Series editors' preface

This book is the third in the series of EIUC Studies in Human Rights and Democratisation. The European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) in Venice, Italy is the principal European human rights and democratisation centre supported by forty-one renowned European universities, the European Union, the Region of Veneto, the City of Venice and other strategic partners such as Columbia University in New York, GTZ in Eschborn and regional master's programmes in all continents. Professors, researchers, teachers and experts from all over Europe and from different organisations are active in the EIUC's programmes and teaching activities. One of the main objectives of the EIUC is to create a fertile environment for research and research cooperation and the transformation of the results of that cooperation into realistic policies. The EIUC studies aim to publish the best scholarly work on human rights and democratisation resulting from that process of academic cooperation in the Venice Centre and its member universities. This includes joint projects with external institutions, groups, researchers and practitioners. The present volume is an excellent example of EIUC's attempt to act beyond the limits of the Centre's member universities and institutions and to engage in innovative discourses on human rights and democratisation issues.

The series is not limited to lawyers' discourse alone. It encompasses the scientific disciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue on human rights and democratisation as practised in research and teaching in the Centre's activities. The present volume reflects in approach and outcome the overall aim of the EIUC series to enrich the academic discourse on human rights and democratisation with innovative contributions, which also facilitate the transfer of academic and institutional expertise into the public sphere. The contributions to the volume originate from a two-day international interdisciplinary conference, which took place in Antwerp in October 2008 organised by the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp (UCSIA) in collaboration with the Law Faculty of the University of Antwerp and EIUC on the local relevance of human rights. The conference gave inspiration and laid the foundation for the volume; however, the present book in approach and objective goes beyond the discussions at the conference.