Legitimate aims and ulterior purposes in human rights law: opening up a comparative research agenda

Journal article

This article introduces the Human Rights Law Review Symposium on ‘Legitimate aims and Ulterior Purposes in Human Rights Law: Comparative Perspectives’. Aims and purposes are ubiquitous in human rights law: they articulate the goals that are permitted and the motivations that are prohibited when restricting human rights and freedoms. Notwithstanding this reality, which aims are (il)legitimate and why remains largely understudied in human rights scholarship. This Symposium examines approaches to purpose review in human rights law. It adopts a comparative methodology, considering how (international) (human rights) courts and tribunals vary in their approach to purpose review. The Symposium identifies instances of convergence and divergence across four dimensions: (i) levels of scrutiny of legitimate aims (ii) interpretation of the scope of legitimate aims, and (iii) approaches to evidence and proof under relevant treaty and constitutional legal provisions. These findings open up a new agenda in comparative human rights law and call for further research, conceptual, normative and empirical, into purpose review in international human rights law and comparative constitutional law.

Authors: Finnerty, J; Çalı, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Human Rights Law Review
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 1
• Article number: ngaf049
• Publication date: 2026-01-15
• Acceptance date: 2025-12-15
• DOI: 10.1093/hrlr/ngaf049
• EISSN: 1744-1021
• ISSN: 1461-7781
• Language: English
• Keywords: legitimate aims; ulterior purposes; comparative research; judicial convergence; judicial divergence