Neoliberal rationality and the rhetoric of sacrifice in the construction of proportionality discourse: a case-study from the European Court of Human Rights

Applying a critical rhetorical approach to law, this article revisits the proportionality discourse of the European Court of Human Rights and the socio-political tendencies it reveals in the case of Garib v the Netherlands (2017). The work focuses on the rhetorical management of the conflict between socio-economic public policies and the social rights indirectly protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols. The rhetorical construction of proportionality discourse identified is driven by the re-elaboration of themes constitutive of the normative rationality of post-austerity neoliberalism, in particular the individual responsibilisation and sacrifice for the negative consequences of neoliberal socioeconomic policies. The discourse is also supported by elements announcing an authoritarian turn in the deployment of such policies through the connection between economic goals and public order.