Sir Nicolas Dušan Bratza (born 3 March 1945) is a British lawyer and a former President of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

. Bratza was the Judge of the Court in respect of the

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, the second person to hold the post as a full-time appointment since Protocol 11 to the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...

established the Court as a permanent body. His term ended on 31 October 2012. He was appointed as a board member of the

International Service for Human Rights The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) is an independent, non-profit organization with offices in Geneva and New York which promotes and protects human rights by supporting human rights defenders, strengthening human rights standards ...

in May 2013.

Early life

Bratza was born on 3 March 1945 and educated at

Wimbledon College Wimbledon College is a government-maintained, voluntary-aided, Jesuit Roman Catholic secondary school and sixth form for boys aged 11 to 19 in Wimbledon, London. The college was founded in 1892 "for improvement in living and learning for the g ...

, a state-maintained

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

school for boys. His father was Milan Bratza, a Serbian concert

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist who settled in London after the First World War, and his mother, an operatic singer, came from the Russell family, which has produced three generations of

Law Lords Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

( Charles Russell, Frank Russell and

Charles Ritchie Russell Charles Ritchie Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, PC (12 January 1908 – 23 June 1986) was a British lawyer and judge who served as a lord of appeal in ordinary between 1975 and 1982. Biography Russell was born in London, the son of F ...

). He studied law at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

, and was awarded a

first class degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

. He then spent two years teaching at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

before being

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1969, where he was a Hardwicke and Droop Scholar. He was appointed a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can ...

of the Inn in 1993.

Legal career

Bratza was appointed Junior Counsel to the Crown at Common Law in 1979 and took silk as

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1988. He acted in 1981 for the UK Government at the

against

Jeffrey Dudgeon Jeffrey Edward Anthony Dudgeon MBE is a Northern Irish politician, historian and gay political activist. He previously sat as an Ulster Unionist Party councillor for the Balmoral area of Belfast City Council from 2014 to 2019. He is best know ...

who complained successfully that the law in Northern Ireland, which made homosexual acts between consenting adult males a criminal offence, was a breach of the convention. In 1993, Bratza was appointed a

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of the

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and elected a

. In the same year, he was appointed as the UK Member of the

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, part of the

system of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

. In 1998, the commission was abolished and replaced by a permanent European Court of Human Rights, and Bratza was elected as the Judge of this Court representing the

. The eligibility criteria for appointment, however, required that Bratza hold judicial office in his home territory, and for this reason he was appointed a High Court judge. This afforded him the title ''The Hon. Mr. Justice Bratza'', but at the European Court he is referred to simply as Sir Nicolas Bratza. In the same year, and again in 2001, he was elected as one of the five section presidents of the court. He was elected to a second and final term as a judge of the court (ending 31 October 2012) and re-elected as a section president in 2004. He was a vice-president of the court from 19 January 2007 to 3 November 2011. In July 2011, he was elected to succeed

Jean-Paul Costa Jean-Paul Costa (3 November 1941 – 27 April 2023) was a French jurist and was the President of the European Court of Human Rights from 19 January 2007 until his term at the Court ended on 3 November 2011. He was first appointed a judge of the ...

as President of the court on 3 November 2011. His term on the court ended on 31 October 2012, and he resigned as a Justice of the High Court on 1 November 2012.

Other appointments

Bratza was appointed as President of the British Institute of Human Rights Advisory Board in February 2013, a member of the advisory board of the

British Institute of International and Comparative Law British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, a member of the editorial board of the European Human Rights Law Review and a member of the advisory board of the European Human Rights Association. In June 2007, he received the degree of

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

, from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. In 2014, Bratza became an ambassador for

Toynbee Hall Toynbee Hall is a charitable institution that works to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London and elsewhere. Established in 1884, it is based in Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and was the first university-affiliat ...

. It marked a return to the East London charity, where he had volunteered at its Free Legal Advice Centre during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 2018, Bratza became a member of the executive committee of the

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...

, having served as a Commissioner since 2013.

References

The Cripps lecture 2006, Howard League for Penal Reform
* ttp://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/EN/Header/The+Court/The+Court/Judges+CVs+and+photos European Court of Human Rights Judgesbr>Britain's man fights to keep a new Europe out of dark ages

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bratza, Nicolas 1945 births Living people Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford 20th-century English judges English people of Serbian descent English King's Counsel Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights Knights Bachelor Lawyers awarded knighthoods People educated at Wimbledon College Queen's Bench Division judges 20th-century King's Counsel Members of the European Commission of Human Rights British judges of international courts and tribunals University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty 21st-century English judges