This open access book takes stock of the current situation of the human right to democracy in multilevel systems of government - at a time of renewed struggles with antidemocratic forces (democratic backsliding). It tries to answer three questions: (1) Is there a human right to democracy in contemporary global and regional international law as well as European Union law and what consequences does that have for the States’ governmental structure (top-down perspective on national democracy)? (2) Does the human right to democracy also extend to decision-making at the international and supranational level (bottom-up perspective on international/supranational democracy)? (3) What is the relation between national democracy and international democracy and the corresponding human entitlements (interdependence perspective)?
The first part of an answer to these questions derives from the elements of democracy proclaimed by the United Nations as a universal value. The second part results from an investigation of the national and international democratic ingredients of the right of self-determination of peoples, whose recognition and codification is the mainstay of the human rights revolution since 1945. The third part is added by a survey and comparison of the various democratic rights included in the global and regional human rights treaties that constitute the subjective cornerstones of democracy. The fourth part is devoted to analysing the EU as exemplary but imperfect multilevel democracy. In all these parts, the enforcement of democratic entitlements are also discussed. In the fifth part, conclusions will be drawn. The book is addressed to international and EU law experts as well as political scientists.
Professor Dr. jur. Thomas Giegerich, LL.M. (Univ. of Virginia 1985) holds a Chair of European Union Law, Public International Law and Public Law at the Faculty of Law, Saarland University, Germany (since 2012) where he also is Director of the Europa-Institut. In 2017, he was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration, Antidiscrimination, Human Rights and Diversity (until 2021). Before joining Saarland University, he held chairs at the Universities of Bremen and Kiel where he also was Director of the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law. Thomas Giegerich has lectured at universities in China, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the USA. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge (2007), a Visiting Professor at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh (2011-12), and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Law, European University Institute, Florence (2016). He has published widely on European Union law, public international law and (comparative) constitutional law with an emphasis on human rights.
