The Role of Female Judges in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

Although the ECHR adopted a new policy in 2004 to balance gender, women are still underrepresented in the Court. Women's representation in the international courts is crucial not only because half of the population in the world is female but also women's ability to act as a kind of bridge for other underrepresented groups such as older people, children, racial and religious minorities. This paper studies the effect of gender of judges in the ECHR. It focuses on whether female judges decide differently than male judges and whether the European Union membership plays any role in the selection of judges. I use difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity design to present this effect. It contributes to the literature because it will be the first study to analyze the impact of female judges in the ECHR quantitatively.