The Coun­cil of Eu­ro­pe was foun­ded in 1949 in re­s­pon­se to the Se­cond World War and as such has the task of pro­mo­ting and safe­guar­ding de­mo­cra­cy, hu­man rights and the rule of law throughout Eu­ro­pe. To date, 47 Sta­tes have ac­ce­ded to the Coun­cil of Eu­ro­pe. The Eu­ro­pean Court of Hu­man Rights is pro­bab­ly its most well-known body, jud­ging on vio­la­ti­ons of the Eu­ro­pean Con­ven­ti­on on Hu­man Rights.

On 25 November 2019, members of the GCILS – Professor Jörg Terhechte and Professor Christian Tams -participated in a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe. Organised by our partners, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, in collaboration with the Ministry for Federal and European Affairs of Lower Saxony and the Glasgow-Leuphana European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS), the conference focused on “The Role of the Coun­cil of Eu­ro­pe in Chal­len­ging Times”.

The con­fe­rence focused on is­su­es such as the ge­ne­ral role of the Coun­cil of Eu­ro­pe in pro­mo­ting and safe­guar­ding de­mo­cra­cy, hu­man rights and the rule of law, its achie­ve­ments to date and chal­len­ges, both exis­ting and fu­ture. Re­nown ex­perts cri­ti­cal­ly ex­ami­ned and dis­cussed is­su­es such as the role of non-EU Mem­ber Sta­tes in the Coun­cil of Eu­ro­pe and the im­pact of di­gi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on on the Coun­cil of Eu­ro­pe and its work.

Professor Jörg Terhechte convened the event and Professor Christian Tams chaired a panel discussion on “The Role of Non-EU Members in the Council of Europe”, with Prof. Dr. Jörg Polakiewicz (Director of the Directorate of Legal Advice and Public International Law of the Council of Europe), Prof. Dr. Bertil Emrah Oder (Koç University Law School, Istanbul, Turkey), and Prof. Dr. Caroline von Gall (University of Cologne, Germany).

The conference was a great success and was well attended.

Professor Tams moderating the panel on “The Role of Non-EU Members in the Council of Europe”
Professor Jörg Terhechte
Team GCILS: Prof Tams, Prof Terhechte and Ms Jessica Schechinger (PhD Candidate at Glasgow, Visiting Researcher at Leuphana)

Further details of the event can be found here.

The conference programme can be viewed here CoE Conference_Einladung