R.A. Lawson

The Irish abortion cases: European limits to national sovereignty?

Abortion is prohibited in Ireland. Section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, makes it a criminal offence for a pregnant woman to attempt to procure an abortion, as it is for others to provide assistance to that end. The prohibition was confirmed by the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, enacted after a referendum in 1983. The new provision, Article 40.3.3, not only outlawed interference by public authorities with the right to life of the unborn, but also provided for a clear positive Obligation to defend it:

Human Rights: The Best is Yet to Come: Article I-7 and Part II Draft Convention

Now that the EU Constitution has been adopted, one might be inclined to think that the debate on the position of human rights in the legal order of the European Union has come to an end. For more than 25 years academics and politicians have discussed the desirability of EC/EU accession to the European Convention of Human Rights and have argued for or against a separate bill of fundamental rights. That is all over now: Article I-7 of the Constitution provides for Union accession to the European Convention, whereas part II incorporates the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It would seem, therefore, that a solid framework for the protection of human rights in the EU legal order has been put in place. The rest will be a matter of implementation: taking fundamental rights into account when drafting and executing European legislation; invoking these rights before the Court of Justice; lodging complaints with the European Court of Human Rights when the EU institutions, despite everything, failed to secure these rights. All very important, albeit that some may find the daily application of human rights not as sexy as the large constitutional questions of the past. So is this the ‘end of history’ for human rights? Quite the opposite. The best is yet to come!

P. van Dijk; G.J.H. van Hoof, Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights , 3rd edn., Kluwer Law International, The Hague 1998, xxvii + 850 pp., Dfl. 295/US

Since the first edition of Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights in 1978, this book has become a reference in the field of human rights in Europe. It provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of the functioning of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its application by the European Court of Human Rights. As a result of the increase in the number of Parties to the Convention from 22 in 1989 to 46 today and of the coming into force of Protocol No. 11, the protection of human rights in Europe and the case law of the Court have seen a dynamic development during the last decade. This is reflected in this fourth edition of Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights. Particular attention is paid to the changes that have taken place in the supervisory system as a result of the coming into force of Protocol No. 11 and to the central part that the Court plays in these changes. This edition also anticipates the entry into force of Protocol No. 14, which will again bring changes to the system. The result is a very accessible and easy-to-use reference book, which provides an essential source of information for the practitioners and theorists in the field of human rights.