News 2010: Top international law scholar at UMass School of Law April 30

News 2010: Top international law scholar at UMass School of Law April 30
Top international law scholar at UMass School of Law April 30

UConn Law Professor Mark Weston Janis will discuss the efficacy of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg and international human rights law.

One of the top international law scholars in the world, Professor Mark Weston Janis, will discuss the efficacy of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg and international human rights law at the UMass School of Law-Dartmouth on April 30 at noon at the law school campus at 333 Faunce Corner Rd., North Dartmouth.

Janis is the William F. Starr Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He has authored three widely-used books and more than 60 articles concerning public and private international law. He served as a U.S. naval officer and practiced corporate and financial law in New York and Paris. He has served as an officer of several organizations for the promotion of international law, including the American Bar Association, the American Society of International Law, the American Association of Law Schools, and the International Law Association, and he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

The European Court of Human Rights is an international court set up in 1959. It rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. In almost 50 years the Court has delivered more than 10,000 judgments that are binding on the countries concerned and have led governments to alter their legislation and administrative practice in a wide range of areas. The Court's case-law makes the Convention a powerful living instrument for meeting new challenges and consolidating the rule of law and democracy in Europe.

The European Convention on Human Rights is an international treaty under which the member States of the Council of Europe promise to secure fundamental civil and political rights, not only to their own citizens but also to everyone within their jurisdiction. The Convention, which was signed on 4 November 1950 in Rome, entered into force in 1953.