"Through legal and social science-based analyses, this book explains why international courts underutilize their power and traces how this impacts international norms. Using the norm against torture and inhumane or degrading treatment as an example, it systematically analyses c.2,300 judgements from the European Court of Human Rights, 1967-2016"--

Ezgi Yildiz is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Long Beach, and a Research Associate at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She is a member of the Expert Group for the EU's Anti-Torture Regulation and the Coordinating Committee of ESIL's Interest Group on Social Sciences and International Law.

1. The court redefines torture in Europe; 2. The conditions for audacity; 3. Inside the court: its trade-offs and zone of discretion; 4. Mapping out norm change; 5. From compromise to absolutism? Gradual transformation under the old court's watch; 6. New court, new thresholds, new obligations; 7. Change unopposed: the court's embrace of positive obligations; 8. Legal change in times of backlash; 9. Conclusion; 10. Bibliography.