This insightful book considers how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is faced with numerous challenges which emanate from authoritarian and populist tendencies arising across its member states. It argues that it is now time to reassess how the ECHR responds to such challenges to the protection of human rights in the light of its historical origins.
Written by a group of established and emerging experts from diverse backgrounds, this book offers a fresh perspective on the questions and challenges facing the ECHR, bringing together different, and thus far isolated, strands of academic and political debate. Contributions combine historiographical insights with explorations of the current and pressing need for the ECHR to find a role for itself, especially in an environment where there is increased scepticism towards the idea of human rights protection. In particular, the critical conception of the Convention as an ‘alarm bell mechanism’ is examined and assessed in relation to its original goal to prevent authoritarian backsliding.
