This book outlines the contents of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols 1 and 4. The major goal of the Convention, which constitutes an innovation in international law, is to guarantee the protection of "human rights" by allowing both member states and individuals to institute proceedings against a member state, alleging a violation of human rights. The Convention and Protocol 1 have formed the basis of extensive case law in Strasbourg, Austria. The author has attempted to explain these provisions, primarily by using the material now contained in the comprehensive collections of decisions of the European Commission of Human Rights, as well as its reports, and in the judgments of the court. Of the more than 6,000 cases that have been submitted to the Commission since its institution in May 1954, the author has included only such cases that appear to be of interest from the point of view of legal or political principles or which may otherwise have contributed to the clarification of some question of interpretation. Not included in this book is an account of the ideology of human rights from either an historical or a philosophical viewpoint. (Author/RM)