General Principles of the European Convention on Human Rights

Janneke Gerards is professor of fundamental rights law at Utrecht University and Dean of the Legal Research Master. Her research focuses on European and national fundamental rights law, equal treatment law, judicial review, constitutional law and new technologies. Her activities outside the university include being a deputy Judge in the Appeals Court of The Hague. She is also a member of the Netherlands State Committee against Discrimination and Racism and of the Advisory Board of the Netherlands Human Rights Institute. Since 2015, Janneke Gerards is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

• 1. The basics of the convention system; 2. The Court's overall argumentative approach – mediating between the abstract and the concrete; 3. Principles governing the interpretation and application of convention rights; 4. Methods of convention interpretation; 5. Positive and negative obligations; 6. Vertical and horizontal effect; 7. The margin of appreciation doctrine; 8. Justification of restrictions I – lawfulness; 9. Justification of restrictions II – legitimate aim; 10. Justification of restrictions III – necessity, proportionality and fair balance.