European Court of Human Rights celebrates the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta

^{(L-R) Professor Catherine Haguenau-Moizard (Strasbourg University); Sir Robert Worcester (Chairman, Magna Carta 800 Committee);Professor Hanna Suchocka (Venice Commissioner, former Prime Minister of Poland);Thorbjørn Jagland (Secretary General, Council of Europe; former Prime Minister of Norway);Professor Robert Blackburn (King's College London; Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee);Guido Raimondi (President, European Court of Human Rights)}

The Council of Europe's most senior members, including its Secretary General and President of the European Court of Human Rights, participated in a special Seminar chaired by Robert Blackburn, Professor of Constitutional Law, in the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The speakers provided a unique perspective on the contribution of Magna Carta and the English common law to the principles of the rule of law, democracy and human rights across Europe today.

The event was streamed live to The Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London, and overseas to centres of comparative constitutional law including at Brescia University and the Centre for Comparative European Constitutional Law at Athens.

Opening the event, Professor Blackburn spoke of the symbolic nature of Magna Carta and how the principles which it has come to represent today - the rule of law, democracy, and human rights - are precisely those forming the mission of the Council of Europe since its foundation in the aftermath of the Second World War in 1949.

Perspectives from the European institutions were given by Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General and former Prime Minister of Norway; the newly elected President of the Court, Guido Raimondi, and British Judge at the Court, Paul Mahoney; and senior Venice Commissioner and former Prime Minister of Poland, Professor Hanna Suchocka. Commentaries were given by Sir Robert Worcester, chairman of the Magna Carta 800th Committee and a Visiting Professor at King's, and comparative law professors Maya Hertig and Catherine Haguenau-Moizard from the Universities of Geneva and Strasbourg.

The topics discussed included democratic security across Europe in the light of recent events, the contribution of English common law to the jurisprudence of the Court of Human Rights, parallel constitutional documents elsewhere in Europe contributing to European ideas of freedom, a comparison of national Bills of Rights across Europe, and challenges to the work of the Council in promoting a safety net of human rights standards across the 47 member states, including with respect to freedom of expression and religion.