December 05, 2012
One of the reasons why critics continue to attack the Strasbourg Court is its alleged judicial activism in the field of migration. The recent case of Shala v. Switzerland illustrates that the criticism on the Court is at best exaggerated and at worst simply a straw man. In this case, the Court all too easily […]
November 22, 2012
This guest post was written by Jogchum Vrielink.* A small-town Belgian café owner was convicted for failing to comply with the smoking ban. His defense: his establishment is in fact a house of prayer for his religion.
November 20, 2012
Amongst all the rightful concerns about the Strasbourg Court’s case-overload, I often find myself wondering about the cases that the Court isn’t getting. Some structurally occurring human rights violations aren’t receiving the attention of the Court – at least not in any amount that is proportionate to their scale. Domestic violence against women is one […]
November 07, 2012
This post is written by Dirk Voorhoof* The European Court of Human Rights delivered a new and remarkable judgment on trade union freedom of expression. In Szima v. Hungary the European Court concluded that a criminal conviction of a leader of a police trade union for having posted critical and offensive comments on the Union’s […]
November 05, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to publish this guest post by Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe, Center for Reproductive Rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights represented the applicants in P and S v. Poland before the ECtHR; see the Center’s press release here. This week, the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision […]
October 25, 2012
A few weeks ago, the European Court of Human Rights released its judgment in X. v. Turkey. The case concerned a homosexual detainee who was put in an individual cell and under a very restrictive detention regime, after he complained about intimidation and harassment by heterosexual detainees with whom he shared a collective cell. On […]
October 22, 2012
This guest post was written by Ingrid Leijten, Ph.D. researcher and teaching assistant at the Leiden University Faculty of Law, Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law. Only a few months ago I took the opportunity to discuss Herrmann v. Germany. In that case the Grand Chamber found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. […]
October 17, 2012
In this post, I would like to discuss two recent cases dealing with the investigation of racial/sexual violence, as both of them offer promising legal reasoning on the topic. The first case, B.S. v. Spain, represents a key step in the recognition of intersectional discrimination. The other, Fedorchenko and Lozenko v. Ukraine, puts strong emphasis […]
October 09, 2012
It’s fair to say that the Court’s record on racial discrimination is hesitant. Only as late as 2004 did the Court for the first time find that a State was guilty of racial discrimination.[1] This was in the Chamber judgment of Nachova v Bulgaria, which was later partly rescinded by the Grand Chamber in 2005. […]
October 03, 2012
Is the roof of the house in which you own a flat leaking? Is there a delay in repairs? Do you have to repaint the walls? Is there a delay of enforcement of decisions that ordered the repairs? These now seem to be valid questions for your potential human rights violation. In the case of […]
September 27, 2012
Earlier this week, the European Court of Human Rights released its judgment in El Haski v. Belgium, a case on the admissibility at a criminal trial of evidence potentially obtained through ill-treatment of third persons in a third State (Morocco). The ECtHR ruled that the Belgian authorities should have excluded the evidence from the trial. […]
September 20, 2012
This guest post was written by Adriana Di Stefano. Adriana is a tenured researcher and lecturer in international law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Catania. Her areas of expertise include international humanitarian law, human rights law and EU Law. On August 28th, 2012 the Second Section of the European Court of […]
September 12, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to conclude our series of tributes to Judge Tulkens with this guest post by Professor Paul Lemmens (KU Leuven). We wish Judge Tulkens a happy birthday today and, above all, much happiness in her post-ECtHR life. Judge Tulkens, we will truly miss your voice on the Court. We would also […]
September 11, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Professors Emmanuelle Bribosia and Isabelle Rorive (Université libre de Bruxelles). Justice.- Qui mieux que Françoise Tulkens incarne la justice ? Femme de principe, elle l’a encore été dans l’affaire Yoh-Ekale Mwanje c. Belgique (arrêt du 20 décembre 2011) qui concernait une ressortissante camerounaise atteinte […]
September 10, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Professor Serge Gutwirth (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Dans la triste affaire de M.C. c. Bulgarie, une jeune fille bulgare de quatorze ans et dix mois, M.C., encore vierge auparavant, affirma avoir été violée par deux hommes en une nuit. Les faits se déroulent au […]
September 06, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Professor Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen (Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne). Quel honneur de participer à ce «blog tribute» en l’honneur du juge Françoise Tulkens! Admirée de tous et de toutes, elle a incontestablement marquée l’oeuvre jurisprudentielle de la Cour : de l’intérieur, par la […]
September 03, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Judge Wilhelmina Thomassen, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights 1998-2004 and Justice of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands 2004-2012. Fourteen years ago, in 1998, the ‘old’ European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission of Human Rights were […]
August 30, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Professors Sébastien Van Drooghenbroeck (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis) and Frédéric Krenc (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis) In a Grand Chamber judgment of 15 March, 2012 (Austin vs UK) the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that containment within a police cordon during a violent […]
August 28, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Professor Marie-Bénédicte Dembour, University of Sussex. Françoise Tulkens arrived at Strasbourg because she wanted to make a contribution to the development of European human rights law. She had no prior judicial experience but brought to her new office fine legal skills and […]
August 27, 2012
The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to post this tribute to Judge Tulkens by Professor Margarida Garcia, University of Ottawa. Ma rencontre avec Françoise Tulkens a sans doute été plus importante et inspirante pour moi qu’elle ne le sait. Dans le cadre de ma recherche doctorale, je me suis intéressée aux rapports entre les droits de […]