Edinburgh Law School Alumna elected as judge to European Court of Human Rights

Renowned human rights law academic and Edinburgh Law School alumna, Oddný Mjöll Arnardóttir has been elected as judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Iceland.

Ms Arnardóttir is the first woman to be elected as a judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Iceland. Her term of appointment will be nine years.

Ms Arnardóttir attained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh Law School in 2002, with her thesis titled ‘Equality and Non-Discrimination in the European Convention on Human Rights; Towards a Substantive Approach’.

Ms Arnardóttir was a Professor of Human Rights Law at Icelandic universities before becoming a judge on the Icelandic Court of Appeals and the Court on the Reopening of Judicial Proceedings.

Throughout her career Ms Arnardóttir has published numerous papers and her work is well known in the field of International Human Rights Law. In most recent years, Ms Arnardóttir’s research has focused on subsidiarity and the interactive constitutional relationship between the Convention system, EU law and domestic law.

On her appointment Ms Arnardóttir said: “I feel honoured to have been elected to serve on the European Court of Human Rights and look forward to contributing to its work on securing respect for human rights and the rule of law in Europe.”