While there is an abundance of literature on the emerging authority of European Court of Justice (ECJ), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) remains comparatively unexplored. This presentation locates the ECtHR as a supranational court developing alongside the ECJ. It investigates how both courts were part of the evolving European legal field of the 1950s and 1960s, and how two key geopolitical transformations – the Cold War and Decolonization – shaped the paths of both courts in the 1960s and 1970s.

It was against this background yet fuelled by further geopolitical transformation that both courts effectively autonomized towards the late 1970s. Using the European example, the presentation further argues for the relevance of the case of the two core European courts for also understanding the more general proliferation of international courts.

Dr. Mikael Rask Madsen is a professor of law at University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law, with a research focus on international courts and globalization. He is also director and principal investigator of iCourts, the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for International Courts.

The seminar is part of the seminar series in Jurisprudence.

Welcome!

Peter Wahlgren            
Mauro Zamboni            
Laura Carlso