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Law (UK, EU and International): European Human Rights Law

Background

The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 and currently has 46 member countries. It was established to promote democracy and to protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe.

The Council's main achievement is the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (better known as the European Convention on Human Rights) which was adopted in 1950 and came into force in 1953. The Convention was incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Convention provided for the creation of two institutions: the European Commission of Human Rights (1954) and the European Court of Human Rights (1959). In 1998, those institutions were abolished and a new full-time permanent European Court of Human Rights was established.

What does 'case citation' mean?

A case is usually referred to using a case citation.

A law report citation tells you where to find a case in law report series:

A European Court of Human Rights case will also have an application number (e.g. 23452/94 for Osman). This includes the number of the application made (23452) and the year (94).

What is a law report abbreviation?

Often a law report series will be referred to using an abbreviation, e.g. EHRR for European Human Rights Reports.

The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations allows you to search either by abbreviation or publication name, whereas Raistrick's Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations allows you to find a publication's full name if you know its abbreviation.

Where can I find European human rights legislation?

Where can I find case law from the European Court of Human Rights?

The European Court of Human Rights rules on individual or state applications alleging violations of the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. You can find out more about the European Court of Human Rights on the Court's website.

HUDOC is a free database that contains case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Commission of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers.  The HUDOC user manual provides guidance on how to search the database.

The Reports of Judgments and Decisions is the official collection of the Court's leading judgments, decisions and advisory opinions since 1998.

Westlaw UK provides access to the following reports:

  • European Human Rights Reports.  Go to: Cases > Law Reports > E > European Human Rights Reports.
  • European Human Rights Reports: Commissions Decisions.  Go to: Cases > Law Reports > E > European Human Rights Reports: Commission Decisions.
  • The European Human Rights Law Review, which contains articles that discuss case law from the ECHR.  Go to: Cases > Journals > Publications > E > European Human Rights Law Review.

 

The Press Releases from the European Court of Human Rights allows you to keep up to date with news from the Court.