Consociations are power-sharing arrangements, increasingly used to manage ethno-nationalist, ethno-linguistic, and ethno-religious conflicts. Current examples include Belgium, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Burundi, and Iraq. Despite their growing popularity, they have begun to be challenged before human rights courts as being incompatible with human rights norms, particularly equality and non-discrimination. Courts and Consociations
examines the use of power-sharing agreements, their legitimacy, and their compatibility with human rights law. Key questions include to what extent, if any, consociations conflict with the liberal individualist
preferences of international human rights institutions, and to what extent consociational power-sharing may be justified to preserve peace and the integrity of political settlements. In three critical cases, the European Court of Human Rights has considered equality challenges to important consociational practices, twice in Belgium and then in Sejdic and Finci v Bosnia regarding the constitution established for Bosnia Herzegovina under the Dayton Agreement. The
Court's decision in Sejdic and Finci has significantly altered the approach it previously took to judicial review of consociational arrangements in Belgium. This book accounts for this change and assess its
implications. The problematic aspects of the current state of law are demonstrated. Future negotiators in places riven by potential or actual bloody ethnic conflicts may now have less flexibility in reaching a workable settlement, which may unintentionally contribute to sustaining such conflicts and make it more likely that negotiators will consider excluding regional and international courts from reviewing these political settlements. Providing a clear, accessible
introduction to both the political use of power-sharing settlements and the human rights law on the issue, this book is an invaluable guide to all academics, students, and professionals engaged with
transitional justice, peace agreements, and contemporary human rights law.
Consociations are power-sharing arrangements, increasingly used to manage ethno-nationalist, ethno-linguistic, and ethno-religious conflicts. Current examples include Belgium, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Burundi, and Iraq. Despite their growing popularity, they have begun to be challenged before human rights courts as being incompatible with human rights norms, particularly equality and non-discrimination. Courts and Consociations
examines the use of power-sharing agreements, their legitimacy, and their compatibility with human rights law. Key questions include to what extent, if any, consociations conflict with the liberal individualist
preferences of international human rights institutions, and to what extent consociational power-sharing may be justified to preserve peace and the integrity of political settlements. In three critical cases, the European Court of Human Rights has considered equality challenges to important consociational practices, twice in Belgium and then in Sejdic and Finci v Bosnia regarding the constitution established for Bosnia Herzegovina under the Dayton Agreement. The
Court's decision in Sejdic and Finci has significantly altered the approach it previously took to judicial review of consociational arrangements in Belgium. This book accounts for this change and assess its
implications. The problematic aspects of the current state of law are demonstrated. Future negotiators in places riven by potential or actual bloody ethnic conflicts may now have less flexibility in reaching a workable settlement, which may unintentionally contribute to sustaining such conflicts and make it more likely that negotiators will consider excluding regional and international courts from reviewing these political settlements. Providing a clear, accessible
introduction to both the political use of power-sharing settlements and the human rights law on the issue, this book is an invaluable guide to all academics, students, and professionals engaged with
transitional justice, peace agreements, and contemporary human rights law.
Preface: A Tale from the Future and a Salutary Story for Our
Times
1: Consociations and Consociationalism
2: Bosnia as a Consociation
3: Human Rights Law and Courts in Consociations
4: The Belgian Consociational Cases in the European Court of Human
Rights
5: Departing from Precedent
6: The Bosnian Constitutional Court and Consociation
7: The Grand Chamber Judgment
8: Sejdic and Finci & The Future of Consociations
Conclusions & Policy Implications
Christopher McCrudden FBA is Professor of Human Rights and Equality
Law at Queen's University, Belfast; Leverhulme Major Research
Fellow (2011-14), and William W Cook Global Professor of Law at the
University of Michigan Law School. A Fellow of the British Academy,
he is the author of numerous titles, including Buying Social
Justice (OUP, 2007).
Brendan O'Leary is the Lauder Professor of Political Science,
University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Political Science, Queen's
University Belfast, and former Senior Advisor on Power-sharing in
the Standby Team of the Mediation Support Unit of the United
Nations.
Written by distinguished specialists in human rights law and
political science, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in
the effects that regional human rights courts may produce on
easily-breakable power-sharing bargains.
*Michal Balcerzak, Human Rights Quarterly*
This is a well written, comprehensive and in-depth study of the use
of consociationalism and power-sharing in areas with long-term
conflicts. A main strength of the book is that the theme is
analysed from different perspectives: theoretical, legal,
comparative and contextual.
*Inger-Johanne Sand, Nordic Journal of Human Rights*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
