Law of the European Convention on Human Rights – Launch Event

The University of Nottingham’s Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) is hosting a launch event for the 5th edition of ‘Law of the European Convention on Human Rights‘, co-authored by HRLC founder and former Director, Professor David Harris. This hybrid event will take place on Wednesday 14 June 2023 from 14:00 – 16:00 UK time (BST) in the University of Nottingham’s Monica Partridge Building (Room C14) on the University Park campus, and online via MS Teams. 

To celebrate the launch of the new edition of this seminal text, the HRLC will be joined by Emeritus Professor David Harris, Dr Ed Bates (University of Leicester), Zoë Bryanston-Cross (Registry, Council of Europe) and Krešimir Kamber (Registry, Council of Europe). We will have a roundtable discussion of key issues arising from the evolution of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the challenges facing the European Court of Human Rights:

• ‘UK withdrawal from the ECHR – from taboo (1995) to tenable (2023)’ – Dr Ed Bates, University of Leicester
• ‘Article 46 of the Convention, a portal to rights in real-time’ – Zoë Bryanston-Cross, Registry, Council of Europe
• ‘Reflections on the early days of Russian exclusion from the ECHR’ – Dr Krešimir Kamber, Registry, Council of Europe

The event will be chaired by Sangeeta Shah, Professor of International Law and Human Rights and HRLC Co-Director. The discussion will be followed by a drinks reception.

The first edition of Law of the European Convention on Human Rights was co-authored by Emeritus Professor David Harris, Mr Michael O’Boyle and Professor Colin Warbrick and published in 1995. It quickly gained recognition as the authoritative text in the area. This new fifth edition – published 28 years later – provides a fully updated, rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the work of the European Court of Human Rights and the rights protected by the ECHR. 

This latest edition is co-authored by Emeritus Professor David Harris (University of Nottingham), Mr Michael O’Boyle (former Deputy Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights), Dr Ed Bates (University of Leicester) and Ms Carla M Buckley (International Human Rights Lawyer). They were joined by Krešimir Kamber, Zoë Bryanston-Cross, Peter Cumper and Heather Green.

You can register to attend (in person or online) at this link: Book Launch: Law of the European Convention on Human Rights (5th ed) Tickets, Wed 14 Jun 2023 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

European Human Rights Law Conference 2023 – Call for Papers

The 2023 European Human Rights Law Conference is being held at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law from 28 September to 29 September 2023. The theme of the conference is ‘Human Rights: Prospects, Possibilities, Fears and Limitations’.

Keynotes include Judge Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, Professor Conor Gearty KC, Dr Elaine Webster and Lady Brenda Hale.

Abstracts are invited from those at any career stage, and we welcome papers from academics, practitioners and those working for Non-Governmental Organisations as well as others. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words and can address any aspect of the conference theme. Papers will be selected on the basis of merit and fit with the conference theme.

The deadline for the call for papers is 7 July 2023.

Please note that speakers will have to meet their own expenses and pay the conference fee. A limited number of fee-waivers may be available and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Proposed sessions and themes for the conference include:

General

• The role of courts in human rights adjudication
• The strengths and weaknesses of written rights documents
• The future of the ECtHR, the ECHR and the European Social Charter
• The utility of the international rights framework
• Critiques of human rights
• Backsliding on rights in domestic systems and in the international rights framework

Specific rights issues

• Climate change and human rights litigation
• Reproductive rights
• Technology, Artificial Intelligence and human rights
• Migrants’ rights
• LGBTQI+ rights
• Race, ethnicity and rights
• Health and rights
• Animal and environmental rights
• Domestic abuse and rights
• Workers’ rights

Jonathan Cooper OBE Early Career Prize

The Jonathan Cooper OBE Prize for the best paper by an early career scholar or professional will be awarded at the 2023 conference dinner. Those who are eligible and wish to be considered for the Prize should indicate this by ticking the relevant box in the electronic application system and by submitting a full written version of their paper by 15 September 2023. The paper must be unpublished and not under consideration for publication (unless it is under consideration with the European Human Rights Law Review) at the time of submission. The Prize will be awarded on the basis of the written paper submitted. The prize-winning paper will be published in European Human Rights Law Review and will receive a monetary prize.

The eligibility criteria are as follows:

Anyone who:

•  is studying for, but who has not yet been awarded, a doctoral degree in Law; or
•  was awarded a doctoral degree in Law on or after 1 September 2018; or
•  was appointed to their first full-time academic or professional position on or after 1 September 2018.

Career breaks and caring commitments, and the impact of Covid-19 will be taken into account in determining eligibility.

Publication

A small selection of the papers presented at the conference as well as keynote presentations may be published in a special issue of the European Human Rights Law Review.

Further information about the conference is available here.

Conceptualizing a Decolonizing Rule of Law for Animals – Public Lecture

Prof Maneesha Deckha at the University of Liverpool, Feminist Legal Research and Action Network

Wednesday 21st June 2023, 4:00pm – 5:00pm

Maneesha Deckha is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Her research expertise includes critical animal law, vegan ecofeminist theory, and postcolonial theory.

Within animal law, there is growing interest in connecting the problem of animal welfare underenforcement and the self-governing nature of animal-use industries to the rule of law, a foundational constitutional and governing principle in jurisdictions across the world. That the rule of law is now globally ubiquitous is generally applauded, and this lecture will explore its possible extension to animals. 

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception. Register to attend at this link: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event/?eventid=104654