The Limits of Transnational Justice

“(…) First of all, how could such horrific human rights violations have occurred? What could explain the Constitutional Court’s restriction of its jurisdiction even in matters of life and death? And how could the ECtHR’s rejection of requests for interim measures, despite the clear existence of an ‘imminent and irreversible risk of harm’, be explained? How is it that despite decades of ECtHR supervision, Turkish security forces still enjoy a regime of impunity? Is this simply a matter of Turkey’s failure to comply with ECtHR decisions? Or does it also require us to reflect on the effectiveness of the ECtHR?” In The Limits of Transnational Justice, Dilek Kurban questions the possibilities and obstacles that transnational courts have in effectively overseeing authoritarian regimes that use physical violence and political oppression against minorities in the context of ethno-political conflicts. To this end, she examines the relationship of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with the ongoing Kurdish conflict in Turkey. Tracing the legal mobilization of the Kurds, Kurban also points to the factors that have made the ongoing violence in the Kurdish region possible. In the face of these developments, it examines the limits of the AI·HM’s influence vis-à-vis authoritarian regimes and the reasons for this. Drawing on the example of Turkey, The Limits of Transnational Justice proposes new socio-legal avenues of research for studies on transnational courts and legal mobilization in the context of human rights.