Transnational human rights claims and access to civil justice in Europe

No one would deny the importance of human rights in our world. Their protection has traditionally been a matter for States and International Law. In the last decades of the 20(th) century a new movement started -first, in the US, then in Europe-: individuals having suffered from severe violations of basic human rights (life, dignity, liberty, integrity), in times of war or of peace, finding no relief through the means provided by International Law tried civil judicial claims against States, former dictators or members of the military. Later they have also turned against corporations that work at a multinational level, established in underdeveloped countries, getting profit from the lack of institutional protection of children, women, workers, or environment. Victims ask for reparation to be obtained from domestic courts; this raises innumerable problems from a juridical point of view, concerning both private and public law. After a brief description of what transnational human rights litigation is, and why we do think that civil claims are a useful in the fight for global respect of human rights, we concentrate in the item of international civil jurisdiction in Europe: for we think our continent could provide a good place for the claim due to its tradition in democracy. We look both into European Regulations and national norms on the subject in order to show that none of the regimes offer an easy way to justice for the injured. We end by proposing the adoption of new jurisdictional criteria with a view to solving the difficulties.