The Impact of International Law on Judicial Independence in Domestic Law: The Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract Armed conflicts are characterised by violence and human rights violations with various implications on the citizens, economy and development of nations. The impact is however more pronounced with life-long consequences on children, the most vulnerable members of the society. This article examines the impact of non-international armed conflicts on children in Nigeria and identifies the laws for the protection of children against armed conflicts, both in international law and Nigeria’s domestic law. It also addresses the challenges involved in the protection of children in armed conflict situations in Nigeria. The study found that legal efforts to protect children have not been given sufficient attention in Nigeria. This is mostly due to various challenges including the fragmentation of legal framework and the refusal to domesticate relevant treaties. It is thus recommended that these challenges be addressed through the implementation of effective legal frameworks.

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Slaughterhouse-Six: Updating the Law of War

German Law Journal ◽

10.1017/s2071832200012670 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 5 (5) ◽

pp. 525-544 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ed Morgan

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

The Other ◽

European Court ◽

House Of Lords ◽

Self Interest ◽

Time Zones ◽

National Jurisdiction ◽

State Obligations ◽

The Impact

International law has come unstuck in time. It has gone to sleep stressing a normative future based on state “obligations owed towards all the other members of the international community,” and has awakened in a bygone world in which the state is “susceptible of no limitation not imposed by itself.” The opposing time zones seem now to exist in unison. Thus, for example, the European Court of Human Rights, in examining the impact of the Torture Convention, can split 9:8 on whether national self-interest trumps universal rules of cooperation, or the other way around. Likewise, England's House of Lords can opine in thePinochetcase that, as between a reinvigorated national jurisdiction and the developing concept of universal one, “international law is on the move.”

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Globalisation and Court Practice in Iceland: New Case Law of the Supreme Court in Relation to the EEA Agreement and European Convention on Human Rights

10.1007/978-3-030-74851-7_9 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 151-165

Author(s):

Halldóra Thorsteinsdóttir

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

European Convention ◽

International Treaties ◽

International Obligation ◽

European Court ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

The Status ◽

Domestic Law ◽

Court Practice

AbstractThis article examines the status of international treaties in Iceland law and how Icelandic court practice has developed in recent years in that area. With regard to the relationship between domestic law and international law, Iceland adheres to the principle of dualism. This means that international law does not come into force as Icelandic law unless implemented by the legislator. As a result, Icelandic Courts will not, in general, apply provisions of international treaties unless they have been incorporated into Icelandic statutory law. However, this does not mean that international obligation are not fulfilled, as Icelandic Courts will seek to interpret domestic law in line with international obligation to the extent possible. If an international treaty has been implemented into Icelandic law, its provisions are binding like other domestic law. With regard to the EEA Agreement, Icelandic Courts will seek to interpret national law in accordance with EEA obligations and follow the judgments of the EFTA Court if the Icelandic provision in question is open to such an interpretation. With regard to the European Convention on Human Rights, Icelandic Courts will even go a step further, as recent judgments show that Icelandic Courts tend to interpret the human rights provisions of the Icelandic Constitution in line with interpretation laid down by The European Court of Human Rights, even in cases where such an interpretation does not exactly fit within the direct wording of the provision in question. This is due to a special connection between the human rights chapter of the Icelandic Constitution and the Convention, as one of the legislators’ main goals when amending the Constitution in 1994 was to bring the human rights chapter more in line with the Convention.

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Significance of the case of Urgenda for the development of climate litigations in Europe

Strani pravni zivot ◽

10.5937/spz65-31054 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 249-265

Author(s):

Ljubomir Tintor

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

Case Law ◽

State Responsibility ◽

National Courts ◽

European Court ◽

Combat Climate Change ◽

The Impact ◽

Harmful Effects

The article comprehensively analyses the case of Urgenda v. the Netherlands as the first successful climate litigation in Europe. The article analyses the arguments on which the Dutch courts established state responsibility for human rights violations caused by the failure of the state in the implementation of policies to combat climate change. The significance of this case is pointed out not only for Dutch, but also for international law. The second part of the article will show how the Urgenda case affected climate litigation that began to appear before national courts across Europe. Through a comparative analysis of cases, it will be pointed out that there is uneven case law in climate litigation before national courts. It will be seen how the Urgenda case had an impact on the initiation of climate disputes and before the European Court of Human Rights. Particular attention is paid to the issue of the connection between the impact of climate change and the torture caused by the harmful effects of global warming, which was initiated before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. At the end of the article, the perspective of climate litigation is considered.

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Lietuvos Respublikos geros valios kompensacijos už žydų religinių bendruomenių nekilnojamąjį turtą įstatymas tarptautinės ir Europos Sąjungos teisės kontekste

Teisė ◽

10.15388/teise.2012.0.104 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 83 ◽

pp. 138-159

Author(s):

Nika Bruskina

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

Religious Communities ◽

Eu Law ◽

State Institutions ◽

Court Of Justice ◽

European Court ◽

The Law ◽

Domestic Law ◽

The Eu

Straipsnyje analizuojami tarptautinės teisės, Europos Sąjungos (toliau – ES) teisės ir užsienio nacionalinės teisės šaltiniai, žydų nevyriausybinių organizacijų ir užsienio valstybės institucijų veiksmai, paskatinę Lietuvos Respublikos geros valios kompensacijos už žydų religinių bendruomenių nekilnojamąjį turtą įstatymo (toliau – Įstatymas) priėmimą. Taip pat Įstatymo nuostatų analizė pateikiama remiantis tarptautinės ir ES teisės šaltiniais, ypatingą dėmesį skiriant Jungtinių Tautų Žmogaus teisių komiteto (toliau – JT ŽTK), Europos žmogaus teisių teismo (toliau – EŽTT) ir ES Teisingumo Teismo (toliau – ES TT) praktikai. The Article deals with international law, European Union (hereinafter – EU) law and foreign domestic law sources, acts of Jewish nongovernmental organizations and foreign state institutions which have urged the adoption of the Law on Good Will Compensation for the Immovable Property of Jewish Religious Communities (hereinafter – the Law). Furthermore, invoking international law and EU law sources, paying particular attention to the practice of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter – ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the EU, the analysis of the provisions of the Law is provided.

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Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights as a Source of Human Rights Law

Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online ◽

10.1163/22115897_01701_008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 143-165

Author(s):

Ineta Ziemele

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

Case Law ◽

Human Rights Law ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Material Source ◽

European Court ◽

Legal Nature ◽

Being There ◽

The Impact

The European Court of Human Rights with its case law has been for decades a particularly important actor in developing human rights law in Europe and beyond. At the same time the question as to the legal nature of its case law has not received a single answer. Most traditionally, the answer to this question has been that case law is binding on all States parties to the Convention at least to the extent that it contains lex interpretata as part of the Court’s authoritative interpretation of the Convention entrusted to it by the founding States of the Convention regime. In accordance with the Convention’s Article 46, judgments of the Court are binding on the respondent State. At the same time, judgments are followed more generally by the Contracting Parties while the Court’s case law has added to the original – admittedly open-ended – text of the Convention. This article explores the impact of civil law tradition, Anglo-Saxon tradition and the theory of sources of international law on better conceptualization of the legal nature of the case law of the Court. It arrives at the conclusion that at least for the time being, there is a coherent tendency in more advanced legal systems to acknowledge that the courts and judges do occasionally make law. The example of the European Court of Human Rights goes along with these developments. It is argued that case law is a material source of law while the overall consolidation of the Convention system begs for the conclusion that the Court’s case law has become a formal source of law.

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The Impact for the Church of England of the Human Rights Act 1998

Ecclesiastical Law Journal ◽

10.1017/s0956618x00004026 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 5 (27) ◽

pp. 431-439 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mark Hill

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Church Of England ◽

European Convention ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

European Court ◽

Human Rights Act ◽

Human Rights Act 1998 ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact ◽

Domestic Law

Though the first nation state of the Council of Europe to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights on 18th March 1951, and though permitting individual petition to the European Court in Strasbourg since 1966, the United Kingdom declined to give effect to the Convention in its domestic law until the government recently passed the Human Rights Act 1998. The Act received the Royal Assent in November 1998 and will come into force on 2nd October 2000.

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Framing a Convention Community

10.1017/9781108909075 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Cedric Marti

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

European Convention ◽

Nation State ◽

International Agreement ◽

Legal Systems ◽

Interdisciplinary Perspective ◽

European Court ◽

Domestic Law ◽

Law Making

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has evolved from an international agreement into a highly integrated legal community with an ever more pervasive effect on domestic law and individuals. The supranational authority of the European Court of Human Rights bypasses the nation state in a growing number of other areas. Understanding the evolution of the ECHR and its Court may help in explaining and contextualising growing resistance against the Court, and in developing possible responses. Examining the Convention system through the prism of supranationality, Cedric Marti offers a fresh, comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective on the expanding adjudicatory powers of the Court, including law-making. Marti addresses the growing literature of institutional studies on human rights enforcement to ascertain the particularities of the ECHR and its relationship to domestic legal systems. This study will be of great value to both scholars of international law and human rights practitioners.

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A Europe of Rights

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199535262.001.0001 ◽

2008 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Legal System ◽

European Convention ◽

Law And Politics ◽

European Court ◽

Legal Space ◽

Relative Status ◽

The Impact ◽

Domestic Law ◽

National Systems

The European Convention on Human Rights has evolved into a sophisticated legal system, whose formal reach into the domestic law and politics of the Contracting States is limited only by the ever-widening scope of the Convention itself, as determined by a transnational court. In this book, a team of distinguished scholars trace and evaluate, comparatively, the impact of the ECHR and the European Court of Human Rights on law and politics in eighteen national systems: Ireland-UK; France-Germany, Italy-Spain, Belgium-Netherlands, Norway-Sweden, Greece-Turkey, Russia-Ukraine, Poland-Slovakia, and Austria-Switzerland. Although the Court's jurisprudence has provoked significant structural, procedural, and policy innovation in every State examined, its impact varies widely across States and legal domains. The book charts this variation and seeks to explain it. Across Europe, national officials — in governments, legislatures, and judiciaries — have chosen to incorporate the ECHR into domestic law, and they have developed a host of mechanisms designed to adapt the national legal system to the ECHR as it evolves. But how and why State actors have done so varies in important ways, and these differences heavily determine the relative status and effectiveness of Convention rights in national systems. Although problems persist, the book shows that national officials are, gradually but inexorably, being socialized into a Europe of rights, a unique transnational legal space now developing its own logics of political and juridical legitimacy.

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Comparative Views on the Right to Vote in International Law

10.1093/oso/9780190697570.003.0018 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shai Dothan

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

National Courts ◽

European Court ◽

Right To Vote ◽

The Right ◽

Democratic Elections ◽

The Way

There is a consensus about the existence of an international right to vote in democratic elections. Yet states disagree about the limits of this right when it comes to the case of prisoners’ disenfranchisement. Some states allow all prisoners to vote, some disenfranchise all prisoners, and others allow only some prisoners to vote. This chapter argues that national courts view the international right to vote in three fundamentally different ways: some view it as an inalienable right that cannot be taken away, some view it merely as a privilege that doesn’t belong to the citizens, and others view it as a revocable right that can be taken away under certain conditions. The differences in the way states conceive the right to vote imply that attempts by the European Court of Human Rights to follow the policies of the majority of European states by using the Emerging Consensus doctrine are problematic.

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