TY - JOUR A1 - Çalı, Başak T1 - Optimism in International Human Rights Law Scholarship JF - American Journal of International Law N2 - As a field of practice, international human rights law (IHRL) is in constant motion. The four books under review explore the legal, political, and civic dynamics that continuously shape and reshape this vibrant area of law. In this Essay, I underscore two important trends in contemporary IHRL scholarship that these books highlight. First, these works share a strong emphasis on agency, understood as human action that makes a difference in the world, be it the agency of individuals, domestic civil society organizations, transnational organizations, or courts. Highlighting agency, rather than overarching political, economic, and social structures, in turn shifts the attention from human rights law and doctrine “in the books” to an understanding of human rights law as a purposive and dynamic practice. KW - Centre for Fundamental Rights Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2024.3 SN - 0002-9300 N1 - Open Access publication is funded by the Hertie School Library VL - 118 IS - 2 SP - 374 EP - 387 PB - Cambridge University Press ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Finnerty, Joseph A1 - Çalı, Başak T1 - The Travaux Préparatoires and Progressive Treaty Interpretation: Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights JF - European Journal of International Law N2 - Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has become a central provision employed by the European Court of Human Rights in response to authoritarian practices in Europe over the last decade. Notwithstanding its increased use, important disagreements persist regarding the interpretation of the provision. Analysing the provision’s ordinary meaning, the convention’s travaux préparatoires as a whole and the interpretation of the provision by majority and minority judges of the Court, this article identifies three competing normative models for specifying Article 18’s purpose. Whilst the text is open for Article 18 to address all forms of abuse of power – authoritarian or democratic – the travaux suggest a purpose of detecting emerging authoritarian practices. The majority on the Court’s bench, on the other hand, view Article 18 as a narrow tool to respond to predominant and pronounced authoritarian practices. These normative disagreements are also reflected in concurring and dissenting opinions annexed to Article 18 judgments, with some minority judges defending the narrow normative model and others advocating for a more progressive interpretation, not only on familiar grounds of evolutive interpretation but also because the convention’s history calls for progressive interpretation of this particular provision. Our findings complicate the well-established presumption that progressive interpretation of the convention comes about by treating it as a ‘living instrument’ at the expense of the drafters’ intent, highlighting the turn to ‘progressive originalism’ in the interpretation of Article 18 of the ECHR. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chaf029 VL - 36 IS - 2 SP - 475 EP - 499 PB - Oxford University Press (OUP) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Çalı, Başak A1 - Galand, Alexandre Skander T1 - A Tale of Disregard? Reception of the Jurisprudence of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities before the European Court of Human Rights JF - Human Rights Quarterly N2 - The Convention on the Rights of Persons Disabilities (CRPD) was hailed as a transformative human rights treaty when it came into force in 2008. The CRPD not only promises the remediation of the under-protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in international human rights law, but it also aims to transform the deep and structural inequalities underpinning the governance of disability through law and policy. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has adopted and extended this transformative ethos in its jurisprudence. In this article, we examine the reception of this jurisprudence by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and ask whether and how the CRPD Committee's interpretation of the CRPD has influenced the case law of the ECtHR. By focusing on the right to legal capacity, accessibility and reasonable accommodation, we demonstrate that the transformative jurisprudence of the CRPD Committee was met with visible disregard in Strasbourg. Our findings point to both the importance of specialized human rights treaties and jurisprudence in advancing the rights of historically discriminated groups and the challenges of judicially diffusing transformative protections for the rights of persons with disabilities into general human rights law. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2025.a965925 VL - 47 IS - 3 SP - 394 EP - 425 PB - Project MUSE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Çalı, Başak A1 - Finnerty, Joseph ED - Istrefi, Kushtrim ED - Ratniece, Zane ED - Kamber, Krešimir T1 - Accessibility of law T2 - The Companion to the European Convention on Human Rights Y1 - 2026 SN - 9789004541559 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004541559 PB - Brill | Nijhoff ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Çalı, Başak A1 - Finnerty, Joseph ED - Istrefi, Kushtrim ED - Ratniece, Zane ED - Kamber, Krešimir T1 - Foreseeability of law T2 - The Companion to the European Convention on Human Rights Y1 - 2026 SN - 9789004541559 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004541559 PB - Brill | Nijhoff ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Çalı, Başak A1 - Finnerty, Joseph ED - Istrefi, Kushtrim ED - Ratniece, Zane ED - Kamber, Krešimir T1 - Quality of law T2 - The Companion to the European Convention on Human Rights Y1 - 2026 SN - 9789004541559 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004541559 PB - Brill | Nijhoff ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Çalı, Başak A1 - Finnerty, Joseph ED - Istrefi, Kushtrim ED - Ratniece, Zane ED - Kamber, Krešimir T1 - Legitimate aim T2 - The Companion to the European Convention on Human Rights Y1 - 2026 SN - 9789004541559 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004541559 PB - Brill | Nijhoff ER -