MultiRights - The Legitimacy of Multi-Level Human Rights Judiciary
The proliferation of human rights treaties at regional and global levels may offer moral foundations for international law. However, many worry that this growth of supervisory organs is illegitimate.
See also the project summary
About the project
The MultiRights-project will first scrutinize the claims of legitimacy deficits, and then consider reform proposals for global and European human rights organs.
The project will develop four plausible models, ranging from Primacy of National Courts to a World Court of Human Rights. Further the models will be assessed by four Contested Constitutional Principles of legitimacy, revised for our multilevel legal order: Human Rights values, the Rule of Law, Subsidiarity, and Democracy.
Objectives
The MultiRights-project thereby seeks to provide reasoned comparative assessment of models for human rights regime reforms, and contribute to better standards of legitimacy for international institutions. The findings may also help us understand and assess the alleged ‘Constitutionalisation of International Law” – an urgent topic under globalization, when governance beyond states increases in density and impact.
Outcomes
The academic contributions of MultiRights will also benefit several reforms:
* the Interlaken Process on how to improve the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
* the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights under the Lisbon Treaty,
* the UN Secretary General’s calls to reform the Human Rights treaty body system.
Background
The MultiRights team will consist of international lawyers and political theorists as well as researchers from The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, lead by Professor Andreas Føllesdal.
Financing
The MultiRights-project is financed by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council.