Strasbourg Observers
  • Guest Blogger

Ban on Political Advertising Does Not Violate Article 10: Animal Defenders International v. UK

April 24, 2013

This guest post was written by Ronan Ó Fathaigh* On Monday, the Grand Chamber of the European Court held, by nine votes to eight, that the UK’s ban on political advertising on television did not violate Article 10. The majority opinion in Animal Defenders International v. the United Kingdom departed substantially from the Court’s previous […]

  • Guest Blogger

Equal treatment for remand and convicted prisoners: Gülay Çetin v. Turkey

April 09, 2013

This guest post was written by Cedric De Koker, academic assistant at the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP), Ghent University. With its judgment in the case of Gülay Çetin v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)  added another chapter to its significant body of detention-related case law. Having to pronounce […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

Söderman v. Sweden: third party intervention of our Human Rights Centre

April 04, 2013

We were in Strasbourg yesterday to attend the Grand Chamber hearing in the case of Söderman v. Sweden. In this case, formerly known as E.S. v. Sweden, the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University  has submitted a third party intervention. We expect the Grand Chamber judgment to become the leading case on positive obligations under […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Forthcoming Publication on Vulnerable Groups in the Court’s Case Law

March 18, 2013

This post was written by Alexandra Timmer and Lourdes Peroni Alexandra and I are happy to announce the forthcoming publication of our joint Article “Vulnerable Groups: The Promise of an Emerging Concept in European Human Rights Convention Law.” The piece will be published in the International Journal of Constitutional Law – I•CON. In this Article, […]

  • Weichie

X. and Others v. Austria (Part II): A Narrow Ruling on a Narrow Issue

March 06, 2013

In this second post on the Grand Chamber judgment in X. and Others v. Austria, I will focus on the narrowness of it all: the narrowness of the issue before the Court, the narrowness of the ruling and the narrow approach the majority took to the European consensus. Although I believe the majority should be […]

  • Guest Blogger

X. and Others v. Austria (Part I): Had the Woman Been a Man…

March 04, 2013

This guest post – the first in a two-post series on X. and Others v. Austria – was written by Grégor Puppinck* On the 19th of February, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights published its ruling in the case of X and others v. Austria (no. 19010/07), which decided by ten […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

“Very Weighty Reasons” for Religion: Vojnity v. Hungary

February 27, 2013

It looks like freedom-of-religion season has arrived in Strasbourg. After leaving aside the “freedom to resign” doctrine in Eweida, the Court has just made another move towards greater recognition of the importance of freedom of religion. In Vojnity v. Hungary, the Court clearly recognizes religion as a “suspect” ground of differentiation. As a result – […]

  • Guest Blogger

Non-nationals, living conditions and disability: Situating S.H.H. v. United Kingdom within Strasbourg’s Article 3 case-law

February 19, 2013

This guest post was written by Elaine Webster. Elaine holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and is currently a lecturer and director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde.  In S.H.H. v. United Kingdom a chamber of the ECtHR, by four votes to three, found […]

  • Saïla Ouald Chaib

Freedom of Religion in Public Schools: Strasbourg Court v. UN Human Rights Committee

February 14, 2013

In a recent decision, the Human Rights Committee of the UN found a violation of the right to freedom of religion in a case concerning the famous and highly debated French law of 2004 that prohibits the wearing of religious garment in public schools. Accordingly the UN Committee called upon France to revisit its legislation. […]

  • Laurens Lavrysen

Procedural Justice in Human Rights Adjudication: The European Court of Human Rights

February 12, 2013

In the context of the project “Strengthening the European Court of Human Rights: More Accountability through Better Legal Reasoning”, Eva Brems and I have written an article in which we explore the relevance of the socio-psychological concept of ‘Procedural Justice’ for the European Court of Human Rights. I am proud to announce that this article […]

  • Alexandra Timmer

Horváth and Kiss v. Hungary: a strong new Roma school segregation case

February 06, 2013

The Strasbourg Court has once more delivered a judgment in a Roma school segregation case. The applicants in Horváth and Kiss v. Hungary are two young Roma men, who were diagnosed as having mild mental disabilities when they were children. As a result of these diagnoses, they were placed in a remedial school. Their education […]

  • Weichie

Poll on the Best and Worst ECtHR Judgment of 2012: the ‘Winners’

February 04, 2013

Now that our poll on the best and worst ECtHR judgments of 2012 has been running for a couple of weeks, we considered it a good moment to formally announce the results of the voting, as of now. We curiously noted that visitors were much more likely to vote for best judgment (171 votes) than […]

  • Weichie

Eweida, Part II: The Margin of Appreciation Defeats and Silences All

January 23, 2013

In this second post on Eweida and Others v. the United Kingdom, I deal with the conflict between freedom of religion (or the prohibition of indirect discrimination on the basis of religion, if you so wish) and the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (or an employer’s interest in upholding equality and […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Eweida and Others v. the United Kingdom (Part I): Taking Freedom of Religion More Seriously

January 17, 2013

Eweida and Others v. the United Kingdom is probably one of the most awaited freedom of religion judgments of recent times. Twelve third parties intervened in the case. The judgment in fact covers four big cases brought by Christian applicants, complaining that they had suffered religious discrimination at work. This week and next week, the […]

  • Weichie

Poll: the best and the worst ECtHR judgments of 2012

January 15, 2013

To start off 2013, we are organising a poll to celebrate the best and recall the worst the ECtHR jurisprudence had to offer in 2012. We are inviting all readers to vote for what they consider to be the best and the worst ECtHR judgment of 2012, in the two polls below. We have nominated […]

  • Guest Blogger

Condemning extraordinary rendition: El-Masri v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

January 10, 2013

This guest post was written by Mila Isakovska. Mila holds an LLM in International Public Law and Human Rights from the Riga Graduate School of Law and is currently working as Legal System Monitor in the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. The news of the Grand Chamber judgment in the extraordinary rendition case of El Masri […]

  • Guest Blogger

MICHAUD V. FRANCE: A step forward into the Bosphorus doctrine, or a step backward into “subjective” foreseeability?

December 21, 2012

This guest post was written by Daria Sartori.* Two weeks ago, the European Court delivered a judgment in the case of Michaud v. France. Even though it is not final yet, this judgment is highly interesting because of its dual core,  giving better shape to the Bosphorus doctrine while reaching questionable conclusions on the nature […]

  • Saïla Ouald Chaib

Belgian Constitutional Court says Ban on Face Coverings does not violate Human Rights

December 14, 2012

Last week the Belgian Constitutional Court rejected a claim to annul the ban on face coverings, better known as ‘burqa ban’.  This ban prohibits the wearing of clothing that covers the face, or a large part of it, in the public space.  The Constitutional Court (hereinafter the “CC”) concluded that the ban does not violate […]

  • Lourdes Peroni

Redfearn v. the United Kingdom: Protection against Dismissals on Account of Political Belief or Affiliation

December 11, 2012

Last month, the Court decided a case that may end up in the Grand Chamber: Redfearn v. the United Kingdom. The case concerns the dismissal of an employee on account of his political affiliation with the British National Party (“the BNP”). At the relevant time, the BNP “only extended membership to white nationals” (paragraph 9). […]

  • Saïla Ouald Chaib

NEW BOOK: Diversity and European Human Rights: rewriting judgments of the ECHR

December 07, 2012

Our research team is delighted to announce the publication of our book “Diversity and European Human Rights: rewriting judgments of the ECHR” edited by prof. dr. Eva Brems and published by Cambridge University Press. This book is the fruit of the conference “Mainstreaming Diversity: Rewriting Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights” that we organized […]

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