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Re-generating Europe through Human Rights? Proceduralism in European Human Rights Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

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The present-day EU, as is well known, faces a serious crisis. As contributions to this volume make clear, that crisis is political as much as it is economic. Developments such as the limitations on national democracies established via the golden rule, as well as the exclusion of parliaments from EU decision-making, illustrate the grave challenges to democracy brought about by the EU's response to the euro crisis. Given this context, the task of regenerating Europe is primarily a political task. It would be strange indeed to address such a crisis by turning to a seemingly apolitical tool, such as human rights. Accordingly, human rights—anti-majoritarian and legalistic—seem to be in full retreat from the kind of adversarial politics needed to reorient the European project along more democratic lines.

Type
Special Issue - Regeneration Europe
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by German Law Journal GbR 

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