October 23, 2026
By Barbara Grabowska-Moroz In May 2026, the ECtHR decided Sobczyńska and others v Poland – a case suggesting the existence of structural shortcomings of judicial independence in the Polish legal system, which existed long before the rule of law crisis started in Poland in 2015. The case concerns the role of access to judicial review […]
October 23, 2026
Read moreOctober 09, 2026
By Alina Tryfonidou The issue of the cross-border recognition of parenthood established between a child and two persons of the same sex in States which allow joint legal parenthood by same-sex couples has come to the fore in Europe in the last decade or so. The question has concerned both of Europe’s supranational courts – […]
October 06, 2026
By Joanna Demopoulou On 25 August 2026 the Grand Chamber held that Osman Kavala’s criminal conviction ‘should be regarded, under Convention law, as null and void’ (Kavala v. Türkiye (No. 2), § 309). Article 46 ECHR reasoning is ordinarily oriented towards obligations, results and measures: what the respondent State must achieve, and by what means, […]
October 02, 2026
By Marilena Katsogiannou Among the striking features of the Grand Chamber’s judgment in Kavala v. Türkiye (no. 2) is the way it dealt with Kavala’s expressly pleaded Article 7 complaint. It identified the defects at its core, but did not decide the complaint under this provision. Article 7 ECHR embodies the principle of criminal legality: […]
September 29, 2026
By Emilia Klebanowski On 25 August 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) delivered its landmark judgment in Kavala v Türkiye (No. 2). Sitting as a Grand Chamber, the Court found by fifteen votes to two that Turkey had violated Articles 3, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 18 of the European Convention […]
Strasbourg Observers is an academic blog that discusses recent developments at the European Court of Human Rights. The blog is run as an inter-university collaboration amongst the Dutch-language universities of Belgium. Associated research groups are the Human Rights Centre at Ghent University, the Centre for Government and Law at Hasselt University, the Leuven Centre for Public Law at KU Leuven, the Law and Development Research Group at the University of Antwerp and the Vakgroep Publiekrecht at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
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September 25, 2026
By Martin Scheinin and Sophie Duroy The latest judgment on surveillance powers in Bulgaria, identified by the Court as a Key Case, is a puzzling read. The Court is undoubtedly right to find that Bulgaria continues to violate the Convention through its surveillance practices, including in relation to civil society organisations. Yet Kanev is, in […]
September 18, 2026
By Katarzyna Widlas-Klimsiak How should the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) reconcile, under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a State’s obligation to secure appropriate psychiatric care with the limits that autonomy and consent place on imposing such care? Three recent judgments illuminate different sides of this problem. In Spivak v […]
September 11, 2026
By Sophie Bols The ECtHR’s judgment in D.M. v Sweden has been well received by scholars and practitioners, alongside other recent migration-related judgments, in which the Court has issued well‑reasoned and protective decisions amid intense political contestation. The judgment provides important safeguards at a moment when several member states have begun deporting, or openly discussing […]
September 08, 2026
By Basil Saen As reported earlier on this blog, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) issued an interesting Grand Chamber judgment in Yasak v. Türkiye on 5 May 2026. This case sits in the context of mass prosecutions and convictions of alleged members of the ‘Fetullahist Terrorist Organisation/Parallel State Structure’ (the […]
September 04, 2026
By Merel Spaander “Indeed, giving birth is a unique and delicate moment in a woman’s life. It encompasses issues of physical and moral integrity, medical care, reproductive health and the protection of health-related information,” stated the Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in its assessment of C.P. v. Spain on 11 June 2026. […]
September 01, 2026
By Engin Firat Everyone is calling G.K. and A.S. v. Switzerland the vegan judgment. On 16 July 2026 the European Court of Human Rights held for the first time that dietary rules ‘dictated by genuine and consistently held vegan beliefs’ fall within the scope of Article 9 of the Convention, the freedom of thought, conscience […]
August 28, 2026
By Vesna Stefanovska On 7 July 2026, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in Al Nashiri v. Lithuania. The applicant had been detained for more than five months in a CIA detention facility in Lithuania, resulting in several Convention violations. In relation to Article 8, the Court found a violation on account […]
August 25, 2026
By Casper Vanspauwen On 30 June 2026, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR decided to strike out the applications constituting the case of Vainik and Others v. Estonia. In doing so, the Court effectively annulled its earlier Chamber judgment of 4 November 2025, in which it had ruled in favour of the applicants by a […]
August 21, 2026
By Gor Vartazaryan 1. Introduction: A Court That Is More Visible Than Ever? The relationship between the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Europe’s governments has rarely been under greater political scrutiny. Over the past year, migration has become the main point of an intense debate over the future of the Convention system. The […]
August 18, 2026
By Faraz Shahlaei In 2019, following Paris Saint-Germain’s controversial elimination from the UEFA Champions League against Manchester United, Neymar, PSG’s Brazilian football star, posted an Instagram story criticizing the referee’s decision to award a decisive penalty in the final minutes of the match. The story read: ‘This is a disgrace, they put four people who […]