ECHR – are you being served?

This book of great erudition is perhaps of primary interest to academics, but is also of relevance to practising lawyers (and their clients) who seek to understand the application of the European Convention on Human Rights to legal services. With the role of lawyers and their clients’ needs increasingly regarded with suspicion by populist politicians, this is a timely work.

Divided into 10 chapters, the book addresses how the ECHR regards the role of legal representation and advice in advancing the private interests of clients and lawyers. It also considers the role of legal services in furthering the general public interest in the rule of law, as well as the interplay between the two roles. The ECHR does not address these issues in direct terms, but it does embody a number of Articles that require the particular support of legal services to ensure or enhance the protections that these Articles provide. These include Article 5 (Right to liberty and security) and 6 (Right to a fair trial). Article 34 (Individual applications) is perhaps especially significant. This opens up the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights to applications by individuals and other non-state actors.

The writer makes a deep dive into ECHR case law and analysis. Chapter One contains detailed information about definitions and the case selection principles applied, as well as a very useful introduction to the subject matter of the book as a whole. Chapters Two to Four focus on the ‘private interests’ of lawyers and their clients as viewed by the ECHR. Chapter Five focuses on the ‘public interest’ in legal services as reflected in the court’s case law. Chapters Six to Ten focus on the structure of rights and obligations (so far as they appertain to legal services) embedded in the ECHR, including the asymmetrical nature of obligations (divided between ‘directed’ and ‘undirected’ duties). These extend beyond enforceable rights, which can be enforced by parties as part of their ‘private interests’, and apply also to the general duties of the state regardless of who can enforce them. Chapter Six contains an interesting comparison between the ECHR’s and the media’s approach to legal services.

Dr Krahé’s research brings a sense of structure to what may otherwise be disparate case law and analysis. He adopts what he describes in the Summary at the beginning as a ‘doctrinal’ approach to the case law on legal services in Chapters Two to Five, and takes a ‘conceptual’ approach to human rights and obligations in Chapters Six to Ten.

The author’s expertise in both common law and civil law legal systems gives added value to a work of academic excellence.

David Glass is a consultant solicitor at Excello Law