Your invitation to me, as the President of the European Court of Human Rights, to conclude this year's study programme on the protection of hu­ man rights in Europe by delivering the prestigious Winston Churchill lec­ ture is a great honour not only for me personally but for the European Court of Human Rights as a whole, and I should like to thank the European Uni­ versity Institute and its Academy of European Law most warmly for giving me this opportunity. You are fortunate to have had the opportunity of following a week long general course on the protection of human rights in Europe given by my col­ league and friend Carl Aage N0rgaard, the President of the European Commission of Human Rights. To speak after hirn, in order to bring to a close your study programme, makes my task in some respects easier be­ cause I can take it for granted that you now have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the guarantees and the functioning of the European Con­ vention on Human Rights. On the other hand, it is, I must confess, not without a certain apprehension that I take the floor at this juncture because I am very weIl aware of how difficult it is to keep the attention of an audi­ ence which has had the privilege of hearing Carl Aage N0rgaard on more or less the same subject.