The European disability rights revolution

Abstract

Over the course of a decade, disability laws in Europe changed dramatically. Due to (1) the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, (2) the transposition of EU Directive 2000/78 into national law, and (3) a new line of judgments handed down from the European Court of Human Rights, individuals with disabilities gained new rights—and new opportunities to enforce those rights in court. This European Disability Rights Revolution constitutes a double upheaval—one part conceptual, one part legal/hierarchical. This dissertation is an attempt to grapple with the complex confluence of events and ideas that created the European disability rights revolution and what drives it forward today. Does disability rights law develop mainly through European Union law, regional human rights law, international law, or domestic law? Who are the individuals and/or organizations that sustain the European disability rights revolution? Who breathes life into the statute books—and how do they do it?