The Editors: John McEldowney is Professor of Law at the University of Warwick (U.K.). He has worked for the UNDP in China, was the World Bank Visiting Fellow in the Supreme Court of Venezuela in 1999 and the New Zealand Law Foundation Visiting Scholar in 2002.Günter Weick is Professor of Civil Law, Commercial Law, Comparative Law and Private International Law at the University of Gießen (Germany).

• Contents: John McEldowney: Human Rights in Transition: The Human Rights Act 1998 – Graham Moffat: Charity, Politics and the Human Rights Act 1998: Much Ado about Nothing? – Dallal Stevens: Asylum Law in the UK: New Beginnings or a False Dawn? – Samantha Halliday: A comparative analysis of some of the legal parameters of the right to life and the right to privacy in the regulation of abortion – Alan C. Neal: Fundamental Social Rights in the European Union: «Floor of Rights» or «Drift to the Bottom»? – Rhiannon Talbot: Draconian Powers, Experimentation and Human Rights in British Counter-terrorism Legislation – Jan Schapp: Problems of Universal Validity of Human Rights – Thomas Groß: Immigration and Asylum Law under European Influence – Günter Heine: Civil Liberties and EUROPOL: Towards a European Police Office Empowered to Operational Matters? – Günter Weick: Human Rights and Private International Law – Raimund Waltermann: Human Rights and Civil Liberties in European and in German Social Security Law – Martina Schulz: Recovery of Damages for Non-pecuniary Loss - a Consequence of Human Rights in the Law of Torts?