A special book in a special journal: It was an honor to read and review Gráinne de Búrca’s outstanding new book “Reframing Human Rights in a Turbulent Era” and to publish the book review in the prestigious European Journal of International Law.
In her book, de Búrca develops an experimentalist theory of the UN human rights system and its interaction with domestic actors. This account offers new insights and enhances our understanding of how the interaction between domestic civil society activism and international human rights institutions can affect change by carving out the specific roles that these actors assume in the interactive process, adequately theorizing this interaction and productively combining theory with in-depth case studies. It is, in my opinion, one of the most important books in human rights scholarship in recent years.