Birmingham School of Law

About: Birmingham School of Law is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Human rights & Criminal law. The organization has 121 authors who have published 329 publications receiving 1989 citations.

What is an ‘absolute right’? Deciphering Absoluteness in the Context of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract: The answer to the question of what it means to say that a right is absolute is often taken for granted, yet still sparks doubt and scepticism. This article investigates absoluteness further, bringing rights theory and the judicial approach on an absolute right together. A theoretical framework is set up that addresses two distinct but potentially related parameters of investigation: the first is what I have labelled the ‘applicability’ criterion, which looks at whether and when the applicability of the standard referred to as absolute can be displaced, in other words whether other considerations can justify its infringement; the second parameter, which I have labelled the ‘specification’ criterion, explores the degree to which and bases on which the content of the standard characterised as absolute is specified. This theoretical framework is then used to assess key principles and issues that arise in the Strasbourg Court’s approach to Article 3. It is suggested that this analysis allows us to explore both the distinction and the interplay between the two parameters in the judicial interpretation of the right and that appreciating the significance of this is fundamental to the understanding of and discourse on the concept of an absolute right.

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Abstract: Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as the international flows of investment and labor, and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade, or deep integration. DTA rules influence how countries transact, invest, work, and, ultimately, develop. The rules and commitments in DTAs should be informed by evidence and shaped by development priorities rather than international power or domestic politics. An impediment to this goal is that data and analysis on trade agreements have not captured the new dimensions of integration. Little effort has been made to identify the content and consequences of DTAs. This Handbook takes a step towards filling this gap in our understanding of international economic law and policy. It presents detailed data and analysis on the content of the policy areas most frequently covered in DTAs, focusing on the stated objectives, substantive commitments, and other aspects such as transparency, procedures, and enforcement. Each chapter, authored by lead experts in their respective fields, explains in detail the methodology used to collect the information and provides a first look at the evidence by policy area.

Regulation by Blockchain: the Emerging Battle for Supremacy between the Code of Law and Code as Law

Abstract: Many advocates of distributed ledger technologies (including blockchain) claim that these technologies provide the foundations for an organisational form that will enable individuals to transact with each other free from the travails of conventional law, thus offering the promise of grassroots democratic governance without the need for third party intermediaries. But does the assumption that blockchain systems will operate beyond the reach of conventional law withstand critical scrutiny? This is the question which this paper investigates, by examining the intersection and interactions between conventional law promulgated and enforced by national legal systems (ie the ‘code of law’) and the internal rules of blockchain systems which take the form of executable software code and cryptographic algorithms via a distributed computing network (‘code as law’). It identifies three ways in which the code of law may interact with code as law, based primarily on the intended motives and purposes of those engaged in activities in developing, maintaining or undertaking transactions upon the network, referring to the use of blockchain: (a) with the express intention of evading the substantive limits of the law (‘hostile evasion’); (b) to complement and/or supplement conventional law with the aim of streamlining or enhancing compliance with agreed standards (‘efficient alignment’); and (c) to co-ordinate the actions of multiple participants via blockchain to avoid the procedural inefficiencies and complexities associated with the legal process, including the transaction, monitoring and agency costs associated with conventional law (‘alleviating transactional friction’). These different classes of case are likely to generate different dynamic interactions between the blockchain code and conventional legal systems, which I describe respectively as ‘cat and mouse’, the ‘joys of (patriarchial) marriage’ and ‘uneasy coexistence and mutual suspicion’ respectively. I argue that the emerging response of conventional law in the first two kinds of case can be readily anticipated and understood. While the first class of case threatens to undermine the rule of law and which national legal systems can be expected to take positive action to safeguard, the second class of case does precisely the opposite: reinforcing the primacy and sovereignty of national law, and hence blockchain applications falling within this class are likely to be regarded as a welcome development by conventional legal systems. But it is the law’s response to the third category of applications (‘alleviating transactional friction') that is the most difficult to predict, due to the normative ambiguity of these applications. Whether the conventional law ought to intervene to oversee these systems raises fundamental tensions between the sovereignty of law in modern legal systems, including the universal coverage of the rule of law and its guarantee of security (which includes, but extends beyond, providing transactional security), on the one hand, and respect for individual autonomy and freedom of association on the other. I argue that, to the extent that the exercise of agency and freedom of association by a group of individuals results in adverse consequences for third parties and the broader public, state intervention via the code of law is normatively justified. Accordingly, the critical challenge is to identify the conditions and circumstances in which this threshold is reached in concrete contexts in order to justify the assertion of supremacy by conventional law over activities taking place on and arising out of blockchain systems.