Modifications Provided by Protocol No. 14 Concerning Proceedings Before the European Court of Human Rights

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-192
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Starace

AbstractThe accumulation of the increasing number of applications to be examined and decided entails the serious danger of a progressive breakdown of the European Convention on Human Rights machinery which, if it is not efficaciously dealt with, would betray its raison d'être, which is to secure for victims of violations of the Convention and its relevant Protocols an international judicial mechanism for remedying violations within a reasonable period of time. It therefore became necessary to adopt without delay certain measures directed at saving the Convention's machinery from its own demise owing to the exponential increase in the number of individual applications. Such measures are incorporated into Protocol No. 14, opened for signature in Strasbourg on 13 May 2004, whose purpose, stated in the preamble, is precisely to "maintain and improve the efficiency of the control system for the long term, mainly in the light of the continuing increase in the workload of the European Court of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe", safeguarding at the same time the "pre-eminent role" of the Court "in protecting human rights in Europe".

Author(s):  
Barbara Grabowska-Moroz ◽  
Marek Wierzbowski

This chapter explores the influence on Polish administrative law of pan-European principles of good administration stemming from the Council of Europe (CoE). It reveals that membership of the CoE can be perceived as an element of the democratization process that has had a direct influence on Poland, especially through the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. It furthermore establishes that Polish administrative law generally follows the CoE standards even if at the same time they are overshadowed by the standards flowing from the EU. In addition, the unwillingness of the Polish courts to refer to non-binding CoE standards of conduct which are not strongly founded in statutory law is another obstacle precluding full reception of the said principles.


Author(s):  
Oliver Lewis

This chapter presents an overview of the adjudicative bodies of the Council of Europe—namely, the European Court of Human Rights (established by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR)) and the European Committee of Social Rights—and outlines their mandates with regard to integrating UN human rights treaties. It analyses how these two bodies have cited the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The dataset was forty-five cases dealt with by the Court and two collective complaints decided by the Committee that cite the CRPD up to 2016. Notwithstanding the relatively small size of the dataset, the conclusions are that the Council of Europe system has yet to engage seriously in the CRPD’s jurisprudential opportunities. The reasons for this cannot be ascertained from a desk-based methodology, and further research is required.


2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-404
Author(s):  
Silvia Borelli

The undeniable impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on the legal systems – and the wider society – of Member States of the Council of Europe would not have been possible without its unique monitoring system, centred around the European Court of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The present article assesses the extent to which the European Court's judgments that have found violations of the procedural obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention to investigate unlawful killings, disappearances, acts of torture or other ill-treatment have, in fact, led to an improvement in the capability of the domestic legal systems of states parties to ensure accountability for such abuses. On the basis of four case studies, it is concluded that the European Court's judgments, coupled with the supervisory powers of the Committee of Ministers, have the potential to make a very great impact on the capability of domestic legal systems to deal with gross violations of fundamental human rights, and have led to clear and positive changes within the domestic legal systems of respondent states. Nevertheless, this is by no means always the case, and it is suggested that, in order for the Convention system to achieve its full potential in the most politically charged cases, the European Court should adopt a more proactive approach to its remedial powers by ordering specific remedial measures, to include in particular the opening or reopening of investigations.


Author(s):  
Nadja Braun Binder ◽  
Ardita Driza Maurer

This chapter is dedicated to exploring the impact on Swiss administrative law of the pan-European general principles of good administration developed within the framework of the Council of Europe (CoE). The chapter claims that the standards stemming from the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights have been adopted in an exemplary way by Swiss authorities. The influence was especially strong in the 1980s and 1990s. The same cannot be said regarding other documents of the CoE, whose impact remains disparate because many aspects of the pan-European general principles of good administration were already part of the national written law. The chapter concludes that despite the exemplary integration of CoE instruments heated debates on the content of these instruments are not excluded from Switzerland.


Author(s):  
Greer Steven

This chapter examines the origins, historical development, and key characteristics of the various inter-state organizations engaged in human rights activities in Europe. Having briefly described the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, it examines the Council of Europe and the European Union, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.


Author(s):  
Butler William E

This chapter explores the role of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian courts in interpreting and applying international treaties. It is clear that Soviet courts dealt more frequently with treaties than the scanty published judicial practice of that period suggests. This early body of treaties may also have contributed to the emergence in the early 1960s of priority being accorded to Soviet treaties insofar as they contained rules providing otherwise than Soviet legislation. Whatever the volume of cases involving treaties that were considered by Soviet courts prior to 1991, the inclusion of Article 15(4) in the 1993 Russian Constitution transformed the situation. A further transformation occurred when the Russian Federation acceded to the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and began to participate in the deliberations of the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1833-1861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roderic O'Gorman

Ever since the conceptual division of rights into three separate categories; civil, political and social, the legal status of social rights has been controversial. This divergence in views is illustrated by the decision of the Council of Europe in 1950 to protect civil and political rights through a judicial format where adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was ensured by the European Court of Human Rights, whereas social rights were addressed separately through the European Social Charter (“Social Charter”), with merely a reporting mechanism to the European Committee of Social Rights.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-620
Author(s):  
Vladislava Stoyanova

AbstractThe European Court of Human Rights has consistently reiterated that positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights arise when state authorities know or ought to have known about the risk of harm. This article attempts to describe and assess the role of state knowledge in the framework of positive obligations, and to situate the Court’s approach to knowledge about risk within an intelligible framework of analysis. The main argument is that the assessment of state knowledge is imbued with normative considerations. The assessment of whether the state ‘ought to have known’ is intertwined with, first, concerns that positive obligations should not impose unreasonable burden on the state and, second, the establishment of causal links between state omissions and harm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Gligorijević

Abstract Protecting children’s informational privacy has never been more difficult. To what extent does it depend upon parental control and consent, and how is this factor incorporated into the law seeking to protect children’s informational privacy? This article addresses these questions, considering the relevant jurisprudence of the English courts, in particular under the tort of misuse of private information, and the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In this article I argue that the relevant jurisprudence in both jurisdictions reveals a doctrine that prioritises parental control and consent, above the harm of intrusion to the child. This risks laying a legal terrain that does not accommodate the protection and vindication of children’s informational privacy rights when they conflict with the wishes of, or are not actively protected by, that child’s parents.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document