My First Month at the European Court of Human Rights

Posted on: 12 October 2023 by Victoria Hawley in Blog

At the beginning of September, I moved out of my student house in Liverpool and into a flat in Strasbourg, France, where I started a four-month internship at the European Court of Human Rights. The experience has been incredible so far and I have already learned so much!

I am assigned to the Office of the President where I am lucky to work under the supervision of Rachael Kondak, Deputy Head of the President’s Private Office and to support the work of the Court President, Síofra O'Leary.

Highlights so far

Really interesting and valuable work

Overall, the biggest highlight has been the nature of the work I’ve been assigned, because I have gotten to work on some really interesting and important tasks that have made this experience so valuable already.

In my first week, I was asked to edit one of the President’s speeches related to the rule of law and judicial independence. I was pretty nervous to add or change any text this first week. Then fast forward to a few weeks later and I am now drafting speeches for the President and other members of the Court from scratch. I have drafted speeches related to, for example, the advisory opinion mechanism under Protocol No. 16, environmental case law, judicial dialogue, follow-up to the Reykjavik Summit, and Russian case-processing.

In addition to speech writing, I have also put together answers for podcast interviews and press interviews, conducted various research tasks, and attended really useful training sessions that have helped me to learn more about how the Court works.

My work so far has enabled me to get a high level understanding of some of the most significant issues relevant to the Convention system today. The work has certainly been challenging, but in the perfect way - I have found that my studies at Liverpool (particularly the two ECHR modules I studied and the summer school I attended) really equipped me to meet the challenge.

Grand Chamber hearing in Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others

On 27 September, the Court held a hearing in the case of Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others, a case that has attracted huge media attention. The case involves six young people from Portugal challenging 32 governments with human rights complaints linked to climate change.

Ahead of the hearing, I was asked to put together a short Q&A for the press with information about how the Court works and the background to the case. Then on the day of the hearing, I was tasked with greeting journalists and handing out information documents in the courtroom. It was certainly a busy and exciting day at the Court as we welcomed many journalists, lawyers, and audience members to view the hearing. I feel really fortunate to have been involved in such a big day at the Court and it is certainly an experience I’ll remember forever (and when I got home, I even saw myself in the background of some photos posted on international news websites!).

Making Connections

Finally, a huge highlight of my experience so far has been all of the great people I have met and the connections I’ve made.

The President was kind enough to make time in her very busy schedule to have coffee with myself and another trainee really early on, so we got to hear from her about her career journey and work at the Court.

There are lots of other trainees from across Europe and some from non-European countries, so it has been really easy to build a community here. I am also lucky that my office is right beside two case-processing lawyers for the UK team, so I have a UK-connection right next door!

Overall, the Court is a really lovely environment to work in and it is so great to work with people from so many different countries.

Conclusion

I am amazed at how much I have learned in only a month, so I can’t wait to see how my knowledge and professional skills will have grown by the end of this experience. I really cannot express enough how much I appreciate that this opportunity was available to me and how valuable it has been so far!