LAW 645 - Law and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights

Course Type: Upper Writing Requirement
Credits: 2

Description: The seminar is designed to offer law students the opportunity to engage in advanced legal analysis of the European system of human rights protection, which centers around the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The course is taught by Dr Matteo Zamboni, a European lawyer with direct experience in litigating cases before the Court. As such, the course will follow a practical approach. The European system of human rights protection will be examined through the lenses of the most important recent cases adjudicated by the ECtHR. Students are thus given the opportunity to engage in real-world human rights cases and to develop the necessary skills to advance arguments and answer the specific questions asked by the Court in real cases. Following a general presentation on the rules governing the system in terms of both substantive and procedural law, the course will focus on four specific contexts that present pressing human rights challenges in today’s European society: the prison system, immigration, the process of digitalization of society, the protection of the environment. Students are asked to analyze the arguments made by the parties in practical cases and assess the evaluation made by the ECtHR. Moreover, students are provided with information on pending cases before the ECtHR and are asked to proceed to the defending the position of the applicant and/or the respondent Government by answering the questions asked by the Court to the parties. This approach is mindful of the intersectionality of human rights issues and aims at allowing students to grasp the core, underlying principles of human rights law at the European level.