Jörg Polakiewicz
Seventy-five years ago, Europe made a bold promise: That the dignity of every individual would be safeguarded by law. And that an independent court would hold us to that promise. Today, as we close our discussions, we face two truths: First, the extraordinary resilience of that promise. And second, the magnitude of the challenges still before us.
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Başak Çalı
It is not very often that I get invitations to big birthday parties for human rights conventions, so it was an immense honour to deliver the concluding remarks at this event that examined the 75 years of the Convention from transnational and global perspectives in the presence of so many who breathe life to this Convention across Europe and the Presidents of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights. This birthday party has personal importance for me. I am, after all, alongside hundreds of thousands of others across the Council of Europe, a child of this Convention.
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Veronika Fikfak, Laurence R. Helfer
The future lies in the adoption and refinement of semi-automated tools – AI and algorithms that issue recommendations that human decision-makers are free to accept, reject, or modify – supported by robust institutional oversight and explainability. Full automation of decisions, especially those pertaining to treaty violations, is never appropriate. As automation tools continue to evolve, we expect that more fundamental changes to the process of international human rights adjudication – including at the ECtHR –may ultimately be required.
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Maria Pilar Llorens
The adoption of AI in Human Rights Courts' operations offers opportunities for improvement in terms of efficiency and access, but it also poses significant challenges. When implementing these tools, Human Rights Court must ensure that they do not compromise the very rights they are tasked to protect. At the same time, Human Rights Court will increasingly engage with cases involving AI, and they will need to develop greater awareness of the complex implications of technology for human rights.
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Arnfinn Bårdsen
The development of a legal framework for the use of AI is still at an early stage. Moving forward, it is necessary to take into account both the inherent features of the technology and the rights that come under pressure by our use of it. The approach of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will have to be on a case-by-case basis, building on the Convention’s transversal values, applying existing jurisprudence as a stepping stone and making wise use of the “living instrument doctrine”.
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Daniel Thym
Seventy-five years after its creation, the European Convention on Human Rights stands at a crossroads. A quarter century of dynamic Strasbourg judgments has significantly expanded rights in asylum and migration, but this very dynamism has produced a “lock-in” effect that limits political room for manoeuvre. This contribution outlines four scenarios for the future development of the case law and the possibilities for transformation.
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Dana Schmalz
As we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the topic of migration stands at the center of concerns about the Convention’s state of health. In this blogpost adapted from my remarks at a Conference in the Federal Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection, I argue that those attacking the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for an over-reaching jurisprudence regarding migrants’ rights misconstrue the actual case law.
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Jannika Jahn
Human rights-based climate protection does not stem from a single, coherent regime but from a plurality of intersecting normative orders. This contribution examines how divergent approaches to climate-related obligations unfold across regional systems, UN bodies, and the ICJ, with particular attention to the contours of the European approach.
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Nicola Wenzel
Judicial conversations and interactions take place in different settings – sometimes behind closed doors, sometimes out in the open. One open form of conversation is the use of comparative analysis in legal arguments. Focusing on comparative arguments in policy discussions on the right to a healthy environment within the Council of Europe, I will argue that comparative arguments are too often cursory and superficial and that calls for the transferral of elements from one human rights system to another tend to underestimate the complexities involved in such legal transplants.
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Armin von Bogdandy
On the Convention’s 75th anniversary, this essay highlights its contribution to “European society” as stated in Article 2 TEU. It sketches how the Convention, as operationalized by the Strasbourg institutions, has shaped European society’s constitutional core, provided a general structure of rights, supported a culture of justification, and contributed to making European society democratic. Finally, it speculates on how the Convention’s significance might evolve so that it can be celebrated again at its 100th anniversary.
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Nancy Hernández López
The ECtHR’s next decades will be shaped by its capacity to lead through dialogue rather than dominance. The goal is not a universal model, but a network of courts engaged in reciprocal learning. The 75th anniversary coincides with unprecedented global challenges – climate change, digital governance, mass displacement – that no regional system can tackle alone. Coordinated jurisprudential development, joint thematic reports, and open-access repositories of case law can enhance coherence without sacrificing diversity.
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Alexandra Kemmerer, Nicola Wenzel
In the 75 years of its existence, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has proven remarkable resilience as a safeguard for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. With this symposium, we aim to continue thoughtful, constructive and sometimes also critical dialogue between academia and practice, intended to deepen understanding of the impact and influence of the European Convention system on other international and national human rights protection systems – and vice versa.
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