On Fantasy Island. Britain Strasbourg and Human Rights
(OUP, 2016)
In the 2015 UK
General Election, the Conservative party pledged to reset the UK's relations
with Europe, holding an in-out referendum on membership of the European
Union and repealing the Human Rights Act, to be replaced with a UK Bill of
Rights. With the decision now taken to leave the EU, the future of the Human
Rights Act and the UK's relations to the European Convention on Human Rights
remains uncertain.
Conor Gearty, one of the country's leading experts on human rights, here
dissects the myths and fantasies that drive English exceptionalism over
Europe, and shape the case for repealing the Human Rights Act. He presents a
passionate case for keeping the existing legal framework for protecting
human rights and our relationship with the European Convention. Analysing
the reform agenda from the perspective of British law, history, politics,
and culture, he lays bare the misunderstandings of the human rights system
that have driven the debate so far.
For more information about the book, including a video, blog and chapter
one, see
http://onfantasyisland.co.uk
click here for publisher's site
The Meanings
of Rights: The Philosophy and Social Theory of Human Rights
(Cambridge University Press, 2014) ed. (with Professor Costas
Douzinas)
Does the apparent victory, universality and ubiquity of the idea of rights indicate that such rights have transcended all conflicts of interests and moved beyond the presumption that it is the clash of ideas that drives culture? Or has the rhetorical triumph of rights not been replicated in reality? The contributors to this book answer these questions in the context of an increasing wealth gap between the metropolitan elites and the rest, a chasm in income and chances between the rich and the poor, and walls which divide the comfortable middle classes from the 'underclass'. Why do these inequalities persist in our supposed human rights-abiding societies? In seeking to address the foundations, genealogies, meaning and impact of rights, this book captures some of the energy, breadth, power and paradoxes that make deployment of the language of human rights such an essential but changeable part of so many of our contemporary discourses.
click here for publisher's site
Liberty and Security (Polity, 2013)
All
aspire to liberty and security in their lives but few people truly enjoy them.
This book explains why this is so. In what Conor Gearty calls our
'neo-democratic' world, the proclamation of universal liberty and security is
mocked by facts on the ground: the vast inequalities in supposedly free
societies, the authoritarian regimes with regular elections, and the terrible
socio-economic deprivation camouflaged by cynically proclaimed commitments to
human rights. Gearty's book offers an explanation of how this has come about,
providing also a criticism of the present age which tolerates it. He then goes
on to set out a manifesto for a better future, a place where liberty and
security can be rich platforms for everyone's life. The book identifies
neo-democracies as those places which play at democracy so as to disguise the
injustice at their core. But it is not just the new 'democracies' that have
turned 'neo', the so-called established democracies are also hurtling in the
same direction, as is the United Nations. A new vision of universal freedom is
urgently required. Drawing on scholarship in law, human rights and political
science this book argues for just such a vision, one in which the great
achievements of our democratic past are not jettisoned as easily as were the
socialist ideals of the original democracy-makers.
click here for publisher's site
The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law, eds. Conor
Gearty, Costas Douzinas (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Human rights
are considered one of the big ideas of the early twenty-first century. This book
presents in an authoritative and readable form the variety of platforms on which
human rights law is practiced today, reflecting also on the dynamic
inter-relationships that exist between these various levels. The collection has
a critical edge. The chapters engage with how human rights law has developed in
its various subfields, what (if anything) has been achieved and at what cost, in
terms of expected or produced unexpected side-effects. The authors pass judgment
about the consistency, efficacy and success of human rights law (set against the
standards of the field itself or other external goals). Written by world-class
academics, this Companion will be essential reading for students and scholars of
human rights law.
click here for publisher's site
C A Gearty and V Mantouvalou, Debating Social Rights
(Hart Publishing, November 2010)
Debating Law is a new series that gives scholarly experts the
opportunity to offer contrasting perspectives on significant topics of
contemporary, general interest. In this second volume of the series, Conor
Gearty argues that for rights to work effectively in the wider promotion of
social justice, they need to be kept as far away as possible from the courts. He
acknowledges the value of rights language in legal and political debate and
accepts that human rights are not solely civil and political, with social rights
language clearly having a progressive, emancipatory dimension. However he says
that lawyers — even well-intentioned lawyers — damage the achievability of the
kind of radical transformation in the priorities of states that a genuine
commitment to social rights surely necessitates. Virginia Mantouvalou argues
that social rights, defined as entitlements to the satisfaction of basic needs,
are as essential for the well-being of the individual and the community as
long-established civil and political rights. The real challenge, she suggests,
is how best to give effect to social rights. Drawing on examples from around the
world, she argues for their 'legalisation', and examines the role of courts and
the role of legislatures in this process, both at a national and a supranational
level.
click here for publisher's site
Essays on Human Rights and Terrorism (Cameron May,
2008)
Conor Gearty has been writing on human rights, civil liberties
and terrorism for over twenty-five years. In this book, his writings on the
global, regional and comparative dimensions to his subject are brought together
for the first time. The book contains articles from law journals and literary
periodicals as well as written versions of a number of distinguished lectures on
these topics that have been given by the author. There are also three especially
commissioned pieces on the particular application of human rights law and
practice in Asia, dealing with the universality of human rights, the impact of
'Asian values' on human rights, and the challenge posed by China for
contemporary human rights thinking. With chapters on the United States and the
European region, and also on such terrorism/human rights related problems as
Northern Ireland, the book offers a broad overview of a series of legal issues
pressing in on the world today.
click here for publisher's site
Civil Liberties (Oxford University Press, 2007)
This book traces the origins of the term civil liberties,
unpicking its various layers of meaning and explaining what it has come to mean
today. Gearty argues that the protection of civil liberties is a vital front in
the struggle to preserve political freedom and that a proper understanding of
and commitment to civil liberties has never been more important. Civil Liberties
provides a fresh, clear, and stimulating approach to civil liberties by tying
the law and practice of the subject firmly to democratic and political rights.
The author examines the key civil liberties of our democratic age: the right to
vote; the rights to life, liberty and security of the person; the freedoms of
thought, conscience, expression, association and assembly; and discusses the
contemporary challenges that civil liberties face, including globalisation and
the war on terror
click here for publisher's site
Downes, David and Rock, Paul and Chinkin, Christine and Gearty,
Conor, eds. Crime, social control and human rights: from
moral panics to states of denial. (Willan Publishing :
2007)
The work of Stanley Cohen over four decades has
come to acquire a classical status in the fields of criminology,
sociology and human rights. His writing, research, teaching and
practical engagement in these fields have been at once rigorously
analytical and intellectually inspiring. It amounts to a unique
contribution, immensely varied yet with several unifying themes, and
it has made, and continues to make, a lasting impact around the
world. His work thus has a protean character and scope which
transcend time and place. This book of essays in Stanley Cohen’s
honour aims to build on and reflect some of his many-sided
contributions. It contains chapters by some of the world’s leading
thinkers as well as the rising generation of scholars and
practitioners whose approach has been shaped in significant respects
by his own.
click here for publisher's site
Can Human Rights Survive? (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
The Hamlyn lectures 2005 reworked and greatly expanded for
publication: For years the subject of human rights was on the margin of legal
and political debate, supported with zeal by the few and ignored by the many.
Then, with the end of the Cold War came recognition, prestige and immense
influence. Vast numbers of new believers were recruited from the lost ideologies
of past eras. The excesses of the global market drove even capitalists into its
embrace. Democracy everywhere redefined itself to make human rights an essential
part of its make-up rather than the subversion of true majority rule that it had
long been believed to be. By the start of the new millennium, the idea of human
rights was well-entrenched as the key ethic of its age, the moral music that was
to accompany ‘the end of history’. But various challenges now threaten the power
of the idea. This book assesses three in particular: the challenge of authority;
the challenge of legalism and the challenge of national security. It then
analyses what the subject needs to do to ensure its survival and what the new
challenges are that lie ahead for it.
click here for publisher's site
Principles of Human Rights Adjudication (OUP, 2004, 230pp
ISBN 0 19 9270686)
This book analyses the impact of the Human Rights Act on UK
law, setting out the three principles which the courts deploy in interpreting
the Act and the three aspirations that judges ought to have in mind when
approaching interpetation of the Act.
click here for publisher's site
'The Human Rights
Act should not be repealed' LSE Law Policy Briefings 16/2016
There is no
reason to repeal the Human Rights Act and the government’s manifesto
commitment to do so should be dropped. The objections to it are
misconceived, the arguments against it being based either on inaccurate
understandings of what it says or error-strewn assertions about the
nature of its impact. The political motive for attacking the Act – to
undermine the UK’s association with Europe – has been overtaken by the
much greater European disengagement of BREXIT.
click here for full text
'Neo-Democracy:
‘Useful Idiot’ of Neo-Liberalism?' British Journal of Criminology (2016)
This article
explores a possible link between ‘neo-democratic’ states (the subject of
a recent book by the author) and the underlying politico-economic
ideology of our post-1989 world, neo-liberalism. Taking the United
Kingdom and the United States as examples, it argues that the shift in
our way of looking at the world that neo-liberalism represents involves
a forsaking of many of the assumptions of the social democratic polity
of the 20th century. However, this is not a leap into an unknown future
so much as it is a return to a particular past. In the threatened
transition to fully fledged neo-liberalism, ‘neo-democracy’ fulfils a
useful role as mask that hides from us the great political, ethical and
legal changes entailed in such a move.
click here for full text via
OUP [ON
CAMPUS]
click here for full text via
OUP [OFF CAMPUS]
The State of
Freedom in Europe' LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series
17/2015
The reaction to
11 September damaged the liberty of those living in Europe who found
themselves targeted as suspect terrorists while seeming to do little to
ensure the security of the wider community. More recently a second
emergency, rooted this time in the financial and economic collapse of
2008 onwards, has caused a further unraveling of Europe’s constitutional
project, even threatening the gains of past generations of European
idealists. In today’s Europe universal liberty and security have no
meaning for many even if their shape is retained in structures that in
truth mock rather than deliver democracy and human rights. This article
traces the origins of the crises that have afflicted so directly the
breadth of liberty and human security in the Union, demonstrating their
roots in ‘viruses’ that have been present from the start of the European
movement but which have now spiralled out of control. The essay ends by
asking what can be done to prevent the full decline of the region into a
state of neo-democratic/post-democratic unfreedom, one in which capital
unbound from democracy thrives at the expense of the people.
click here for full text [SSRN]
'In praise of awkwardness: Kadi in the CJEU' E.C.L. Review
2014, 10 (1), 15-27
Conor Gearty and John Phillips, 'The Human Rights Act and
business: friend or foe?' (2012) L.M.C.L.Q. 487
'Is attacking multiculturalism a way of tackling racism - or
feeding it? Reflections on the Government's Prevent Strategy.' E.H.R.L.R.
2012, 2, 121-129.
Responds to the Prime Minister's criticisms of certain
aspects of multiculturalism as potential threats to Western democratic
values. Reflects on the views expressed in the policy statement on
counter-terrorism entitled "CONTEST: The United Kingdom's Strategy for
Countering Terrorism" and in the Government's June 2011 Prevent Review
and Strategy, and argues that they are partisan and complacent readings
of British values which may feed racist attitudes, especially towards
Muslim groups. Questions the strategy's analysis of issues including the
links between terrorism and extremism.
'Once upon a Country : A Palestinian life' Denning Law
Journal, 2011, 239-241
'Short Cuts' London Review of Books, 33 (17) 2011p.20
'The Human Rights Act - an academic sceptic changes his mind
but not his heart' European Human Rights Law Review (2010) 6 pp.582-588
Explains why the author has changed the negative position
on the Human Rights Act 1998 he held during the 1990s and is now opposed to
its repeal. Outlines the reasons why he has changed his opinion to favour
the Act. Considers the practical application of the Act, focusing on the use
of declarations of incompatibility. Examines the positive role of the
judiciary in respect of the Act, noting that numerous challenges were made
under the Act in terrorism-related cases. Comments on areas in which the Act
has not fared as well.
click here for access via Westlaw [ON CAMPUS]
click here for access via Westlaw [OFF CAMPUS]
'Do human rights help or hinder environmental protection?'
(2010) 1 Journal of Human Rights and the Environment
7-22
'Terms of Art' (Review) (2010) 32
London Review of Books part 5 27-29 (11 March 2010)
'Response to
Charles Townshend' (2009) Critical
studies on terrorism 2
(2), p.
319.
'Situating international human rights law in an age of
counter-terrorism' in Barnard, Catherine, (ed.) The Cambridge yearbook of
European legal studies 2007-2008. Cambridge yearbook of European legal
studies (10). Hart Publishing, Oxford, UK, pp. 167-188.(2008)
'The Superpatriotic Fervour of the Moment' (2008) 28 Oxford
Journal of Legal Studies 183-200
'Terrorism and human rights.' Government and Opposition
42 (3). pp. 340-362. (2007)
Since the formal invocation of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights in 1948, much global discourse has been shaped by those principles,
to the extent that one could without exaggeration describe the period as an 'age
of human rights'. But will and indeed can that survive the perceived danger
arising from violent acts of terrorism? Is this now an 'age of terrorism'- or at
least, an 'age of counter-terrorism'- in which human rights are being accorded a
secondary status? This article considers those contentions and also advocates
particular roles for those who work in the human rights field.
click here for full text via Swetwise [ON CAMPUS]
click here for full text via Swetwise [OFF CAMPUS]
'Rethinking civil liberties in a counter-terrorism world.' In:
Deane, Seamus and Mac Suibhne, Breandán, (eds.) Field day review. Field
Day Books, Dublin, Eire, pp. 125-136. 2007
'The Blair Report.' Index on censorship 36 (2). pp.
49-55. (2007)
Johnson, Mark and Gearty, Conor ) 'Civil liberties and the
challenge of terrorism.' In: Park, Alison and Curtice, John and Thomson,
Katarina and Phillips, Miranda and Johnson, Mark, (eds.) British social
attitudes: the 23rd report: perspectives on a changing society. British
social attitudes survey series (23). Sage Publications, London, UK, pp. 143-182.
(2007)
Economides, Kim and Twining, William and Phillipson, Gavin and
Chakrabati, Shami and Gearty, Conor (2007) 'Can human rights survive? A
symposium on the 2005 Hamlyn lectures.' Public law (Summer). pp. 209-232.
(2007)
'Uncommon decency.' New humanist,
121 (1). pp. 24-26. (2006)
‘Human Rights in an Age of Counter-Terrorism: Injurious,
Irrelevant or Indispensable?’ (2005)]
Current Legal Problems 25-46
An essay on the Belmarsh detention
case, decided by the House of Lords in December 2004.
Regards the case in a generally favourable light. Essay
examines how the decision came about.
click here for publisher's site
'11 September 2001, Counter-Terrorism and the Human Rights Act'
(2005) 32 Journal of Law and Society
18 - 33
'Keeping it honest: the role of the laity in a clerical
church.' in Filochowski, Julian and Stanford, Peter, (eds.) Opening up:
speaking out in the church. Darton, Longman and Todd, London, UK, pp.
257-266. ISBN 9780232526240
'Short cuts.' London review of books,
27 (6). (2005)
‘The Casement Treason Trial in its Legal Context’ in Mary Daly
(ed) Roger Casement in World History
(Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2004) pp 151 - 161.
A critical assessment of Casement's
trial for treason in 1916 with comparison made with way
other dissidents were treated at the same time. The
essay is critical of the assumption that Casement was
the victim of a severe miscarriage of justice.
‘Human Rights’ in The Social Science Encyclopedia
(3rd edn) Routledge, London, 2004) pp 468-472
'Reflections on Civil Liberties in an Age of Counter-terrorism'
(2003) 41 Osgoode Hall Law Journal
185 - 210
‘Terrorism and Morality’ [2003]
European Human Rights Law Review 377-383
‘Civil Liberties and Human Rights’ in N Bamforth and P
Leyland (eds) Public Law in a Multi-Layered Constitution (Hart
Publishers, Oxford, 2003), ch 14, pp 371-390.
A theoretical analysis of the distinction between human
rights and cvivil liberties, how the terms differ and the significance of
the difference.
click here for publisher's site
‘Reconciling Parliamentary Democracy and Human Rights’ (2002)
118 Law Quarterly Review 248
