Disability cause lawyering at the European Court of Human Rights: lessons from strategic litigation on the right to political participation

This chapter explores disability cause lawyering dynamics by comparing the approaches to case selection, argumentation, third-party interventions, and ethical conflicts of several litigants who have brought cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) aimed at advancing protections of persons with disabilities’ right to political participation under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This chapter suggests that, in future, disability cause lawyers seeking to advance disability rights movement goals through litigation before the ECtHR should not underestimate how, even in a post-CRPD landscape, disability biases and stigma may influence judges’ interpretation and application of relevant legal standards. Thus, when formulating their litigation strategies, future disability cause lawyers should be especially mindful of how closely their prospective clients’ individual circumstances and legitimate interests in remedying rights violations align with the collective interests of the broader movement in generating progressive legal precedents that promote harmonisation of regional law with the CRPD.