April 23, 2024
by dr. Cathérine Van de Graaf1 On 30 November, the Fifth Division of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Georgian Muslim Relations and Others v. Georgia. The Court ruled that Georgia had violated its positive obligations under Articles 8 and 9 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 14 as […]
April 19, 2024
By Noa Vreven On 14 December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of M.L. v. Poland (no. 40119/21). The case concerned the prohibition of abortion on the legal grounds of foetal abnormality, following a much-discussed ruling by the Polish Constitutional Court of 2020. This legal development forced the applicant to […]
April 16, 2024
By dr. Mathieu Leloup It is no secret that the protection of the independence of domestic judges has been high on the judicial agenda of the supranational courts in the recent past. Over the course of the last few years, issues related to judicial independence have been at the forefront of the case law of […]
April 12, 2024
Eva Brems In a previous blogpost I wondered whether scholars and teachers of the ECHR can really understand how the Court interprets the Convention, if we do not know what happens in the large majority of cases, in particular those dismissed as inadmissible by a single judge in a four-line decision devoid of motivation. This […]
April 09, 2024
Eva Brems ‘The European Court as the main violator of human rights’, it said on a PowerPoint slide in my ECHR class this semester. This was a presentation by a guest speaker: an attorney with a lot of experience with ECtHR procedures. I had simply invited him to talk about this experience, but he had […]
March 22, 2024
Dr. Alice Dejean de la Bâtie French criminal law forbids anyone to disclose or even publicly mention the name of the victim of sexual assault without their express written permission. Anyone. Ever. Even the defendants themselves. Even before any trial has taken place. Even if the victim’s name has previously been disclosed countless times. Can […]
March 19, 2024
By Vladislava Stoyanova Krachunova v. Bulgaria is the first judgment where the ECtHR addressed the question of compensation for victims of human trafficking as a positive obligation held by States under Article 4 of the Convention. As the Court noted at para 161, in this case, the Court is ‘for the first time confronted with […]
March 08, 2024
by Anca Ailincai On 24th January 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) resolved not to ratify the credentials of Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation. Consequently, the Azerbaijani delegation has been suspended from participating in PACE until further notice. The decision was based on substantive grounds, including the use of military force in Nagorno-Karabakh, […]
March 05, 2024
By Dr Juan Ruiz Ramos Introduction W.A. and Others v. Italy concerns the procedures that States ought to follow to avoid violating the principle of non-refoulement under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention). While procedural matters often do not create as much hype among academics as questions of substance—such as the […]
March 01, 2024
By Dr Donatas Murauskas Should anyone be left to the mercy of trial by media? ‘Never ever. Under no circumstances,’ underlines judge Kūris in his elaborated dissenting opinion in Mesić v. Croatia (no. 2), criticising the Chamber reasoning that sets ‘a very low standard for the protection of personality rights’. The case-law develops, and new contexts […]
February 27, 2024
By Dr Dimitrios Kagiaros In O.G. and others v. Greece, the Third Section of the ECtHR delivered a compelling judgment vindicating the rights of sex workers living with HIV in Greece who had been subjected to unprecedented public shaming and vilification by Greek authorities. While the judgment unequivocally denounced the actions of the Greek authorities, […]
February 23, 2024
By Dr Sarah Trotter On 16 November 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the ECtHR’) handed down its judgment in G.T.B. v Spain. It is a judgment that constitutes a significant moment in the development of the right to respect for private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘the […]
February 06, 2024
by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha Civil servants are constitutionally prohibited from striking in Germany. This general prohibition also affects State school teachers who have a civil servant status. On 14 December 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in Humpert and Others v Germany that such a prohibition did not […]
February 02, 2024
by Dániel Karsai[1] and Viktor Kazai[2] In October 2023, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in Ikotity and Others v Hungary and found that the Speaker’s refusal to grant three opposition Member of Parliaments (MPs) permission to use posters during a parliamentary debate, and the sanctions they received for having used the […]
January 26, 2024
By Emma De Clerq In a recent judgment from 28 November 2023, the Strasbourg Court found a violation of the right to property, as environmental protections kept the applicants from enjoying the economic benefits of their forests, without compensation. The forests in question were designated as protected areas under the European “Natura 2000” network. This […]
January 19, 2024
by Tommaso Virgili In the case of Internationale Humanitäre Hilfsorganisation e. V. v. Germany, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the decision by the German authorities to dissolve and seize the assets of a charity due to its indirect support to the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas did not violate Article 11 of […]
January 16, 2024
by Dr. Mateusz Wąsik ‘Member States are required to provide a legal framework allowing same‑sex couples to be granted adequate recognition and protection of their relationship’, ruled the ECtHR in the latest judgment for same-sex couples in the case of Przybyszewska and Others v. Poland on 12 December 2023. Academics and practitioners may say nihil […]
January 12, 2024
by Felix Peerboom On 17 October 2023, the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) published its ruling in A.D. v. Malta (press release available in English and French). The Court’s condemnation of Malta in this case for its ill-treatment of the applicant — a vulnerable asylum-seeker and presumed minor suffering from tuberculosis (TB), […]
January 09, 2024
By Cristina Cocito In Glukhin v. Russia of 4 July 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered an important ruling on the fundamental rights implications of technology. The case concerns compliance of facial recognition technology (hereafter FRT) with human rights. The judgment underlines the ‘highly intrusive’ nature of FRT. Most importantly, it finds […]
December 19, 2023
by Babette De Naeyer Pablo Rivadulla Duró is a Spanish rapper, better known as Pablo Hasél, who was criminally convicted for writing several insulting tweets, in which he, for example, called the royal family ‘parasites’ and a ‘criminal gang’. He also wrote an offensive rap song, in which he accused King Emeritus Juan Carlos I […]