Identity and Emotions at the European Court of Human Rights : A Sentimentalist Analysis of Human Rights

This book offers an analysis of how the European Court of Human Rights engages with identity and emotion, revealing both the promise and the limitations of human rights law in addressing the complexities of human experience.

The book explores how human rights law, often framed as universal and abstract, responds to deeply personal questions of identity, belonging, and emotional impact. Based on a systematic study of over 3,300 judgments, the book shows how the European Court of Human Rights has increasingly made identity central to its reasoning - particularly in cases involving sexuality, ethnicity, and family life. In these areas, the Court acknowledges how state actions shape emotions such as fear, humiliation, and dignity.

Yet, in other domains - migration, religion, professional life - the Court avoids emotional engagement, leading to troubling inconsistencies. The book argues that when emotions are excluded from legal reasoning, individuals are reduced to formal entities, stripped of depth and interiority.

Combining doctrinal analysis with insights from social theory and psychology, the book presents a new framework for understanding how emotions and identity interact with law. It traces the evolution of identity references across categories and highlights the Court’s uneven treatment of emotional harm.

This timely and original contribution speaks to legal scholars, practitioners, and theorists interested in human rights, identity politics, and the emotional dimensions of law. It calls for a more responsive and empathetic human rights jurisprudence - one that reflects the lived realities of those it seeks to protect.