LAW5619 European human rights law

This unit will provide an overview of the origin, development and current status of human rights protection in Europe. Its primary focus will be on the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), widely considered to have established the most sophisticated and successful regional system of human rights protection in the world. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights has generated some of the most important jurisprudence on human rights issues, cited by human rights courts and constitutional courts across the globe. Nevertheless, the system faces a number of serious challenges: from its overwhelming case overload, including from cases related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate emergency, and lack of implementation of its judgments, to political illiberalism, and most recently the Russian Federation’s departure from the Council of Europe following the Russo-Ukrainian war. The unit will examine the functioning and the case-law of the European Court of Human rights. We will also appraise some of its strengths and weaknesses, and future prospects.  The unit will also consider the relationship between the ECHR system and the European Union, and how on the basis of a few EU Treaty provisions - now reinforced by the Charter of Fundamental Rights - the European Court of Justice has fashioned a comprehensive and dynamic system of judicial protection.