Substantially rewritten and updated for this edition, this book provides an introduction to the most advanced international human rights system in the world - the European Convention on Human Rights - which has been in force since 1953 and now protects the rights of 800 million people. Since the third edition was published in 1993, there have been a number of significant additions to the Convention case law and a major change to the supervisory arrangements in the form of Protocol No. 11, which came into force in November 1998. Full account is taken of these developments, together with relevant developments outside Strasbourg, including the human rights aspects of the European Union and the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE). After an historical introduction the authors provide a detailed analysis of the case law on the rights protected by the Convention and its Protocols. They then review the new European Court of Human Rights, set up in 1998, and contrast it with the original arrangements for supervising the Convention. Finally, the book goes on to examine the relations between the Convention and other human rights arrangements, such as the OSCE and the European Social Charter, and concludes by considering the future of the Convention.