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(c)  ECHR-CEDH Council of Europe

(c) ECHR-CEDH Council of Europe

A special seminar took place at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (pictured) on 12th November 2015. Titled ‘European Perspectives on Magna Carta‘, speeches addressed the importance of Magna Carta in the past, present and future aims and working of the Council of Europe, including the European Convention on Human Rights, and to the domestic constitutional arrangements of its 47 member states.

Click here to watch the video.

The event was organised on behalf of the Magna Carta 800th Committee by Robert Blackburn, Professor of Constitutional Law at King’s College London, and UK National Correspondent (Consultant) to the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Human Rights from 1983 to 2008, who opened and Chaired the proceedings.

Speeches were given by Thorbjørn Jagland (Secretary General of the Council of Europe), Guido Raimondi (the newly elected President of the European Court of Human Rights), Paul Mahoney (the UK Judge at the Court), and Hanna Suchocka (Venice Commissioner and former Prime Minister of Poland).

Professor Maya Hertig from the University of Geneva and Professor Catherine Haguenau-Moizard from the University of Strasbourg provided commentary from a comparative law perspective, and Sir Robert Worcester, Chair of the 800th Committee, gave a closing speech on public awareness and attitudes towards Magna Carta across 23 countries and around the world.

The proceedings were simultaneously broadcast at the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London at Somerset House, London.

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All images (C) ECHR-CEDH Council of Europe.

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