Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law

The third major research theme of the Centre is human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Centre is acutely aware not only of the need for conceptual and methodological refinement of these basic notions and their multiple cross-linkages, but also of the need to study non-Western approaches and traditions as well as the need for further interdisciplinary research into the theoretical framework which this span of concepts offers for political and legal institutions at the various governance levels. The Centre currently has four sub-themes on which it focuses its research in this area.

A first sub-theme focuses on the contribution of the EU to global human rights mechanisms and institutions, including the UN Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court. The Centre organized an expert seminar on the EU in the Human Rights Council and the implications of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty for the EU’s external human rights policy under COST Action IS0702 – “The Role of the EU in UN Human Rights Reform”.

A second sub-theme addresses human rights enforcement and the contribution of international courts and tribunals to the development of the international rule of law.  Under this heading, the Centre completed a five-year international research network funded by Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) on the prosecutorial policies of international criminal tribunals that will culminate in the book International Prosecutors from Nuremberg to the Hague to be published by Oxford University Press in 2011.

A third sub-theme, in relation to democracy, addresses the democratic deficit and legitimacy of global governance. The core objective, here, is to assess the architecture (including international organizations and the EU), practices and processes of global governance from a democratic theory perspective. The goal, to build a new paradigm for ‘democratic global governance’, is now at the core of the Centre of Excellence Research Programme Global Governance and Democratic Government (section 4.1).

A fourth sub-theme relates to the rule of law, with a focus on how to conceptualize this notion in relation to the concepts of democracy, good governance, accountability and legitimacy. This sub-theme examines to what extent these notions shape the agenda and practice of a variety of international organizations at the global and regional level. In addition, the Centre conducts comparative research on European and Chinese perspectives on the rule of law. In the context of its research project with Tsinghua University on this topic, the Centre organized a workshop in which the first results of the project were discussed (section 5).