Book Launch: Author Meets Readers, "Justice in the Balance: Democracy, Rule of Law, and the European Court of Human Rights"
- Sponsor
- European Union Center; University of Illinois College of Law Program in Comparative Criminal Procedure and Policing; The Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies; and the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
- Contact
- eucenter@illinois.edu
- Originating Calendar
- European Union Center Events
Please join us for a panel discussion of:
"Justice in the Balance: Democracy, Rule of Law, and the European Court of Human Rights"
by Professor Jessica GreenbergFeatured Panelists
Jessica Greenberg
Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Science
2025-2026 LAS Dean's Distinguished Professorial Scholar
Department of AnthropologyBrett Ashley Kaplan
Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Program in Comparative and World Literature
Director, Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory StudiesEmanuel Rota (moderator)
Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Department of French & Italian
Director, European Union CenterJacqueline Ross
Prentice H. Marshall Professor of Law, College of LawAbout the Book
Established as a post-World War II response to conflict and fascism, the European Court of Human Rights is routinely characterized as the most successful human rights institution in the world. Based in Strasbourg, France, its jurisdiction extends to over 700 million people on European soil across the 46 Council of Europe member countries. The Court is the crown jewel of the Council, an international organization dedicated to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. And yet, for years, European institutions have been haunted by the specter of failure. In the shadow of rising populism, inequality, and war, faith in democracy and the rule of law has been shaken to its core. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted over eight years with human rights advocates, lawyers, and judges at the European Court of Human Rights, this book asks: What kind of justice is possible through law?
Drawing on participant observation, in-depth interviews, and archival research, Jessica Greenberg tracks two paradoxical experiences of the European human rights system and the Court: on the one hand, the Court as a bureaucratic "machine;" on the other, the Court as the "conscience of Europe." She argues that human rights frameworks fuel imaginative approaches to social change, and compel legal actors to creatively navigate institutions through advocacy, persuasion, and innovative interpretation of what the law is and what it should be.
This event is free and open to the public; registration is not required.