Book Launch: Judicial Convergence and Fragmentation in International Human Rights Law
The Regional Systems and the UN Human Rights Committee
2 May 2023
The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) was delighted to host this event marking the publication of ‘Judicial Convergence and Fragmentation in International Human Rights Law: The Regional Systems and the United Nations Human rights Committee, by Dr Elena Abrusci (Brunel University London).
Recently published with Cambridge University Press, the book provides an innovative analysis of the complex issue of judicial convergence and fragmentation in international human rights law. It moves the conversation forward from the assessment of the two phenomena and investigates their triggering factors.
The book engages with an interdisciplinary investigation into the legal and non-legal factors that could explain both convergence and fragmentation, ranging from the use of judicial dialogue and the notions of necessity and proportionality to the composition of the courts and the role of NGOs.
To celebrate its recent publication, the HRLC was joined by the book’s author, Dr Elena Abrusci, to discuss the dynamics between human rights adjudicatory bodies and possible future instances of judicial fragmentation. Dr Hemi Mistry (University of Nottingham) Professor Aoife Nolan (HRLC Co-Director, University of Nottingham) served as respondents.
About the Speakers
Elena Abrusci - School of Law, Brunel University London
Dr Elena Abrusci is a Lecturer in Law at Brunel University London. Prior to that, she worked as a Policy Advisor on Digital Regulation at the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and as a Senior Research Officer at the University of Essex on the ESRC-funded 'The Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project'. Elena has extensively worked on modern slavery and human trafficking at the Rights Lab of the University of Nottingham and at Walk Free Foundation, contributing to the 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions of the Global Slavery Index. She has acted as a consultant for several UN agencies (including WHO, UNESCO and OHCHR), tech companies and governments.
Elena has an interdisciplinary background in law and politics and her research focuses on regional human rights systems and the impact of AI and technology on human rights. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Nottingham, a Master in International Relations and Law from the University of Florence and Sciences-Po Paris, a postgraduate diploma in Politics from Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa) and an undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Pisa. Her PhD thesis explored the issues of judicial convergence and fragmentation in International Human Rights Law, looking at the case-law of the African, European and Inter-American human rights court and has been published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press in December 2022.
Aoife Nolan - Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre/ School of Law, University of Nottingham
Aoife's professional experience in human rights and constitutional law straddles the legal, policy, practitioner and academic fields. She is President of the Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights and has acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national organisations and bodies working on human rights issues, including numerous UN Special Procedures, UN treaty bodies, the Council of Europe, multiple NHRIs and NGOs. She has held visiting positions at academic institutions in Europe, Africa, the US and Australia. She is an Academic Expert member at Doughty Street Chambers where she co-leads the Children’s Rights Group. She has published extensively in the areas of human rights and constitutional law, particularly in relation to children's rights and economic and social rights.
Hemi Mistry - School of Law, University of Nottingham
Dr Hemi Mistry is an Associate Professor at the School of Law, University of Nottingham, UK. She is a member of the International Criminal Justice Unit of the Human Rights Law Centre and the Nottingham Centre for International Law and Security. She holds an LLB, LLM in International Criminal Justice and Armed Conflict, and a PhD in Law, all from the University of Nottingham. Substantively, Hemi’s expertise lies in the areas of international criminal law, general public international law, and the law and practice of international adjudication. Her current work focuses upon the theory and practice of judging in international courts and tribunals, focusing specifically upon the theory and practice of dissent by judges. Hemi’s research looks how the norms that shape and are shaped by judicial behaviour inform the authority that the institutions they are a member of claim and have attributed to them. Her most recent article, ‘A Performative Theory of Judicial Dissent’ has just been published in the Modern Law Review. Hemi sits on the Editorial Committee of the Journal of International Criminal Justice.