What you get: for each topic, the principle, the Convention or statutory text, the leading cases with what each actually decided, how to apply it, and the traps, ending with a worked problem and an order of attack.
The eleven modules
Module 1
The Convention System and How the Court Reads It
- What the Convention is, and how it reaches an Irish court
- The Court and its machinery
- How the Court reads the Convention
- Negative and positive obligations
- Absolute, limited and qualified rights
- Testing an interference with a qualified right
- The margin of appreciation and European supervision
- Responsibility for what happens abroad: Soering
Module 2
Derogation and Abuse of Rights: Articles 15 and 17
- Derogation: what Article 15 allows
- A public emergency threatening the life of the nation
- Measures strictly required by the exigencies of the situation
- What can never be derogated from, and notification
- Abuse of rights: Article 17
- Two routes to the same result
- The Irish angle
Module 3
Prohibition of Torture and Ill-Treatment: Article 3
- The absolute prohibition
- The threshold, and the three categories
- Torture
- Threats, force and dignity
- Detention and sentences
- Removal to a risk of ill-treatment
- Positive obligations and the duty to investigate
- The Irish case: O'Keeffe v Ireland
Module 4
The Right to Liberty: Article 5
- What Article 5 protects, and the exhaustive grounds
- Deprivation of liberty or mere restriction?
- Lawfulness and arbitrariness
- Arrest on reasonable suspicion: Article 5(1)(c)
- Brought promptly before a judge: Article 5(3)
- Review by a court, and compensation: Article 5(4) and (5)
Module 5
The Right to a Fair Trial: Article 6
- When Article 6 applies
- Access to a court
- An independent and impartial tribunal
- Silence and self-incrimination
- Access to a lawyer in police custody
- Evidence: entrapment and absent witnesses
- Reasonable time, and Ireland
Module 6
Private and Family Life: Article 8
- The four interests, and the structure of the analysis
- Private life: what it covers
- Necessity and the margin of appreciation under Article 8
- Privacy and the press
- Home and environment
- Family life
- The Irish cases
Module 7
Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion: Article 9
- The structure of Article 9: belief and manifestation
- What counts as a belief, and what counts as a manifestation
- Neutrality, proselytism and the autonomy of religious communities
- Religious dress and the margin of appreciation
- Conscience at work and in military service
- Religion in State schools
- Ireland: Article 44 of the Constitution
Module 8
Freedom of Expression: Article 10
- The structure of Article 10
- Political speech and the press
- Protection of journalistic sources
- Expression and privacy: the balancing criteria
- Morals, religion and general measures
- Ireland: Open Door, the de Rossa award, and Article 40.6.1°
- Online intermediaries
Module 9
Freedom of Assembly and Association: Article 11
- The structure of Article 11
- Peaceful assembly: scope and sanctions
- The State’s positive obligation to protect demonstrators
- Trade unions: membership and the negative right
- Trade unions: collective bargaining and industrial action
- Political parties and other associations
- Ireland: Article 40.6.1° of the Constitution
Module 10
The ECHR Act 2003 in the Irish Courts
- Dualism: Article 29.6 of the Constitution
- The structure of the 2003 Act
- Section 2: the interpretative obligation
- Sections 3 and 3A: organs of the State
- Section 4: judicial notice of Strasbourg
- Section 5: declarations of incompatibility
Module 11
Admissibility: Getting a Case to Strasbourg
- Getting to Strasbourg: Articles 33, 34 and 35
- Victim status
- Exhaustion of domestic remedies
- Exhaustion in Ireland
- The time limit: four months
- The other grounds: Article 35(2) and (3)
Start with the free notes
- The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003: How the Convention Works in Irish Law
- Admissibility at Strasbourg: Victims, Exhaustion and the Four-Month Rule
- Article 3 ECHR: Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment
- Article 8 ECHR: Private and Family Life, and the Irish Cases
- Article 10 ECHR: Freedom of Expression and the Irish Cases
- The Margin of Appreciation and Proportionality under the ECHR
Practice questions
Problem questions on the ECHR in Irish law, each with a full model answer: the ECHR Act 2003, admissibility, Article 3, Articles 5 and 6, Article 8, and Articles 10 and 11. See the practice set →
Questions students ask
What does the Human Rights Law course cover?
The European Convention on Human Rights as it applies in Ireland: the Convention system and how the Court reads it, derogation, the core rights in Articles 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11, the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, and admissibility at Strasbourg.
Are the Irish cases included?
Yes. Each module has an Irish section: the Strasbourg cases against Ireland where there are any, the Irish courts’ own approach, and the current Irish statute and constitutional text.
Can I buy the modules now?
Not yet. The eleven modules are written and checked, and will go on sale here. The free notes below are available now.