Council of Europe: IALS Library Guides

Guide last updated by Hester Swift, May 2022

The Council of Europe (CoE) is an intergovernmental organisation which seeks to promote the rule of law, democracy and human rights in Europe. Created in 1949, it is based in Strasbourg, France. It has 46 member states and French and English are its official languages. The Council of Europe should not be confused with the European Union, which is a different organisation (more).

The CoE operates by means of conventions, judicial decisions, recommendations, technical assistance and partnership programmes. It produces reports and studies and conducts awareness campaigns. Its principal institutions are:

• Committee of Ministers, the decision-making body, consisting of foreign ministers from the member countries or their permanent representatives; set up by the Statute of the Council of Europe

• Parliamentary Assembly, a consultative body consisting of delegates from parliamentary bodies across Europe; set up by the Statute of the Council of Europe (under the original name, Consultative Assembly) 

• European Court of Human Rights, set up in 1959 under the European Convention on Human Rights

• Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, a non-judicial institution set up in 1999 to further the CoE's human rights work

• Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, a representative body committed to local democracy; created in 1957 as the Conference of Local Authorities of Europe and renamed the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe in 1975, before receiving its current title in 1994

From 1954 until 1998 there was also a CoE body called the European Commission of Human Rights, established under the European Convention on Human Rights. Its role was to issue decisions on the admissibility of applications to enforce Convention rights and to produce reports on admissible applications, with the aim of encouraging settlements. The Commission merged with the Court in November 1998.

IALS Library holds selected Council of Europe documentation, where it is of legal interest; we also have relevant commentary in books and journals. Other libraries which hold Council of Europe documentation include the British Library and the LSE Library.

The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 by the Statute of the Council of Europe. The Statute is available on the CoE website, together with details of signatures, ratifications, declarations, reservations, and a summary of key points. 

The Statute was officially published as the first document in the CoE's European Treaty Series (ETS 1). It also appears in the UK Treaty Series (TS 51, 1949) and the United Nations Treaty Series (87 UNTS 103). All these series are held by IALS Library.

More than 220 conventions and protocols have been adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe. They are published in the official Council of Europe Treaty Series, abbreviation 'CETS'. The series changed its name from European Treaty Series (ETS) to Council of Europe Treaty Series in 2004, but treaties continued to be numbered in a single sequence, from ETS 193 to CETS 194. The entire ETS/CETS is held at IALS (classmark FOL GO1.A.20.E.1); it is also on the CoE website, although only the print version is deemed to be authentic (see disclaimer). 

IALS also holds the CoE's unofficial historical treaty compilation, European Conventions and Agreements. This seven-volume set, intended to be a convenient source for researchers, covers the period 1949 to 1998 and contains details of treaty actions as well as the treaties themselves. 

Council of Europe treaties appear in the United Kingdom Treaty Series (UKTS) and the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) as well as the ETS/CETS, both of which are held at IALS. The UKTS and UNTS are also online, in UK Treaties Online and the UN Treaty Collection, and the UNTS is  on the subscription database HeinOnline as well.

European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)                                                             
This is the best-known Council of Europe treaty. Its formal title is Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but it is almost always known as the 'European Convention on Human Rights'. It opened for signature in 1950 and came into force in 1953; numerous protocols have amended it over the years.

The ECHR is number 5 in the European Treaty Series (ETS 5); it is available on the CoE website in the original version and as  amended. The original version was also published at UKTS 71 and 213 UNTS 221. The protocols to the ECHR are also in the ETS/CETS, UKTS and UNTS. 

For a substantial commentary on the convention, see Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights, ed. Pieter van Dijk et al (5th ed., Intersentia, 2018); see also Bernadette Rainey, Elizabeth Wicks and Clare Ovey, Jacobs, White and Ovey: the European Convention on Human Rights (8th ed., OUP, 2021).           

The travaux préparatoires (preparatory documents) for the convention have been published in eight volumes, as Collected Edition of the "Travaux Préparatoires" of the European Convention on Human Rights (Martinus Nijhoff, 1975-1985). This publication is held at IALS. There is a free online version, in the form of scanned copies of the original working documents, organised by article number, on the website of the Library of the European Court of Human Rights.

CoE treaty actions
Signatures, ratifications and other treaty actions relating to Council of Europe treaties are detailed in the charts accompanying each treaty on the Council of Europe website; check the Recent Changes page as well.  

Other sources of information about treaty actions include:

• Human Rights Information Bulletin. CoE, Directorate-General of Human Rights, 1978-2012 (title varies): 2000-2012 on CoE website; ceased publication in 2012; held at IALS Library 1982 - 2007 (incomplete) under its former title, Human Rights: Information Sheet.

• European Conventions and Agreements (Council of European, 1971-2000): seven volumes, covering the period 1949 to 1998; held at IALS.

• Chart showing signatures and ratifications of Council of Europe conventions and agreements. CoE, Directorate of Legal Affairs,1960 -1999; in IALS 1972-1993 only.

•  For the European Convention on Human Rights only, details of signatures and ratifications appear in the Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights (CoE, Directorate-General of Human Rights, Martinus Nijhoff, 1955 - ) which is held at IALS.

Three Council of Europe institutions are, or have been, involved in deciding European Convention on Human Rights cases:

• the European Court of Human Rights 
• the European Commission of Human Rights
• the Committee of Ministers 

Council of Europe human rights cases are available on HUDOC and Lexis®Library, and selected cases are on Westlaw UK (those published in the European Human Rights Reports); they also appear in printed law reports (see below for details).

HUDOC
HUDOC is the European Court of Human Rights' own case database, containing*:-

• judgments, decisions and advisory opinions of the European Court of Human Rights, 1959 to date

• resolutions of the Committee of Ministers:1959 to date (on execution, 1972 onwards; on merits, 1959 to July 2004)

• all admissibility decisions of the European Commission of Human Rights from 1986 onwards, and some from 1955-1985 

• public reports by the European Commission of Human Rights,1963 onwards

• information about pending cases, including statements of facts and complaints (under 'Communicated Cases')

• summaries of selected cases (under 'Legal summaries')

• press releases issued by the Court's Registry

Tip: HUDOC defaults to searching for judgments of the Court; to find other types of case, tick the appropriate box.

*HUDOC User Manual (2017), Annex 1, p. 16/37.

HUDOC-EXEC
The HUDOC-EXEC database contains documents relating to the execution of European Court of Human Rights rulings, including: dossiers detailing the status of execution of each judgment (under 'Cases' on the database menu); communications from the parties to a case and from NGOs (etc.); government actions plans and reports; decisions of the Council of Ministers; memoranda; resolutions. The same documents are also on the website of the Court's Department for the Execution of Judgments, together with annual reports, factsheets and other information .

Official printed sources of human rights cases
European Court of Human Rights:

• Publications of the European Court of Human Rights. Series A: Judgments and Decisions, 1960 -1996 (cited as 'ECHR' or 'Series A'). Held at IALS Library.

• Publications of the European Court of Human Rights. Series B, Pleadings, oral arguments, and documents, 1960 - 1988 (cited as 'Series B'). Held at IALS.

• Reports of Judgments and Decisions, 1996 to 2015 (cited as 'ECHR'); held at IALS. Replaced by Key Cases, an annual online list giving brief details of the most important cases, with links to HUDOC.

Lists of judgments by date and subject appear in part two of the Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights (held at IALS), together with statistical analyses of the year's cases.

European Commission of Human Rights:                                                                  

• Collection of Decisions of the European Commission of Human Rights, 1960-1974 (CD). Held at IALS.

• Decisions and Reports,1975-1998 (DR). Held at IALS.

 Committee of Ministers                                                                                                         

• Collection of Recommendations, Resolutions and Declarations of the Committee of Ministers Concerning Human Rights 1949-87. Council of Europe,1989. Held at IALS.

• Recommendations to Member States. Council of Europe, 1979-9; held at IALS; continued by:-

• • Texts Adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Council of Europe, 1996-1998 (not in IALS, but on Committee's website ); continued by:-

• •  Official Gazette of the Council of Europe. Committee of Ministers Part-Volume. Council of Europe, 1999 - 2000 (not in IALS, but contents, i.e., adopted texts, on Committee's website).

• Recommendations published as monographs, for example, Freedom of Exercise of the Profession of Lawyer: Recommendation Rec(2000)21 Adopted by the Committee of Ministers... (selection held at IALS - see Catalogue).   

• Collection of resolutions adopted by the Committee of Ministers in application of articles 32 and 54 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1959-1983. Council of Europe, 1984. Held at IALS.

• Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, part 2, arranged by the country concerned (selected resolutions only). Martinus Nijhoff 1960 - . Held at IALS.

Commercially-published sources
Selected Court and Commission cases appear in European Human Rights Reports (EHRR; on Westlaw UK - see Law Databases page) and Butterworths Human Rights Cases (BHRC; on Lexis®Library - see Law Databases page). Lexis also has a larger (but not comprehensive) collection, called European Human Rights Cases.

IALS holds the whole EHRR series (1979 onwards) in hard copy, and BHRC in hard copy from 1996 to 2010 only.

Research guide and analytical information
The Court has produced a detailed guide to tracking down ECHR cases: European Court of Human Rights: Finding and understanding the case-law (2021).

The Court's website has a Case Law Analysis section with procedural information, research reports and case law guides.

See also Eggermont, Frederic and Smis, Stefaan, Research Guide to Instruments of European Regional Organizations. 2nd ed. (Intersentia, 2015), chapter II.

The European Social Charter of 1961 is a Council of Europe treaty protecting economic and social rights, such as the right to work and the right to social and medical assistance. It is administered by the CoE's European Committee of Social Rights.  

There are two monitoring mechanisms for the European Social Charter (ESC):

• the national reporting system: parties to the ESC report on their implementation of its requirements and the European Committee of Social Rights then issues official conclusions on their compliance with the treaty

• the collective complaints system (introduced in 1998): complaints regarding breaches of the ESC may be brought before the European Committee of Social Rights and the Committee issues a decision in each case

The Committee's decisions and conclusions are available in the CoE's HUDOC-ESC database. They also appear in the annual publication European Social Charter: conclusions (title varies; Council of Europe, Directorate of Human Rights, 1970 - c.2012; not held at IALS).

The Appendix to the CoE's Digest of Decisions and Conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights (2018) includes extracts from selected decisions and conclusions.

Further information about the European Social Charter and its implementation may be found on the CoE website.

The Council of Europe's institutions produce many types of official document, including the following (not an exhaustive list):-

Committee of Ministers

• Collection of recommendations, resolutions and declarations of the Committee of Ministers concerning human rights 1949-87, Strasbourg, Council of Europe,1989 (held at IALS).

• Recommendations to member states, Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1979-95 (held at IALS). Continued by:-

• Texts adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1996-1998 (not in IALS, but on Committee's website );  continued by:-

• Official gazette of the Council of Europe. Committee of Ministers part-volume, Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1999 - 2000 (not in IALS, but contents, i.e., adopted texts, on Committee's website).

• Recommendations published as monographs, for example, Freedom of exercise of the profession of lawyer : recommendation Rec(2000)21 adopted by the Committee of Ministers... (selection held at IALS).  

• Committee of Ministers website, Documents page: provides adopted texts (including recommendations, decisions and resolutions), activity reports, working documents, meeting documents and other material. 

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (formerly Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe)

• Documents and texts adopted. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1957-58 (not in IALS). 

• Texts adopted  / Adopted texts. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1960-98 and 2001-c.2011 (IALS has1968-89). On Congress' 'Adopted texts' page from 1994 onwards; in its Document Database from the 1960s onwards.

• Official gazette of the Council of Europe. Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe part-volume. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1999-2000 (not in IALS).

• Document Database: covers adopted texts as well as many other official documents emanating from the Congress and its forerunner, the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe.

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
This Council of Europe human rights body, created in 1994, monitors racism and intolerance in CoE member states, then publishes reports and issues recommendations. It also addresses general policy recommendations to all member states.

• Country reports: ECRI's country-by-country approach: series of pamphlets published in the 1990s, each containing reports on several states; IALS has volume II only; individual country reports are published as printed monographs and / or on the ECRI website, under 'Country Monitoring'; all the ECRI's country reports are also on the HUDOC-ECRI database

• Government responses to ECRI reports: may be published as appendices to country reports; also on HUDOC-ECRI, under 'Government observations'

• General policy recommendations: published as printed monographs, in periodic compilations and/or on the ECRI website; searchable via HUDOC-ECRI; IALS holds a compilation published in 1999 (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance: compilation of ECRI's general policy recommendations) but several more were published after this.

• Conclusions (also known as 'Interim follow-up conclusions'): on ECRI website under 'Country Monitoring'; searchable via HUDOC-ECRI database.

• ECRI website also provides other documents, including statements / declarations and annual reports (1997 to date).

European Commission for Democracy through Law  (Venice Commission)
Documents issued by the Venice Commission include opinions, studies, reports, codes of practice and checklists.

• Opinions and studies relating to democracy in particular states: available on the Commission's website, listed by country (there is also a search facility)

• Reference documents: reports, codes of practice and checklists issued by the Commission on topics such as the rule of law, elections and minority rights; they are available on its website.

• Compilation of Venice Commission opinions and reports [or opinions, reports and studies] concerning... :  systematic collections of extracts from opinions, reports and/or studies on particular topics, published by the Commission from 2011 onwards; not held at IALS, but available on the Commission's website.

• Annual reports (and many other publications) may also be found on the website.

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European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)
The CPT administers the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It visits places of detention, then sends reports to the states concerned; the state's government may then issue an official response. If a state does not cooperate with the Committee's recommendations, the Committee may choose to make a public statement.

The Committee also publishes an annual 'General Report' and produces standards on specific topics, such solitary confinement, psychiatric detention and medical evidence of ill-treatment. 

• Visit reports and government responses: online in HUDOC-CPT Database and on CPT website; also published by the CoE as printed monographs (not held at IALS); brief details or summaries in CPT's annual General Report

• Public statements: published in the CPT's General Report; online in HUDOC-CPT Database; also found with the relevant visit report on CPT website

• Standards: published in the General Report; on Standards page of CPT website, arranged by topic; also in HUDOC-CPT Database

• General Report: whole set on CPT website (1989/90 to date)

Parliamentary Assembly (formerly Consultative Assembly)

• Texts adopted by the Assembly, 1949-2008 (IALS has 1950-2008), electronic-only from 2009; all on Assembly's website, 1949 onwards.

• Official report of debates, 1949 -  (verbatim records; not held at IALS);  available on the Assembly's website from 2019 onwards.

• Orders of the day, minutes of proceedings, 1949 - 2006 (not in IALS), electronic only 2007-2009, then subsumed into verbatim records (see above)

• Documents: working papers,  1949 - (IALS 1949 - ); working documents are also on the Assembly's website, 1949 onwards.

• Official gazette of the Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly part-volume, 1999 - 2000 (not in IALS)     

For more information about Council of Europe documentation, see Eggermont, Frederic, and Smis, Stefaan, Research Guide to Instruments of European Regional Organizations, 2nd ed. (Intersentia, 2015), chapter II. This title is held at IALS Library.

ECHR

• Digest of Strasbourg case-law relating to the European Convention on Human Rights, produced by the CoE's Directorate of Human Rights and the Europa Instituut at the University of Utrecht; published by Carl Heymanns. Covers cases from 1955 to 1982, with looseleaf supplements up to about 1997.  IALS has the main volumes, with supplements up to 1992.
   
• Human rights case digest, started in 1990 by the British Institute of Human Rights, King's College, University of London; published by Martinus Nijhoff. IALS holds it in printed format  (1990 -1998,  incomplete); also on HeinOnline (1990 - 2004/05, via IALS Library Catalogue).
   
• A systematic guide to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, edited by Peter Kempees and published by Martinus Nijhoff in several volumes. Consists of extracts from all ECHR judgments from 1960 to 1998, arranged by Convention article; held at IALS.
   
• Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, mentioned above. Includes summaries of judgments delivered by the Court's Grand Chamber (the most important cases); also outlines relevant legislation and cases from within the member states. IALS has the whole series (1955 - ).

European Social Charter

• Digest of Decisions and Conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights, (2018, on Council of Europe website). Synthesis of case law on each article of the Charter, with an Appendix containing extracts from decisions and conclusions.

• Case-law on the European Social Charter (Council of Europe. Directorate of Human Rights, 1982) and three supplements (1986, 1987 and 1993); not held at IALS.

Most books about the work of the Council of Europe and European human rights law are at classmarks GO1.A.20 and GO1.A.25 in IALS Library, but some may be found at other classmarks, and a few are held only as e-books (see Catalogue).  

Recent works include:

• Dzehtsiarou, Kanstantsin, Can the European Court of Human Rights shape European public order? Cambridge University Press, 2022.

• Palmisano, Giuseppe, Collective complaints as a means for protecting social rights in Europe. Anthem Press, 2022.

• Rainey, Bernadette, et al, Jacobs, White, and Ovey: the European Convention on Human Rights. 8th ed., Oxford University Press, 2021

• Kosař, David, Domestic judicial treatment of European Court of Human Rights case law: beyond compliance. Routledge, 2020.
   

• Gerards, Janneke H., General principles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

• Pieter van Dijk et al (ed.s), Theory and practice of the European Convention on Human Rights. 6th ed., Intersentia, 2018

• Mačkić, Jasmina, Proving discriminatory violence at the European Court of Human Rights, Brill, 2018

• Stefanie Schmahl and Marten Breuer (ed.s), The Council of Europe: its laws and policies, Oxford University Press, 2017

The Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, held at IALS, includes a bibliography.

The European Court of Human Rights Library's Catalogue can be used as a bibliography; it indexes journal articles as well as books and other material.

Older bibliographies include the following, all held at IALS:

• Documentation sources in human rights, Council of Europe, Human Rights Information Centre 1995. Detailed and wide-ranging bibliography of CoE titles (and a few titles from other publishers), including conference proceedings, reports, information leaflets, cases and resolutions. Covers material relating to the European Convention on Human Rights, European Social Charter and European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; also covers general human rights publications.
   

• Human rights: an international and comparative law bibliography, compiled by Julian R. Friedman and Marc I. Sherman, Greenwood Press, 1985.

• Bibliography of articles published on the conventions concluded in the framework of the Council of Europe. Council of Europe, Legal Affairs dept., 1979.

Relevant series include the following, all available from IALS Library:

• European Human Rights Law Review (Sweet & Maxwell, 1996- ). Contains articles, case commentaries and news. IALS has the whole series, in print and via Westlaw UK.

• European Law Review (Sweet and Maxwell, 1976- ). The Council of Europe is one of the main focuses of this journal. IALS has the whole series, in print and via Westlaw UK.
   
• Human Rights Information Bulletin (Council of Europe, Directorate-General of Human Rights, 1978-2012). Includes articles, case summaries and news concerning the European Convention on Human Rights and other CoE human rights conventions. On CoE website 2000-2012; in IALS Library 1982-2007 (incomplete; on IALS Catalogue under the former title, Human rights: information sheet).

• Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, prepared by the CoE's Directorate General of Human Rights and published by Martinus Nijhoff (1955 -  ; in IALS). Includes ratification tables and details of reservations and declarations; summaries of selected cases; lists and statistical analyses of cases; selected recommendations and resolutions of the Assembly; texts adopted by the Committee of Ministers, replies to the recommendations and written questions of the Parliamentary Assembly and other information about the Committee's human rights activities; details of member states' legislation and cases concerning the Convention; a bibliography; and other related information.

Other relevant serials held at IALS include the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, International Journal of Refugee Law, International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Yearbook of European Law and the European Journal of Health Law.

For guidance on carrying out a wide-ranging literature search, see Finding Journals and Journal Articles at IALS.

Council of Europe website: CoE documentation and detailed information about CoE activities.

Council of Europe Treaty Office website: all CoE conventions with details of signatures, ratifications and declarations, and explanatory reports.

Duke University and Globalex websites both have Council of Europe research guides.

European Court of Human Rights website: has the Court's constitutional texts, cases (HUDOC), reports, guides and lists of forthcoming cases.

HUDOC: database of ECHR judgments, European Commission of Human Rights decisions/reports and Committee of Ministers case documentation.

HUDOC-EXEC: documents relating to the execution of ECHR judgments

HUDOC-CPT: documents from by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 

HUDOC-ECRI: documents from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance

HUDOC-ESC: cases relating to the European Social Charter