Program Overview

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Current Issues in European Human Rights Protection

Course Description

The Council of Europe’s work in the field of human rights is now of significance across the globe. This course explores particular aspects of these innovative judicial and non-judicial standards and mechanisms of protection.

The Council of Europe has been able to achieve innovative systems of effective protection of human rights at a regional level. Its success in promoting respect for civil and political rights, first through the establishment and progressive development of an enforcement machinery under the European Convention on Human Rights and then through the entry into force of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture or Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, is without parallel.

There are three key approaches to the work of the Council of Europe:

• standard-setting (in particular, by means of securing agreement to international treaties, but also through the making of recommendations and resolutions and the gradual emergence of standards in the course of the work of monitoring bodies)
• monitoring of implementation of state obligations (in particular, through the work of bodies established by treaty)
• co-operation with member states and non-governmental organisations (e.g. in promoting institutional capacity-building and legislative reform through training and compatibility studies)

While this course will focus upon the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, these other aspects of human rights protection will also be introduced and discussed. The Council of Europe has also been mindful of the need to promote social cohesion through the promotion of social standards under the European Social Charter, and to encourage equality of treatment of members of national minorities through its Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the work of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance.

We will focus upon 3 areas of particular interest:

• protection of physical integrity (life; prohibition of ill-treatment; deprivation of liberty)
• religious liberty
• aspects of personal autonomy

Participants will be expected to read the course materials in advance of the class (including primary source materials) and to take a leading part in group discussions and presentations.

Course Topics

• TOPIC ONE: The Council of Europe and human rights protection
  • Fundamental concepts in ECHR human rights law and enforcement machinery.
• TOPIC TWO: Physical and psychological protection (including rights of detainees)
  • Right to life; and protection against torture
  • Detention conditions
  • Arbitrary deprivation of liberty
  • Human trafficking.
• TOPIC THREE: The individual and the family
  • Private life
  • Religion
  • Educational provision.
• TOPIC FOUR: Political liberties
  • Expression; association; democratic participation.
• TOPIC FIVE: Fair administration of justice
• TOPIC SIX: The Armed Forces and human rights

Description of Qualifications

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• understand the enforcement machinery under the European Convention of Human Rights
• critically evaluate the leading jurisprudence of the substantive guarantees of the European Convention on Human Rights
• gain a basic awareness of other European instruments and standard-setting bodies in the field of human rights
• analyse European human rights problems and identify the applicable rules and legal issues (that is, to identify and clarify the components of a given problem, produce strategies for its resolution, and evaluate the success of these different approaches)
• use IT to research primary and secondary sources in human rights (including the effective use of computers for advanced research)
• develop oral and written communication skills (that is, to develop abilities to express facts, concepts and opinions when writing and speaking with clarity and confidence and in a manner appropriate to the task or purpose).

Other Information

This course is part of AU Summer University.

This means that there are several things you should consider and plan for regarding your summer before enrolling in this course.

• You can expect teaching and academic activities for most of the day on weekdays during the course period, with classes possibly scheduled between 8:00 and 18:00 at Aarhus BSS.
• It is intensive and demanding to complete 10 ECTS credits in 3 weeks, meaning you should not expect to have much free time or time for, for example, a student job during the course period.
• Course registration is binding, and you can only withdraw from the course based on the same criteria that apply to semester courses.
• The exact schedule will be available in June.

Course Details

• ECTS: 10
• Level: Master
• Semester: AU Summer University 2025
• Academic prerequisites: At least 3rd year of Bachelor's degree
• Language of instruction: English
• Hours - week - period: 3 weeks during the summer school; workload of c. 40 hours per week (to include research, etc for take-home examination) hours per day) with 20 contact hours per week.
• Teaching dates: 23 July - 8 August 2025
• Exam dates: 15 August - 19 August 2025
• Type of course: Summer University
• Primary programme: Master's Degree Programme in Law
• Department: Department of Law
• Faculty: Aarhus BSS
• Location: Aarhus
• Maximum number of participants: Limited number of spaces: 40
  • 10 seats are reserved for international exchange students from AU partner universities.
• If there are more eligible applicants than available seats, they will be distributed according to the overall selection criteria and then the following selection criteria:
  • randomized draw

Teaching

• Form of instruction: Classroom instruction
• Instructor:
  • J. Jim Murdoch
• Course coordinator:
  • Malene Kerzel
• Juridisk Institut

Comments on the Form of Instruction

Classroom instruction and workshops with presentations, discussions, cases, exercises, supervision and feedback.

This will be seminar-based with significant student discussion on case-law. There will also be a real attempt to consider the contextual basis of domestic human rights protection, and the extent to which subsidiarity operates across the European continent by requiring students to analyse protection at domestic level.

Use will be made of ’blended learning’ (providing students enrol for this option).

Attendance and participation in seminar discussion and successful participation in a group moot presentation (allowing students to display awareness of relevant problem-solving skills) is encouraged.

Literature

Extracts from Reed and Murdoch: Human Rights Law(4th edn, 2017).

There will also be links to various publications from the Council of Europe (available in a range of languages). Students will also have access to on-line materials prepared by the Council of Europe as part of its HELP package of training materials.

Examination

• Form of examination: Take-home assignment (Assign)
• Form of co-examination: No co-examination
• Assessment: 7-point grading scale
• Permitted exam aids: All
• Duration: 4 day(s)

Requirements for Taking the Exam

In order to participate in the exam, there is an 80 % attendance requirement.

Comments

Take-home assignment submitted in WISEflow.

Students will be given a set problem-style paper to be returned within 4 days (96 hours) with the instruction to prepare a draft judgment as if they were the juge rapporteur in the European Court of Human Rights. This problem will have 4 separate issues, each requiring students to identify the lex specialis and the legal issue at stake, to provide a succinct summary of the relevant legal principles, adequate discussion of the material facts and application of the law, and a firm conclusion.

The length of the answer is not to exceed 24.500 characters (incl. blanks).

This will require students also to display adequate research skills (via the on-line database of the Council of Europe). Good students will also be able to refer to other European and international standards in their answers.

Preparation will be via an oral moot problem requiring teams of students to act as counsel for the applicant or for a respondent Contracting State. While this exercise will be essentially formative, full feedback will assist students to understand the balance between restatement of legal principles and relevant legal texts, plus the role that policy arguments can have in human rights adjudication.

For this exam, the use of tools based on Generative AI is not allowed.

Re-exam : Same as the ordinary exam. Prerequisite for re-examination participation: Students who have not fulfilled the “prerequisites for examination participation” stated above will have to fulfill the following prerequisite activity before being able to participate in the re-exam (either 2nd or 3rd attempt): Submit a critical reflection over the course’s curriculum. The report should be entitled “Theoretical reflections on Current Issues in European Human Rights Protection ” and amount to min. 17,600 characters and max. 26,400 characters. The critical reflection could for instance be based on a focused review of the literature on one (or more) topic(s) included in the curriculum. The report’s content should be meaningful for the prerequisite to be fulfilled, but will not be subject to a grade.