Improving access to information on European human rights: a review of traditional printed sources and new methods of electronic access.

The dissertation seeks to investigate the provision of information in the field of European human rights, with special emphasis on the United Kingdom Human Rights Documentation Depository of case law arising under the European Convention on Human Rights which is located at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. The study will identify the user community and the problems that they encounter to obtain material that answer their enquiries. Sources are hard to identify, locate and access. They are scattered and have not been brought together in one directory. The study attempts to bring together the majority of the sources identified, whether in print or electronic, available to the user community. These are evaluated using European human rights enquiries collected during the four year period, 1993-1996, at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. The study provides a historical background to the European Convention on Human Rights and discusses the machinery and organs involved in applying the Convention. The dissertation discusses the impact of the Human Rights Act on various professions after being incorporated into UK national legislation and the future of information access with the development of new sources and improvements in others