Forty law students attending Regent’s Strasbourg Summer Program in Human Rights recently had the unique opportunity to meet Jean-Paul Costa, President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).President Costa’s intimate address to Regent Law students focused on the history and development of the ECHR, mechanisms the ECHR uses to protect individual freedoms, and the problems the unique Court faces today.
The ECHR’s Grand Chamber consists of a panel of seventeen judges from various states of the European Council. It hears over a thousand cases a year, and receives even more petitions each year that it finds inadmissible.
The Court’s opinions greatly impact the international legal environment and are often cited as precedent and used for legal analysis in the U.S. and abroad.
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft welcomed the President and the students, highlighting the importance of exposure to legal figures who are working to define liberty and freedom in light of the ever-increasing need for nations to operate together in defending those freedoms.
The visit by President Costa, whose position is the equivalent to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was an invaluable opportunity for students who have dedicated five weeks of their summer to studying comparative law and human rights.
This summer marks the 10th Anniversary of both Regent’s Strasbourg Program and the European Center for Law and Justice, an organization that has been crucial in establishing the benefits of the Program.