Monday 31 January 2011

Book on European Court in Facts and Figures

The Council of Europe has just published a new book on 'The European Court of Human Rights - Facts and Figures'. The book, available in both English and French, forms a kind of snapshot overview of the Court's work, including all kinds of handy charts and figures. This is the abstract:

The importance of the European Court of Human Rights in the European judicial landscape and its influence well beyond Europe's borders are undeniable. For over 50 years the Court's rulings have resulted in numerous changes to domestic legislation and helped to strengthen the rule of law throughout the wider Europe. This book retraces the Court's activities and case-law since its foundation in 1959. The presentation of several hundred of the cases the Court has examined, together with statistics for each State, paints an overall picture of the Court's work and the impact its judgments have had in the member States. With its approach by theme and by article of the European Convention on Human Rights, this work shows the full extent of the rights and freedoms the States Parties to the Convention have undertaken to secure to everyone within their jurisdiction. It also takes a country-by-country look at the cases the Court has been called on to examine, and at the impact its judgments have had in the States it has condemned for violating the Convention. The clear, concise way in which the cases are presented shows just how alive the Convention is today, 60 years after its adoption, and how the Court's interpretation of it has helped it to keep abreast of social change in Europe.