First Fundamental Rights Documents in Europe Commemorating 800 Years of Magna Carta

With the spotlight on Magna Carta, which is 800 years old in 2015, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, which together are of undeniable importance for fundamental rights-thinking, the existence of similar fundamental rights documents in other European countries is often overlooked. Such fundamental rights documents did, however, exist in the precursors to the current European Union Member States. Some of the documents are ancient, even older than Magna Carta, and some are more recent, but all of them are texts that deserve to be brought out and analysed alongside Magna Carta and the French Declaration in order to better understand the evolution of fundamental rights thinking in Europe.This volume paints a multi-faceted picture of historical fundamental rights documents in the European space by collating the experience of 24 European Union Member States at times in history when most of these states did not even exist. It is the first comprehensive and systematic evaluation of early fundamental rights thinking across Europe and it reveals surprising diversity. Spanning documents from the fifth century BC right through to the 19th century and early 20th century AD, this review opens up themes not normally found in historiographical analyses of fundamental rights.

Markku Suksi is Professor of Public Law at Åbo Akademi University (Finland) and former Finnish E.MA National Director. He has published works about constitutional law, autonomy, linguistic rights, the referendum, and elections.Kalliope Agapiou-Josephides is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Cyprus (Cyprus) and E.MA National Director (Cyprus). She has published works about political participation of women, European issues and security policy.Jean-Paul Lehners is Professor emeritus of Global History and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights at the University of Luxembourg as well as E.MA National Director (Luxembourg). He has published works in the field of global and demographic history and in the historiographical study of human rights.Manfred Nowak received his PhD from the Law School of the University of Vienna in 1973 ad his LL.M from Columbia University (New York) in 1975. He was UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, UN expert on enforced disappearances and judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is/was visiting professor at the Danish Institute of Human Rights in Copenhagen, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights at Lund University, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, the American University in Washington, D.C., Abo Akademie in Turku and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (Director of SIM from 1987 to 1989). He is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Vienna University and Co-Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna. He is author of more than 500 publications in the field of human rights, public and international law.