New book by Dia Anagnostou: The European Convention of Human Rights Regime – Reform of Immigration and Minority Policies from Afar

Prompted by an unprecedented rise of litigation since the 1990s, the new book by Dia Anagnostou “The European Convention of Human Rights Regime – Reform of Immigration and Minority Policies from Afar” examines how the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) system and the Strasbourg Court interact with states and non-governmental actors to influence domestic change. Focusing on European Court of Human Rights litigation and state implementation of judgments related to minority discrimination and asylum/migration, it argues that a fundamental transformation of the Convention system has been under way. Repeat and strategic litigation, shifting methods of supervision and state implementation to remedy systemic violations, and above all the growing engagement of civil society and non-governmental actors, have prompted a distinctive trend of human rights experimentalism. The emergence of experimentalism has profound implications for the legitimacy, effectiveness and further reform of the ECHR system.

This study provides an original constitutive account of regional human rights regimes and how they are activated by societal actors to claim rights, advance case law, and pressure for domestic legal and policy change.