In recent years, the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ persons have received increased legal attention at the international and national level. Considerable legal progress has been made in a short period of time, even though at the same time a divergent trend is occurring in several countries around the world.

The Right to Personal Autonomy Regarding Sex, Gender and Sexual Orientation investigates whether a legal framework based on (the recognition of a right to) personal autonomy regarding sex (...

Two dominant trends in today’s world are hegemony and constitutionalism. The attitude of greater states or regional blocks, such as the US, Russia, China and the EU, represents hegemony. In parallel, constitutionalism is getting stronger through international organizations, international adjudicatory bodies and ‘higher norms’ of international law. While these processes represent a move away from the Westphalian inter-state logic, they also juxtapose hegemony and constitutionalism to eac...

“This book is an enrichment for the standing debate about Europe and should be published and widely read and discussed.” – Boudewijn R.A. Bouckaert

Reflections on Democracy in de European Union, with a foreword by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is a unique volume that offers an interdisciplinary approach on EU democracy, law and politics from economic, juridical and philosophical perspectives. It is divided in three parts and deals with EU’s contemporary challenges, its historical d...

With a foreword by Ján Figel, Special Envoy for Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the EU.

What room should be granted to controversial statements and expressions about faith? Should the state subsidize the building of places of worship? How much loyalty to the state can be demanded of religions? Under what

circumstances may the state and religious communities work together to reach a common goal? What does equal treatment of religions mean today?

The debate on the relation ...

In the aftermath of the Second World War,

Karl Popper introduced his concept of the

“open society”. Poppers focussed primarily

on communism and fascism. Nowadays,

communism and fascism have faded

away as the primary challenges for open,

democratic states, but new challenges have

come to the fore. Closed communities pose

a significant challenge and sometimes a

threat to democratic values. What are those

closed communities? This book presents

a diagnosis of those closed communit...

Climate change poses tremendous legal challenges. The law is still largely unsettled. Seeing the global consequences of GHG emissions, many enterprises may face litigation before courts in multiple jurisdictions. The outcome of these cases is often hard to predict. It is in the best interest of humankind and the environment to create global obligations, for instance in the form of concrete obligations of States and enterprises, which can be applied by courts around the globe. Using a myriad o...

When Christopher Columbus (circa 1451-1506) arrived at the Bahamas in 1492, it could hardly be predicted that this would result in the most dramatic upheaval in the history of the American continent and the nearby islands. The encounter with the new world inaugurated an era of conquest, colonisation, and economic exploitation by European powers that would last for several centuries. Large numbers of Europeans settled in these newly acquired territories, bringing along their own culture and re...

This book brings together contributions from emerging African and internationally recognized scholars in the field of international human rights law and policy in general and women and minority rights in particular. Its primary aim is to further the development of African scholarship and to reinforce the international discourse on women and minority rights in a time of rapid change.

The book analyses the various challenges that impede the promotion, protection and realization of the rights of...

This book provides a detailed analysis of the different principles that shape the constitutional background of campaign finance law. Through three indicative country specific examples, the author examines legislation and jurisprudence that reflect such principles and demonstrate the common and different approaches in this upcoming field of law as driven by different constitutional traditions.

This is the first time in legal scholarship that such an analytical effort is made to draw universal ...

The seventh edition of this widely utilized handbook provides a user-friendly and original and innovative introduction to comparative constitutional law, with specific reference to liberal democracies and states under the rule of law. For each area of constitutional law of such systems, a general introduction and a comparative overview is provided, followed by more detailed country chapters on that specific area. Though the book focusses extensively on selected countries, references to other ...