TY - JOUR A1 - Demir-Gürsel, Esra T1 - The shifting frames of the Council of Europe: from totalitarianism to authoritarianism, from populism to democratic backsliding JF - The International Journal of Human Rights N2 - Over the past two decades, several European states have undergone a notable shift away from liberal democracy and human rights. These trends have disrupted the foundational discourses of the Council of Europe (CoE), which historically has positioned Europe as a bastion of human rights and democracy. Various terms – including illiberalism, populism, authoritarianism, and democratic backsliding – have been used to describe these developments. In the CoE context, ‘populism’ and ‘democratic backsliding’ have become dominant frames for defining internal trends against the image that the CoE constructs for Europe, while ‘totalitarianism’ and ‘authoritarianism’ have been used to frame its past and present external Others. This article examines how these four concepts – totalitarianism, authoritarianism, populism, and democratic backsliding – are deployed within the CoE to analyse their discursive functions across different phases of the CoE’s history. Drawing on frame analysis, it traces how and to which effect these concepts have been mobilised in the CoE context. The article concludes that these concepts are employed less to denote clearly differentiated political forms or categories with distinct political and legal implications; rather, they are used as discursive tools to frame Europe as associated with human rights and democracy, in opposition to its external Others. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2025.2552469 N1 - Open Access publication is funded by the Hertie School Library. SP - 1 EP - 21 PB - Informa UK Limited ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Đuković, Mirko T1 - New Organs on Command: The Regulatory Prospects of 3D Bioprinting Technology in the European Union JF - Law, Technology and Humans N2 - This article examines the evolving legal landscape of bioprinting in the European Union, focusing on the regulatory challenges posed by the hybrid nature of bioprinted products. These constructs – simultaneously biological and synthetic – defy conventional legal classifications and are conceptualised here as biosthetics. The analysis explores how existing EU regulatory instruments – including the ATMP Regulation, MDR, GDPR and SoHO Regulation – apply to bioprinting technologies across research and development as well as clinical implementation. The article argues that current frameworks, while comprehensive, remain fragmented and insufficiently adaptive to address the ontological and operational complexities of biosthetics entities. Three regulatory scenarios are presented: continued reliance on mode-of-action classification, incremental amendments to existing laws and the development of a novel regulatory model tailored to bioprinting. Ultimately, the article advocates for a paradigm shift towards anticipatory, participatory and ethically grounded governance that can respond to the challenges and promises of biomedical technologies in the biosthetics age. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.3817 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 84 EP - 95 PB - Queensland University of Technology ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Baranowska, Grażyna A1 - Hadjigeorgiou, Nasia T1 - Living up to obligations through the International Red Cross? A critique of states’ attempts to shift obligations when addressing missing persons JF - Leiden Journal of International Law N2 - The article identifies and explains a phenomenon whereby states attempt to shift their responsibility in relation to missing persons and their families to the International Red Cross. This has dual effect: firstly, it leads to rightlessness of the missing and their families, and secondly, it diminishes the obligations of the states, which are the duty bearers. The attempted shift does not, however, lead to the International Red Cross becoming a duty bearer, despite undertaking crucial actions in the analyzed area. Two case studies, relating to two distinct types of missing persons, are used to illustrate the phenomenon: persons who disappeared during the conflict in Cyprus between 1963 and 1974, and migrants going missing in the Mediterranean. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0922156525100496 N1 - Open Access publication is funded by the Hertie School Library. SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - Cambridge University Press (CUP) ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Costello, Cathryn A1 - Wriedt, Vera ED - Chetail, Vincent T1 - Regional Human Rights Courts T2 - Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Migration and Asylum Law Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204155.00085 SP - 461 EP - 467 PB - Edward Elgar Publishing ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Moreno-Lax, Violeta T1 - From 'Boat Migration' to Maritime Abandonment: The Logics of Necro-Geo-Legal Control N2 - This chapter traces evolving approaches to 'boat migration' in cross-regional perspective and problematises its relationship with human rights at sea, especially the right to life. Through a necropolitical critique, it unveils how maritime border enforcement, particularly by countries of destination, endangers respect for and adherence to the right to life by incorporating the risk of dying as a means of migration management. This is mediated by law, embedding the technique within the juridical system. The mechanism draws on geography and the dangers associated with the maritime space as a biopolitical resource, allowing States to express their power to 'make live and to let die' with minimal intervention. State authority is deployed passively/indirectly, but nonetheless effectively, impeding human rights protection-if not supressing life altogether. By connecting necropolitical power with geostrategic forms of control operated through law, States deploy what I call a necro-geo-legal apparatus that is characterised by a combination of tactical disengagement from search and rescue (SAR), as provided for in the maritime conventions, and mechanisms of 'organised abandonment' at sea. The chapter, by mapping developments in the US, Australia and the Mediterranean, offers a taxonomy of the various modalities of necro-geo-legal control, practiced through replacement, retreat or rejection, illuminating how the (mis)use of law turns the sea into a 'deathscape' exploited for the exercise of sovereign power vis-à-vis 'boat migrants'. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5988216 N1 - Cite as: Violeta Moreno-Lax, ‘From “Boat Migration” to Maritime Abandonment: The Logics of Necro-Geo-Legal Control’, in Irini Papanicolopulu and Anna Petrig (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Human Rights at Sea, (Oxford University Press, 2026) forthcoming PB - SSRN ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Çıdam, Çiğdem A1 - Cortés, Luba A1 - Gündoğdu, Ayten A1 - Moreno-Lax, Violeta T1 - Solidarity as Legal Mobilization JF - AJIL Unbound N2 - The criminalization of humanitarianism has become prevalent in the Global North. Overbroad definitions of the crimes of migrant smuggling and the facilitation of irregular migration are commonplace in Europe and the United States, despite their well-known perverse effects on the rights of organizers and civil society at large. The “crimmigration” paradigm is so pervasive that there is little debate across the political spectrum on the legitimacy of a criminal law response to solidarity-based engagements with non-citizens, especially those in an irregular situation. Countries of destination have normalized hostility vis-à-vis (irregular) migrants and their allies and firmly entrenched it in the legal regime. By contrast, this essay aims to illustrate how law can paradoxically also serve as a medium to articulate solidaristic action following an egalitarian conception and mobilization of legal norms. Challenging state-centric visions, such forms of action transform law into a space of coming together across power divisions, jointly organizing, and collectively countering injustice. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/aju.2025.5 VL - 119 SP - 19 EP - 24 PB - Cambridge University Press (CUP) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grundler, Maja A1 - Moreno-Lax, Violeta A1 - Busuttil, Nicolette T1 - Special Issue: Research and Practice Dialogues on Complex Protection Claims – A ‘Translational’ Agenda T2 - Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law Y1 - 2025 UR - https://www.bloomsburyprofessionalonline.com/professional-content?docid=journal_immigration&tocid=b-17467632_39-1-0100003 VL - 39 IS - 1 SP - 11 EP - 21 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Délano Alonso, Alexandra A1 - Moreno-Lax, Violeta A1 - Ramji-Nogales, Jaya T1 - Introduction to the Symposium on Transdisciplinary Approaches to Migrant Solidarity in Theory, Law, and Praxis JF - AJIL Unbound Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/aju.2025.1 VL - 119 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - Cambridge University Press (CUP) 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 - Palmiotto, Francesca A1 - Ozkul, Derya T1 - Climbing a Wall: Strategic Litigation Against Automated Systems in Migration and Asylum JF - German Law Journal N2 - Strategic litigation plays a crucial role in advancing human rights in the digital age, particularly in cases where data subjects, such as migrants and protection seekers, experience significant power imbalances. In this Article, we consider strategic litigation as part of broader legal mobilization efforts. Although some emerging studies have examined contestation against digital rights and migrant rights separately using legal mobilization frameworks, scholarship on legal mobilization concerning the use of automated systems on migrants and asylum seekers is scarce. This Article aims to address this gap by investigating the extent to which EU law empowers strategic litigants working at the intersection of technology and migration. Through an analysis of five specific cases of contestation and in-depth interviews, we explore how EU data protection law is leveraged to protect the digital rights of migrants and asylum seekers. This analysis takes a socio-legal perspective, analyzing the opportunities presented by EU data protection law and how civil society organizations (CSOs) utilize them in practice. Our findings reveal that the pre-litigation phase is particularly onerous for strategic litigants in this field, requiring a considerable investment of resources and time before even reaching the litigation stage. We illustrate this phase as akin to “climbing a wall,” characterized by numerous hurdles that CSOs face and the strategies they employ to overcome them. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2024.52 VL - 25 IS - 6 SP - 935 EP - 955 PB - Cambridge University Press (CUP) ER -