Category Archives: Fundamental or Human Rights
Minju Kang, ‘A Social Law Approach to Business and Human Rights’
ABSTRACT This thesis proposes a social law approach to examine and suggest future directions for the legal and institutional responses to the Business and Human Rights (BHR) framework. The social law approach referred to in this thesis seeks to interpret and apply social law’s inherent ethos and methodologies to the current global value chain economy […]
Ralf Poscher, ‘Resubstantivising Data Protection Rights’
ABSTRACT In this paper, Ralf Poscher addresses the question of what substantive freedom or interest the right to data protection is about. Drawing on German and European judgments on data protection and on theoretical conceptualizations of privacy, the author argues that data protection does not safeguard against actual violations (or at least a concrete danger […]
Pavlos Eleftheriadis, ‘Dignity and Virtue’
ABSTRACT Philosophers argue, following Kant, that dignity is an end beyond value, that is not something to be balanced against other ends or interests. Yet, pressing questions arise about the content of this claim. The very language of some person’s ‘equal’ status invites the thought of another’s ‘unequal’ status, a comparison which the Kantian approach, […]
Chantal Mak, ‘The Common Good Contract: Rethinking Contractual Justice in the Regulation of Global Supply Chains’
ABSTRACT This report considers the normative underpinnings of national and regional due diligence laws that aim to get a grasp on the protection of human rights and the environment along global supply chains. Starting from a comparative exploration of several representative due diligence laws, it is analysed what is the place of contract in these […]
Marco Pasqua, ‘Adapting Private International Law to Anti-SLAPP Litigation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’
ABSTRACT Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are legal actions – most commonly based on defamation, privacy or related claims – brought not to genuinely assert or protect a right, but to prevent, restrict or penalise public participation. They are typically characterised by an imbalance of power between the parties, the use of procedural tactics […]
Cory Andrews, ‘Public Nuisance and the First Amendment: Free-Speech Defenses to an Expanding Tort’
ABSTRACT Public nuisance – an ancient common-law tort traditionally limited to discrete, localized interferences with rights common to the public – has undergone a dramatic expansion. Once confined to tangible obstructions of highways, contamination of waterways, or disorderly houses amenable to abatement, the doctrine now serves as a vehicle for private plaintiffs and governments to […]
Klaus Beiter, ‘Copyright and the Right to Education: Towards Balance? – Or Copyright’s Capture of the Right to Education?’
ABSTRACT The chapter – appearing in the Fifth Edition of Paul Torreman’s standard work on Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights – focuses on the subject of establishing conformity between copyright and access to learning materials under the right to education. It first looks at the provisions of international copyright law designed to facilitate the […]
Shuxin Zhang, ‘Private data in safe hands? Evolving privacy concerns in the digital era’
ABSTRACT Privacy is widely recognised as a fundamental human right in many democratic societies, as enshrined in instruments such as Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This paper examines the enforcement landscape of data protection in the United Kingdom, with particular attention to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). […]
Morten Kinander, ‘Cyclopes on the Bench: Courts, Climate Litigation, and the Structural Limits of Adjudication’
ABSTRACT Climate litigation is transforming human rights from shields against state power into swords compelling state action. Courts across Europe, in Urgenda, Neubauer, and KlimaSeniorinnen, have ordered governments to intensify climate policy, treating inadequate emissions reductions as violations of fundamental rights. The pattern has since reached the apex of international adjudication, in the International Court […]
Patrick Parenteau, ‘SLAPP vs SLAPP-BACK: The Seismic Greenpeace Verdict and the Future of Environmental Protests’
ABSTRACT In March 2025, a nine-person jury in Morton County, North Dakota awarded a verdict of almost $667M against Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace Foundation and Greenpeace International (hereafter, Greenpeace unless otherwise noted) and in favor of Energy Transfer LP and Dakota Access LLC, developers of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Despite Greenpeace’s claim that the […]