Human Rights Controversies: The Impact of Legal Form

Many countries confront similar human rights controversies, but, despite the claimed universality of human rights values they are not always resolved in the same way. Why? What role do local legal conditions play? Is human rights discourse more potent where rights are constitutionally entrenched, rather than where there is a tradition of respect for underlying human rights values but no bill of rights?

Comparative socio-legal examination of three recent controversies - double jeopardy refor...