The European Convention on Human Rights is recognized as one of the most successful human rights treaty. Over the time, thus, to make this instrument efficient and responsive to the social needs and demands with the time the European Court of Human Rights develops the doctrine of living instrument. The ECtHR recognised the European Convention on Human Rights as a living instrument and interpreted the Convention in the light of present-day conditions. Through applying this doctrine often the ECtHR expands the ambit of human rights, recognises and incorporates the new rights within ECHR, updates and upgrades the old and backdated laws. The ECtHR uses this doctrine as a mechanism to depart from their earlier and old decisions as to take the modern approach. However, sometimes intellectual works assess and categorizes the application of this doctrine as undemocratic, a notion of judicial activism, contradictory to legislators’ intention, a barrier in the application of margin of appreciation. Nevertheless, an in-depth analysis of the cases where ECtHR applied the doctrine clearly establishes the realistic necessities of a mechanism which Court can use to update the law in order to incorporate the social changes within the ECHR. This paper first focuses on the contemporary issues and challenges that the doctrine of living instrument commonly encounters. Having discussed the barriers, this paper argues that the doctrine of living instrument is in-fact inevitable to keep the ECHR alive and to fulfill the social demands as to modernize the law as society changes.