European Union accession to the European Convention on Human Rights. Regulating the multi-layered European human rights space and pushing for more international liability for the Union

The article discusses the accession of the European Union (EU) to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and this from a global law perspective. At the outset, the article offers a background on the path to making the European Union a more complete human-rights organization and on its interrelations with the ECHR system. The article pays attention to the potential rivalry between the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the ECHR and examines the key features of the European human rights law space, shedding light on the relationship between the European Union’s and Council of Europe’s human rights regime, and between the Luxembourg and Strasbourg Court. The article then discusses the main features of the recently adopted Draft Accession Treaty (DAT). Last, the article examines the outcomes of the accession of the European Union into ECHR—from both a domestic and international law perspective—and concludes with some overall remarks. The article concludes that the accession provides for a significant legal development for the EU itself, its international liability context, and the overall growing, multi-level, and integrated European human rights system.