LAW30310

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, a student, who has attended lectures and engaged with directed readings, will be able to:

(a) Describe and evaluate procedural requirements for bringing a human rights complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
(b) Engage with debates on the challenges facing the ECtHR, from legitimacy, scope, over-reach and a range of other critiques.
(c) Critically analyse the jurisprudence of the ECtHR in relation to a range of substantive rights and topics, focusing on issues of evolution, limitations and future potentials for rights interpretation under the ECHR.
(d) Appreciate the interactions between the ECHR and European Union law.
(e) Assess the status of the ECHR in Irish law.
(f) Distinguish, apply and critique the jurisprudence of the ECtHR and domestic courts in interpreting the ECHR.

Indicative Module Content:

Substantive topics for 2025 will be (subject to any amendment):
(1) The Council of Europe (CoE), the structure and scope of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
(2) The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and its interpretation and application of the ECHR
(3) The right to life (Article 2 ECHR)
(4) The prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 3 ECHR)
(5) The right to freedom of expression (Article 10 ECHR)
(6) The right to private and family life (Article 8 ECHR), with a focus on environmental and climate considerations
(7) The right to property (Article 1 Protocol I ECHR)
(8) The ECHR and European Union fundamental rights law
(9) The ECHR and Irish Law
(10) Derogations in 'time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation' (Article 15 ECHR)

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

This module is lecture based, with student engagement and interaction required throughout lectures.

Students will be directed to relevant reading in lecture reading lists. PowerPoint slides will be available to students prior to or shortly after each lecture. At relevant points of the course, students may be directed to prescribed reading, which must be engaged with prior to the lecture. This will assist in ensuring lecture based student discussion and analysis of key areas of legal controversy, and this will be an essential part of this course.

Approaches to teaching and learning will include: reflective learning, case-law based learning and critical thinking approaches to the law of the ECHR.

Students on this module are expected to have read and understood the UCD Academic Integrity Policy and the School Protocol on Academic Integrity. Students must ensure that they comply with all requirements laid down therein and avoid academic misconduct. Students are not permitted to use generative artificial intelligence, or other machine learning technology, in their learning on this module. Because this module is assessed by an unseen, invigilated examination, no formal citation methodology is prescribed.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Utilise student consultation hours: Should students require feedback on their learning for this module, then students are encouraged to self-assess their learning, and seek clarification from the relevant lecturer who delivered that topic, by arranging to meet the lecturer during their student office hours. Group Feedback: Class feedback will be provided on the examination in June 2025, once UCD releases student grades. Individual feedback on a student's examination script will be offered once final grades are published by UCD, and students follow UCD School of Law requirements for requesting a script viewing/meeting with module coordinator. This will occur in June/July 2025. Further details will be sent to you on Brightspace. Individual feedback outside the School of Law process cannot be facilitated.

Students will be provided with topic by topic reading lists in this course.

Students will be referred (as appropriate) to the following primary legal materials:

(1) European Convention on Human Rights;
(2) Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (available through https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng);
(3) European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 (as amended).

Students will be referred (as appropriate) to the following secondary legal materials.

(A) Textbooks
*E-Book*: *E-Book*: Harris, O’Boyle and Warbrick, Law of the European Convention on Human Rights (5th edn, OUP 2023). . There are several copies of this text available in UCD Library, but most importantly, this is available online as an e-book through OUP Law Trove.

*E-Book*: Janneke Gerards, General Principles of the European Convention on Human Rights (2nd edn, CUP 2023).
This book offers a clear insight into the concepts and principles that are key to understanding the ECHR and the ECtHR's case-law. It explains how the Court generally approaches the many cases brought before it and which tools help it to decide on these cases, illustrated by numerous examples taken from the Court's judgements. This is available online, through UCD Library, as an e-book.

*E-Book*: Bernadette Rainey and others, Jacobs, White and Ovey The European Convention on Human Rights (8th edn, OUP, 2020/21)

Other texts will be placed on weekly reading lists.

(B) Journal Articles
You should get used to consulting some leading journals on issues in relation to European human rights law. All journal articles you are referred to in this course, will be available from UCD Library online.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.