Research Seminar on the British Origins of the European Convention on Human Rights

In his lecture, Professor Zhu outlined the central arguments of a joint article co-authored with Conor Casey, examining the British origins of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the historical debates surrounding its creation. He began by questioning widely held assumptions that portray the ECHR as a distinctly British achievement, or suggest that criticism of the Convention necessarily amounts to a rejection of the legacy of Winston Churchill and other prominent British statesmen. Zhu argued that such claims require careful historical and legal reassessment.

While acknowledging the significant involvement of British politicians and lawyers in drafting the Convention, Zhu emphasised that the British contribution was fundamentally ambivalent and marked by considerable internal disagreement within government. Rather than seeking to establish a comprehensive European legal order, British actors largely aimed to articulate a limited set of basic safeguards designed to prevent the most extreme forms of political abuse. He also noted that the Convention as adopted in 1950 differed in important respects from the contemporary ECHR framework.

These arguments provided the point of departure for a wider discussion. Participants examined the retrospective elevation of Churchill’s role and considered the extent to which this reflects historical evidence as opposed to later political narratives. The conversation also touched upon recent reform initiatives concerning the ECHR and the ways in which the Labour Party’s position on the Convention has changed over time. In this context, attention was given to broader contrasts between British approaches to legal history and public law scholarship and those prevailing in continental European traditions.