The Principle of Effectiveness and its Overarching Role in the Interpretation and Application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): The norm of all norms and the method of all methods

This book explores the role of the principle of effectiveness (the “Principle”) in the interpretation and application of the ECHR. Part I undertakes an analytical examination of the Principle’s conceptual framework: raison d’être, capacities, formulations, and its historical and case-law development.

It is proposed that the Principle’s raison d’être – to render the Convention effective – is accomplished through the Principle’s two capacities, as a method of interpretation and as a norm of international law, as well as through its two sub-capacities, the doctrine of positive obligations and the living instrument doctrine, all of which the book examines in depth.

Part II delves into the Principle’s operational framework by demonstrating its polyvalent nature and action from two perspectives, having regard to its dual nature (harmonising and defensive) and its action at all stages of the procedure including the implementation of the Court’s judgments.

In an original manner, the book seeks to prove its central proposition that the Principe has an overarching role and deserves to be characterized as “the norm of all norms and the method of all methods.

Georgios A. Serghides is a Judge and Section Vice-President of the ECtHR. He is a holder of five PhDs in Law, obtained at: the University of Exeter, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Democritus University of Thrace and the University of Strasbourg.