We need to fight the pensée unique about the EU

Posted on 04/04/2013 by

1Cas Mudde raises a very important issue in a recent article in Open Democracy (“The European elite’s politics of fear”). Mudde criticises “the EU elite’s long-standing warning against alleged threats from so-called anti-Europeans”. A penetrating discourse is spreading from Brussels warning against the rise of nationalism, anti-Europeanism, populism and aversion towards liberal democracy. All those who oppose current EU policies, regardless of their reasons, are made responsible for it. Continue reading →

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The death penalty: A critical look at international law

Posted on 21/03/2013 by

pm elsa marzo2013To understand how international law treats the death penalty, we should start by identifying the sources of international law. It is widely considered that the answer lies in Article 38.1 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. This provision says that the Court shall apply: a) international treaties, b) international custom, c) general principles of law “recognized by civilized nations” (whatever that means), and d) case law and “the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists”.

There are four international treaties that aim at the abolition of the death penalty to some extent. This last precision is important because only one of these four conventions forbids the capital punishment in all circumstances and at all times. The 6th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, of 1983, was the first attempt to abolish the death penalty. However, this treaty permits a State to make an exception in time of war or of “imminent threat of war”. A similar exclusion is allowed by the 2nd Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of 1989, and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to abolish the death penalty, of 1990. The only treaty that bans the capital punishment unambiguously is the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, of 2002, ratified to this day by 43 of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe, exceptions being Russia, Azerbaijan, Poland and Armenia (these last two countries have signed but not yet ratified the treaty).

If we didn´t look beyond international treaties, we might conclude that only 43 States, all of them from Europe, are not allowed to execute judicially (that´s actually what the death penalty is, at the end of the day). Yet, we can observe certain trends in international custom that provide a different perspective. Continue reading →

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A prueba de balas

Posted on 17/03/2013 by

armas bajo controlEra finales de 2003. Mis primeros meses en la Facultad. Entre el manual de Historia del Derecho, los casos prácticos de Ticio y Cayo, y mis primeros flirteos con la tutela judicial efectiva, se apilaban notas de prensa, informes y cifras sobre el descontrol en el comercio internacional de armas. Amnistía Internacional hacía campaña junto con otras organizaciones para lograr un tratado internacional que regulara la compraventa de armas pequeñas y ligeras, que, como decíamos entonces (coincidiendo con la Guerra en Iraq), son las auténticas armas de destrucción masiva.

Los datos son demoledores. Cada minuto muere una persona en algún lugar del mundo como consecuencia de la violencia armada, y miles de personas más sufren heridas y abusos cada día. Cientos de miles de seres humanos son desplazados, heridos, lisiados o pierden sus medios de vida. El mercado armamentístico mueve 640 millones de armas y 12.000 millones de balas en todo el mundo, las suficientes para matar a todos los habitantes del planeta… dos veces. En más del 60% de las violaciones de derechos humanos documentadas por Amnistía Internacional se utilizan armas pequeñas y ligeras. Continue reading →

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Imaginen un país

Posted on 12/03/2013 by

ImageImaginen un país, grande o pequeño, cuyo líder es elegido por un grupo reducido de hombres. En la larga historia de este país, el líder siempre ha provenido de una única provincia. A pesar del progresivo despoblamiento de la misma, este criterio se mantiene rígido por el momento.

Imaginen un país en el que la nacionalidad fuera siempre doble; para obtenerla sería preciso ostentar previamente otra nacionalidad. Este país no tiene ejército ni policía merecedora de tal nombre. Técnicamente tiene idioma oficial, pero prácticamente no lo entiende nadie y sólo se usa para redactar las leyes. Continue reading →

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No sean impertinentes: Dejen en paz al Sr. Draghi

Posted on 27/02/2013 by

posada draghi periodistasDicen que el pasado 12 de febrero el presidente del Banco Central Europeo, Mario Draghi, estuvo en el Congreso de los Diputados. Digo que dicen porque la sesión fue a escondidas, con turnos minutados, sin transcripción ni grabación. Algunos diputados colgaron vídeos en Youtube y escribieron en Twitter (#openDraghi). Que digo yo que las redes sociales pueden ser una herramienta útil en democracia, pero de ahí a sustituir a las actas y a las preguntas de los periodistas… Continue reading →

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Are human rights claims morally virtuous?

Posted on 12/02/2013 by

ImageAt the inaugural lecture of Northumbria University last November, Lord Justice Laws provocatively asks “whether human rights make us bad citizens”. (Read the comment by Rosalind English in UK Human Rights Blog). Bearing in mind that the discourse of rights has reached a protagonist role in current political and legal thought, Laws argues that we should not confuse rights with morals.

The entrenchment of rights in the culture of the State carries with it a great danger. It is that rights, a necessary legal construct, come also to be seen as a necessary moral construct. Applied to the morality of individuals, this is a bad mistake. (…) Why is it so malign a force? Let me consider the nature of rights a little more closely. What am I doing when I state that I have a moral right – a right to do something, or a right not to have something done to me? It is not a statement that implies any virtue on my part. I am not good because I assert that I have a right. To claim a right involves no moral action by the claimant. There is nothing virtuous in making the claim. It is not an act of self-sacrifice or self-restraint, kindness or consideration towards anyone else; it is not other-centred; it claims what is due, or what is thought to be due. Systematically, it is a claim about how someone else ougt to behave – or refrain from behaving. Any morality in it is the other person’s morality. If it is morally justified, it is because the other party owes a duty – a moral duty – to make it good. (…) The performance of duty is virtuous; whereas a claim of right is only an insistence that someone else behave virtuously.

I see the point Lord Justice Laws makes here, and I agree to some extent. Continue reading →

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Difference is Spanish

Posted on 02/02/2013 by

ImageEspaña no toca fondo. No sólo es que la economía va mal, las políticas puestas en práctica no resuelven los problemas y el futuro se esconde tras un agujero negro. Ahora tenemos también el caso Bárcenas, cuyo aspersor empapa a buena parte de la cúpula del Partido Popular. En Catalunya también tienen lo suyo con la financiación irregular de Unió y las cuentas de los Pujol. Por no hablar de la fundación Nóos del Señor Urdangarin, o del PSOE y los ERE fraudulentos en Andalucía… Casi prefiero apartar la mirada del mapa por si me acuerdo de más historias. Continue reading →

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