During my Pegasus Scholarship, I spent three months at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, working in the division for UK and Ireland. It was fascinating to see all the different stages of a case, from the initial admissibility assessment to Grand Chamber hearings.
When a completed application arrived at the Court, I worked together with the lawyers in the division to assess whether it complied with the requirements of a valid application (Rule 47 of the Rules of Court) and, if it did, to carry out a preliminary assessment of admissibility (for example, had the applicant exhausted domestic remedies, complied with the four-month time limit, or was it manifestly ill-founded?). If an application appeared to be inadmissible, I would prepare a note for the Single Judge, under the supervision of the non-judicial rapporteur, explaining why that was the case. If it was not obviously inadmissible, I would prepare a note for the non-judicial rapporteur who would then decide to which panel of judges the case should be allocated. In addition to filtering new applications, I also helped the division process a number of individual applications linked to an inter-State application and carried out legal research for the lawyers.
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Several exciting Grand Chamber cases were heard or handed down during my time at the Court. These included Ukraine and the Netherlands v Russia 43800/14, 8019/16 and 28525/20 (relating to the conflict in Ukraine, particularly in the Donbass, and also the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17), Semenya v Switzerland 10934/21 (concerning alleged discrimination against athletes with differences of sex development) and Nealon and Hallam v UK 32483/19 and 35049/19 (concerning compensation following miscarriages of justice). I was fortunate to be able to attend a judicial deliberation and a Grand Chamber hearing, which helped me to see how the Court functions in practice.
I am very grateful to the Pegasus Scholarship Trust for their generous support. It has been incredibly interesting to gain an insight into the operation of this international court and to meet lawyers from many different jurisdictions.
Fiona Petersen
Twenty Essex
