Université de Fribourg

Human Rights and Democracy in a Global Context - Decoupling and Recoupling

Besson, Samantha

In: Ethics and Global Politics, 2011, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 19-50

Human rights and democracy have been regarded as a mutually reinforcing couple by many political theorists to date. The internationalisation of human rights post-1945 is often said to have severed those links, however. Accounting for the legitimacy of international human rights requires exploring how human rights and democracy, once they have been decoupled or disconnected, can be recoupled...

Université de Fribourg

Discrimination and Freedom of Contract : Philisophical and Economic Foundations of the Law agains Racial Discrimination in Employment

Besson, Samantha

In: International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 1999, no. 3, p. 269-297

The aim of this article is to clarify the apparent antithesis between the fundamental private autonomy of the contractual parties and the right of a party not to be discriminated against and found anti-discrimination law's legitimacy in philosophy and economics. The purpose of reviving this controversy derives from a recent attack from some of the scholars of the 'law and economics' movement...

Université de Fribourg

From European Integration to European Integrity : Should European Law Speak with Just One Voice?

Besson, Samantha

In: European Law Journal, 2004, vol. 10, no. 3, p. 257-281

This article examines whether and how the moral principle of legal coherence or integrity, which has recently been developed further as a response to disagreement in the national legal context, applies to European law. According to the European integrity principle, all national and European authorities should make sure their decisions cohere with the past decisions of other European and national...

Université de Fribourg

The Principle of Non-Discrimination in the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Besson, Samantha

In: International Journal of Children's Rights, 2005, vol. 13, no. 4, p. 433-461

Université de Fribourg

European Legal Pluralism after Kadi

Besson, Samantha

In: European Constitutional Law Review, 2009, vol. 5, no. 2, p. 237-264

The relationship between European Union law (hereafter, ‘EU law’ or, in a more general sense, ‘European law’1 ) and international law has been a concern for European and international lawyers alike for quite some years now.2 Although the question is a classical one, this article argues that answers that have traditionally been given ought to be revisited in the light of important changes...

Université de Fribourg

Cities as democratic representatives in international law-making

Besson, Samantha ; Martí, José Luis

In: Research handbook on international law and cities, 2021, p. 341-353