Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This article examines how EU rights and laws serve as legal opportunity structures for women's rights activists in Europe. Further, it examines what effects this transnational activism has on the permanence and inclusion of public interests and gender equality in EU legal and political processes. The analysis examines the legal domain of EU women's rights over a thirty-year period. Methodologically, the study relies on case law analysis, primary document collections, and interviews with non-governmental organizations and governmental elites at both the EU and the national level. I ask how legal mobilization can serve as a catalyst for institutional change (by influencing litigation and legislative action), and how this effects subsequent EU-level women's rights mobilization and public inclusion.

This introduction and the articles that follow are motivated by three main goals. First, they elaborate and promote a comparative approach to the study of international legal institutions. Second, they seek to better understand the role of courts in transforming international and domestic governance. Finally, the central aim of the issue is to examine how the legalization of global politics may be linked to changes in democratic participation. The overarching aim is to examine the factors shaping when and how courts may serve as arenas for citizen participation leading to important political, legal, and social developments. This introductory article provides a testable framework elaborating both the opportunities and limitations of this dynamic for democratic politics.

This article examines the connection between rights, courts, and the changing nature of democratic participation. The general comparative model developed is then applied to a time-series analysis of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The article is the first to offer a systematic social science analysis of ECHR decisions with particular emphasis on changing democratic opportunities for individuals at both the domestic and supranational level. The findings reveal how rights and access to legal institutions shape the way courts serve as arenas for public participation—a consequence that brings into question dominant theories of international organization and comparative studies of judicial politics.

This introduction & the articles that follow are motivated by three main goals. First, they elaborate & promote a comparative approach to the study of international legal institutions. Second, they seek to better understand the role of courts in transforming international & domestic governance. Finally, the central aim of the issue is to examine how the legalization of global politics may be linked to changes in democratic participation. The overarching aim is to examine the factors shaping when & how courts may serve as arenas for citizen participation leading to important political, legal, & social developments. This introductory article provides a testable framework elaborating both the opportunities & limitations of this dynamic for democratic politics. References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2006.]