The EU accession to the ECHR - Vasiliki Kosta

Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides that the EU will accede to the system of human rights protection of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Protocol No 9 in the Treaty of Lisbon opens the way for accession. This represents a major change in the relationship between two organisations that have co-operated closely in the past, though the ECHR has hitherto exercised only an indirect constitutional control over the EU legal order through scrutiny of EU Member States. The accession of the EU to the ECHR is expected to put an end to the informal dialogue, and allegedly also competition between the two regimes in Europe and to establish formal (both normative and institutional) hierarchies.
In this new era, some old problems will be solved and new ones will appear. Questions of autonomy and independence, of attribution and allocation of responsibility, of co-operation, and legal pluralism will all arise, with consequences for the protection of human rights in Europe.
This book seeks to understand how relations between the two organisations are likely to evolve after accession, and whether this new model will bring more coherence in European human rights protection. The book analyses from several different, yet interconnected, points of view and relevant practice the draft Accession Agreement, shedding light on future developments in the ECHR and beyond. Contributions in the book span classic public international law, EU law and the law of the ECHR, and are written by a mix of legal and non-legal experts from academia and practice.

Vasiliki Kosta is Assistant Professor of European Law at Leiden University.
Nikos Skoutaris is Lecturer of EU Law at the University of East Anglia and Visiting Senior Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics.
Vassilis Tzevelekos is a Lecturer in Public International Law at the University of Hull.

This book is a timely, well-researched and well-argued contribution to this body of literature. The book provides the reader with an excellent understanding of the problems and possibilities of the EU's accession to the ECHR. It is a timely contribution to an ongoing debate that equips the reader with the necessary knowledge and insights to form an opinion both on the procedural and institutional aspects of the EU's accession as well as on the substantive issue of where a permissible level of diversity of human rights protection in Europe may lie and how this level may legally be achieved and maintained.
I-CONnect BLog, November 2014 - Christina Eckes