In 2025, we celebrate two anniversaries, the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the 35th anniversary of the Venice Commission. These significant
milestones will be commemorated by two events over the course of two days, organized by
the Centre for European Law and Internationalisation (CELI, Leicester Law School) and the
Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, on 6-7 November 2025, at the premises of the British
Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), Russell Square, London. The core theme of both events will be the role and significance of the ECHR and the Venice Commission in facilitating and enhancing the protection of the rule of law and constitutional resilience, particularly within the framework of multi-layered human rights regimes.

We invite submissions of abstracts for papers that explore the theme of constitutional resilience through a multi-layered protection of human rights for Day Two of the conference. The particular focus of the two-day event is on building constitutional resilience in the UK and European contexts, and the role of the ECHR and the Human Rights Act. However, contributions may also embark on analyses of how the rule of law, a multilayered human rights protection and human rights values fortify constitutional resilience more broadly, in other contexts, whether within the internal arrangements of a state or at the national/international level.

Contributions could, thus, consider, for example:

devolved contexts in the UK;

the post-Brexit context in Northern Ireland;

comparative perspectives from other domestic jurisdictions and the EU;

specific states’ engagements with the European protection systems and rule of law
standards as a contribution to constitutional resilience in Europe, including in the context
of rule of law backsliding in Europe and EU accession candidate states;

international human rights protection regimes other than the ECHR.

Please send your abstracts of no more than 300 words to ECHR2025@gmail.com by 4 June. Please include the title, author(s), and affiliations and a brief cv/bio statement.

Early Career Researchers are particularly encouraged to attend and submit abstracts.

For the conference itself, participants will be asked to submit a 1000-word summary of their
key arguments. It is hoped that the Day Two Conference will provide the basis for a publication
(special edition of a leading academic journal, or edited collection) based on the submissions.
Participants will be encouraged to attend the Day One conference.

Limited funding for reasonable travel costs in the UK and Europe is available. Please indicate
whether you would require such funding. Please direct any queries to Professor Katja Ziegler, Dr Ed Bates and Dr Amal Sethi at ECHR2025@gmail.com