September 05, 2023
By Jill Marshall The ECHR’s text does not explicitly protect cultural rights. This position contrasts with other international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, through its dynamic interpretation of the ECHR’s different articles, substantive rights have been recognised which may fall under the notion of ‘cultural […]
August 29, 2023
By Eva Sevrin Ghadamian v Switzerland is one of the rare cases where the European Court of Human Rights decides that the State is under a positive obligation to regularize an irregularly residing migrant. Even more rare perhaps, is the fact that the Court finds this obligation under the right to private life (Article 8). […]
August 25, 2023
By Mark Klaassen Mental illness can reduce the weight attached to the nature and seriousness of a crime in the context of balancing interests under Article 8 ECHR in deportation cases. In Azzaqui v the Netherlands, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) confirmed the Grand Chamber judgment in Savran v Denmark and further […]
July 04, 2023
by Dr. Andy Hayward, Durham Law School, Durham University, a.p.hayward@durham.ac.uk Following the important Grand Chamber decision in Fedotova and Others v. Russia, the Strasbourg Court has handed down two significant decisions on the legal recognition of same-sex couples. In Buhuceanu and Others v. Romania, the Court developed the principles established in Fedotova and weaponised the […]
June 23, 2023
By Dylan Couck On 21 March 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) found that Türkiye had violated the right to respect for private life under Article 8 on the one hand, and the right to education under Article 2 of the First Protocol on the other. Türkiye had expelled Alphan Telek, Edgar […]
June 13, 2023
By Dr. Júlia Miklasová Introduction The judgment rendered by the Second Section of the Court in Mamasakhlisi and Others v. Georgia and Russia relates to the allegations of human rights violations by the de facto Abkhaz authorities in Abkhazia before the 2008 Russia-Georgia War and Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia. In this case, filed against Russia […]
May 30, 2023
by Giulio Fedele, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, giulio.fedele@uniroma1.it With its latest decision in the case of Buhuceanu and Others v. Romania on 23 May 2023, the European Court of Human Rights returned to the subject of same-sex couples and legal recognition. To no-one’s surprise, the Court confirmed what it had already established just five […]
May 09, 2023
Harriet Ní Chinnéide In L.B. v Hungary, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) applied the general measures doctrine developed in Animal Defenders International v. UK to find that the Hungarian legislative policy of publishing the personal data of taxpayers who were in debt violated Article 8 of the European […]
April 04, 2023
By Sjoerd Lopik The past decade has seen a significant rise in interest in climate obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). There is an almost unanimous opinion in literature that climate change can lead to far-reaching violations of human rights. Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, even deems […]
March 24, 2023
Dmitry Kurnosov Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe (‘CoE’) and, consequently, from the European Convention system has left almost 17 thousand cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’, ‘the Court’). That number will rise further as the Court has declared that it will accept applications concerning acts and omissions under Russian […]
March 21, 2023
By Titouan Berhaut-Streel & Charly Derave On 8 September 2022, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgement in Drelon v. France. The case concerns Mr Drelon’s denied applications to donate blood because he refused to answer whether he had ever had sex with other men and therefore to disclose his alleged sexual orientation. […]
March 17, 2023
Christopher Roberts Machalikashvili and Others v. Georgia concerned the killing of T.M. by members of the Counter-Terrorism Department of the State Security Service (‘SSS’) of Georgia on 26 December 2017. The precise circumstances in which this killing took place, as well as the integrity and comprehensiveness of the investigation subsequently conducted into the killing, were […]
March 07, 2023
By Nadia Rusinova The recent judgment in Veres v. Spain once more revolves around the time factor in proceedings related to child abduction. It concerns the violation of the father’s right to respect for his family life under Article 8 of the ECHR (hereinafter: the Convention). It demonstrates the detrimental effect of judicial delays especially […]
March 03, 2023
Jonathan McCully The European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) has acknowledged on a number of occasions that ‘racial discrimination is a particularly egregious kind of discrimination and, in view of its perilous consequences, requires from the authorities special vigilance and a vigorous reaction’ (Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, para. 43). Nonetheless, over […]
February 14, 2023
By Charly Derave and Hania Ouhnaoui On 19 May 2022, the European Court of Human Rights communicated its admissibility decision in the case of M. v. France, which deals with “normalising” medical treatments of intersex persons (i.e. those who are born with sex characteristics that do not fit the typical definition of the female and […]
February 10, 2023
By Marie-Hélène Peter-Spiess[1] In its recent judgment A.L. v. France, the European Court of Human Rights (the “ECtHR” or the “Court”) looked into the issue of domestic surrogacy and legal fatherhood in a situation where two paternal figures are on the line. More specifically, the case featured a surrogacy-born child that the surrogate entrusted to […]
January 13, 2023
By Tobias Mortier The technique of retrospective legislative regularisation is a disputed one. While the technique takes on different forms in the Belgian legal system, it generally involves the legislator retrospectively regularising a legislative or executive act – and thereby (purposely) influencing pending legal proceedings. Due to its sensitivity in light of the rule of […]
November 23, 2022
By Joseph Finnerty[*] Introduction The rule of law crisis in Poland is not new, but the engagement of Article 18 ECHR with this context is. In Juszczyszyn v. Poland, the ECtHR delivered its first Article 18 violation judgment against Poland. The case concerned the legal reforms that the Polish political ruling party (PiS) has adopted […]
November 15, 2022
Introduction On October 11th 2022, the third section of the Strasbourg Court delivered an important judgment in the case of Pavlov and Others v Russia (Application no. 31612/09), concerning air pollution, which will hopefully prove to have great ramifications for pending and future environmental and climate cases. In short, the majority spelled out that the […]
October 28, 2022
By Cathérine Van de Graaf On the 12th of September, the Human Rights Centre[1] (HRC) of Ghent University (Belgium) submitted a third party intervention (TPI) before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) in the communicated case of Missaoui and Akhandaf v. Belgium, after being granted leave to intervene by the President […]