The Development Of Legal Instruments To Combat Racism In A Diverse Europe

Europe has come a long way at least in the institutional response to racism. This book describes the responses of the Council of Europe and the European Union to the worrying trends of racism and xenophobia in the 1990s, and considers the prospects for combating discrimination in Europe using tools that have emerged as a result.

Europe has come a long way at least in the institutional response to racism. This book describes the responses of the Council of Europe and the European Union to the worrying trends of racism and xenophobia in the 1990s, and considers the prospects for combating discrimination in Europe using tools that have emerged as a result. Part one looks at the evolution of the Council of Europe apparatus to combat discrimination and the anti-discrimination standards prescribed by its institutions. Part two considers the legislative measures recently adopted by the European Union. The contributions in Part three take a comparative perspective of all measures adopted at European level to combat racial and ethnic discrimination.

This book provides an analysis of the current state of affairs in EU migration law. Five Directives on legal migration and national legislation in five Member States are critically assessed in terms of compliance with EU principles of law and international human rights.

In 2000, the European Union adopted a Directive against discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin. This book provides an in-depth evaluation of the Race Directive and its effects, questioning how successful the Race directive has been. The EU Race Directive discusses the history of the fight against racial discrimination in the EU and the equality clauses in international Human Rights instruments. It then examines the terms race, racism and racial discrimination and equality in the Directive. The book also looks at the concepts of equality which can be distinguished in the Race Directive and in the subsequent developments at EU level. Examining whether the Directive has improved the protection against racial or ethnic origin discrimination for people within the EU, the book concludes with an assessment of how far the EU has come on the road to racial equality with the adoption of the Race Directive and the subsequent developments. It also contains proposals for possible improvements. The comprehensive and up-to-date analysis in this book goes beyond most other books written on the subject and the specific focus on racism and racial discrimination means a more thorough examination than most texts focusing on discrimination on a larger number of grounds. This book will be of great value to students and academics in (European) law, social sciences and human rights, researching racism, racial discrimination, ethnicity and race relations. It will also be useful for policy makers.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is virtually unheard of in European scholarship, especially among legal scholars. Law, Lawyers and Race: Critical Race Theory from the United States to Europe endeavours to fill this gap by providing an overview of the definition and consequences of CRT developed in American scholarship and describing its transplantation and application in the continental European context. The CRT approach adopted in this book illustrates the reasons why the relationship between race and law in European civil law jurisdictions is far from anodyne. Law plays a critical role in the construction, subordination and discrimination against racial minorities in Europe, making it comparable, albeit in slightly different ways, to the American experience of racial discrimination. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Roma and anti-Black racism constitute a fundamental factor, often tacitly accepted, in the relationship between law and race in Europe. Consequently, the broadly shared anti-race and anti-racist position is problematic because it acts to the detriment of victims of racism while privileging the White, Christian, male majority. This book is an original exploration of the relationship between law and race. As such it crosses the disciplinary divide, furthering both legal scholarship and research in Race and Ethnicity Studies.

This book addresses the legal feasibility of ethnic data collection and positive action for equality and anti-discrimination purposes, and considers how they could be used to promote the Roma minority’s inclusion in Europe. The book’s central aim is to research how a societal problem can be improved upon from a legal perspective. The controversy surrounding ethnic data collection and positive action severely limits their use at the national level. Accordingly, legal and political concerns are analysed and addressed in order to demonstrate that it is possible to collect such data and to implement such measures while fully respecting international and European human rights norms, provided that certain conditions are met. Part I focuses on ethnic data collection and explores the key rules and principles that govern it, the ways in which this equality tool could be used, and how potential obstacles might be overcome. It also identifies and addresses the specific challenges that arise when collecting ethnic data on the Roma minority in Europe. In turn, Part II explores positive action and the broad range of measures covered by the concept, before analysing the applicable international and European framework. It reviews the benefits and challenges of implementing positive action for Roma, identifies best practices, and gives special consideration to inter-cultural mediation in the advancement of Roma inclusion. The book concludes with an overview of the main findings on both topics and by identifying three essential elements that must be in place, in addition to full respect for the applicable legal rules, in order to combat discrimination and achieve the inclusion of Roma in Europe by complementing existing anti-discrimination frameworks with the collection of ethnic data and the implementation of positive action schemes.

This volume considers whether it is possible to establish carefully tailored hate speech policies that recognize the histories and values of different countries.