An European Perspective: Avenues for Developing Human Rights Responsibility Law

he Harvard European Law Association is pleased to host Nora Markard for a lunch talk on Friday, February 20, from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. in WCC 3007. Nora Markard is a Professor of Public Law and Human Rights at the University of Münster, Germany, and a 2025–26 Senior Emile Noel Fellow at the Jean Monnet Center, NYU School of Law. She works on constitutional and international law issues, with a focus on inequalities, forced migration, and the right to health. She studied law in Berlin and Paris and holds a PhD in law from Humboldt University Berlin and an MA in International Peace & Security from King’s College London. She was a visiting fellow at the University of Michigan, Columbia Law School, and NYU’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and was a W&L Global Teaching Fellow. She is an editor of the German Law Journal, Der Staat, and Kritische Justiz. She also serves on the advisory board of the German National Institute of Human Rights and is a co-founder of the strategic litigation NGO Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) and two legal clinics.

As international human rights law matures, EU member states have been developing ever novel ways to escape human rights review. Recent developments in the area of armed conflict, surveillance, migration, and climate change have lent growing urgency to the question how such responsibility gaps could be addressed. This talk therefore explores the potential of general international law to make international human rights law more effective. The European Court of Human Rights has been setting the benchmark for European human rights responsibility law. Yet, mindful of the binding character of its judgments and its dependence on state support, it has been reluctant to embrace the potential of general international law. The presentation therefore shows how recent Inter-American, African, UN treaty body, and ICJ practice may serve as a model for developing human rights responsibility through general international law, mitigating both the increasing fragmentation of international law and disciplinary silos. In view of the rising pressure on the European Court, it also highlights the limiting principles of such developments.

Lunch will be provided.