Book Launch: "The Rights of Roma in European Courts: Strategic Litigation and the Boundaries of Human Rights"

The Brussels School of Governance is pleased to announce the launch of Prof. Dr Kristin Henrard & Lilla Farkas' latest volume, The Rights of Roma in European Courts: Strategic Litigation and the Boundaries of Human Rights, published by Oxford University Press. This will take place on 11 December at 17:00 at our conference room Lisbon/Rome.

In the words of Professor Scot Cummings:

‘This essential volume shines a powerful new light on the potential—and limits—of litigation in achieving social change. With ground-breaking contributions on the decades-long struggle to combat Roma discrimination in the European courts, the book succeeds at two critical levels: offering an on-the-ground account of the strategic and doctrinal dimensions of Roma rights mobilisation, while providing new theoretical insights on how courts shape movements for equality. In the end, it makes a compelling case that understanding how law treats the most marginalised among us holds profound lessons for the future of liberal democracy depends. It could not be more timely and urgent".  

See a description of the book here.

Programme

17:00 - Brief introduction of the book by the two editors: Kristin Henrard & Lilla Farkas 

17:15 - Four chapters will be presented by their respective authors (15 minutes each). These chapters effectively capture the variety of topics discussed in the edited volume, while focusing on the two overarching themes of systemic discrimination on the one hand and strategic litigation on the other.  

• Kristin Henrard starts off with a comparative analysis of the Roma rights jurisprudence of three European courts and the extent to which their acknowledgement of systemic discrimination affects judicial reasoning.  

• Lilla Farkas continues with a critical account of the ontology of Roma rights jurisprudence while highlighting the centrality of legal framing. She unveils how the racial discrimination frame was transplanted from the U.S. civil rights movement and the socio-economic vulnerability frame advanced by European lawyers. 

• Serena d’Agostino, in the third presentation, zooms in on the fight against forced sterilisation and how the strategic litigation to counter and redress this form of systemic discrimination against Roma is blocked by the failure of courts to recognize involuntary sterilization as  a structural intersectional discrimination. 

• Finally, Tamas Kadar explores the role of equality bodies in enforcing (EU) anti-discrimination law, offering an in-depth case study of the work of the Romanian equality body. 

   

18:00 - Reflections on the book by Els Keytsman De Ronne, one of the co-directors of UNIA, who will particularly highlight the extent to which the book is equally relevant for other groups that suffer systemic discrimination and seek to counter their situation through strategic litigation. 

18:30 - Q&A session

18:45 - Small reception.