Demanding Rights
Europe's Supranational Courts and the Dilemma of Migrant Vulnerability

Evaluates and reconsiders how the human rights of vulnerable migrants are protected through Europe's supranational courts.

Moritz Baumgärtel (Author)

9781108733885, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 May 2019

206 pages, 6 b/w illus. 5 tables
24.8 x 17.4 x 1.1 cm, 0.38 kg

'Moritz Baumgärtel's book … offers remarkably clear insight into the impact of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) jurisprudence on the actual protection of the rights of vulnerable migrants … Most importantly, he has included in the discussion the various stakeholders - courts, attorneys, state officials and, of course, migrants themselves. Adjusting remarkably well the theories of effectiveness to explain the perplexing and multi-dimensional causes and effects of European courts adjudication, Baumgärtel has created a book that is a valuable addition to the reading shelf both of a legal practitioner and a migrant rights advocate, introducing, simultaneously, a fresh set of ideas which could engage other researchers in fruitful discourse.' Dimitra Fragkou, Human Rights Law Review

While nominally protected across Europe, the human rights of vulnerable migrants often fail to deliver their promised benefits in practice. This socio-legal study explores both the concrete expressions and possible causes of this persistent deficit. For this purpose, it presents an innovative multifaceted evaluation of selected judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU pertaining to such complex questions as the protection of persons fleeing from indiscriminate violence, homosexual asylum seekers, the Dublin Regulation, and the externalisation of border control. Highlighting the demanding character of migrant rights, the book also discusses some steps that could be taken to improve the effectiveness of Europe's supranational human rights system including changes in judicial and litigation practice as well as a reconceptualization of human rights as existential commitments.

1. Introduction
Part I: 2. Expanding the rights to stay?
3. Establishing responsibility
4. Reaffirming jurisdiction
Part II: 5. From dilemmatic to strategic adjudication
6. From strategic to consolidating litigation
7. Migrant rights as existential commitments
8. Demanding rights: some conclusions.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], EU & European institutions [JPSN2], Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN]