The Birth of European Human Rights Law - L'éclosion du Droit européen des Droits de l'Homme

The protection of human rights in Strasbourg plays an important role in European integration, and the high quality of the decisions and judgments has earned worldwide respect. Until recently, the European Convention on Human Rights envisaged a two-tier procedure: applications could be filed with the European Commission of Human Rights, and under certain conditions the case could then be brought before the European Court of Human Rights. Henceforth, these two organs will be merged from November 1998 into a single Strasbourg body, the new European Court of Human Rights. The present studies, dedicated to Carl Aage Nørgaard, a former President of the European Commission of Human Rights, have been published in time for this important event including 42 contributions of members of the European Commission of Human Rights, its Secretariat, and other specialists of the Convention. The contributions offer a cross-section of the many aspects of the European protection of human rights. The contributions, which present the Commission"s legacy, concern all important substantive guarantees of the Convention, as interpreted by the Strasbourg bodies, as well as matters of procedure and court organisation which will now be of relevance for the new European Human Rights Court.