VII.1 INTRODUCTORY NOTE The European Court of Human Rights in 2020

The European Convention on Human Rights celebrated its seventieth anniversary in 2020. The year was also marked by a global pandemic and the Court had to surmount significant obstacles posed by the crisis and sanitary responses in order to continue its vital functions. Despite the challenges, the Court has handled a wide variety of human rights issues. It also made significant advancements in the clarification and development of concepts under the Convention and within the Court’s case-law. Four Grand Chamber cases are discussed in greater depth, covering: the notion of a “tribunal established by law”; the applicability of the prohibition of slavery and forced labour to a victim of trafficking and exploitation for the purposes of prostitution, and of the prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens to those immediately and forcibly removed from a land border; and whether a state’s ruling on a visa application can create a jurisdictional link.