This note is in reply to a review of my monograph Transnational Networks and Elite Self-Empowerment: The Making of the Judiciary in Contemporary Europe and Beyond (OUP 2018) by LSE Professor Conor Gearty, Vice-President of the British Academy titled The Courts in Europe Today: Subverting or Saving Democracy? published in European Constitutional Law Review 16 (2021) https://cup.org/2KcqRKi . I would like to express my gratitude to the British Academy for sponsoring the research underlying my monograph and to Prof. Gearty for reviewing it at such length. He is enviably qualified to draw on first-hand observation as a human rights lawyer to critique my reasoning and make the opposite case with passion. I will address his subtle blend of praise and blame for the sake of advancing our understanding of latent questions of the institutional Judiciary, its design and designers, which have not garnered the scholarly attention that many recent events urge. I hope my rebuttal may rise to the challenge of being commensurately incisive in the pursuit of the truth which we both seek, and that readers might discern a synthesis emerging which could supersede each of our contributions.

Judicial institutions in the new democracies established after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe have become patterned on a transnational template that maximises judicial empowerment to the detriment of national parliaments. Through the influence of an elite, transnational community of interest, revisions to the judiciary have been implemented with little attention from politicians or the public. As a result, there has been a shift in the role of the judiciary from adjudication under the law towards improvising public policy. Transnational Networks and Elite Self-Empowerment is an inquiry into why and how this could have come about, and what the implications are for democracy. Cristina Parau explores the processes by which the elites have used transnational networks as a means of self-empowerment, and how they have been able to entrench their minority influence within the constitutions of their countries. Taking an inter-disciplinary approach, she builds a strong case through a deep analysis set against and supported by an extensive series of interviews with key political actors. This is a timely reminder of the need to pay attention to our democratic institutions and not to take for granted the foundations on which they are laid.

Abstract:

Offers an innovate approach to ethics and security, combining securitization theory and the just war tradition.

Den amerikanske hærs første officielle historiske beretning om operationerne i den anden Irakiske Krig, "Operation Iraqi Freedom", (OIF). Fra forberedelserne, mobiliseringen, forlægningen af enhederne til indsættelsen af disse i kampene ved Talil og As Samawah, An Najaf og de afsluttende kampe ved Bagdad. Foruden en detaljeret gennemgang af de enkelte kampenheder(Order of Battle), beskrives og analyseres udviklingen i anvendte våben og doktriner fra den første til den anden Golf Krig.

This book rejects dominant views that needy political movements readily gain help from nongovernmental organizations.

The United Nations Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Council’s mandate and founding principles demonstrate that one of the main aims, at its creation, was for the Council to overcome the Commission’s flaws. Despite the need to avoid repeating its predecessor's failings, the Council’s form, nature and many of its roles and functions are strikingly similar to those of the Commission. This book examines the creation and formative years of the United Nations Human Rights Council and assesses the extent to which the Council has fulfilled its mandate. International law and theories of international relations are used to examine the Council and its functions. Council sessions, procedures and mechanisms are analysed in-depth, with particular consideration given to whether the Council has become politicised to the same extent as the Commission. Whilst remaining aware of the key differences in their functions, Rosa Freedman compares the work of the Council to that of treaty-based human rights bodies. The author draws on observations from her attendance at Council proceedings in order to offer a unique account of how the body works in practice. The United Nations Human Rights Council will be of great interest to students and scholars of human rights law and international relations, as well as lawyers, NGOs and relevant government agencies.