The Effects of Globalisation on Law: the Impact on the Council of Europe

Never in the history of humankind has so much information been so widely available, so many places so easily accessible or markets so readily open. This new openness is the result of technical achievements coupled with economic development as well as the emergence of new mentalities. Globalisation has obvious positive effects but also carries concomitant risks such as the inevitably homogenising effect upon cultural diversity or the unchecked spread of criminal behaviour. It has also affected the way governments design their policies since the lines between domestic and international issues are becoming increasingly blurred. Moreover, the impact that national or regional interests have at global level has grown steadily. While the concept of superpowers is still a valid one, the in uence that countries exert is not measured in military terms alone, but in economic ones, thus transforming at the same time the very concept of security. Globalisation has a direct impact on the law, the way it is conceived, its content and its application at national, international and supranational level. Indeed, it imposes the deŽ nition of universal standards affecting the very basis of the organisation of our society. This is particularly so in the case of human rights, where beyond their obvious objective and practical implications, different policies exist regarding compliance and there is a pressing need to ensure greater protection of fundamental values. Therefore, globalisation affects also the deŽnition of legal rules at international level rendering some of the notions of international law. The Council of Europe, the pioneer among pan-European organisations, which is committed to increased intergovernmental co-operation in Europe and is fundamentally devoted to the promotion and protection of human rights, provides various examples of how the globalisation phenomenon has affected the law as well as the Organisation’s very existence and structures and the way it operates. For instance, in the Ž eld of basic rights, the Council of Europe set up, as early as 1950, a most comprehensive and sophisticated system for the protection of human rights which has proven successful and is taken as a model in other parts of the world, such as Latin America. Human rights are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights adopted in 1950 and breaches thereof are assessed by an independent body, the European Court of Human Rights placed under the