The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was opened for signature in Rome on 4th November 1950. Property rights were left out of the list of protected rights in the ECHR and their inclusion delayed until the adoption of Article 1 of the First Protocol (A1P1) in 1952. This chapter sets out the historical context for the adoption of the ECHR and the normative foundations of European human rights. In contrast to the exceptionalist thesis that the ECHR sought to give expression to a sui generis European conception of human rights founded on liberal market freedoms, this chapter argues that the normative foundations of the ECHR mirror the moral foundations of international human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The chapter examines the theoretical foundations of international human rights, highlighting the centrality of the individual human person as the subject of human rights. It shows how the list of fundamental human rights is derived from the idea of respect for human freedom as distinct from economic, market freedoms illuminating the controversy over protection of private property as fundamental human right and its original exclusion from the ECHR.