Thursday 10 July 2014

Summer Break

This blog is taking a summer break. No posting in the weeks to come. I will be back in August and wish all of you who have it too a very good summer!

Wednesday 9 July 2014

New ECHR Readings


Please find below an overview of recent and less recent (but not yet mentioned on this blog) literature on the European Convention and the European Court of Human Rights:

* N. Bratza, 'Living instrument or dead letter - the future of the European Convention on Human Rights', European Human Rights Law Review, no. 2 (2014) pp. 116-128.
* And in the same issue: C. Draghici, 'The Human Rights Act in the shadow of the European Convention: are copyist's errors allowed?', pp. 154-169. 

* E. Bribosia, I. Rorive and L. Van den Eynde, 'Same-sex marriage: building an argument before the European Court of Human Rights in light of the US experience', Berkeley Journal of International Law, vol. 32, no. 1 (2014) pp. 1-43.

* Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou and Donal K. Coffey, 'Legitimacy and Independence of International Tribunals: An Analysis of the European Court of Human Rights', Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, vol. 37 (2014) p. 271.

* Samantha A. Miko, 'Norm Conflict, Fragmentation, and the European Court of Human Rights', Boston College Law Review, vol. 54 (2013) p. 1351.

* F. Mégret, 'The notion of ‘continuous violations’, expropriated Armenian properties, and the European Court of Human Rights', International Criminal Law Review, vol. 14, no. 2 (2014) pp. 317–331.

* S. Borelli, 'Domestic investigation and prosecution of atrocities committed during military operations: the impact of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights', Israel Law Review, 2013, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 369-404. 

* C. Ryngaert, 'Oscillating between embracing and avoiding Bosphorus: the European Court of Human Rights on Member State responsibility for acts of international organisations and the case of the EU', European Law Review, vol. 39, no. 2 (2014) pp. 176-192.

* R. Ahdieh and H. Flemming, 'Toward a jurisprudence of free expression in Russia: the European Court of Human Rights, sub-national courts, and intersystemic adjudication', UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, vol. 18, no. 1 (2013) pp. 31-60.

The Court itself, together with the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, launched an updated version of its 'Guide to European law on asylum,borders and immigration'. The earlier version has proven to be a huge success with over 26,00 downloads of this freely available ebook. For other languages than English, please see here.

Finally, last month, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers delivered a public lecture at King’s College London, entitled 'European Human Rights: A Force for Good or a Threat to Democracy?' which can be read online.  

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Election of Judges and Independence of the European Court of Human Rights

To increase the quality and precision of its work in the election of new judges to the Court, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has created a special committee. This committee will consist of twenty members and meet behind closed doors in order to interview candidates for the position of judge in the Court. It will assess whether the national selection procedures complied with the criteria of the Parliamentary Assembly itself. The committee will then make recommendations to the full Assembly which elects the judges. The Assembly's resolution on this can be found here and the press release here

On a related issue, the Assembly also sought to further safeguard the independence of the Court's judges, once elected, from outside interference and undue pressure. At the end of June the Assembly adopted a Recommendation on the issue based on the report of Boriss Cilevičs, on which I blogged earlier. The recommendation relates to ratification of the Sixth Protocol to the Council of Europe’s General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities, to revision of the judges’ social security arrangements and retirement pensions, and to improvements to their post-retirement status.

On a personal note: as regular readers have noted, blogging has been very scarce these past weeks. This is due to the grave illness and then passing away of my father: my thoughts and energies were and to an extent still are elsewhere.