THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN EUROPE

Knowledge and understanding: the student – through course attendance and practical activities – will gain full knowledge of the general categories and specific notions of fundamental rights protection in the framework of supranational law in Europe. At the end of the course there will be a written take-home exam in which the student’s knowledge will be assessed. Applying knowledge and understanding: The student, by learning the theory and the appropriate legal method, will be able to interpret and apply, also to cases, principles and concepts of fundamental rights protection in Europe. The student will be able to appreciate the comparison between national and supranational principles, including the ability to assess and evaluate critically the European HR implications of past, current and future policies and regulations of any country and of the EU. At the end of the course, a written take-home exam will take place which is designed to test the students’ analytical skills. Making judgements: The student, by making use of the appropriate methods learned during the course, will be able to collect data and materials to analyse the relevant provisions, case law as well as scholars’ approaches related to the discipline of fundamental rights protection under the law of the EU and the Council of Europe. The student will gain the ability to evaluate such data independently and to make critical judgements on their application to practical cases. To this end, students are exposed to tasks and activities that hone their transferrable skills and prove useful in their career-path. These tasks include: parsing long documents, decoding scholarly commentary, engaging in legal hermeneutics, assessing litigation strategies, inferring general trends, weighing conflicting interests, arguing and pleading in public. Students are invited to think critically. The lecturer steers and moderates the discussion to maximise the students’ critical skills and take them at the borders of their zone of comfort. Communication skills: At the end of the course, the student will be able to use the legal and technical vocabulary of the various disciplines applicable in the field of human rights protection in Europe, addressing the legal issues at hand with terminological accuracy. Through the various activities that will take place during the course – lessons with discussion, oral exams, moot courts, workshops – the student will be able to put these communication skills into practice in various contexts, by adapting the terms used to the interlocutor in the specific case, thus gaining advanced rhetorical skills necessary for his/her professional career. In particular, the course will prompt students to form personal views and share them with an audience. In-class participation is expected, and is designed to encourage the formulation and exposition of personal ideas. The discussion format will support and train to confrontation and exchange of ideas. Clarity and incisiveness are crucial to fully benefit from in-class discussion (oral communication) and fare well in the assessment (written communication). Learning skills: the technical and legal knowledge gained during the course will allow the student to independently understand and interpret regulatory changes, new case law and scholars’ approaches related to the protection of fundamental rights in Europe. The student will develop a solid knowledge of the fundamental aspects of the matter that will allow him/her to carry on also independently further study as well as to undertake different postgraduate and doctoral training activities. To a reasonable extent, students will acquire the habit of analysing the necessity of legal reforms or and will be able to provide workable suggestions.

European HR law is in a state of constant development and adaptation. The applicable laws are ever evolving, and so is their mutual relation: only in the past few years, the planned accession of the EU to the ECHR failed, several domestic courts refused to execute judgments of the ECJ and the ECtHR, and these latter often interacted with, or ignored, each other. Moreover, the existing laws apply to an ever-changing reality and interact with other regimes of national and international law. Typical HR clauses raise novel issues in matters of privacy, gender discrimination, online activities, migrants’ rights. Lawyers who intend to do research or provide professional advice in this area must be able to go beyond textbook-knowledge of the underpinning disciplines and engage with unresolved legal issues and policy dilemmas. This course aims precisely at exposing the students to a range of ‘liminal’ problems in European HR law. These problems can be critical for pending litigation, or can feature in the public debate over legal/institutional reforms and the global negotiation of international commitments. Some of the topics are eminently technical; others instead require a holistic awareness of the issues involved and a nuanced understanding of socio-economic realities. Each week, the course will provide the basis to understand the discipline. Furthermore, the discussion will analyse different contemporary topics, combining both substantive and institutional aspects of European HR law. Learning objectives and topics might vary each year. However, they will converge towards the development of specific transferrable skills (see above).

Foundational courses in EU law and Public International Law

Topics will include, but are not limited to: • The position and relevance of HR protection in the EU, and the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights; • The history and function of the Council of Europe, with particular focus on the European Convention of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the Venice Commission; • The relation between domestic, EU law and international sources of HR protection, with particular focus on the European Convention on Human Rights; • The doctrines of proportionality, deference and margin of appreciation in European HR law; • The relationship between fundamental rights and market freedoms in the EU; • The protection of property rights across the applicable systems, in light of the termination of infra-EU bilateral investment treaties.

Lecturer to provide electronic materials weekly

Teaching and learning will be in the form of short seminars with a prevalence of lectures, to consolidate the basic knowledge. Some sessions will refer to cases and primary documents assigned during the week. The purpose is to observe how the topics of the sessions play out in practice. If the number of students allows it, there will be a rota for students to deliver online presentations on the advanced materials.

Written essay on topic agreed with lecturer.

Minimum 28/30 on the final assessment.