Minding the Standing Gap: The Case for Adopting a Surveillance-Style Approach to Counter-Extremism Cases Before the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The decade-long expansion of programs to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE) among Council of Europe Member States has not seen a similar rise in the quantity of P/CVE-related cases reaching the European Court of Human Rights, despite concerns expressed about their compliance with the Convention. This paper seeks to explain this dearth of jurisprudence by likening P/CVE cases to ones involving surveillance, and subsequently argues that the Court should adopt a more relaxed approach to standing to fill this gap.