General Principles of the European Convention on Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights is one of the world's most important and influential human rights documents. It owes its value mainly to the European Court of Human Rights, which applies the Convention rights in individual cases. This book offers insight into the concepts and principles that are key to understanding the European Convention and the Court's case law. It explains how the Court approaches its cases and its decision-making process, illustrated by numerous examples taken from the Court's judgments. Core issues discussed include types of Convention rights (such as absolute rights); the structure of the Court's Convention rights review; principles and methods of interpretation (such as common-ground interpretation and the use of precedent); positive and negative obligations; vertical and horizontal effect; the margin of appreciation doctrine; and the requirements for the restriction of Convention rights.

• This revised edition explains all relevant substantive concepts and principles of ECHR law in a coherent and understandable fashion to enable students to apply them in their professional work
• Uses many examples of the Court's case-law to illustrate the relevance and meaning of the various general principles and concepts and help students appreciate its practical applicability
• Shows how the ECHR is also relevant to private law cases and contains many aspects of socio-economic rights, enabling students to see the ECHR's application in various fields of law, such as employment law or sustainability law