Challenging the Unconditional: Partial Compliance with ECtHR Judgments in the South Caucasus States

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-195
Author(s):  
Ramute Remezaite
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Emerging Democracies ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Partial Compliance ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
European Court

The European human rights system has long been seen as one of the greatest European achievements, with its European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as the world's leading human rights court. Current turbulent times, however, pose serious challenges to the European system, which is increasingly being contested by the deepening ‘implementation crisis’. The absolute obligation of member states of the Council of Europe (CoE) to abide by ECtHR judgments under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been increasingly compromised by the selective approach of states, often resulting in minimal, dilatory, lengthy or even contested compliance with ECtHR judgments. As the implementation backlog has grown largely after the accession to the CoE of the newly emerged states, as aspiring democracies, in the late 1990s and early 2000s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this article analyses the compliance behaviour of these states by looking at the South Caucasus states: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The research findings suggest that partial compliance is a very likely form of compliance in the South Caucasus states as democratising states, and that some of the factors that explain such behaviour discussed in the article may be distinctive of states that joined the CoE as emerging democracies after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These states continue to display various vulnerabilities in the areas of human rights, the rule of law and democracy. This, in turn, has serious implications for the whole European human rights system and its ability to ensure that states’ commitments to the CoE are duly respected in the longer term.

scholarly journals Georgia v. Russia (II)

2021 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-294
Author(s):  
Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Private Property ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
South Ossetia ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
European Court

On January 21, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) issued its judgment in the interstate case of Georgia v. Russia (II). Georgia complained that Russia committed systemic human rights violations in the course of the 2008 war in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Both of these regions are de jure parts of Georgia, but they have not been effectively governed by central Georgian authorities since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. During the night of August 7–8, 2008, Georgian artillery attacked Tskhinvali (the administrative capital of South Ossetia). Russian forces entered South Ossetia and Abkhazia the next day. Russian and Georgian troops engaged in hostilities for five days, before agreeing a ceasefire on August 12, 2008. Since then, a significant military contingent of Russian troops has remained in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Georgian authorities complained of systemic violations of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture), 5 (right to liberty), and 8 (right to privacy), ECHR Protocol 1 Articles 1 (right to private property) and 2 (right to education), and ECHR Protocol 4 Article 2 (Freedom of movement).

The Transformation of Constitutional Law through the European Convention on Human Rights

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-499
Author(s):  
Jochen A. Frowein
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
European Countries ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Rule Of Reason ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
European Court ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
Occupied Territories

Only five years after the end of the Second World War terminating the complete disregard for human rights in one of the important European countries and in the occupied territories, the governments of European countries agreed on a European Bill of Rights and took the first steps toward collective enforcement of certain rights of the Universal Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. Evidently the Convention was a response to the totalitarian ideologies prevailing in national socialism but also to the communist ideology and practice governing the Soviet Union and the European countries behind the iron wall. Was the Convention intended to be more than a response and clarification of the fundamental principles which were well recognized in the constitutional structure of the free European states? If this is the case it should have had an impact on the legal system of member states.How far that impact would go was certainly not foreseen in 1950 or 1953 when the Convention came into force. By hindsight we may say that the establishment of the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights as judicial organs to enforce the Convention had something that is called “List der Vernunft” in German, a certain rule of reason, not fully understood by the drafters.

The Oil Deal: Nariman Narimanov and the Sovietization of Azerbaijan

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-394
Author(s):  
Sara Brinegar
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

This essay, with a focus on Baku, Azerbaijan, demonstrates that the need to secure and hold energy resources—and the infrastructures that support them—was critical to the formation of the Soviet Union. The Azerbaijani statesman Nariman Narimanov played a pivotal role in the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan by attempting to use Baku's oil to secure prerogatives for the Azerbaijan SSR. In part, Narimanov gained his position by striking a deal with Vladimir Lenin in 1920, an arrangement that I am calling the oil deal. This deal lay the foundations of Soviet power in the south Caucasus. Lenin charged Narimanov with facilitating connections between the industrial stronghold of Baku and the rural countryside of Azerbaijan and Narimanov agreed to do what he could to help supply Soviet Russia with oil. Lenin put Narimanov in charge of the Soviet government of Azerbaijan, with the understanding that he would be granted significant leeway in cultural policies. Understanding the role of the south Caucasus in Soviet history, then, is also understanding how the extraction and use of oil and other natural resources were entangled with more familiar questions of nationalities policy and identity politics.

The US South Caucasian Policy under Donald Trump

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-59
Author(s):  
Khatuna Chapichadze
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Us South ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us

After providing a brief overview of the US policy in the South Caucasus from the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century as there have emerged three new countries in the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the article mainly focuses on relatively less active engagement from the side of the United States into the affairs of the South Caucasus since the presidency of Barack Obama maintained if not untypically deepened even more under Donald Trump currently as well. These trends are explained through the prism of the general standpoints of the latest American administrations promoting the idea of less or non-interference of the superpower in other countries’, regions’ or continents’ notably domestic matters. There are discussed major implications of such, i.e. the less active US foreign policy observed among others, also in the South Caucasus lately, although in the case of this region clearly primarily with less desirable effects as it appears in fact, taking into account on the other hand however quite diverse needs and interests of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. The article critically analyses the consequences the US recent withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, as well as its re-imposition of economic sanctions against Iran might have for the South Caucasian countries, addresses the factor of latest uncertainty over the NATO member Turkey, covers the Russian problem, and raises one of the crucial issues whether the current US President Donald Trump has more actual decisive power than the Congress, also in terms of foreign policy implementation, or not.

The Status of International Treaties in the Legal System of Azerbaijan

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-256
Author(s):  
Cavid Abdullahzade
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
European Convention ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Status ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

AbstractAs part of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Azerbaijan Republic ended its protracted existence as one of the fifteen members of the Soviet Union and became an independent state. As a result, on 30 August 1991, she became a full subject of international law. Currently, Azerbaijan is a party to a number of international treaties, virtually all major human rights treaties registered with the UN Secretary-General, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as a number of related Council of Europe human rights agreements.A tendency towards internationalization and a general 'opening' to international law can also be seen in the Azeri Constitution, which was adopted by public referendum on 12 November 1995. Like many other former Soviet Republics, Azerbaijan, in its 1995 Constitution, has rejected the traditional Soviet dualist approach of the implementation of international law in the domestic legal system and has established a monist system within the context of a relationship between national and international law. This article discusses these changes in the Azeri attitude towards international law, in particular the status of international treaties, with special reference to those problems stemming from the implementation of international treaties in the domestic legal system of Azerbaijan.

Integration to the WTO and Economic Transition in the South Caucasus Economies

2020 ◽  
pp. 1442-1463
Author(s):  
Khatai Aliyev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Concession Period ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Relationship

Economic transition story in the South Caucasus economies started after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, integration to the World Trade Organization (WTO) system should improve the economic transition performance. This research uses the yearly transition indicators by the EBRD to discover the relationship between economic transition performance and integration to the WTO in the contexts of before-and-after WTO membership and before-and-after the end of concession period defined for a new member to implement all obligations. Author employs bivariate de-trended regression analysis estimated by using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), individually for Armenia and Georgia, and within a panel analysis covering all three countries of the region. Research findings provide strong evidence of significant positive or acceleratory effect of integration to the WTO on economic transition in the South Caucasus. Surprise finding is insignificant impact over competition policy index, which is supposed to be affected by integration.

Integration to the WTO and Economic Transition in the South Caucasus Economies

2016 ◽  
pp. 58-79
Author(s):  
Khatai Aliyev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Concession Period ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Relationship

Economic transition story in the South Caucasus economies started after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, integration to the World Trade Organization (WTO) system should improve the economic transition performance. This research uses the yearly transition indicators by the EBRD to discover the relationship between economic transition performance and integration to the WTO in the contexts of before-and-after WTO membership and before-and-after the end of concession period defined for a new member to implement all obligations. Author employs bivariate de-trended regression analysis estimated by using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), individually for Armenia and Georgia, and within a panel analysis covering all three countries of the region. Research findings provide strong evidence of significant positive or acceleratory effect of integration to the WTO on economic transition in the South Caucasus. Surprise finding is insignificant impact over competition policy index, which is supposed to be affected by integration.

scholarly journals SOUTH CAUCASUS IN THE NETWORK OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-43
Author(s):  
V. Chechelashvili
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Cheap Labour ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Attractive Region

The article considers the problems of divisive lines, separating nations and diminishing prospects of shared prosperity in South Caucasus. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resultant independence for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the South Caucasus has primarily been associated with conflicts, hostility, military actions, closed borders. The article highlights the causes of problems and directions for their solutions. An assessment of the development potential of the South Caucasus’and tendencies of establishing a stable and secure space with broad prospects for economic cooperation in the region based on geopolitical and geo-economic opportunities is made. Arguments are based on variety of different factors, such as the facts that the region has inexhaustible transit and tourist potential, important natural resources of international significance, and an educated, relatively cheap labour force. Attemps are made to resolve issues such as prospects for the South Caucasus to become an attractive region, determined desirable further actions of the regional states and external players (Russia, United States of America, European Union) which are necessary to achieve a result. Expanding European principles, standards and criteria for cooperation in the South Caucasus is the most realistic way for the three states to achieve shared success. Nothing better has been offered in practice with respect to international regional cooperation. The future of the South Caucasus primarily depends on the three states themselves, their ability and vision, the capacity to observe the overall picture of regional developments and assist each other, and shared activity in order to help the population of the states perceive a new reality. The stable and integrated South Caucasus will make a serious contribution to the security system in a broader regional context and will bring greater stability in adjacent areas.

scholarly journals Legal nature and place of judicial precedent in the system of sources of law of Ukraine

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
I.S. Ivanyura ◽  
D.V Shevchenko ◽  
A.S. Sivets
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
European Court ◽  
Legal Nature

This article is devoted to the analysis of the essence of judicial precedent as a source of law in Ukraine, its legal nature and the definition of the place among the sources of national law. The issue of judicial precedent, its role has worried many scholars of the Soviet Union, and now it is the focus of many scholars and is central to the study of jurisprudence. Given the determination of the place of precedent among the sources of law, a general analysis of the system of sources of law in Ukraine is conducted. During the analysis the structure of judicial precedent is considered on the example of the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, several alternative definitions of the term "judicial precedent" are given. Some scholars suggest that "judicial precedent" is a decision based on a general rule of law created by a court that courts of the same or lower instance must comply with, and that their decisions in future cases should be based on this rule of law. The article establishes the role of judicial precedent in the legal system of Ukraine, emphasizes its importance in that it significantly increases the motivation of court decisions. Attention is also paid to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights - a typical example of judicial precedent - as a mandatory source of law in Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the positive and negative consequences of the official recognition of judicial precedent as a source of law in Ukraine. Considerable attention is also paid to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the legal positions of the Supreme Court. The authors emphasize the recommendatory nature, in addition to the precedents of the European Court of Human Rights, judicial precedent as a source of law. This is confirmed by the thesis that the rule of law can be reflected in laws and regulations, as judicial precedent is not officially recognized as a source of law in Ukraine, it is believed that court decisions do not create rules of law. The authors emphasize the need for recognition at the legislative level of judicial precedent as a source of law.

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