This volume analyses the legal grounds, premises and extent of pecuniary compensation for violations of human rights in national legal systems. The scope of comparison includes liability regimes in general and in detail, the correlation between pecuniary remedies available under international law and under domestic law, and special (alternative) compensation systems. All sources of human rights violations are embraced, including historical injustices and systematical and gross violations. The book is a collection of nineteen contributions written by public international law, international human rights and private law experts, covering fifteen European jurisdictions (including Central and Eastern Europe), the United States, Israel and EU law. The contributions, initially prepared for the 19th International Congress of Comparative law in Vienna (2014), present the latest developments in legislation, scholarship and case-law concerning domestic causes of action in cases of human rights abuses. The book concludes with a comparative report which assesses the developments in tort law and public liability law, the role of the constitutionalisation of the right to damages as well as the court practice related to the process of enforcement of human rights through monetary remedies. This country-by-country comparison allows to consider whether the value of protection of human rights as expressed in international treaties, ius cogens and in national constitutional laws justifies the conclusion that the interests at stake should enjoy protection under the existing civil liability rules, or that a new cause of action, or even a whole new set of rules, should be created in national systems.

In the United Kingdom (UK) damages violations of human rights law are available through the unique standalone mechanism provided by the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). The HRA has been designed to replicate at the national level the treatment a claimant would receive before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Courts contemplating an award of damages under the HRA must therefore consider the principles set out in the HRA itself, including other remedies granted and the consequences of the award, as well as the principles applied by the ECtHR. However, despite the numerous principles applied to the award of damages under the HRA, there remain very few reported cases where damages have been awarded. There is also very little academic discussion of this body of jurisprudence. It has been suggested that it would be more appropriate for a tort model for damages to be adopted, but it is not clear that this would constitute a more effective remedy. Real justice for victims could be better achieved were national courts to contemplate in more detail the rationale for damages awards in this context, and pay closer attention to developments at the ECtHR level.

This treatment of the topic of remedies for human rights violations reviews the jurisprudence of international tribunals on these violations. It also provides a theoretical framework and a practical guide.

This insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins.

This textbook comprehensively examines and analyses the interpretation and application of the United Kingdom's Human Rights Act 1998. The third edition has been fully updated to include the last seven years of case law. Part I covers key procedural issues including: the background to the Act; the relationship between UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights; the definition of victim and public authority; determining incompatibility including deference and proportionality; the impact of the Act on primary legislation; and damages and other remedies for the violation of Convention rights. In Part II of the book, the Convention rights, as interpreted and applied by United Kingdom courts, are examined in detail. All of the key Convention rights are discussed including: the right to life; freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to liberty; fair trial; the rights to private life, family life and home; freedom of religion and belief; freedom of expression; the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions; and the right to freedom from discrimination in the enjoyment of Convention rights. The third edition of Human Rights Law will be invaluable for those teaching, studying and practising in the areas of United Kingdom human rights law, constitutional law and administrative law.

Winner of the 2018 Inner Temple New Authors Book Prize and the 2016 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. Damages and Human Rights is a major work on awards of damages for violations of human rights that will be of compelling interest to practitioners, judges and academics alike. Damages for breaches of human rights is emerging as an important and practically significant field of law, yet the rules and principles governing such awards and their theoretical foundations remain underexplored, while courts continue to struggle to articulate a coherent law of human rights damages. The book's focus is English law, but it draws heavily on comparative material from a range of common law jurisdictions, as well as the jurisprudence of international courts. The current law on when damages can be obtained and how they are assessed is set out in detail and analysed comprehensively. The theoretical foundations of human rights damages are examined with a view to enhancing our understanding of the remedy and resolving the currently troubled state of human rights damages jurisprudence. The book argues that in awarding damages in human rights cases the courts should adopt a vindicatory approach, modelled on those rules and principles applied in tort cases when basic rights are violated. Other approaches are considered in detail, including the current 'mirror' approach which ties the domestic approach to damages to the European Court of Human Rights' approach to monetary compensation; an interest-balancing approach where the damages are dependent on a judicial balancing of individual and public interests; and approaches drawn from the law of state liability in EU law and United States constitutional law. The analysis has important implications for our understanding of fundamental issues including the interrelationship between public law and private law, the theoretical and conceptual foundations of human rights law and the law of torts, the nature and functions of the damages remedy, the connection between rights and remedies, the intersection of domestic and international law, and the impact of damages liability on public funds and public administration. The book was the winner of the 2016 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship and the 2018 Inner Temple New Authors Book Prize.

This book critically evaluates the Ruggie Framework and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and investigates the normative foundations as well as the nature, extent and enforcement of corporate obligations for the realisation of human rights.

The Human Rights Act 1998 provides United Kingdom citizens with important protection for certain of their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights. The Act gives a new claim against public authorities where the public authority has acted in a way which is incompatible with one or more of those rights. The claim may be brought by a victim of the public authority's actions, and the remedies may include damages in compensation for the violation of the Convention rights. The Human Rights Act provides that before a court may award damages it must be satisfied that the award is necessary to afford just satisfaction to the person in whose favour it is made. The Act also provides that courts in the United Kingdom must take into account the principles applied by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg when deciding whether to award compensation for a violation of the Convention, and the amount of any award. This report contains an article by article description of the case law, and an analysis of the practice, of the Strasbourg Court in relation to the award of compensation. The report also considers the implications for the award of damages by courts in the United Kingdom in relation to a claim brought under the Human Rights Act 1998. It is stated that the Act will not require major changes to the law on damages.

The Human Rights Act 1998 has had a profound effect in numerous private law decisions and has been the subject of extensive academic debate, in particular on the issue of the extent to which it has horizontal effect and its application in disputes between individuals. With contributions from a variety of academics and practitioners, this volume covers and contributes to the academic debate on horizontal effect and considers how theory matches up with case law; the limits of the Act for private law; and its impact on key areas including privacy, defamation, negligence, nuisance, property, commercial law and employment. Together, the book provides a practical critique of the areas discussed, which will be of academic interest to theorists and of practical benefit to lawyers and judges who wish to understand how the academic debates can be brought to bear in particular cases.

Justifies a two-track approach that includes individual and systemic remedies in both domestic and international human rights law.