Chapter 5, makes the case for labelling the period of 1979–1989 the ‘defining decade’ in the history of the Convention.

It shows how, after decades of hesitation, the courts sprang into action in the eighties and unleashed a veritable avalanche of legal activity. They were supported by the recently formed professional academic study of (European) human rights, and went further than had previously been considered possible.

Yet as European human rights emerged as legalized tools, they also lost the revolutionary appeal which had made them into a desirable action language. The shift in the 1980s was, in that sense, a limited expansion.

Even so, it was simultaneously the decade in which governmental support, which had been substantive in the previous decade, wavered. Although the government had been crucial in the activation of the system, a caution surrounding the activities of the European Court began to seep in during the eighties, not just in the Netherlands but also in the other signatory states. As the activities of the European Court of Human Rights seemed to be expanding the reach of European human rights, it is vital to note these were consistently met with brakes from the states.