This chapter analyzes the impact of the ECtHR ruling in Hirsi. This decision on a ‘pushback’ operation by the Italian authorities in 2009 received a lot of attention and remains hitherto the only notable pronouncement on the growing tendency of states to externalise migration control. The tentative analysis of the various dimensions of effectiveness begins by contextualising Hirsi within a larger body of rulings of the ECtHR concerning extraterritorial human rights obligations, on which this judgment is firmly based. However, the argument will be made that the decision is not as significant as usually portrayed, particularly because Italian policy had already changed before the judgement. What is more, the applicants represented only a fraction of the actual passenger of the migrant boat, with the question of compensation also raising doubts regarding the import of the case. The strategic impact is high insofar as the symbolic value of the judgment is concerned but lower in practical terms.