B6076 - Sem. European Court of Human Rights: Trial Simulation

Learning outcomes

The activity consists in submitting to the students a case actually, or potentially, pending before the Strasbourg judges and actively involves the students in preparing both the individual appeal and the defense act of the resistant State according to the rules of the ECtHR.

The iniziative is organized in collaboration with the Bologna Bar Association, which is entrusted with the indication of the members of the Court which will formulate the final judgment.

The Seminar is divided in three phases: collective meetings on the procedural and substantive profiles of the proposed case; meeting with each of the teams for the preparation of their respective acts; final hearing.

The aim of the Seminar is to offer the class knowledge of the concrete dimension of the protection mechanisms offered by the European Convention on Human Rights, both by using the theoretical knowledge already acquired in other courses from an interdisciplinary perspective, and by benefiting from the guidelines provided during the Seminar.

Course contents

The following topics will be addressedorigins, composition and functions of the ECtHR; interstate appeals; individual appeals; the conditions of admissibility of individual appeals (jurisdiction of the Court, subject to the exhaustion of internal remedies, significant prejudice); the judgments on the merits (type and structure, motivation, hermeneutic canons, the so-called margin of appreciation); the scope and effects of convictions; the value of the former; the so-called pilot rulings.

Readings/Bibliography

 Handbook on the European Convention on Human Rights / Villiger, Mark E. - Leiden ; Boston : Brill Nijhoff, 2023. 

A practitioner's guide to the European Convention on Human Rights / Karen Reid. - 7th ed. - London : Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters, 2023. 

Teaching methods

The setting is practical and requires the active participation of students (at least 3/4 of the meetings).

Assessment methods

The final exam consists in the simulation of a case before the ECtHR, aimed at assessing the acquisition of skills required.

The evaluation will consist of a "suitable / unsuitable" judgment.

Teaching tools

A regular access to the ECtHR website is highly recommended https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home

Office hours

See the website of Elena Ferioli