The European Convention on Human Rights was signed in the aftermath of World War II in a ‘never again’ moment. Given the reference to human rights, one might have thought that states which chose to become party to the Convention would undertake to protect the human rights of everyone who fell within their jurisdiction.
Things were always going to be more complicated than that. Colonial subjects and migrants, for example, were not quite included in the scope of the Convention.
In the background of this complicated history, this lecture offers reflections upon the reach of the European Court of Human Rights today.