This year, we'll work with the (pending) case of Sanchez v. France (no. 45581/15) on hate speech in politics. Please fulfil the following tasks:

1. visit the ECtHR's search engine at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng# and try to find this case;
2. play around with the search engine and try to find the same case without using its name or its case number - you can search by the relevant country, the relevant Convention article, etc.;
3. try to find a document called "Legal Summary" of this case in HUDOC and read it;
4. finally, download the case itself (in Word or in PDF, whichever you prefer) and download it.

The next step is the actual reading of the case. The document is 39 pages long and you need to read it efficiently. You are invited to try two different types of reading:

a) quick reading (skimming) for the most important information

Set a timer to 20 minutes - imagine you have no more time to get acquainted with this case. You've already read the legal summary which makes this task somewhat easier. Still, how do you best use your 20 minutes to get to know the case and undestand the key elements? Here are some tips & tricks:

• do not read the case from the beginning to the end - you don't have time for that!
• start with "THE FACTS" (starting at para 2) and don't get distracted by the dates and the direct quotes, try to just get the main ideas of the story - should not take you more than 4-5 minutes, ideally even less;
• skip "THE RELEVANT LEGAL FRAMEWORK" (paras 25-45) - that is the most boring and the least relevant part - the parts which are important will be repeated later;
• "THE LAW" section starts with the parties' submissions, you can also skip that (for now! you will definitely come back to this later);
• so effectively, you start reading at para 69 ('prescribed by law') and you are most interested in the last para of the section (para 73 where the conclusion comes); this takes effectively 15 seconds;
• 'legitimate aim' (para 74) is also quick, another 10-15 seconds;
• and the core of the judgment is in the following section on 'necessary in a democratic society' - if you are already an advanced student of human rights, you will be aware of the general principles (para 75) and you will skip directly to 'application to the present case' - you cheat a bit and scroll to the very end (paras 104-105) to read the conclusoin, and only then you focus on the structure of the Court's argumentation (the parts titled α, β, γ, δ), spending about 2 minutes with each, trying to understand the main argument.
• did you manage to do all this within 20 minutes? if yes, congratulations! if not, we'll get there - practice makes perfect :)

b) detailed reading, followed by (or combined with) note-taking

This time, try to find plenty of time to read the case properly. It would be great if you had the luxury of reading it at one go, whatever it takes. Block a free afternoon and time yourself - how long does it take you to read the case properly, either on paper or on your screen, whatever you prefer? If you like to highlight, it's good to assign meaning to different colors (for me, the applicant is always highlighted in pink, the government in blue, the Court's previous case-law in purple, the Court's argumentation in yellow, and the most important arguments of the Court in green - but find your own pattern!). Next to reading, you also want to keep a case note - a one-pager (can be double-sided, but not more than that!) which you will carefully prepare now and use in the future. Nothing is less reliable than human memory - you certainly want to be a good note-taker so that when your mind no longer remembers the case, your case note will come to help you. You can google a bit (case note, case brief, case summary) to find some inspiration but in the end, you are the architect of your case note.

When you have finished your case note, upload it here: