Cities’ International Law-Shaping or Making and the Normative Value of Its Effects

This paper aims to answer whether cities are emerging as international lawmakers or shapers in human rights law, which is connected with the normative value of the results of such law-making/shaping. After a short introduction, an example of international agreement between cities, the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City will be examined and compared to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter (both inter-state treaties). The former is part of the emergence of cities as international lawmakers/shapers and part of the global and multi-level governance architecture. Then, the paper will present the case study of Barcelona, focused primarily on Barcelona’s implementation of the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City. Finally, the paper will provide the answer to the above question with some concluding remarks.