“COURAGE” AS A LEGAL VALUE: RETHINKING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS UNDER THE ECHR AND THE ECtHR
doi: https://doi.org/10.56461/iup_rlrc.2026.7.ch27
Resilience is commonly defined within scientific literature as the capacity to adapt successfully to stressors while preserving psychological and social continuity in the face of adversity. Yet before resilience can emerge, there must first be a situation of vulnerability and an “act of courage”: a deliberate decision to confront danger, uncertainty, or loss rather than withdraw. This paper argues that such “acts of ‘courage’” acquire juridical relevance within the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly under Article 2, Article 8, and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. Adopting a qualitative methodology, the study examines how natural catastrophic events activate the intrinsic bond between individuals and their environment, placing them before the choice to remain, rebuild, or abandon their homeland. Through an analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the article contends that, although neither the Convention nor the Court explicitly refers to “courage” as an autonomous legal category, “act of courage” are implicitly protected insofar as they express free will and human dignity. By safeguarding life, private and family life, home, and property, the Court secures the material and relational conditions that allow individuals to determine their place of belonging and affirm their identity within a community. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that courage constitutes the subjective manifestation of dignity, while resilience emerges as the collective outcome of such acts. The protection of fundamental rights in disaster contexts thus preserves not heroism, but the dignified capacity to remain and persist within one’s social fabric.
Keywords: resilience, European Court of Human Rights, disaster Law, property law, courage.
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