Rule of Law & Human Rights

Integrating Normative & Functional Approaches to Rule of Law & Human Rights (INFAR) project

At the end of December 2014, researchers at the Erasmus School of Law (led by Sanne Taekema), together with International Institute of Social Studies researchers Karin Arts and Jeff Handmaker were awarded a research grant by the Erasmus Research Excellence Initiative.

The award, which provides matching funds, amounts to a total, joint institutional commitment of 1.6 million euros, to be implemented over a period of 5 years (September 2015 – August 2020).

The award has allowed us to engage two postdoctoral researchers, Nathanael Ali and Kinnari Bhatt, as well as visiting professors (including Kim Lane Scheppele of Princeton University, Jan Klabbers of Helsinki University and Jonathan Klaaren of the University of the Witwatersrand) and supports annual conferences and expert meetings.

• To trace the shifts between the functional and normative approaches historically in order to uncover the basic assumptions of the approaches;
• To provide a theoretical framework for integrating the two perspectives in a transnational context;
• To link regulatory and legal studies to show how both approaches can be connected in regulatory policy and court practice; and
• To ensure knowledge transfer and synergies by organizing events that bring together organizations and individuals who work as policy makers and legal practitioners as well as academics from different disciplines.

Project researchers from ISS