Law as or against justice for all? (WP3)

At the EU and national level, the institutionalization of justice in law is the result of political and social mobilization processes, as well as of interactions and tensions between different levels of governance.  This subproject investigates, theoretically as well as empirically, whether and how different conceptions of justice are incorporated and practiced in overlapping European legal orders. It examines how the legal systems of the EU and participating countries protect and balance different types of rights and how the various conceptions of justice institutionalised in law integrate marginalised populations. It also investigates the mechanisms that generate unfair treatment. 

The project therefore scrutinizes the relevant balancing mechanism and analyse the procedural dimensions of their application. It explores the capabilities of various actors to activate or challenge the law in their pursuit of justice. The studies conducted within this subproject adopt a comparative and interactive approach, which includes research on both the European level (European Union and Council of Europe) and national level, and explores the transformative nature of their interactions. 

Leading partner: CEU/UU; leading researchers: Marie-Pierre Granger/Barbara Oomen

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No. 727112

Publications

REPORT: A comparative report on the right to education: An assessment of the legal framework of six countries from the perspective of recognitive and redistributive justice


This report deals with the right to education of some selected categories of vulnerable minorities. National reports from six countries form the empirical basis of this study, all of them having examined the right to education of persons with disabilities, and next to it, each of them having examined another vulnerable group (ethnic and religious minorities, refugees and aylumseekers).

Full report

REPORT: A Comparative study on the right to vote for convicted prisoners, disabled person, foreigners and citizens living abroad


With respect to the right to vote, this comparative study looks in particular detail at the following vulnerable minorities across the six countries in view: disabled persons (both physically and mentally disabled), criminals and imprisoned persons, foreigners and refugees, and citizens living abroad. As with the other comparative deliverables D3.5 and D3.6, all country reports feeding into this comparative report focused on one of these groups – disabled persons – and then on two or more of the remaining groups depending on the particularities of the country under study.

Full report

REPORT: Coming ‘Home’: the right to housing, between redistributive and recognitive justice


This synthetic comparative report, based on six country reports (published as working papers on the ETHOS website) covering five EU member states (Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom) and one candidate country (Turkey), identifies and analyses the conceptions of justice which are institutionalized in legal frameworks in Europe, focusing on redistributive justice in the context of housing.

Full report

REPORT: Justice in Europe Institutionalized: Legal Complexity and the Rights of Vulnerable Persons

Within the context of the wider ETHOS project, deliverable 3.3 examines how the conceptions of justice as representation, redistribution and recognition permeate the European legal order(s) in the rights to vote, housing and education. It seeks to achieve these tasks on the basis of a literature review of relevant theoretical debates and legal desk research in relevant international and European law. It does so in four main sections.

Full report

REPORT: Four of Fewer Freedoms: Contested conceptions of justice in Europe between 1941 and 1957

This Working Paper contributes to the overall objective of formulating a European Theory of Justice and Fairness by concentrating on the conceptions of justice put forward, codified and side-lined in the early years of European formation. It takes a social constructivist perspective, focuses on the key actors involved in negotiating justice, the moments that mattered most and their geo-political background during and after the Second World War. The analysis is thus based on archival materials as well as secondary sources.

Full report

REPORT: A Theoretical review of the conceptualization and articulation of justice in legal theory

This report attempts to give an overview of justice in legal theory delineated by its purpose to explain non-lawyers how lawyers frame and perceive justice concerns in their discipline, to explicate the kind of screen through which law or lawyers approach justice issues. It therefore focuses on those legal disciplines where issues of justice are most salient, in order to provide an overview of “justice with a legal flavour”.

Full report