Rights and Courts in Pursuit of Social Change

Over the past few decades European countries have witnessed a proliferation of legal norms concerning marginalized individuals and minorities who increasingly invoke them in front of courts to assert their rights and claim protection. This book explores the relationship between law rights and social mobilization in Europe. It specifically inquires into the extent and ways in which legal processes and entitlements are mobilized by less privileged social actors to advance their rights claims and pursue social change. Most distinctly the book explores such processes in the context of the multi-level European system characterized by the existence of multiple legal and judicial arenas at the national subnational and supranational/transnational level. In such a complex system of law and governance in Europe concepts like legal opportunity structures as well as the factors shaping them need to be reconceptualized. How does the multi-level European context distinctly shape the nature and salience of rights as well as their mobilization by individuals and minority actors? It is a fascinating study that will be of interest to human rights and European law scholars. (Series: Onati International Series in Law and Society)