European Court of Human Rights: Time for Reform?
10/02/2012
The Prime Minister recently called for reform of European Court of Human Rights after accusing it of unnecessarily overturning judgments reached in credible national courts. Kate Stone of GCN was interviewed for Lexis Nexis Current Awareness (published 9/2/12) and assesses whether the ECtHR is in danger of turning into a "small claims court" as asserted by David Cameron in his recent speech to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Extracts from the article as follows:
"As [David Cameron] and others have pointed out, the court’s jurisdiction now extends to 47 states with a combined population of 800 million, which was not the case at its inception. It is to be expected that the number of applications would rise along with the Court’s reach...A number of measures have already been introduced, including the use of single judges to determine admissibility in straightforward cases and a pilot judgment system for structural or systemic violations which generate large numbers of applications".
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“If reports are correct, [under the UK's Chairmanship of the Council, David Cameron] will propose that applications should be inadmissible if they are ‘substantially the same’ as a matter that has already been considered by a domestic court applying the Convention...Exemptions are proposed, allowing cases to be admitted where the domestic court has manifestly erred in applying or intepreting the Convention or where the case raises a serious question about application or interpretation. Yet these are not easy issues to determine."
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One trend the Council has identified is an increased number of aplications for "interim measures", namely ordrs from the ECtHR which bind the State party until the case is heard. “These measures are crucial tools for applicants seeking to preserve the status quo in urgent cases so that their application does not become academic before it is disposed of,” she says...."They are particularly likely to arise in cases concerning immigration and deportation, which is already a controversial area for the ECtHR."
Quick links
> The full article can be found on under Current Awareness on the Lexis Nexis network (subscription only) ref: LNB News 09/02/2012 92 "ECtHR: Time for Reform?" Click here to sign in if you have an account.
