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A Changed and Changing Legal Landscape

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Ethics of Human Rights
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Abstract

The recognition of human rights has had a revolutionary influence on the international and national legal fields that is outlined in this chapter.

Revolution is a term frequent in human rights literature. The Human Rights Revolution was a triple one:

  • The human being has been recognized as the ethical-legal supreme universal value and gained international personality.

  • Human rights have been internationally proclaimed, and mechanisms, including Courts, have been established for their protection.

  • International Human Rights Law principles became the Law of Law, prompting ongoing changes of the international and national legal landscapes.

There has been a Copernican revolution in classic International Law. A New Constitutionalism has arisen too. The new International and Constitutional Law led to a refounding of the concept of Rule of Law, implying the rethinking of democracy.

Humanity is a notion polarizing core principles of morality. The notion of ‘crimes against humanity’ consecrates Humanity as rights-holder, embracing both the dignity of the whole human species and the uniqueness of each human being.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For instance: Drinan, R. (1987). Cry of the Oppressed: The History and Hope of the Human Rights Revolution. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row; Schuster, E. (1981). Human Rights Today: Evolution or Revolution. New York: Philosophical Library; Iriye, A., Goedde, P., and Hitchcock, W. (Ed.) (2012). The Human Rights Revolution—An International History. Oxford University Press, USA.

  2. 2.

    “Entretien”, Le Courrier de l’UNESCO, 1993, 4–8, 49–50.

  3. 3.

    www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/crc.pdf.

  4. 4.

    For example, Alain Finkielkraut, a French philosopher very critical of the Convention, wrote: “… a veritable mental revolution took place on 20 November 1989, in the UN” (La nouvelle statue de Pavel Morozov. Le Monde, 1990, January 9).

  5. 5.

    See: Monteiro, A. 2008. La Revolución de los Derechos del Niño. Madrid: Editorial Popular.

  6. 6.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G03/455/14/PDF/G0345514.pdf?OpenElement.

  7. 7.

    www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2007/18.pdf.

  8. 8.

    http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/LojkoMiklos/Alexis-de-Tocqueville-Democracy-in-America.pdf.

  9. 9.

    www.ilsa.org/jessup/jessup11/basicmats/VCLT.pdf.

  10. 10.

    Nevertheless, Tomuschat (2008) remarks: “If and to what extent individuals are subjects of international law is still highly controversial. One can interpret in different ways the legal status which human beings enjoy under the treaties for the protection of human rights” (p. 370).

  11. 11.

    In this regard, Trindade said in his concurring Opinion to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advisory Opinion OC-17/2002 of 28 August 2002 on the ‘Juridical Condition and Human Rights of the Child’:

    45. There is no way to dissociate the recognition of the international juridical personality of the individual from the dignity itself of the human person. In a wider dimension, the human person appears as the being who brings within himself his supreme end, and who achieves it throughout his life, under his own responsibility. In fact, it is the human person, essentially endowed with dignity, who articulates, expresses and introduces the ‘ought to be’ (‘deber ser’) of the values in the world of the reality in which he lives, and only is he capable of this, as bearer of such ethical values. The juridical personality, in its turn, manifests itself as a juridical category in the world of Law, as a unitary expression of the aptitude of the human person to be titulaire [holder] of rights and duties at the level of the regulated behaviour and human relations.

    46. It may be recalled, in the present context, that the conception of individual subjective right already has a wide historical projection, originated in particular in the jusnaturalist thinking in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, and systematized in the juridical doctrine along the XIXth century. Nevertheless, in the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century, that conception remained in the framework of domestic public law, emanated from public power, and under the influence of legal positivism. The subjective right was conceived as the prerrogative of the individual such as defined by the legal order at issue (the objective law).

    47. Notwithstanding, there is no way to deny that the crystallization of the concept of individual subjective right, and its systematization, achieved at least an advance towards a better understanding of the individual as a titulaire of rights. And they rendered possible, with the emergence of human rights at international level, the gradual overcoming of positive law. In the mid-XXth century, the impossibility became clear of the evolution of Law itself without the individual subjective right, expression of a true ‘human right’. (www.crin.org/docs/advisory-opinion17.pdf).

  12. 12.

    Primauté du droit is the translation of Rule of Law in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

  13. 13.

    After reading such a statement, Ernst Cassirer, who had been elected Rector of the University of Hamburg in 1929 (the first Jew to gain such a position in German Universities), but who was dismissed after a law made it impossible for Jews to hold official positions, declared: “Law is what suits the Führer”, he declared: “If not tomorrow all legal scholars of Germany rise up as one and object to these phrases, Germany is lost” (Wenn morgen nicht alle Rechtsgelehrten Deutschlands sich wie ein Mann erheben und gegen diesen Paragraphen protestieren, ist Deutschland verloren). Not one single voice was heard, however, and he decided to leave Germany (as cit. in Coskun, 2007, p. 5).

  14. 14.

    www.historyguide.org/intellect/declaration.html.

  15. 15.

    According to UNESCO Constitution Article 1:

    1. The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law [italics added] and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.

  16. 16.

    http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(symbol)/a.conf.157.23.en.

  17. 17.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/487/60/PDF/N0548760.pdf?OpenElement.

  18. 18.

    http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/html/001.htm.

  19. 19.

    http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm.

    French versions of the Convention and of the Statute translate ‘rule of law’ as ‘prééminence du droit’.

  20. 20.

    http://bookshop.europa.eu/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/EU-Bookshop-Site/en_GB/-/EUR/ViewPublication-Start?PublicationKey=QC3209190.

  21. 21.

    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2010:083:0389:0403:en:PDF.

  22. 22.

    http://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/rechtsgrundlagen/grundgesetz/index.html; http://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/rechtsgrundlagen/grundgesetz/index.html.

  23. 23.

    http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/resources.htm, and A Decade of Measuring the Quality of Governance—Governance Matters—2006—Worldwide Governance Indicators (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWBIGOVANTCOR/Resources/1740479-1150402582357/2661829-1158008871017/booklet_decade_of_measuring_governance.pdf.

  24. 24.

    http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/MENAEXT/EXTMNAREGTOPGOVERNANCE/0,,print:Y~isCURL:Y~contentMDK:20513159~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:497024,00.html.

  25. 25.

    http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm.

  26. 26.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/348/90/IMG/NR034890.pdf?OpenElement.

  27. 27.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/559/51/PDF/N0055951.pdf?OpenElement.

  28. 28.

    http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001408/140844e.pdf

  29. 29.

    www.unrol.org/files/2004%20report.pdf.

  30. 30.

    http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/rl.pdf.

  31. 31.

    A Decade of Measuring the Quality of Governance—Governance Matters—2006—Worldwide Governance Indicators (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWBIGOVANTCOR/Resources/1740479-1150402582357/2661829-1158008871017/booklet_decade_of_measuring_governance.pdf.

  32. 32.

    www.osce.org/odihr/elections/14304.

  33. 33.

    Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Preventing Conflict and Building Peace—A Manual of Issues and Entry Points, Equal Access to Justice and the Rule of Law (www.oecd.org/dataoecd/26/3/35785584.pdf).

  34. 34.

    The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index—2011 includes data on nine dimensions of the Rule of Law:

    • Limited government powers

    • Absence of corruption

    • Order and security

    • Fundamental rights

    • Open government

    • Effective regulatory enforcement

    • Access to civil justice

    • Effective criminal justice

    • Informal justice

    These nine factors are further disaggregated into 52 sub-factors. The scores of these sub-factors are built from over 400 variables drawn from assessments of the general public (1,000 respondents per country) and local legal experts. The outcome of this exercise is one of the world’s most comprehensive data sets measuring the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law—not in theory but in practice.

    […]

    As used by the World Justice Project, the rule of law refers to a rules-based system in which the following four universal principles are upheld:

    • The government and its officials and agents are accountable under the law.

    • The laws are clear, publicized, stable, and fair, and protect fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property.

    • The process by which the laws are enacted, administered, and enforced is accessible, fair, and efficient.

    • Access to justice is provided by competent, independent, and ethical adjudicators, attorneys or representatives, and judicial officers who are of sufficient number, have adequate resources, and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.

    These principles are derived from international sources that enjoy broad acceptance across countries with differing social, cultural, economic, and political systems, and incorporate both substantive and procedural elements. (www.worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/wjproli2011_0.pdf).

    The World Justice Project (WJP) presents itself as a multinational and multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the rule of law throughout the world.

  35. 35.

    http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/adoptedtext/ta07/eres1594.htm.

  36. 36.

    http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=2andportal=hbkmandaction=htmlandhighlight=M%FCsl%FCm%20%7C%20G%FCnd%FCz%20%7C%20v.%20%7C%20Turkeyandsessionid=82444978andskin=hudoc-en.

  37. 37.

    http://elyon1.court.gov.il/files_eng/03/930/019/P26/03019930.p26.pdf.

  38. 38.

    www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1999/3.pdf.

  39. 39.

    http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15244&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

  40. 40.

    http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001271/127162e.pdf.

  41. 41.

    http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague04.asp.

  42. 42.

    www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.160/current_category.7/affirmation_detail.html.

  43. 43.

    http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/imt10.asp.

  44. 44.

    http://www.jus.uio.no/english/services/library/treaties/04/4-06/military-tribunal-far-east.xml.

  45. 45.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/243/51/IMG/NR024351.pdf?OpenElement.

  46. 46.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/281/46/IMG/NR028146.pdf?OpenElement.

  47. 47.

    http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=082&CM=1&CL=ENG.

  48. 48.

    www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/ADD16852-AEE9-4757-ABE7-9CDC7CF02886/283503/RomeStatutEng1.pdf.

  49. 49.

    http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/167/06/IMG/NR016706.pdf?OpenElement.

  50. 50.

    http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201155/volume-1155-I-18232-English.pdf.

  51. 51.

    The UN International Law Commission placed the codification of Customary International Law of Treaties on its agenda in its first session, in 1949. As Rapporteurs were appointed successively James Brierly, Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice and Sir Humphrey Waldock. The last one prepared six reports that enabled the Commission to submit, in 1966, a draft Convention to the UN General Assembly with a recommendation to convene an international conference. The General Assembly endorsed the recommendation and decided that the conference would take place in 1968 and 1969, in Vienna.

  52. 52.

    The concept of opinio juris vel necessitatis “emerged in the nineteenth century as a construction above all of the German historical school (Puchta, Savigny), in reaction precisely to the voluntarist conception; in this way, it succeeded in gradually discarding the ‘will’ of the States, and in moving towards the ‘common juridical conscience’, of which the customary norms were an expression” (Trindade 2006, p. 174).

  53. 53.

    Public order is a concept originating from Article 6 of the French Civil Code: On ne peut déroger, par des conventions particulières, aux lois qui intéressent l’ordre public et les bonnes moeurs (Statutes relating to public policy and morals may not be derogated from by private agreements). This concept encompasses principles concerning fundamental representations and values in a legal system, which should be protected specially by Tribunals.

    In Loizidou v. Turkey (Application nº 15318/89, Judgment on 23 March 1995), the European Court of Human Rights referred to “the Convention as a constitutional instrument of European public order (ordre public)” (para. 35).

    (http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=1andportal=hbkmandaction=htmlandhighlight=Loizidou%20%7C%20v.%20%7C%20Turkeyandsessionid=93503969andskin=hudoc-en)

    In Cyprus v. Turkey (Application nº 25781/94, 10 May 2001), the European Court said that the European Convention is “an instrument of European public order (ordre public) for the protection of individual human beings” (para. 78).

    (http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=1andportal=hbkmandaction=htmlandhighlight=Cyprus%20%7C%20v.%20%7C%20Turkeyandsessionid=93304673andskin=hudoc-en)

    According to the Document quoted above prepared by the UN Secretary-General, regarding the draft International Covenants on Human Rights:

    The English expression ‘public order’ and the French expression I’ordre public gave rise to considerable discussion. It was observed that the English expression ‘public order’ was not equivalent to – and indeed was substantially different from – the French expression I’ordre public (or the Spanish expression orden publico). In civil law countries I’ordre public is a legal concept used principally as a basis for negating or restricting private agreements, the exercise of police power or the application of foreign law. In common law countries the expression ‘public order’ is ordinarily used to mean the absence of public disorder. The common law counterpart of I’ordre public is ‘public policy’ rather than ‘public order’.

  54. 54.

    Quoted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in its Advisory Opinion OC-2/82 of September 24, 1982, requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on “The Effect of Reservations on the Entry into Force of the American Convention on Human Rights (Arts. 74 and 75)”.

    (www1.umn.edu/humanrts/iachr/b_11_4b.htm).

  55. 55.

    http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/uncharter.pdf.

  56. 56.

    However: “Only recently has the ICJ ventured to pronounce the word jus cogens which in earlier years some judges considered to be anathema” (Tomuschat 2008, p. 38).

  57. 57.

    www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/50/5387.pdf.

  58. 58.

    www1.umn.edu/humanrts/iachr/b_11_4b.htm.

  59. 59.

    Mégret et al. (2010) remarks: “Another way of putting it would be to say that becoming a party to a human rights treaty is declaratory of states’ obligations rather than constitutive of them” (p. 129).

  60. 60.

    Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Netherlands acted this way when, in 1967, each addressed a communication against Greece to the European Commission of Human Rights (The Greek Case).

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Reis Monteiro, A. (2014). A Changed and Changing Legal Landscape. In: Ethics of Human Rights. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03566-6_7

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