During this lecture organised by the University of Amsterdam, Veronika Fikfak will talk about her research.

Few would disagree that representation before the European Court of Human Rights is key to a successful application. Yet, the lawyers acting before the Court have been all but ignored by the literature. The gap is noteworthy. International legal scholarship has paid considerable attention to the professionals working in and before other international courts and tribunals which could be deemed, at least in terms of raw metrics, less prominent and not nearly as successful.

Moreover, the crucial role of lawyers in the making of legal orders and regimes has been acknowledged in legal and IR literature. In a their study, Niccolò Ridi and Veronika Fikfak draw on a very large dataset comprising all Chamber and Grand Chamber judgments between 2005 and 2022 to carry out the first in-depth study of the lawyers acting and appearing before the Court, principally (but not exclusively) focusing on those representing the applicants. They provide the first description of the ‘ECHR bar’, looking at those lawyers who have frequently acted before the Court, their connections and pathways to specialization, as well as the implications of being a ‘repeat player’ and the evolution of strategies and reactions throughout the history of the Court and the milestones marking a shift in its role.