Last updated:
Hester Swift, June 2019
This guide was created by Hester Swift, Foreign & International Law Librarian at the IALS Library.
Email hester.swift@sas.ac.uk
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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 47 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:
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 and 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 at IALS Library.
More than two hundred conventions and protocols have been adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe.
Council of Europe Treaty Series and other sources
All the conventions and protocols are published in the official European Treaty Series (ETS). This publication was re-named Council of Europe Treaty Series (CETS) in 2004, but the numerical sequence of treaties continues from the ETS to the CETS.
The entire European/Council of Europe Treaty Series is held at IALS (FOL GO1.A.20.E.1). It is also on the CoE Treaty Office website, although only the print version is deemed to be authentic (see disclaimer). IALS also has the CoE's unofficial compilation, European Conventions and Agreements. This multi-volume set covers the period 1949 to 1998 and is provided by the CoE as a convenient source for researchers; it 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), both of which are held at IALS. The UKTS and UNTS are available free online (see UK Treaties Online and UN Treaty Collection) and the UNTS is also on the subscription database HeinOnline.
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, available on the CoE Conventions website); it has also been published at UKTS 71 and at 213 UNTS 221. The protocols have also been published in the ETS/CETS, UKTS and UNTS.
Consolidated amended versions of the ECHR are available on the CoE Conventions website and in textbooks such as Brownlie's Documents on Human Rights (6th edition, OUP, 2010; in IALS).
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 (7th ed., OUP, 2017).
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- ). This publication is held at IALS; there is also 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.
Signatures, ratifications and other treaty actions
Signatures, ratifications and so on are detailed in the charts accompanying each treaty on the Council of Europe Treaty Office website; check the Recent Changes page as well.
Other sources of this information include:
Human rights information bulletin. CoE, Directorate-General of Human Rights, 1978-2012 (title varies): 2000-2012 on CoE website - it ceased publication in 2012. IALS has it from 1982 - 2007 (incomplete), under the former title, Human rights: information sheet.
Three Council of Europe institutions are, or have been, involved in making decisions enforcing the European Convention on Human Rights:
Council of Europe human rights cases are available on HUDOC, Westlaw UK and Lexis®Library, and in printed law reports (see below for details).
HUDOC
HUDOC is a free case database on the website of the European Court of Human Rights. It contains*:-
Tip: HUDOC defaults to searching for judgments of the Court's Grand Chamber and Chamber: to find other documents, tick the appropriate box.
*HUDOC User Manual (2017), Annex 1.
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:
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:
Committee of Ministers
Commercially-published sources
Selected Court and Commission cases appear in European Human Rights Reports (EHRR; on Westlaw UK - see IALS Electronic Law Library) and Butterworths Human Rights Cases (BHRC; on Lexis®Library - see IALS Electronic Law Library).
IALS holds the whole EHRR series in hard copy (1979 onwards) and BHRC 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 (2019).
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 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 in the Human Rights section of the CoE website.
The Council of Europe 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).
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
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).
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.
Government responses to ECRI reports: may be published as appendices to country reports; also on HUDOC-ECRI, under 'Government observations'
European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission)
The main documents issued by the Venice Commission include opinions, studies, reports, codes of practice and checklists.
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.
Parliamentary Assembly (formerly Consultative Assembly)
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 (held at IALS).
ECHR
European Social Charter
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 (see Catalogue).
Recent works include:
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
Rainey, Bernadette, et al, Jacobs, White, and Ovey: the European Convention on Human Rights. 7th ed., Oxford University Press, 2017
Stefanie Schmahl and Marten Breuer (ed.s), The Council of Europe: its laws and policies, Oxford University Press, 2017
Donald, Alice, Parliaments and the European Court of Human Rights. Oxford University Press, 2016
The Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, held at IALS, includes a bibliography.
The European Court of Human Rights Library's Catalogue indexes journal articles as well as books and can be used as a bibliography.
Older bibliographies include the following, all held at IALS:
The following series, all available at IALS, are expressly devoted to the subject of European human rights law:
Other relevant serials held at IALS include the European Law Review, Hague Journal of the Rule of Law, 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: vast amount of 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