Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions for Human Rights

Explores how expert bodies and non-state empowered professionals come together to shape human rights law.

Nina Reiners (Author)

9781108969994, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 February 2023

214 pages, 6 b/w illus. 4 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.32 kg

'Reiners' book is rich in detail and a real delight to read for anyone interested in the human rights machinery of the UN, the making and innovation of human rights law and the central protagonists behind this process. It opens up numerous fruitful and interesting lines of inquiry which will inspire new scholarship on international law, transnational elites and professionals, and the transformation of authority in international relations. With transnational lawmaking coalitions, Reiners has offered scholars a very interesting and apt concept which captures the heterogeneity of international human rights lawmaking.' Alvina Hoffmann, Global Policy

Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions is the first comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of informal collaborations in the UN human rights treaty bodies. Issues as central to international human rights as the right to water, abortion, torture, and hate speech are often only clarified through the instrument of treaty interpretations. This book dives beneath the surface of the formal access, procedures, and actors of the UN treaty body system to reveal how the experts and external collaborators play a key role in the development of human rights. Nina Reiners introduces the concept of 'Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions' within a novel theoretical framework and draws on a number of detailed case studies and original data. This study makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on human rights, transnational actors, and international organizations, and contributes to broader debates in international relations and international law.

1. Introduction
2. Human rights treaty interpretation
3. Transnational lawmaking coalitions
4. How water became a human right
5. Interpretation across treaty bodies
6. Lawmaking without governments?
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Law [L], Human rights [JPVH], United Nations & UN agencies [JPSN1], International relations [JPS]