Introduction: Human Rights Through Legal Pluralism

Author(s):  
René Provost ◽  
Colleen Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-174
Author(s):  
GEIR ULFSTEIN

AbstractThe European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is an international court operating in the international legal order. Its judgments are not given direct effect in national law. In this sense we have a system of legal pluralism between international and national law. But the ECtHR has constitutional effects in national law through the weight placed on the Court’s practice by national courts. Therefore, constitutional principles are applicable in the interaction between the ECtHR and national courts. This article discusses the transnational constitutional aspects of the Court, and how this should guide the roles of, respectively, the ECtHR and national courts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Kyriaki Topidi

Multiculturalism is continuously and relentlessly put to the test in the so- called West. The question as to whether religious or custom- based legal orders can or should be tolerated by liberal and democratic states is, however, by no means a new challenge. The present article uses as its starting point the case of religious legal pluralism in Greece, as exposed in recent European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case- law, in an attempt to explore the gaps and implications in the officially limited use of sharia in Western legal systems. More specifically, the discussion is linked to the findings of the ECtHR on the occasion of the recent Molla Sali v. Greece case to highlight and question how sharia has been evolving in the European legal landscape.


Global Jurist ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oche Onazi

This article aims to provide the justification for a subaltern theory of human rights. It explains the desirability of interpretative strategies that reveal the role, knowledge, contributions and sources that depict subaltern human rights perspectives. In particular, it considers the work of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, whose various writings directly or indirectly address the central issues relating to human rights from these perspectives. It subsequently explores the relationship between Santos and other protagonists, such as Upendra Baxi. These perspectives are then correlated with the view that the optimism for subaltern human rights may seem an insurmountable challenge given that this is hinged on the possibilities of a relationship with law. The justification or indeed legitimacy of subaltern views of human rights rests squarely on the degree to which such claims can be concretized into law. For instance, the state-centric nature of international human rights law is closed to initiatives that fall beyond its scope. As a consequence, the final preoccupation in this article is to propose the deconstruction of human rights into a plural discourse of its law and jurisprudence. This, to me, rests on the possibility of extrapolating a view of human rights from the notion of legal pluralism. The article is structured into the following parts. The first fleshes out an understanding of the subaltern concept. The second part locates the subaltern within the context of Santos' work on globalization; here, an attempt is made to correlate the relationship between globalization and human rights, particularly from the perspectives of the subaltern. The third part considers the loose connection of previous sections with the prospective theory of subaltern human rights and, ultimately, how legal pluralism supports this endeavor.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-79
Author(s):  
Samuel D. BLANCH

AbstractThe so-called crisis of human rights requires a precise diagnosis. Through a theoretical discussion of human rights and legal pluralism in the context of the freedom of religion in Malaysia, this paper suggests that the crisis ought to be understood as something vital to the character of rights. Crisis is not tangential to the human rights project: rights are political objects engendering political responses. Beginning with an excursion into legal positivism and liberalism, the paper argues that analyses of rights based on abstraction and presumptions of homogeneity are confounded in contexts of contested plurality. Secondly, legal pluralism is raised as a more suitable framework for rights. Finally, Augustine and Schmitt offer some clues as to how the political status of human rights might be properly acknowledged. The prominent Malaysian case ofLina Joyprovides an ongoing commentary on the dangers of divorcing human rights from this essential political character.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 653
Author(s):  
André Luiz Pereira Spinieli

O debate sobre o pluralismo jurídico no contexto político e social latino-americano não é recente, de modo que suas percepções foram renovadas a partir do movimento neoconstitucionalista operado no continente, responsável por desencadear alternativas epistêmicas para se pensar a efetividade dos direitos humanos e dos direitos de cidadania, tudo a partir da lógica de emancipação social e descolonialidade, como possibilidade de rompimento com o constitucionalismo tradicional, de cunho conservador, hegemônico e colonialista. Em termos gerais, como uma das respostas à concepção juspositivista, o pluralismo jurídico surge como modelo de pensamento para a práxis dos direitos humanos, em face de uma sociedade na qual impera a lógica das exclusões concretas em contrariedade às inclusões abstratas. Dessa forma, tomando por base a abordagem bibliográfica, este trabalho propõe oferecer reflexões a respeito do atual estado da cultura de direitos humanos instalada na América Latina, com enfoque nas contribuições epistemológicas advindas da teoria críticados direitos humanos e do pluralismo jurídico wolkmeriano.Palavras-chave: Pluralismo jurídico. Direitos humanos. Cultura constitucional. América Latina. Teoria crítica dos direitos humanos.LEGAL PLURALISM AS AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE FOR THE CULTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS SINCE THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXTAbstractThe debate on legal pluralism in the Latin American political and social context is not recent, so that their perceptions were renewed from the neo-constitutionalist movement operated on the continent, responsible for triggering epistemic alternatives to think about the effectiveness of human rights and human rights of citizenship, all based on the logic of social emancipation and decoloniality, as a possibility of breaking with traditional constitutionalism, of a conservative, hegemonic and colonialist nature. In general terms, as one of the answers to the juspositivist conception, legal pluralism emerges as a model of thoughtfor the practice of human rights, in the face of a society in which the logic of concrete exclusions prevails in opposition to abstract inclusions. Thus, based on the bibliographic approach, this work proposes to offer reflections on the current state of human rights culture in Latin America, focusing on the epistemological contributions arising from the critical theory of human rights and legal Wolkmer’s pluralism.Keywords: Legal Pluralism. Human rights. Constitutional culture. Latin America. Critical theory of human rights.


Author(s):  
Lucio Pegoraro

El ensayo critica el occidentalismo jurídico y denuncia el enfoque universalista del derecho público/constitucional basado en los derechos fundamentales/humanos, en apoyo al ataque que la globalización desarrolla contra el pluralismo social, cultural, político, económico y jurídico. Se analizan los elementos que comparten varias culturas y tradiciones jurídicas, y sugiere una propuesta alternativa de «núcleo duro» constitucional/transnacional, centrado no sólo en el imperialismo de los derechos fundamentales/humanos y la dignidad, Grundnorm del mundo occidental, sino en valores como la comunidad, la solidaridad y la fraternité, propios de occidente y de tradiciones juridícas orientales y del Sur del mundo.The essay criticises legal ‘Westernism’, and challenges the universalistic approach to public/constitutional law based on fundamental/human rights. To this extent, it highlights how globalisation harshly confronts social, cultural, political, economic, and legal pluralism. After analysing common elements among different cultures and traditions, it suggests an alternative constitutional/transnational “hard core”. The proposed new “hard-core” focuses on different values, i.e. community, solidarity, and fraternité as the funding elements of Western, as well as Eastern and Southern, legal traditions. In so doing, the essay rejects the ‘orientalist’ approach based on an allegedly Western Grundnorm, and avoids the theoretical —and potentially pragmatic— imperialism of fundamental/human rights and dignity.


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