In search of an independent tribunal: Activating the European Court of Human Rights, 1969-1974

One of the more remarkable developments in European law is the sudden ‘waking up’ of the European Court of Human Rights in the middle of the 1970s. This article, on the basis of extensive archival materials, follows grassroots actors as they discovered what had been a dormant part of European law, key academics with their own plans for the system and governmental officials debating in the corridors of Strasbourg in order to shed light on this development. The article argues this ‘waking up’ wasn’t the result of a top-down initiative by the Court, but rather the result of a bottom-up movement instigated by a variety of actors. As such, it ties into the recent debates on why and how actors turn to and shape European law (broadly conceived), as well as to why the Court turned active in this period. It makes the case for combining a bottom-up approach with the analysis of governmental policy- and decision-making to examine this change, as from the individual complaints grew a campaign to fundamentally change the entire system of European human rights protection.