Inclusive Democracy and the Rule of Law

Dean of the Bocconi School of Law

Full Professor of European Law and Director of BLEST — Bocconi Lab for European Studies

Former President of the European Court of Human Rights

Prof. Robert Spano, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Visiting-Professor, Oxford University, is the former President of the European Court of Human Rights. In his keynote speech he will discuss the past, the present and future of European human rights law through the lenses of the concept of inclusive democracy and the fundamental principle of the rule of law. As he will explain, the historical genesis of the European Convention on Human Rights produced a constellation of rights and values embedded in the Convention which were intended to provide strong protections against the rise of illiberal democracy and the degradation of the rule of law we are witnessing today. Therefore, the effective enforcement of the Convention has never been as important for our future as it is at present.