In the late 1980s, Antonio Cassese ('Nino') contributed to the growth of the protection of human rights in the European Union by leading an impactful research project at the European University Institute (EUI). The co-hosts Paola Gaeta and Antonio Coco discuss such pioneering work with guest Andrew Clapham, an active member of that research project. They get a testimony about that endeavour by Philip Alston, who led another study at the EUI together with Joseph Weiler, that eventually contributed to the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in 2000.