Treasurer's Lecture | Professor Róbert Spanó | Inclusive Democracy and the European Convention on Human Rights

We live in an era of upheaval and uncertainty. Liberal democracy is under threat.

True “democracy values everyone equally, even if the majority does not”.

This magnificent phrase captures beautifully the concept of inclusive democracy which is firmly anchored in the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). The Convention’s inclusive democratic concept assumes that the axiomatic human trajectory of unchecked majority rule, that takes no account of the interests of the minority, risks descending into authoritarianism.

The rights and freedoms of the Convention have as one of their primary purposes the exclusion of a human reality where elections create omnipotence. The benefits of the collective guarantees of human rights in Europe, the undoubted moral worth of the constellation of rights and values embedded in the Convention, indeed, the dignitarian foundations of the social contract which forms the political basis for its existence, remain steadfast. In fact, they have become more important than ever. A civilised society can never succumb to violence and war, it must react aggressively by reaffirming the fundamental principle of human dignity and equality for all. 

Master Spanó (Professor Róbert Spanó) is Of Counsel in the London office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where he is a member of the firm’s Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He is the former President of the European Court of Human Rights. He was educated at the University of Iceland, the University of Leuven, and the University of Oxford. He was a tenured Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Iceland and practiced as a part-time Of Counsel for a law firm in Iceland and in London in the fields of public law and corporate law. He was provisionally appointed Parliamentary Ombudsman in 2013 before being elected a judge on the European Court of Human Rights. He served as President of the ECHR from 18 May 2020 to 31 October 2022. He is a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Oxford for the 2022-2023 academic year and a Professor of Law, University of Iceland.

Students and transferring lawyers need to attend the whole event including the reception in order to claim a Qualifying Session.