Database now available on the Leicester Research Archive

The working database of the project is now available on the Leicester Research Archive.

See https://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/1402 to access the archive and get further information about the database.

Material from the dissemination seminar

The presentations from the dissemination seminar of 23 October 2007 can be found at:

http://www.le.ac.uk/law/wyt/ahrc01.pps

http://www.le.ac.uk/law/wyt/ahrc02.pps

The book to which Judge Ziemele referred is Nina-Louisa Arold, The Legal Culture of the European Court of Human Rights, Brill, 2007, ISBN 978 9004160675

Strasbourg judge visits the University

Judge Ziemele from the European Court of Human Rights has participated in a one day seminar in the University which explored some of themes emerging from the two-year AHRC-funded research project into separate and dissenting opinions in the Strasbourg Court. Judge Ziemele (pictured second from the right) opened the seminar with some remarks on the role of separate and dissenting opinions and heard Dr Boussiakou and Professor White elaborate some of their research findings. At the end of the day Professor Merrills from the University of Sheffield (pictured far left) offered some observations as discussant. Robin White said, ‘This was a valuable seminar which addressed issues of current concern to the Strasbourg Court, and has provided Iris and me with further food for thought on the issues we are investigating. The participation of Judge Ziemele made the day.’

Judge Ziemele to speak at dissemination seminar

Judge Ziemele has agreed to open the dissemination seminar on 23 October by speaking briefly about the preparation of judgments in the Court of Human Rights.

There are just one or two places still available on this seminar, for which booking closes on Tuesday 16 October.

Iris Boussiakou visits the Strasbourg Court

As part of this research project, Dr Iris Boussiakou (the project's research associate) spent the week beginning 1 October at the European Court of Human Rights talking to judges and legal officers about the process of writing judgments. She interviewed ten judges, who provided insights into their own approach to writing judgments as well as commenting on the structure of Strasboug judgments generally. These views will provide the voice from the Court in the outcomes of this research project. We are very grateful to the President of the Court and the staff of the Strasbourg Court for facilitating Dr Boussiakou's visit.

Judge Ziemele to attend dissemination seminar

We are delighted that Judge Ziemele of the Strasbourg Court will be attending the dissemination seminar on 23 October 2007.

Dissemination seminar details

Separate and dissenting opinions in the
European Court of Human Rights

A dissemination seminar funded by the AHRC

Date: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Venue: John Foster Hall (New Hall), The University of Leicester

10.30 Registration and coffee

11.00 First session: Robin White and Iris Boussiakou

Overview of the project
Construction of the database
Some numerical data
Preliminary conclusions

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Second session: Robin White, Iris Boussiakou and discussant tbc

A detailed look at some findings
Judicial activism and judicial activity
Preliminary hypotheses
Comments of discussant
Final remarks

16.00 Seminar closes


This seminar is free to attend thanks to the generous support of the AHRC, but registration is required.

Please email robin.white@leicester.ac.uk if you wish to attend, and a registration form and details of the venue will be sent to you.

A limited number of places is reserved for postgraduate students, so please pass this information on to your LLM and PhD students.

A date for your diaries

A new date has been fixed for the dissemination seminar.

This will now take place in Leicester on Tuesday, 23 October 2007.

Watch this space for further details.

Email robin.white@leicester.ac.uk to express interest in attending this seminar.

We are reserving a number of places for postgraduate students.

Five facts we have discovered so far

We apologise for the cancellation of the dissemination seminars, but we offer a flavour of what we have discovered so far in these five facts.

1. Four out of five judgments of the Court of Human Rights contain more than a single opinion.

2. Out of nearly 4,000 judgments, only 218 attracted a single dissenting opinion. 165 of these involved a dissent by the national judge.

3. The percentage of non-unanimous judgments in the Grand Chamber is lower than the percentage of non-unanimous judgments of Chambers of the Court.

4. In nine out of ten judgments, a violation of some provision of the Convention is found.

5. Sinec 2000, there has been a steady increase in the number of judgments in which the Court has found no violation of a Convention provision: 9 per cent in 2000 rising to 13 per cent in 2004.

Seminar update

Due to unforeseen circumstances all three seminars have been cancelled

Further details will follow

A series of free seminars

This series of free seminars will explore the numerical analysis of the case law of the Strasbourg Court.
The research seminar is offered at three venues as follows:
Tuesday, 24 April 2007: 10.00 to 16.00: Ramada Mount Royal Hotel, Edinburgh
Friday, 27 April 2007: 10.00 to 16.00: Gray’s Inn, London
Tuesday, 1 May 2007: 10.00 to 16.00: New Hall, The University of Leicester
Registration is free, but is by invitation or application. Numbers are limited, so we may not be able to accommodate every request to attend.
If you would like to attend one of these seminars, please email your request to Robin White robin.white@leicester.ac.uk
Details of the programme will be sent to participants nearer the date. The seminars provide an opportunity to report progress with the research project to date and presentation of some of the findings. Opportunities for discussion will enable participants to hypothesise on the significance of the findings to date.

Completed database goes live

Professor Robin White and colleagues celebrate the mammouth task of constructing the database that now holds details of 3,989 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, whilst Dr Iris Boussiakou, Research Associate for the project, loads the final case.

Conference venues

View from the restaurant
Ramada Mount Royal Hotel
Edinburgh
Conference date: 24th April 2007
Timings: 10.00 - 16.00





Gray's Inn
London
Conference date: 27th April 2007
Timings: 10.00 - 16.00






New Hall
University of Leicester
Conference date: 1st May 2007
Timings: 10.00 - 16.00