Michael D. Goldhaber, A People's History of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

Unlike most of the books reviewed in this journal, Mr Goldhaber's unique and fascinating work is not the product of pure academic research, but instead represents the exercise of a legal journalist's professional skills as an interviewer combined with extensive reading of the academic literature. What the author has done is to seek out the applicants in a number of leading cases determined by the Court over the last thirty years and explore their personal stories before, during and subsequent to their victories at Strasbourg. This enables readers, who are both unfamiliar with the judgments and those who are, to gain an insight into the human dimension of ECHR fundamental rights litigation. In the early years of the present century the author was the Chief European Correspondent for The American Lawyer magazine (he is now Senior International Correspondent). Whilst based in London he was ‘astounded’ to discover how little attention...