Lunch seminar with Simon Chaptel and Gaëtan Cliquennois
Conservative NGOs’ Interventions before the ECtHR in Immigration Litigation: A Double Standard
The proposed presentation seeks to elucidate the current questioning of the Court’s authority within the field of immigration litigation. More precisely, the study will examine the third-party interventions of conservative private interest groups (NGOs) before the European Court of Human Rights. The analysis will aim to unpack these groups’ strategies to influence both the jurisprudence and the institutional authority of the Court, moving beyond the observation of a merely systemic challenge emanating from certain States. It will further address the growing interest of these organizations in intervening in cases brought before the Court that juxtapose specific rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) with the sovereign prerogatives of States—particularly their discretion to determine whether a person may reside within their territory. In doing so, the study will delineate the legal and political positions adopted by these groups toward the Court, thereby revealing the dual rationale underpinning their engagement.
The proposed contribution will demonstrate the ideological affinity between the examined groups and States often characterized as “populist” or “illiberal.” These actors advocate for the State’s right to expel individuals accused of serious offenses committed on its territory and, more broadly, for a circumscription of the powers of the European Court of Human Rights. Yet, without explicitly condemning the positions advanced by such States, conservative NGOs simultaneously urge the Court to prohibit the expulsion of Christian asylum seekers from European soil. More broadly, the study will highlight these groups’ aspiration to sustain a Europe receptive to Christian values, thereby reinforcing the endeavors of numerous conservative forces within and beyond Europe.
Speaker bios
Simon Chaptel is a socio-legal researcher contracted by the CNRS as part of the ERC project 'JUST-Penal', which aims to study the moral influences on European penal and prison policies.
He is also associated with a national research project (ANR) analysing the strategies of private interest groups (both liberal and conservative) in relation to European justice (ECHR and CJEU). Chaptel’s main area of study is strategic litigation by liberal and conservative international NGOs before the European Court of Human Rights, particularly in the context of third-party intervention proceedings.
He seeks to analyse the arguments and methods employed by these private interest groups to influence the interpretation of human rights in line with their respective ideologies.
Gaëtan Cliquennois is a permanent research fellow for CNRS at the University of Rennes (IODE). He has been recently awarded an ERC advanced (JUST.PEN, 2025-2030) to work on the conservative and liberal mobilization at the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union in the field of abortion, euthanasia, counter-terrorism, prostitution, pornography, detention and hate speech and crime.
He has notably published a book on liberal litigation in 2020 (“European Human Rights Justice and Privatisation: The Growing Influence of Foreign Private Funds”) with Cambridge University Press. He has also edited and published several special issues in European Law Journal (in 2016), Law & Social Inquiry and in European Constitutional Law Review (both forthcoming).
Meeting ID: 690 8392 9096
Passcode: 538764