New Modes of Governance and the Protection of Human Rights
Files
Description
This chapter examines the operation of agencies as an element of the emerging “new modes of governance” in the EU, and considers whether such modes of governance are in tension with the requirements of human rights protection. Most of the other chapters in this collection begin from the perspective of human rights protection, and proceed to consider how an agency dealing with fundamental rights might operate within the EU system. This chapter, by way of contrast, begins by looking at the particular character of EU governance, and more specifically at the recent rise in the establishment and use of agencies at European level, situating this development in the more general context of changing approaches to regulation in the EU. Thus the chapter begins with a brief discussion of the notion of ‘new modes of governance’ and specifically with the trend towards greater use of such modes in the European Union context. It moves on to consider how the rise of agencies can be understood as one aspect of this broader trend. Focusing then on the subject of human rights protection, the possible reasons for embracing certain new governance modes in this area in the EU as well as the possible reasons for caution or concern in so doing will be set out. Finally, the chapter will focus on the proposal to establish an EU fundamental rights agency by extending the mandate of the Vienna Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), looking both at the Commission’s communication and at the decision of the European Council to this effect. It concludes by considering how the new institution might operate, and whether this ‘new governance tool’ is likely to be a positive move in the area of EU human rights protection and whether it is likely to contribute to the EU’s emerging human rights policy.
Source Publication
Monitoring Fundamental Rights in the EU: The Contribution of the Fundamental Rights Agency
Source Editors/Authors
Philip Alston, Olivier De Schutter
Publication Date
2005
Recommended Citation
de Búrca, Gráinne, "New Modes of Governance and the Protection of Human Rights" (2005). Faculty Chapters. 324.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/324
