The European Court of Human Rights

Opis

The European Court of Human Rights. Between Judical Activism and Passivism

autor: Adam Wiśniewski

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego

The work begins with a chapter which presents the genesis of the ECHR, which is important for a proper understanding of the Convention system, and this is followed by a chapter on the principles of the ECHR and its Interpretation by the Court. Separate chapters are allocated to the dynamic interpretation of the ECHR and the phenomenon of the Court’s judicial activism. The next two chapters concern the controversial margin of appreciation doctrine, stressing the importance of attempts at theoretical study of the interpretation and application of the Convention. A separate chapter is devoted to the principle of consensus and its significance in the interpretation of the Convention. The study ends with a chapter containing some general considerations of the theory of interpretation of the ECtHR.

Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter i
The Origins of the European Convention on Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1. The Development of the Convention – Disputes and Compromises . . 12
2. The Development of the ECHR System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3. The Evolution of the Mechanism of ECHR Implementation . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter ii
The Principles of the ECHR and its Interpretation
by the Strasbourg Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1. The ECHR Principles and the Process of the Convention’s
Constitutionalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2. Interpretation of the ECHR by the European Court
of Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3. Mutual Relationships Between the Principles and Methods
of ECHR Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Chapter iii
The Convention as a “Living Instrument” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
1. The Scope, Conditions of Use and Functions of Evolutive
Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2. Use of the Evolutive Method and the Principles of Interpretation
Defined in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties . . . . . . . . . 80
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Chapter iv
On the Judicial Activism of the ECtHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
1. The Faces of Strasbourg Activism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2. Criticism of the ECtHR’s Judicial Activism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3. The Risks Associated with the Activism of the ECtHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4. Judicial Activism and the Problem of the Court’s Legitimacy . . . . . . . 101
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter v
The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine and its Theoretical Aspects . . . . . . . . 105
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
1. The Critique and the Defence of the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine 106
2. The Theoretical Approach to the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine . . . 113
3. A Model Construction of the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine . . . . . . 116
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter vi
The Limits and Supervision Over the Margin of Appreciation,
the Problem of the Threshold of Compliance with the ECHR . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
1. Observations on Demarcating the Limits of the Margin of Appreciation 127
2. Supervision Over the National Authorities’ Margin of Appreciation . 134
3. The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine and the ”Compliance Threshold”
with the Material Provisions of the ECHR and its Protocols . . . . . . . . 146
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Chapter vii
The Significance of the Principle of Consensus in the Interpretation
of the ECHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
1. The Principle of Consensus in the Court’s Case Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
2. The Principle of Consensus and Discretion on a National Level . . . . . . 164
3. The Function of the Principle of Consensus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4. Justification and Criticism of the Principle of Consensus . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Chapter viii
About the Theory of Interpretation of the ECHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
1. Approaches to the Research on the Interpretation of the ECHR . . . . . 175
2. Letsas’ Liberal Approach to Interpretation of the ECHR . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
3. Problems of the Theory of ECHR Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Table of Cases (ECtHR’s Judgements) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219