Postgraduate coursework

LAWS6917 - European Human Rights Law

Objectives

Examine the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, the world’s first major human rights treaty, adopted by the Council of Europe after massive rights violations in the Second World War.
Explore the origins of the Convention; which rights it protects; the system’s institutional architecture (including post-1998 reforms of the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights); and key jurisprudence of the European Court.

Content

The Convention’s implementation in national legal systems (such as the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK) and the equivalent Irish Act passed in 2003); the relationship of the European system to international human rights law; and the interaction of the Convention system with the human rights functions of the European Union (especially the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the draft EU Constitution).

Session

Semester 1 2010
Wednesday Evenings, 6-8pm

The timetable is subject to frequent changes. Please refer to the latest version of the Postgraduate Timetable.

Assessment

1 x 2,500 Word Assignment (30%)
1 x 5,000 Word Essay (70%)

Textbook

Clare Ovey and Robin White, Jacobs and White,The European Convention on Human Rights 4th edn (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006: ISBN 0-19-928810-0) and C A Gearty, Principles of Human Rights Adjudication (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004 paperback, 2005). C A Gearty (ed), European Civil Liberties and the European Convention on Human Rights: A Comparative Study
(Martinus Nijhoff publishers, The Hague, 1997

Courses this unit is available in

Sydney Law School