Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Cases

  • Thibaut Lesseliers

Föderation der Aleviten Gemeinden in Österreich v. Austria: the ECtHR’s silent expansion of the associational dimension of the freedom to manifest religion

May 24, 2024

by Thibaut Lesseliers In the case of Föderation der Aleviten Gemeinden in Österreich, the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’, ‘the Court’) ruled on the Article 9 (freedom of religion) and Article 6 § 1 (reasonable time aspect of right to fair trial) complaints brought by an Alevi cultural association following the refusal of the […]

  • Cathérine Van de Graaf

Georgian Muslim Relations and Others v. Georgia – A bleeding pig’s head and other expressions of religious hatred with no police intervention

April 23, 2024

by dr. Cathérine Van de Graaf1 On 30 November, the Fifth Division of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Georgian Muslim Relations and Others v. Georgia. The Court ruled that Georgia had violated its positive obligations under Articles 8 and 9 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 14 as […]

  • Ignatius Yordan Nugraha

Defusing a Brewing Conflict with the Constitution: Humpert and Others v Germany, Procedural Rationality, and the Right of Civil Servants to Strike

February 06, 2024

by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha Civil servants are constitutionally prohibited from striking in Germany. This general prohibition also affects State school teachers who have a civil servant status. On 14 December 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in Humpert and Others v Germany that such a prohibition did not […]

  • Lidia Carchilan

Tadić v. Croatia – does discussing an ongoing case with a third party amount to a breach of impartiality under Article 6 § 1?

January 30, 2024

by Lidia Carchilan The impartiality of judges has been addressed by the Court on numerous occasions (see examples here, here, and here), providing the Court with the opportunity to develop a consistent line of case-law on the issue, from both its subjective and objective perspectives. In Tadić v. Croatia the Court ruled on the impartiality […]

  • Merel Spaander

Baret & Caballero v. France: unanimous refusal of access to posthumous reproduction with an uneasy aftermath

January 23, 2024

by Merel Spaander Given that the Strasbourg Club dedicated a discussion to the interesting case of Baret & Caballero v. France so recently, I can imagine that any reader would think: do we really need another blog post on this French case so soon? As an embryo law enthusiast, I must give a biased ‘yes’. […]

  • Felix Peerboom

A.D. v Malta: The Continuous Application of a Defective Asylum System

January 12, 2024

by Felix Peerboom On 17 October 2023, the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) published its ruling in A.D. v. Malta (press release available in English and French). The Court’s condemnation of Malta in this case for its ill-treatment of the applicant — a vulnerable asylum-seeker and presumed minor suffering from tuberculosis (TB), […]

  • Cristina Cocito

Glukhin v. Russia: facial recognition considered highly intrusive but not inconsistent with fundamental rights

January 09, 2024

By Cristina Cocito In Glukhin v. Russia of 4 July 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered an important ruling on the fundamental rights implications of technology. The case concerns compliance of facial recognition technology (hereafter FRT) with human rights. The judgment underlines the ‘highly intrusive’ nature of FRT. Most importantly, it finds […]

  • Daniel Krotov

How to Manage the End of Perpetual Challenging Rights? – The Case of Legros and Others v. France

December 15, 2023

by Daniel Krotov French administrative procedural law notoriously provides wide access to the courts that, from a foreign point of view, may even seem a bit excessive. One example was the possibility to challenge administrative acts indefinitely if they lacked proper instruction on the right to appeal. In an effort to restrict this perpetual challenging […]

  • Steve Foster

Prisoner voting rights and the ECHR: Myslihaka and Others v. Albania

December 01, 2023

by Dr Steve Foster Disenfranchisement of convicted prisoners in Europe remains varied despite the Grand Chamber’s pivotal decision in Hirst v. United Kingdom No. 2 that any interference with a prisoner’s right to vote had to be necessary and proportionate. Thus, since Hirst the Court has upheld a number of State restrictions on prisoner voting […]

  • Eva Brems

In the Strasbourg Club: Who controls my gametes? Ranting on Baret & Caballero v. France

November 28, 2023

by Eva Brems Six members in a room in Ghent and five on a screen have enjoyed unpacking and weighing all the separate opinions in the Grand Chamber judgment in Yüksel Yalcinkaya v. Türkiye. Without pausing for tea, we move on to the other case Irene has selected for our biweekly discussion. Baret and Caballero […]

  • Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov

Hijacking Human Rights to Enable Punishment by Association: Valiullina, Džibuti and Outlawing Minority Schooling in Latvia

November 23, 2023

by Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov[i] In Valiullina and others v. Latvia and Džibuti and others v. Latvia, the Fifth Section of the European Court of Human Rights unanimously approved of further restrictions on Russian-language education in Latvia, thereby depriving a huge proportion of the population of the Republic of Latvia of education in […]

  • Ignatius Yordan Nugraha

Consolidating the Legal Recognition and Protection of Same-Sex Couples: Koilova and Babulkova v. Bulgaria

November 07, 2023

by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha In today’s globalised world, a marriage contracted abroad is not a peculiar phenomenon. Same-sex couples from countries such as Bulgaria or Romania may decide to tie the knot in a country where same-sex marriage has been legalised to start a family life. These couples, however, face a major legal hurdle not […]

  • Tobias Mortier

Lenis v. Greece: extreme homophobia not protected under freedom of expression

October 25, 2023

by Tobias Mortier Hate speech and violence against LGBTQI+ individuals are on the rise in Europe. In 2022, ILGA Europe reported an increase in both the number of cases of violence, as well as in their severity. As for hate speech, this was by no means limited to furtive cases; politicians in several countries (including […]

  • Benjamin Nurkić

Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina: the complete guidelines for the constitutional reform in B&H

September 12, 2023

by Benjamin Nurkić In the recently announced judgment in the case of Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 regarding the complaint about the composition of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H, and regarding […]

  • Eva Meyermans Spelmans

Mestan v. Bulgaria – finally a genuine recognition of linguistic rights?  

September 08, 2023

by Eva Meyermans Spelmans In the case of Mestan v. Bulgaria, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) found that a law imposing Bulgarian as the official language to be used in election campaigns violated the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 10. In 2013, Mr Mestan was fined for speaking […]

  • Jill Marshall

Cultural, Linguistic and Religious Identity and Care: recent developments in the case law

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 […]

  • Eva Sevrin

The exceptional case of Ghadamian v Switzerland: Private life and the obligation to regularize migrants

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). […]

  • Mark Klaassen

Deportation, mental illness and Article 8 ECHR: a discussion of Azzaqui v the Netherlands

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 […]

  • Dr. Andy Hayward

Maymulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine – A Case of Love Conquering All?

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 […]

  • Dylan Couck

A doctoral programme protected by the right to education in Telek and Others v. Türkiye? More careful research required

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 […]

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