Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: causation

  • Vladislava Stoyanova

Causation and Breach of Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights

July 29, 2025

by Vladislava Stoyanova *** To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Strasbourg Observers Blog, we organised an in-person symposium with scholars, practitioners, and members of the ECtHR on 8–9 May 2025 in Ghent. Connecting in person with so many regular contributors was a wonderful experience and led to engaging dialogue with current and former judges […]

  • Corina Heri

Vindicating the ECtHR’s Role in Environmental Matters: Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy

March 11, 2025

Corina Heri On 20 January 2025, the ECtHR issued a Chamber judgment in Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy. This environmental pollution case concerns an area known colloquially as the Terra dei Fuochi (“Land of Fires”) because it is notoriously plagued by the illegal dumping, burying and burning of waste on private land. This decades-long practice, […]

  • Alfred Benny Auner

A.P. v. Austria: Death of Conscript During ‘Heat March’ – The Question of Causality

February 14, 2025

By Alfred Benny Auner T.P. died during a ‘heat march’, merely one month into his compulsory military service. Although the decision to hold the march in extreme temperatures was considered ‘problematic’ by national authorities, and the military personnel involved acted negligently after T.P. collapsed, the ECtHR, in its judgment of 26 November 2024, A.P. v. Austria (1718/21), found […]

  • Vladislava Stoyanova

Validity Foundation on behalf of T.J. v Hungary and the role of factual causation for finding breaches of positive obligations under the ECHR

December 20, 2024

by Vladislava Stoyanova Introduction Validity Foundation on behalf of T.J. v Hungary raises some important questions about the standard of causation in the human rights law reasoning. This blog post does not aim to challenge the conclusion in the judgment that in fact appears very reasonable. This post is rather a continuation of my reflections […]