Identity Controversies before the European Court of Human Rights: How to Avoid the Essentialist Trap?

German Law Journal

Volumn 3, Issue 7, 2002, Pages

  Ringelheim, Julie ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33746324017     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20718322     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S2071832200015170     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. « From Pilgrim to Tourist – or a Short History of Identity» in S. Hall and P. du Gay (eds), QUESTIONS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY, London, Sage, 1996, 18-36, 18.
2. ECHR, Sidiropoulos and others v. Greece, Judgment of 10 July 1998, available at: .
3. ECHR, Gorzelik and others v. Poland, Judgment of 20 December 2001, available at: .
4. ECHR, Ahmet Sadik v. Greece, Judgment of 15 November 1996, available at: .
5. ECHR, Unified Communist Party of Turkey (TBKP) and others v. Turkey, Judgment of 30 January 1998; Socialist
6. party of Turkey and others v. Turkey, Judgment of 25 May 1998;
7. Party of Freedom and Democracy (Özdep) v. Turkey, Judgment of 8 December 1999, all available at: .
8. ECHR, Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria, Judgment of 2 October 2001, available at: .
9. On the issue of law and cultural identity, see in particular E. Mertz, "A New Social Constructionism for Sociolegal Studies", LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, vol. 28, nr. 5, 1994, 1243-1265;
10. W. Espeland, "Legally Mediated Identity: The National Environmental Policy Act and the Bureaucratic Construction of Interests", id. , 1149-1179;
11. S. S. Gooding, "Place, Race, and Names: Layered Identities in United States v. Oregon, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Plaintiff-Intervenor", id. , 1181-1229
12. ; D. Danielsen and K. Engle (eds), AFTER IDENTITY, A READER
13. IN LAW AND CULTURE, Routledge, New York/London, 1995;
14. B. Oomen and S. Tempelman, "The Power of Definition", SIM SPECIAL, nr.25, 1999, 7-25.
15. C. Calhoun, "Social Theory and the Politics of Identity", in C. Calhoun (ed.), SOCIAL THEORY AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY, Oxford, Blackwell (1994), 9-36, 13.
16. On the social constructionist approach to identity, see in particular K. A. Cerulo, "Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions", ANN. REV. SOCIOL., nr. 23, 1997, 385-409, esp. 387-391;
17. C. Calhoun, op. cit. , note 7;
18. S. Hall, "The Question of Cultural Identity", in S. Hall, D. Held and T. McGrew (eds), MODERNITY AND ITS FUTURES: UNDERSTANDING MODERN SOCIETIES, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992, 273-316;
19. A. J. Norval, "Thinking Identities: Against a Theory of Ethnicity", in E. N. Wilmsen and P. McAllister, THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE – ETHNIC PREMISES IN A WORLD OF POWER, University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London (1996), 59-70.
20. S. Hall, "Cultural Identity and Diaspora", in J. Rutherford (ed.), IDENTITY – COMMUNITY, CULTURE, DIFFERENCE, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1990, 222-237, 222.
21. See supra note 2. .
22. See supra note 6. .
23. Sidiropoulos and others v. Greece, Judgment, para. 11, supra note 2..
24. Sidiropoulos and others v. Greece, Opinion of the Commission, para. 42, supra note 2.
25. Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria, Judgment, para. 42, supra note 6. .
26. Id. , para. 66-67. .
27. E. Gellner, NATIONALISM, London, Phoenix, 1997, p. 45. Among the major studies on nationalism, se
28. B. Anderson, IMAGINED COMMUNITIES. REFLECTION ON THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF NATIONALISM, London/New York, Verso, 1996
29. ; E. J. Hobsbawm, NATIONS AND NATIONALISM SINCE 1780, PROGRAMME MYTH AND REALITY, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990; an
30. A. D. Smith, THE ETHNIC ORIGINS OF NATIONS, Oxford/New York, Blackwell, 1987.
31. See supra, note 5. .
32. Unified Communist Party of Turkey (TBKP) and others v. Turkey, Judgment, para. 21, supra note 5. .
33. Id. , para. 10, emphasis added. .
34. Id. , para. 21. .
35. See C. Pierse, « Violation of Cultural Rights of Kurds in Turkey», NETHERLANDS QUARTERLY OF HUMAN RIGHTS, vol. 15/3, 1997, 325-341.
36. Gorzelik and others v. Poland, see supra note 3. .
37. Gorzelik and others v. Poland, Judgment, para. 12, .
38. On the case Silesia, see M. Ciechocinska et W. Dressler, « Pologne: le dialogue des cultures réinventé avec ses marges - Biélorussie polonaise et Haute Silésie», W. Dressler (dir.), LE SECOND PRINTEMPS DES NATIONS – SUR LES RUINES D'UN EMPIRES, QUESTIONS NATIONALES ET MINORITAIRES EN POLOGNE, ESTONIE, MOLDAVIE, KAZAKHSTAN, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1999, 99-153. On the case of the Kurds,
39. see M. Van Bruinessen, « Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes», in PEUPLES MÉDITERRANÉENS, nr.68-69, July-December 1994, 11-37.
40. See also D. Ergil, « The Kurdish Question in Turkey», JOURNAL OF DEMOCRACY, vol. 11, nr.3, July 2000,
41. 122-135 . On Macedonia, see
42. H. Poulton, WHO ARE THE MACEDONIANS?, London, Hurst & Company, 2000 (2d ed.);
43. V. Roudometof, « Culture, Identity, and the Macedonian Question: An Introduction», in V. Roudometof (ed.), THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION: CULTURE, HISTORIOGRAPHY, POLITICS, East European Monographs, Boulder, distributed by Columbia University Press, 2000, 1-24
44. ; and Human Rights Watch Report, DENYING ETHNIC IDENTITY: THE MACEDONIANS OF GREECE, April 1994.
45. J. K. Cowan, "Ambiguities of an emancipatory discourse: the making of a Macedonian minority in Greece", in J.K. Cowan, M.-B. Dembour, R. A. Wilson (eds), CULTURE AND RIGHTS – ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, 152-176.
46. B. Stoyanova-Boneva, S. E. Nikolov, V. Roudometof, « In Search of ‘Bigfoot': Competing Identities in Pirin Macedonia, Bulgaria», in V. Roudometof (ed.), op. cit. , note 25, 237-258.
47. J. K. Cowan, op. cit. , 157. In the same vein, B. Stoyanova-Boneva, S. E. Nikolov, V. Roudometof note about the inhabitants of the Bulgarian Macedonia that "numerous competing pressures have led to a situation whereby members of a single family might come to consider themselves as of different ethnic backgrounds." (op. cit. , 241).
48. J. K. Cowan, op. cit. , 161.
49. Ibid. She points out that "although a significant number of individuals do now identify themselves as members of a Macedonian minority, many other object to this designation." (id. , 167).
50. In the Gorzelik case, the Court asserts: "it is not its task to express an opinion on whether or not the Silesians are a "national minority", let alone to formulate a definition of that concept". Gorzelik and others v. Poland, Judgment, para. 55, supra note 3. .
51. See supra note 4. .
52. See supra note 3. .
53. Sidiropoulos and others v. Greece, see supra note 2; Unified Communist Party of Turkey (TBKP) and others v. Turkey; Socialist party of Turkey and others v. Turkey; Party of Freedom and Democracy (Özdep) v. Turkey, see supra note 5; Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria, see supra note 6. In all these cases, the state is condemned for breach of article 11 of the Convention, which guarantees the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association. .
54. Sidiropoulos and others v. Greece, Judgment, para. 44, see supra note 2, emphasis added. .
55. See supra note 6. .
56. Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria, Judgment, para. 102, supra note 6. . See also the para. 84 of the Judgment, in which the Court confirms the principles laid down in the Sidiropoulos Judgment.
57. Unified Communist Party of Turkey (TBKP) and others v. Turkey, para. 57. .
58. Socialist party of Turkey and others v. Turkey, Judgment, para. 43. See also Party of Freedom and Democracy (Özdep) v. Turkey, Judgment, para. 44. See supra note 5, .
59. Ahmet Sadik v. Greece, Judgment, note 4. . Note that the Commission concludes unanimously that there has been a breach of the applicant' freedom of speech. Opinion of the Commission, para. 55.
60. Gorzelik and others v. Poland, Judgment, para. 21, see supra note 3.
61. Id. , para. 57.
62. Id. , para. 57. .
63. Id. , para. 35. .