This book critically appraises the European Convention on Human Rights at a time of considerable change. Unlike the many excellent textbooks now available it does not seek to offer a comprehensive description of relevant institutions, procedures and norms. Nor does it attempt to contribute to every issue-specific debate conducted in the periodical literature. Instead, it discusses both the key successes and a cluster of systemic problems which require resolution if the Convention is to be as successful as it could, and should, be in the twenty-first century. Some of the latter derive, ironically, from what is universally said to be its most notable achievement – the individual applications process – and others from the political, economic, constitutional, and legal environment in Europe, radically transformed by the post-1989 upheavals. Yet others stem from the way in which the European Court of Human Rights has interpreted both the Convention text and its own role. There is wide consensus on both the nature of some of these problems and how they should be resolved. Others provoke intense controversy and sharp differences of opinion. Yet others have been largely, and some even entirely, ignored.

Six core issues, organized around the theme of ‘constitutionalization’, are considered in the following pages. First, Chapter 1 argues that, at the close of the twentieth century, the original raison d'être for the Convention underwent subtle, yet fundamental, change.