Book
New publication: Proving Discriminatory Violence at the European Court of Human Rights
Jasmina Mačkić, Assistant Professor of Human Rights Law at the Europa Institute, has published her book, Proving Discriminatory Violence at the European Court of Human Rights. This work is based on her doctoral dissertation, which she defended in May 2017 and which was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under the Mosaic research grant scheme.
- Author
- Jasmina Mačkić
- Date
- 28 August 2018
- Links
- Website Brill publishing house
How can individuals prove that they or their family members suffered from violence because they are members in a certain vulnerable group? This question, which touches upon the phenomenon of discriminatory violence, is one of the most difficult that some courts are faced with. In her book, Jasmina Mačkić critically analyses the ways in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) deals with this issue. In that context, she investigates whether the evidentiary framework deployed by the ECtHR is adequate in cases of discriminatory violence and offers suggestions for improvement where it is not. The evidentiary framework consists of the standard of proof, the burden of proof and evidentiary material. Having discussed some of the key theoretical and conceptual issues underpinning the phenomenon of discriminatory violence and having outlined the ECtHR’s fact-finding procedure, Mačkić examines the different components of the evidentiary framework in turn. During this analysis Mačkić provides answers to intriguing questions, including: does the standard of proof ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ in cases of discriminatory violence pose too great of an obstacle to finding violations by the ECtHR in this sphere?; under what circumstances can the ECtHR shift the burden of proof from the applicant to the respondent state in different types of complaints of discriminatory violence?, and; what evidence may the ECtHR use to prove this type of violence?
For more information, see the publisher’s webpage.