In our globalizing world, can we talk of a "common law or ius commune of human rights"? Is such a common law being developed by our judges in conversation with judges from foreign jurisdictions and from the European Court of Human Rights? Can this be the new natural law? These and other questions are addressed in this volume through the experiences of England, France, Germany, Russia, Scotland, Turkey, South Africa, and the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. This volume also looks at why and how far judges are employing the comparative approach, the legitimacy of this approach, and the question of whether comparativism is an interpretative aid, "functional" or "ornamental". Invaluable for comparative lawyers, comparative constitutional lawyers, human rights lawyers, law students and lawyers engaged in transnational issues in the area of human rights, this book addresses issues such as defining where "globalism" ends and "localism" begins, and whether there is a place for "cultural exceptionalism" in the context of human rights. It gives an excellent insight into comparative law in the context of human rights.

A comprehensive analysis of the extent, method, purpose and effects of domestic and international courts' judicial dialogue on human rights.

Longlisted for the 2022 Inner Temple Main Book Prize Human Rights in the UK and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence represents the first major empirical study of the use of foreign jurisprudence at the UK Supreme Court. This book focuses on the patterns of use and non use of rulings from foreign domestic courts in human rights cases before the UK Supreme Court. Results are drawn from quantitative and qualitative research, presenting data from the first eight years of Supreme Court activity. The evidence includes interviews with active and former members of the senior judiciary, as well as a focus group including some of the Supreme Court Judicial Assistants. It is argued that foreign jurisprudence is more intimately woven into the fabric of judicial reasoning, and serves a wider range of functions, than the term 'persuasive authority' might imply. Foreign jurisprudence is used mainly as a heuristic device, providing judges with a fresh analytical lens. Foreign jurisprudence is also important when interpreting a common legislative scheme, supporting dialogue between the Supreme Court and supranational courts such as the European Court of Human Rights. The perspectives offered by foreign jurisprudence can also support a stronger conception of domestic human rights. In these ways, this book addresses a broader political question about the source of human rights in the UK.

This thought-provoking introduction to the study of comparative law provides in-depth analyses of all major comparative methodologies and theories and serves as a common sense guide to the study of foreign legal systems. It is written in a lively and accessible style and will prove indispensable reading to students of the subject. It also contains much that will be of interest to comparative law scholars, offering novel insights into commonplace methodological and theoretical questions and making a significant contribution to the field.

Post-apartheid South Africa has yielded enlightened judicial decisions in contrast to the limited interpretation of human rights in Ireland. The value of human dignity with its central position in international law underpins both countries’ Constitutions, but has left a more striking mark in South Africa. There it has impacted significantly on punishment for crimes, family life, children’s rights, defamation, sexual violence investigations, substantive equality and socio-economic rights. Practical guidance can be gleaned from South Africa to revitalise Irish jurisprudence. While its focus is on South Africa and Ireland, this book draws on the experience of many countries and regions.

At fifty, the European Court of Human Rights finds itself in a new institutional setting. With the EU joining the European Convention on Human Rights in the near future, and the Court increasingly having to address the responsibility of states in UN-led military operations, the Court faces important challenges at the national, European and international levels. In light of recent reform discussions, this volume addresses the multi-level relations of the Court by drawing on existing debates, pointing to current deficits and highlighting the need for further improvements.

Constitutional law in the United States and around the world now operates within an increasingly transnational legal environment of international treaties, customary international law, supranational infrastructures of human rights and trade law, and growing comparative judicial awareness. This new environment is reflected in increasing cross-national references in constitutional court decisions around the world. The constellation of legal orders in which established constitutional regimes operate has changed - there are more bodies generating law, more international legal sources, and more multi-national interactions that bring into view various legal orders. How do these transnational phenomena affect our understanding of the role of constitutions and of courts in deciding constitutional cases? Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era explores this question, looking at constitutional court decisions from around the world, and identifying postures of resistance, convergence or engagement with international and foreign law. For the United States, the book argues for cautious engagement by the Supreme Court with transnational sources of law in interpreting the national constitution. Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era offers law school students and professors an authoritative study of comparative constitutional law by one of the most important scholars of domestic and comparative constitutional law. The book defines how international comparative experiences are relevant to constitutional analysis and discusses in detail the multiple possible connections between international law and constitutional law including a comparative overview of constitutional law in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

An in-depth study, originally published in 2006, of the careers and roles of judges in France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and England, this book is based on original language materials and investigations of judges and judicial institutions in each country. On the basis of these detailed case studies, the book suggests factors that shape the character of the judiciary in different countries, focusing on issues such as women's careers and the relationship between judicial careers and politics. Bell's investigations offer lessons on issues which the English judiciary was having to confront in the period of reform at the time of this book's publication.

This innovative, refreshing, and reader-friendly book is aimed at enabling students to familiarise themselves with the challenges and controversies found in comparative law. At present there is no book which clearly explains the contemporary debates and methodological innovations found in modern comparative law. This book fills that gap in teaching at undergraduate level, and for postgraduates will be a starting point for further reading and discussion. Among the topics covered are: globalisation, legal culture, comparative law and diversity, economic approaches, competition between legal systems, legal families and mixed systems, comparative law beyond Europe, convergence and a new ius commune, comparative commercial law, comparative family law, the 'common core' and the 'better law' approaches, comparative administrative law, comparative studies in constitutional contexts, comparative law for international criminal justice, judicial comparativism in human rights, comparative law in law reform, comparative law in courts and a comparative law research project. The individual chapters can also be read as stand-alone contributions and are written by experts such as Masha Antokolskaia, John Bell, Roger Cotterell, Sjef van Erp, Nicholas Foster, Patrick Glenn, Andrew Harding, Peter Leyland, Christopher McCrudden, Werner Menski, David Nelken, Anthony Ogus, Esin Örücü, Paul Roberts, Jan Smits and William Twining. Each chapter begins with a description of key concepts and includes questions for discussion and reading lists to aid further study. Traditional topics of private law, such as contracts, obligations and unjustified enrichment are omitted as they are amply covered in other comparative law books, but developments in other areas of private law, such as family law, are included as being of current interest.

The aim to this series is to publish important and original studies of the various branches of EU law. Each work provides a clear, concise, and critical exposition of the law in its social, economics, and political context, at a level which will interest the advanced student, the practitioner, the academic, and government and community officials. Formerly the Oxford European Community Law Library. Book jacket.