Book Review: Health and Human Rights in Europe
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271401600408 |
| Author | Tomislav Sokol |
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 16 (2014), No. 4 395
cover to cover, which will be quoted for a long time to come and represents a v aluable
contribution to the contemporary elds of social secu rity and social policy.
Filip Bojić
Tea chi ng A ss ist ant
Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade
Serbia
Filip Bojić is a Teaching Assistant in Labour and Social Law at the Facu lty of Law,
Univ ersit y of B elgr ade. In 201 2 he wa s awa rded the d egre e of Ma ster of So cial Secu rit y
Law at the Catholic University of Leuven. He is cu rrently completing his Ph.D. studies
at Belgrade University. His interests include social s ecurity law, and especially t he area
of unemployment insurance and su rvivors and old age pensions.
Brigit Toebes, Mette Hartlev, Aart Hendr iks and Janne Rothma r Herrmann (eds.)
Health and Human Rights i n Europe, Antwerp: Intersentia , 2012, xviii + 310 pp.,
ISBN 978–94–0 00–0151–0 (paperback)
Health and human rig hts represent very important areas of life and socia l interaction
in modern society. Human rights have played an increasing role in public discourse
on various topics following the Second World War, particula rly for legal scholars
and practitioners. Health issues have also become increasingly important wit hin
the European context in recent decades. ese issues include, inter alia, access to
health care, s ocial security coverage a nd the nancing of med ical treatment, patients’
rights, data protect ion, reproductive health, safety and the availabilit y of medicines,
and protection of the health of vulnerable groups in society like the elderly, women,
children and disabled persons. Health inequalities, rising costs and the ageing of
the population are some of the most complex challenges determining the context of
health protection i n modern Europe.
Human rights law can be used as an importa nt tool to deepen and expand the
current legal ana lysis of the above topics. is applies to various areas of law deal ing
with health, like national medical law, biolaw and bioethics, and, of course, social
security law. In this sense, using European, i nternational and national lega l sources
and approaches may o er interesting new insights into major issues like abortion,
euthanasia, con dentia lity, patient autonomy, and access to socially provided healt h
care.
e authors’ approach is based on bringing international, European a nd human
rights law to bear on the broad range of hea lth issues discussed ab ove. Beitz’ de nition
of human rights as urgent individual interests is used as a starting point, while a
distinction is made bet ween the de nition of health as a concept and the de nition
of health as a right. ese de nitions are fur ther subdivided into di erent aspec ts,
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