This course offers an advanced introduction to the law of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights (Court). It introduces students to rights in articles 2 to 14 of the ECHR, including rights to life, privacy, a fair trial, and non-discrimination, the prohibitions of torture and slavery, as well as freedom of expression. In addition, the course introduces students to the distinctive judicial machinery of the Court as supranational and supreme interpreter, in particular its subsidiary position, its particular methods of adjudication, its practice of proportionality analysis, its understanding of remedies, and its jurisdiction.

10 weekly two-hour seminars

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The course is assessed by an essay of 1500 words (25%) and a 2-hour examination (75%).

This course provides an advanced introduction to the law of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights (Court). It aims to equip students with the conceptual, jurisprudential and critical skills to analyse in depth the exponentially growing case law of an important court.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Understand and accurately describe the substantive norms, procedures, case law and implementation machinery the ECHR

■ Independently analyse and evaluate the European Court of Human Rights' case law

■ Comprehend the various strands of literature on the ECHR

■ Analyse the debates on the legitimacy of the ECHR

■ Reconstruct, distinguish, and evaluate the defining features of the ECHR

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.