22122508_omslag120px
Rss

Law and Method

About this journal  

Subscribe to the email alerts for this journal here to receive notifications when a new issue is at your disposal.

February, 2023 Expand all abstracts
Article

Access_open The Expanding Methodological Toolbox of the ECHR Scholar

Special Issue Progress in Legal Scholarship, Marnix Snel, Sanne Taekema & Gijs van Dijck (eds.)

Keywords ECHR, ECtHR, methods, legal progress
Authors Janneke Gerards, Elif Erken and Claire Loven
AbstractAuthor's information

    Scholars who set out to study the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR or Convention) system will find an abundance in research methods to choose from. In the early years of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court), the methodological toolbox of the ECHR scholar largely consisted of qualitative and classical-doctrinal methods to study the Court’s case law, as well as historical, philosophical and theoretical studies to contextualize the ECHR system. Today, these ‘traditional’ methods not only have evolved to reflect the enormous increase of, and scholarly interest in, the Court’s case law but have also been complemented by empirical qualitative and quantitative, statistical and machine learning research methods. This contribution traces these major developments in the methods applied to studying the Court. By providing a comprehensive discussion of the different approaches, including their application, value and potential weaknesses, this contribution helps scholars understand, use and learn from the rich methodological toolbox of the ECHR scholar.


Janneke Gerards
Prof. mr. Janneke Gerards is Professor of Fundamental Rights Law, Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Elif Erken
Elif Erken is PhD candidate, Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Claire Loven
Dr. Claire Loven is Assistant Professor, Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.