna (2014), present the latest developments in legislation, scholarship and case-law concerning domestic causes of action in cases of human rights abuses. The book concludes with a comparative report which assesses the developments in tort law and public liability law, the role of the constitutionalisation of the right to damages as well as the court practice related to the process of enforcement of human rights through monetary remedies. This country-by-country comparison allows to consider whether the value of protection of human rights as expressed in international treaties, ius cogens and in national constitutional laws justifies the conclusion that the interests at stake should enjoy protection under the existing civil liability rules, or that a new cause of action, or even a whole new set of rules, should be created in national systems.




Damages and Human Rights


Book Description

Winner of the 2018 Inner Temple New Authors Book Prize and the 2016 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. Damages and Human Rights is a major work on awards of damages for violations of human rights that will be of compelling interest to practitioners, judges and academics alike. Damages for breaches of human rights is emerging as an important and practically significant field of law, yet the rules and principles governing such awards and their theoretical foundations remain underexplored, while courts continue to struggle to articulate a coherent law of human rights damages. The book's focus is English law, but it draws heavily on comparative material from a range of common law jurisdictions, as well as the jurisprudence of international courts. The current law on when damages can be obtained and how they are assessed is set out in detail and analysed comprehensively. The theoretical foundations of human rights damages are examined with a view to enhancing our understanding of the remedy and resolving the currently troubled state of human rights damages jurisprudence. The book argues that in awarding damages in human rights cases the courts should adopt a vindicatory approach, modelled on those rules and principles applied in tort cases when basic rights are violated. Other approaches are considered in detail, including the current 'mirror' approach which ties the domestic approach to damages to the European Court of Human Rights' approach to monetary compensation; an interest-balancing approach where the damages are dependent on a judicial balancing of individual and public interests; and approaches drawn from the law of state liability in EU law and United States constitutional law. The analysis has important implications for our understanding of fundamental issues including the interrelationship between public law and private law, the theoretical and conceptual foundations of human rights law and the law of torts, the nature and functions of the damages remedy, the connection between rights and remedies, the intersection of domestic and international law, and the impact of damages liability on public funds and public administration. The book was the winner of the 2016 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship and the 2018 Inner Temple New Authors Book Prize.




The European Court of Human Rights


Book Description

This insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins.




Remedies for Human Rights Violations


Book Description

Justifies a two-track approach that includes individual and systemic remedies in both domestic and international human rights law.




Accountability and Corporate Human Rights Violations in Tort and International Law


Book Description

This volume identifies a coherent legal principle in order to establish a novel duty of care for corporate human rights violations and environmental damages. It examines whether tort and civil law offer better accountability and remedies for victims of corporate human rights abuses, and carries out an in-depth and critical analysis of the concept of corporate accountability. Moreover, a fundamental part of this book is devoted to examining the extent to which international criminal law influences international human rights law in its use of tort law and civil law remedies. Finally, the book sets out a theoretical mechanism for duty of care, as well as a proposal for the establishment of a ‘Hybrid International Transnational Corporation Court’ that would have the potential to effectively interpret the concept of the corporate duty of care under tort law.




Tort Law in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights


Book Description

The goal of this study is to provide a general overview and thorough analysis of how the European Court of Human Rights deals with tort law issues such as damage, causation, wrongfulness and fault, the protective purpose of rules, remedies and the reduction of damages when applying art 41 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). These issues have been examined on the basis of a comprehensive selection and detailed analysis of the Court’s judgments and the results compared with different European legal systems (Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey), EC Tort Law and the Principles of European Tort Law. The introduction of art 41 (ex art 50) ECHR in 1950 as a compromise and the issues it raises now, the methodological approaches to the tort law of the ECHR, the perspectives of human rights and tort law and public international law as well as the question of whether the reparation awarded to victims of ECHR violations can be considered real ‘just’ satisfaction are addressed in five special reports (two of which are also available in German). Concluding remarks try to summarise the outcome.




Remedies in International Human Rights Law


Book Description

The fully revised and updated Third Edition of Remedies in International Human Rights Law provides a comprehensive analysis of the law governing international and domestic remedies for human rights violations. It reviews and examines the texts and the jurisprudence on this key area of human rights law. It is an essential practical and theoretical resource for policymakers, scholars, and students negotiating and litigating issues of redress for victims. The Third Edition incorporates the major developments in remedial human rights jurisprudence. Internationally, the United Nations and the International Criminal Court have issued reparations guidelines; the International Court of Justice has for the first time awarded compensation for human rights violations; the International Law Commission has considered the humanitarian responsibility of international organizations; and new international petition procedures and policies on redress have entered into force. Regionally, in Asia and Africa, human rights bodies have adopted new human rights accords and legal judgments; in Europe, the human rights case load unceasingly increases. Nationally, the jurisprudence of historical reparations has come to the fore, as has the juridical consideration of economic and social rights. All of these developments are analysed in context and create a comprehensive and accessible portrait of the state of remedial human rights law today.




Reparations for Victims of Armed Conflict


Book Description

Three experts address reparation for victims of armed conflict, drawing on international law practice, human rights courts, and domestic law.




Philippine Materials in International Law


Book Description

The most authoritative international law documents in Philippine history are brought together in one book for the first time. These are primary materials that illuminate Philippine interpretations of international law doctrine.




World Report 2019


Book Description

The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.