Strasbourg Observers
  • Anca Ailincai

Should the Polish authorities request the CoE Parliamentary Assembly to lift MP Marcin Romanowski’s immunity?

September 10, 2024

By Anca Ailincai Immunity of high-ranking State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction has been a topic of considerable debate for several years (e.g. here). The summer news has provided a rare opportunity to shed light on the more confidential issue of the immunities from jurisdiction and arrest of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the […]

  • Maja Lysienia

For better or for worse? Grand Chamber takes over cases concerning pushbacks at the Belarusian border

September 06, 2024

Maja Lysienia For over three years now, crisis at the Belarusian border has been testing national authorities’ commitment to human rights. Since July 2021, Belarus has allowed for, facilitated or forced the irregular entry of third-country nationals to the EU. This new state conduct was quickly labelled as an “instrumentalization of migration”. Poland, Lithuania and […]

  • Dr Dimitrios Kagiaros and Dr Inga Thiemann

M.A. and others v. France: The ‘End Demand’ model of Regulating Sex Work goes to Strasbourg

September 03, 2024

by Dr Dimitrios Kagiaros and Dr Inga Thiemann In M.A. and others v. France, the Court’s fifth section was called to decide on a particularly controversial issue: whether France’s 2016 law, which criminalised the purchase of sex without exception, was compatible with Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). […]

  • Dirk Voorhoof

Sokolovskiy v. Russia: criminal conviction for religious ‘hate speech’ violated the right to freedom of expression of a blogger

August 27, 2024

by Dirk Voorhoof 1. – Introduction In its judgment of the 4th June 2024 in the case of Sokolovskiy v. Russia the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dealt with the issue of religious hate speech as a criminal offence interfering with the right to freedom of expression and information under Article 10 ECHR (see […]

  • Júlia Miklasová

The Conflation of Jurisdiction and Attribution Tests, the ‘Law,’ and the International Legal Status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia: A Review of Recent ECtHR Case Law

August 23, 2024

By Júlia Miklasová This blog features an analysis of the common threads that link three recent ECtHR judgments related to the Russia-controlled parts of Georgian territory – the de facto entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia –with the Court’s existing case law. Particularly, the blog focuses on the conflation of the jurisdiction and attribution tests, […]

  • Holly Greenwood

Case of Nealon and Hallam v. the United Kingdom: Article 6 (2) and the presumption of innocence in wrongful conviction compensation proceedings: nothing but semantics?

August 20, 2024

by dr Holly Greenwood Introduction The case of Nealon and Hallam v. the United Kingdom concerned a joint application from two individuals who were denied compensation for their wrongful convictions under the statutory scheme in England and Wales. The applicants argued s.133(1ZA) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, as amended by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime […]

  • Marie-Sophie de Clippele

Who owns art over time? The judicial saga of the Statue of Victorious Youth in Getty Trust v. Italy

August 16, 2024

By Marie-Sophie de Clippele Who owns the famous antique Statue of Victorious Youth on display in the Getty Museum (USA)? Does the Getty Trust have rightful ownership after nearly fifty years, or is it Italian public property, given Italy’s claim that it was discovered in its waters? The ECtHR carefully avoids a straight answer to […]

  • Andrew Novak

Saakashvili v. Georgia and the Global Trend Toward Judicial Review of the Pardon Power

August 13, 2024

By Andrew Novak The decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Saakashvili v. Georgia provides a novel comparative analysis of the executive clemency power and an executive’s immunity from prosecution for misuse of that power. The debate over the nature of the pardon, filed by the former president of the Republic of Georgia, […]

  • Lize R. Glas

The tide is turning for the European Social Charter: The Vilnius Declaration and the Warm-up thereto

July 19, 2024

Lize R. Glas In the Reykjavík Declaration (17 May 2023), the member states of the Council of Europe (‘CoE’) reaffirm their ‘full commitment to the protection and implementation of social rights as guaranteed by the European Social Charter system’. In addition to making this important symbolic statement, they promise to ‘consider the organisation of a […]

  • Saïla Ouald-Chaib

Mikyas v. Belgium: one more ‘headscarf case’ that manifestly fails to acknowledge applicants’ concerns

July 17, 2024

By Saïla Ouald-Chaib “Les droits de l’homme n’existent pas. Ce sont les droits de l’homme blanc” These are the words of a young French Muslim girl whom I met when I was still in law school. She spoke those words when she learned I was studying human rights law. Her words stuck with me during […]

  • Evangelos Orestis Vouvonikos

Legal criteria for the primacy of business confidentiality over the right to freedom of expression in Boronyák v. Hungary

July 12, 2024

On 20 June 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, Court) published its judgment in Boronyák v. Hungary. The case concerned a fine imposed by the domestic courts on the applicant, Mr. Boronyák, for disclosing confidential information concerning the terms of his contract with a private company. The ECtHR unanimously held that there was […]

  • Dr. Tine Van Hof

Verhoeven v. France – Reconciling private international law and children’s rights law in international child abduction cases remains a difficult task

July 12, 2024

By Dr. Tine Van Hof On the 28th of March 2024, the European Court of Human Rights rendered a judgment in the case of Verhoeven v. France (application no. 19664/20). This case concerns Ms Verhoeven, who abducted her son from Japan to France. The French courts ordered the return of the child based on the […]

  • Vladislava Stoyanova

Biba v Albania: positive obligations under Article 8 and the question of causation

July 10, 2024

By Vladislava Stoyanova Biba v Albania raises multiple questions about the Court’s reasoning when State responsibility is established for breach of positive obligations under Article 8 ECHR. Given that three of the seven judges dissented, different answers are possible as to the scope and the content of these obligations in the school context and the […]

  • Eva Sevrin and Merel Vrancken

Systemic discrimination of intellectually disabled children: V.I. v. Moldova paves the way

July 05, 2024

By Eva Sevrin and Merel Vrancken In the judgment of V.I. v. Moldova, the Court uses a fine-toothed comb to go over the string of events that left V.I. an orphaned child stuck in a psychiatric hospital. The Court not only assesses the applicant’s individual case under Article 3, but also highlights the structural issues […]