Assistant Lawyer

Fixed-term appointment (Junior professional)

Description & Requirements

Your Team

The European Court of Human Rights is the judicial body which oversees the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights in the member states of the Council of Europe. Complaints of human rights violations may be brought before the Strasbourg Court once all possibilities of appeal have been exhausted in the member state concerned.

The Court is divided into five sections, the composition of which is fixed for three years. Each of these sections comprises different units organised per country. You will be assigned to one of these units, which is made up of both experienced lawyers and assistant lawyers whose number varies mainly according to the number and type of cases linked to the country. Each unit also has dedicated administrative support. On arrival, you will receive comprehensive training and will be fully integrated into your unit.

Your Role

As an Assistant Lawyer, you will assist more senior members of staff in the preparation of correspondence with applicants and draft decisions in standard form cases. You will:

• examine and deal with applications in prima facie inadmissible cases and in cases which can be dealt with in a standard manner;
• draft decisions, minutes, reports, notes and other documents;
• attend the Court's sessions and present applications;
• assist one or more experienced case-lawyers, where necessary, in the preparation of Chamber cases for examination by the Court.

Requirements to apply

You must:

• have a higher education degree in law of a standard permitting access, either on the basis of qualifications or after passing a competitive examination, to the judicial administration or legal professions in Estonia; the Bachelors' degree must have been obtained in Estonia;
• after having obtained the relevant higher education degree in law, have a maximum of two years of relevant professional experience acquired in the legal field (preferably in the judicial service) in Estonia or in international Organisations on tasks also related to national law; please note that the traineeships (including the traineeship to enter the Bar) will not be counted in the professional experience;
• have a very good knowledge of one of the two official languages of the Council of Europe (English or French) and the ability to draft legal texts therein clearly and precisely; excellent knowledge of Estonian (first language level).

You must also:

• be a citizen of one of the member states of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
• have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
• not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
• be under 35 years of age at the closing of the deadline for submission of applications for this vacancy notice.

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework .

• Operational - Planning and work organisation
• Operational - Analysis and problem solving
• Interpersonal - Teamwork and co-operation
• Professional and technical expertise:
  • thorough knowledge of the Estonian legal system and ability to handle cases arising in other jurisdictions;
  • knowledge of European Union law and of international law.
• Operational - Results orientation
• Operational - Learning and development
• Interpersonal - Adaptability

What we offer

This job vacancy is published within the framework of the Junior Professionals Programme (limited to 4 years). You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage What we offer .

Applications and selection procedure

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade. At the time of appointmen