General Principles of the European Convention on Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights is one of the world's most important and influential human rights documents. It owes its value mainly to the European Court of Human Rights, which applies the Convention rights in individual cases. This book offers a clear insight into the concepts and principles that are key to understanding the European Convention and the Court's case-law. It explains how the Court generally approaches the many cases brought before it and which tools help it to decide on these cases, illustrated by numerous examples taken from the Court's judgements. Core issues discussed are the types of Convention rights (such as absolute rights); the structure of the Court's Convention rights review; principles and methods of interpretation (such as common ground interpretation and the use of precedent); positive and negative obligations; vertical and horizontal effect; the margin of appreciation doctrine; and requirements for the restriction of Convention rights.

1. Basics of the Convention system; 2. The Court's overall argumentative approach: mediating between the abstract and the concrete; 3. Principles governing the interpretation and application of Convention rights; 4. Methods of Convention interpretation; 5. Positive and negative obligations; 6. Vertical and horizontal effect; 7. The margin of appreciation doctrine; 8. Justification of restrictions I: lawfulness; 9. Justification of restrictions II: legitimate aim; 10. Justification of restrictions III: necessity, proportionality and fair balance; Index.

Janneke Gerards is professor of fundamental rights law at Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands, and director of the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice. She has published widely in the field of European and national fundamental rights, constitutional law and judicial argumentation, and she teaches in various university and professional training courses on European fundamental rights. Janneke Gerards is also a deputy Judge in the Appeals Court of The Hague, a member of the Human Rights Commission of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs, and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.