Postdoctoral Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Visiting Scholar, CES, Harvard University
November 8, 2017
12:15pm - 1:45pm
Hoffmann Room, Adolphus Busch Hall
The European Convention system has been portrayed as one of the most successful human rights regimes that have ever existed. Ensuring that the European Convention of Human Rights remains “practical and effective, not theoretical and illusory,” has been one of the most important missions of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court). In so doing, the Court has interpreted the Convention principles in such a way as to respond to the emerging needs of the European societies. Particularly following the accession of the former communist states to the Convention System, the Court assumed a new function, namely cultivating a robust human rights culture in the new members. I analyze the Court’s recent tendency of bringing states’ procedural obligations to light as a particular example of this mission, and I assess its implications on the larger rule of law agenda in Europe.