Contrary to how it is often portrayed, the concept of human rights is not homogeneous. Instead it appears fragmented, differing in scope, focus, legal force and level of governance. Using the lens of key case studies, this insightful book contemplates human rights integration and fragmentation from the perspective of its users.The fragmentation of human rights law has resulted in an uncoordinated legal architecture that can create obstacles for effective human rights protection. Against this background, expert contributors examine how to make sense - in both theoretical and practical terms - of these multiple layers of human rights law through which human rights users have to navigate. They consider whether there is a need for more integration and the potential ways in which this might be achieved. The research presented illustrates the pivotal role that users play in shaping, implementing, interpreting and further developing human rights law.Offering an innovative perspective to the debate, this book will appeal to both students and academics interested in human rights and the methodological approaches that can be used in furthering its research. Practitioners and policy makers will also benefit from the forward thinking insights into how an integrated approach to human rights could look.

Human Rights Tectonics: Global Dynamics of Integration and Fragmentation is a collaborative effort of internationally renowned human rights experts to analyse the effectiveness of legal protection in a highly fragmented and multi-layered human rights system. Bringing together international, European and national perspectives and focusing on select subject areas such as non-discrimination, accommodation of cultural identity and socio-economic rights, the book examines the difficulties faced by human rights lawyers in their day-to-day work. Through the implementation of a methodology applying both theoretical inquiry and case study examples, the book analyses the impact of the fragmentation of international and regional human rights and how this can cause failures in effective legal protection or, on certain occasions, strengthen it. The imagery of plate tectonics aims to portray the extent to which human rights law is in perpetual construction and constant renewal with lines of convergence and divergence. Entangled into battles, shocks, jolts or clashes, human rights find themselves today 'on trial'. Against this backdrop, the book addresses the case for an increased integration of human rights law, comprehensively and critically, with a focus on concrete and contemporary issues. Emmanuelle Bribosia and Isabelle Rorive are law professors at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). They are Director of the Center for European Lawand Director of the Centre Perelman for Legal Philosophy respectively. They co-founded the Equality Law Clinic.

Human Rights Tectonics: Global Dynamics of Integration and Fragmentation is a collaborative effort of internationally renowned human rights experts to analyse the effectiveness of legal protection in a highly fragmented and multi-layered human rights system.Bringing together international, European and national perspectives and focusing on select subject areas such as non-discrimination, accommodation of cultural identity and socio-economic rights, the book examines the difficulties faced by human rights lawyers in their day-to-day work. Through the implementation of a methodology applying both theoretical inquiry and case study examples, the book analyses the impact of the fragmentation of international and regional human rights and how this can cause failures in effective legal protection or, on certain occasions, strengthen it. The imagery of plate tectonics aims to portray the extent to which human rights law is in perpetual construction and constant renewal with lines of convergence and divergence. Entangled into battles, shocks, jolts or clashes, human rights find themselves today 'on trial'. Against this backdrop, the book addresses the case for an increased integration of human rights law, comprehensively and critically, with a focus on concrete and contemporary issues.

This book explores the role and status of local and regional authorities (also referred to as 'subnational authorities' or 'SNAs') in European Union law, and reveals the existence of two parallel yet opposed constitutional imaginations of the supranational legal order. Through a survey of various areas of EU law, including primary and secondary legislation, case law as well as various soft law instruments, Finck introduces two narratives. These are the 'outsider narrative' and the 'insider narrative' that frame these constitutional imaginations. According to the outsider narrative, the structure of the legal order is bi-centric, composed of the member states and the EU only. This narrative envisages SNAs as outsiders of EU law, whose interactions with Union law are merely of an indirect nature. However, in addition to this well-known account of EU law, a parallel yet distinct narrative can be identified according to which SNAs are insiders that entertain direct relations with the European Union and contribute to the substantive development of EU law. It is illustrated that the coexistence of both narratives has wider implications as it points towards a shift in the structure of the European legal order itself, which is transitioning from bi-centricity to polycentricity --Dust jacket.

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: A plus, Jawaharlal Nehru University , course: Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.), language: English, abstract: From the beginning of the twenty-first century the international community started addressing the issue of fragmentation of international law. In 2000, the International Law Commission (ILC) decided to include the topic “[r]isks ensuing from the fragmentation of international law” into its long-term programme of work. This initiative raises some basic questions: is international law a fragmented system? If it is so, what is the problem with the fragmentation? and how can the problem be resolved? This dissertation mainly revolves around these three major issues. It assumes that today’s fragmented international law is part of historical evolution or process. In contemporary times, the term ‘fragmentation’ is commonly used to refer to the slicing up of international law ‘into regional or functional regimes that cater for special audiences with special interests and ethos’. The most notable functional regimes are international trade law, environmental law, human rights law, humanitarian law, law of the sea and so on – when there is a collision between these regimes – than the conflict of norms becomes an unavoidable consequence – because each regime seeks favorable treatment towards its own. The absence of normative and institutional hierarchy in international law means that the evolution of such regimes is perceived by some as posing a threat to the coherence, effectiveness and predictability of international law. Others see these regimes as contributing to the development of international law. To respond to the problem of fragmentation, the ILC examined the regimes in detail and tentatively concluded that these specialized legal regimes are merely informal labels with no normative value per se – hence, it viewed that they are all within or part of broader territorial domain of general international law – and codified some of existing conflict resolving techniques to solve the problem of conflict of norms. However, the proposed techniques solve the conflict of norms only within regimes but not across regimes. The question remains as to how to solve the norm conflict across regimes?

This dissertation analyzes whether or not the principle of systemic integration - as expounded in Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - contributes to attainment of a coherent international legal system. For this purpose, the book considers three general ideas: the "unity" of the international legal system and fragmentation; the general rule on treaty interpretation and the principle of systemic integration; and the role of systemic integration in the achievement of coherence. Each one involves specific issues and considerations which ultimately assist in addressing the main question as to the usefulness of the principle in the curtailment of fragmentation in the international legal system. Dissertation. (Series: Cologne Studies in International and European Law / Kolner Schriften zum internationalen und europaischen Recht - Vol. 24)