External Review of Constitutional Amendments? International Law as a Norm of Reference

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lech Garlicki ◽  
Zofia A. Garlicka
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
External Assessment ◽  
Current State ◽  
Final Observation

This article is built around three general observations. The first is that, in the current stage of the development of constitutional theory and practice, there is a need to create procedures allowing the review of constitutional amendments. The second is that traditional mechanisms, in particular the “internal” review of constitutionality of constitutional amendments, may not always be able to provide sufficient protection against amendments that run counter to the existing constitutional structure. The final observation is that, in the current state of globalization, international law—in particular international human rights law—may play a significant role in an “external” assessment of the legitimacy of constitutional amendments. This role of international law is particularly well developed in Europe, and most of our conclusions therefore focus on the European perspective. Given the universal nature of human rights, however, at least some of these conclusions may also be validfor other regions of the world.

In Lieu of a Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Linarelli ◽  
Margot E Salomon ◽  
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Current State ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This chapter recaps the main themes of the volume, ie that the international law of the global economy is in a state of disorder. Claims about the justice, fairness, or benefits of the current state of international law as it relates to the global economy are fanciful. A more credible picture emerges when one considers who is protected, against what, and those relations that are valued and those that are not. Moreover, these claims above all require a suspension of a reflective attitude about what international law actually says and does. When it comes to international economic law, power is masked behind a veil of neutrality when it certainly is not neutral in the interests it protects and offends. As for international human rights law, it overlooks the ways in which it props up extreme capitalism foreclosing the possibility of transformative structural change to neoliberal capitalism. In its most radical areas, human rights norms have been blocked from making demands on the design of the global economy precisely because of their transformative potential. Among the central critiques of international law presented in this book is that international law must be justifiable to those who are subject to it.

Self-Determination, Human Rights, and the Nation-State

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 443-484
Author(s):  
Gaetano Pentassuglia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Nation State ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
General Process ◽  
Cultural Minority ◽  
The Right

Abstract In this article I examine selective dimensions of the nexus among the right to self-determination, human rights, and the ‘nation-state’ as they relate to claims made by certain ethno-cultural minority groups. I first discuss some conceptual extensions of ‘national’ claims and their underlying relation to international law and state sovereignty. Then, I critique elements of ‘national’ self-determination that are supposedly constitutive of the law of self-determination, including arguments about sub-national groups as ‘peoples’, and discuss some alternative approaches to the role of international law vis-à-vis this sort of claims. Finally, I argue that international human rights law can offer a synthesis of the above nexus insofar as it works, not so much as a platform for accepting or rejecting seemingly ‘absolute’ rights or solely enabling legal-institutional ad hocism, but rather as a general process-based framework for assessing group- related pathologies that are (directly or indirectly) of international law’s own making.

scholarly journals Jusnaturalism as the foundation of the concept of international protection of human rights in H. Lauterpacht’s works

2021 ◽  
pp. 392-396
Author(s):  
O. M. Sheredʹko
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
International Document

Prominent international law scholar H. Lauterpacht devoted most of his exploratory work to the issue of human rights in international law.This article reveals H. Lauterpacht’s views on the role of international law in the recognition and consolidation of human rights and the role of jusnaturalism as the basis of international human rights law. Analyzing the works by H. Lauterpacht, we can say that the scholar was the founder of international human rights law. Natural law and natural human rights, according to H. Lauterpacht, have been the unchanging basis of human rights of all times.The origins and periodization of jusnaturalism in the works of leading international law scholar are considered. The main statements of the representatives of the natural law concept of different times, in particular, the basic ideas in the works of Socrates, Aulis Aarnio, Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suarez, Alberico Gentili, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel von Pufendorf, Hugo Grotius are outlined.The views of prominent philosophers are the foundation of the concept of jusnaturalism.  Numerous supporters of the concept of natural law in different periods of history testify to its importance at every stage of human rights development.International law in this matter is a kind of second stage of recognition and protection of human rights, after recognition in the national law of states.International law is designed to consolidate the rights granted by nature to the human in the international arena.H. Lauterpacht saw the real recognition and protection of human rights by enshrining them in an international document signed by all countries of the world.The scientist proposed a draft international document on the recognition of human rights at the international level called International Bill of the Rights of Man. The provisions proposed in this document were later enshrined in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.

The Limits of Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Michelle Jurkovich
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Right To Food ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

This chapter considers the puzzling role of international law around the right to food and examines why the existing law has been unable to generate norms within the advocacy community. It explores the reasons why international anti-hunger organizations rarely legitimate the right to food in legal terms and how this case can challenge the understanding of the relationships between norms, human rights, and law. It also provides a conceptual discussion of the distinction between formal law and norms, underscoring the importance of not conflating the two concepts. The chapter argues that many international anti-hunger organizations still do not conceptualize food as a human right, making international human rights law less relevant. It looks at the hunger case that suggests there is nothing automatic about law generating norms among activists or society at large.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ‘SUPRA-CONSTITUTIONAL’ LIMITS ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaniv Roznai
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article examines whether there are any limitations on constitutional amendment powers that are external to the constitutional system and above it—‘supra-constitutional’ limits. It considers the theory and practice of the relationship between natural law, international law or other supranational law, and domestic constitutional law in a comparative prism. After considering the alleged supremacy of supranational law over constitutional amendments, the author explores the problem of the relationship between the different legal orders in the external/internal juridical spheres, and the important potential and actual role of national courts in ‘domesticating’ supranational law and enforcing its supremacy. It is claimed that despite the growing influence of supranational law, state practice demonstrates that constitutional law is still generally superior to international law, and even when the normative hierarchical superiority of supranational law is recognized within the domestic legal order, this supremacy derives not from supranational law as a separate legal order, but rather from the constitution itself. Therefore, it is claimed that existing practice regarding arguments of ‘supra-constitutional’ limitations are better described by explicit or implicit limitations within the constitution itself, through which supranational standards can be infused to serve as valid limitations on constitutional amendment powers.

Advanced Introduction to International Human Rights Law

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinah L. Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Current State ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Law

In this landmark text, Dinah Shelton offers an insightful overview of the current state of international human rights law: its norms, institutions and procedures, both global and regional. Providing an invaluable entry point to this complex area of the law, and an insightful reference for seasoned experts, the book will prove a useful resource for professors and practitioners of international law. It will also serve as a stimulating introductory text for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on human rights.

The Diverging Theory and Practice of International Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Johns
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Sovereign Immunity ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
State Actors

Existing theories of international law are largely state-centric. While international cooperation can benefit all, states are often tempted to violate their promises in order to manage economic and political crises. States must accordingly balance enforcement against flexibility: legal institutions must provide enough enforcement that states comply most of the time yet also provide enough flexibility that states can violate during crises. Such a balance is possible when laws are crafted and enforced by unitary actors that will tolerate occasional violations by others in order to preserve their own right to occasionally violate. However, the changing doctrine of sovereign immunity has dramatically transformed the actual practice of international law. Non-state actors and domestic courts play an increasingly important role in challenging state legal violations, generating a divergence between the theory and practice of contemporary international law. This divergence is apparent in many issue areas, including terrorism, human rights, sovereign debt, and foreign investment. This divergence suggests that political scientists and legal scholars must reconsider the limits of state-centric theories and examine the role of non-state actors and domestic courts.

The Evolving Role of Nationality in the Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-90
Author(s):  
Michelle Foster ◽  
Hélène Lambert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Treaty Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Human

Chapter 3 considers the role of nationality in the protection and enjoyment of human rights. It examines the history of international law’s involvement in and regulation of matters concerning nationality, thereby providing a crucial link between Chapter 2 and Chapters 4, 5, and 6. It begins by reviewing the traditional position whereby considerations of nationality, including the practice of re-admission for non-nationals, fell within the reserved domain of states through their own nationality laws. The chapter outlines the evolution of international human rights law and its impact on state discretion, such that in many instances, deprivation of nationality (i.e. denial of nationality and/or withdrawal of nationality) may now well violate norms of international law. The chapter therefore examines deprivation of nationality, and the consequences for the persons concerned, in treaty law, UN documents, and the jurisprudence of international and regional courts.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PROCESS OF CONSTITUTIONALIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Angela Jank Calixto ◽  
Luciani Coimbra de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
International Norms ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Deductive Method ◽  
International Human

This paper aims to verify how the development of International Human Rights Law demonstrates the existence of a constitutional tendency in International Law. Adopting the deductive method, it analyzes the main doctrines that recognize the possibility of International Law assuming constitutional characteristics, the historical context that led to the emergence of these ideas, and the advances brought by the IHRL. It was verified that the development of the IHRL has consolidated means of affirming the existence of a process of constitutionalization, giving greater legitimacy and force to the international norms intended to protect individuals.

Hostages and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Galani
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Critical Gap ◽  
International Human ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Hostage-taking has increased in recent years and has become a problem of worldwide concern. Terrorists and pirates have used hostages in a rising number of incidents and the violence used has escalated alarmingly. Sofia Galani examines the taking of hostages from a victim's perspective, arguing that the international community has failed to protect them. By evaluating various international law concepts and frameworks, including jurisdiction in international law, state responsibility and international human rights law, Galani explains why we are still far from recognizing hostages as victims of human rights violations. She then addresses the question of what can be done to safeguard the human rights of hostages both in theory and practice. Being the first comprehensive study of the human rights of hostages, this book fills a critical gap in the literature for human rights lawyers and researchers in the field.

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