Forty years ago the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms came into force. It was born of the shared conviction that breaches of the most elementary human rights, such as had been experienced in the 1930s and '40s, should never be allowed to occur again. The Convention and the control bodies responsible for ensuring the observance of the engagements undertaken by the contracting States have had a profound influence on democratic European society in the latter half of this century, and have had repercussions outside Europe too; indeed the European...