Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
This chapter examines Russia–CoE relations from 2013 until the eve of Russia’s expulsion in February 2022. There is a focus on Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and illegal activities in eastern Ukraine from 2014, and, following this, an assessment of how Russia manufactured a major crisis at the CoE over 2014–2019, and how this was resolved. It is argued that politics played a major part in what increasingly became a type of ritualistic membership of the CoE on the part of Russia. The chapter analyses this and then looks to the situation after 2019, when the ritualism argument seemed even stronger. The role played by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), particularly in relation to the role of inter-state cases involving Russia, is addressed. The chapter concludes with some reflections on Russia’s membership and the issues arising.
The introductory chapter sets out the overarching narrative of the book, that of Russia’s attempted transition towards European liberal democratic standards within the Council of Europe (CoE) framework, and its gradual but dramatic retreat from that path. It outlines the rationale of the book to provide a uniquely detailed account of Russia’s experience of membership of the CoE, ultimately leading to its expulsion. The chapter stresses the realist underpinning of the book as well as its limitations.
This chapter discusses the significant impact that Russia’s expulsion has had on the European human rights system, not least in terms of the number of former rights-holders no longer served by that system, but also the impossibility for the ECtHR to have any meaningful impact on the human rights situation in areas under Russian jurisdiction now that Russia is no longer a member state. The chapter also considers the complexity of interpretation of Article 58 ECHR, which regulates how the Convention can be denounced. This examination centres on whether Russia should have ceased being a party to the Convention from the moment of expulsion by the CM (16 March 2012) or six months later. Finally, in relation to the execution of judgments, the chapter considers that the sui generis nature of the situation can provide a justification for innovation by the CM, subject to the political will of the remaining member states.
Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe (CoE) after 26 years following the invasion of Ukraine.
This timely and in-depth analysis explores Russia's tumultuous relationship with the CoE/ECHR institutions. It examines Russia’s membership record and the profound impacts of its expulsion for Europe’s human rights system. The authors provide valuable insights for future policy to safeguard the integrity of international human rights institutions.
The book fills an important gap in legal scholarship by exploring the legality and legitimacy of its membership and expulsion, and represents a key reference in understanding the challenge of protecting human rights in the face of rising authoritarianism.
Chapter 5 considers the legality and legitimacy of the membership sanctions applied to Russia in 2022. It notes the speed and decisiveness of the response by the Committee of Ministers (CM) to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 and examines the procedure adopted by the CM leading to the ultimate expulsion of Russia from the CoE. The chapter considers the scope of the appropriate statutory provisions in detail, and notes that while justifiable, in the absence of a formal ‘request’ for Russia to withdraw before it was expelled a new precedent for the use of these provisions has been established though the threshold for their use remains exceptionally high.
The chapter sets out and analyses the international legal obligations that Russia voluntarily accepted and the specific commitments it made upon accession to the CoE. It then focusses on how and in what circumstances Russia acceded to the CoE in 1996 and ratified the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1998. The chapter reveals that on the question of whether Russia should join the CoE, political considerations – based on a perceived unique opportunity in European history – prevailed over the compelling legal case against it doing so. It argues that the CoE’s invitation for Russia to join it was based on a calculated risk and the optimism of its so-called ‘therapeutic admission’, that is. the hope that Russia would evolve into a state that complied with Article 3 of the CoE Statute in the future.
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Civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations have increased at the United Nations (UN) since the 1990s. Yet few studies discuss the notion of inclusion and what it entails in intergovernmental negotiations.
This book delves into the UN’s relationship with CSOs, exploring who participates in negotiations and how their input is integrated into ratified documents. Drawing on ethnographic research, the author uncovers the complexities of accreditation, participation, and the interpretation of CSOs’ contributions. Offering a sociological analysis, she highlights the increased exclusion of CSOs despite their apparent inclusion in institutions of global governance unbounded to public accountability.
Leah R. Kimber examines the practices of exclusion CSOs are subjected to in UN negotiations by opening the machinery of intergovernmental negotiations in light of the UN’s future and legitimacy.
Chapter 2 allows to look back in time to analyse the United Nations (UN)’s uneasy relationship with its civil society and clarify how civil society has been approached and theorized in the literature. With civil society gaining increasing interest in world politics through its growing role and presence, it has called for different theoretical stances and changing methodological implications, as witnessed in the literature on international relations. Yet if the inclusion of civil society could be measured as the number of non-governmental organizations the UN accredits each year, a more fine-grained analysis at the individual level needs to analyse the inclusion contingent on interactions and power dynamics at play. Drawing on the sociology of organizations to analyse the power dynamics among civil society actors and the UN system with its Member States and its staff members in each apparatus the author proposes an innovative theoretical framework, drawing on a pragmatic approach, combining interest group theory and dispositif, to analyse the inclusion of civil society as a process from its beginnings of mobilization to its end, namely the outcome written document.
The concluding chapter, ‘Exclusion in Light of Inclusion’, first looks back at the empirical chapters and discusses the various forms of inclusion, built on Foucault’s concept of apparatus, namely the institutional, social and substantive inclusion. Each form of inclusion depends on each apparatus, respectively institutional, social and substantive, in which the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and Member States embody inclusive or exclusive practices. Investigating the interdependence between each apparatus provides additional nuance to grasp the hurdles that impede inclusion of civil society. Moving forward, the author proposes three scenarios, ultimately answering more accurately what it means and entails to be included as a member of civil society. In sum, in an evidence-based approach, the research nuances the United Nations’ claims of being an inclusive institution.
Chapter 5, ‘Disentangling the Social’, looks at the nitty-gritty practices around the text that forms world politics and how it all plays out; navigating between policy arenas and decision venues, incorporating United Nations codes, organizing access and performing advocacy strategies. Harnessing Goffman’s concepts of front stage and backstage, the author presents the various activities members of civil society develop, be it front stage, for official activities, or backstage, namely informally, in the interstices of formal meetings. The framework helps shed light on civil society’s times of social inclusion and times of social exclusion. Building on the concept of social apparatus informs of the numerous codes and tacit expectations required to navigate particular settings in order to ultimately best impact the final text.
