Month: October 2008
-

10 Years of the New Full Time Court
Yesterday, the Court organised a seminar to commemorate that in a few weeks from now, on 1 November, it will be exactly ten years ago that Protocol 11 to the ECHR entered into force. The Protocol merged the European Commission of Human Rights with the
-

Another Echo of WW II
Two large scale problems arising from World War II were dealt with by the Court in the same month. Last week, I already reported about the finalisation of the Court’s pilot case procedrue in the so-called Bug river cases, concerning Poles who had to leave
-

Georgian Battleground Moving to Strasbourg
The armed conflict between Georgia and Russia concerning the region of South Ossetia might have been relatively short for a war, the effects of this violence are still being felt. Now, the battleground seems to be increasingly shifting to the courtroom. Georgia already filed an
-

Caught in a Minefield
Yesterday, the Court issued its judgment in the Albekov and others v. Russia case which may not only have been a landmark, but also a landmine judgment. Three family members of the applicants, all civilians, had been killed by landmines in a forest near the
-

Conference on ECHR
The University of Nottingham’s Human Rights Law Centre is organising a conference for academics and legal practitioners on topical issues concerning the ECHR. This is the announcement: The Conference will be held on Friday 14 November 2008, 9am-5pm, in the Great Hall, Trent Building, University
-

Hearing in Domestic Violence Case
Today the Court held a hearing in a case concerning domestic violence. The applicant, Nahide Opuz, has lodged a complaint against Turkey. The case centres on Opuz’ extremely violent husband who gravely ill-treated her and her mother many times and eventually killed her mother. Although
-

The Pilot has Landed
This week the Court concluded its first full cycle in a so-called pilot case procedure. It struck out 176 pending applications in the “Bug River” cases. These cases all concerned claims of applicants who disagreed with a Polish scheme set up to compensate people who
-

Article on Rights of ‘Travelling Peoples’
The most recent issue of the Human Rights Law Review (volume 8, no. 3, 2008) contains an article on one of my areas of particular interest: Ralph Sandland, Developing a Jurisprudence of Difference: The Protection of the Human Rights of Travelling Peoples by the European
-

Judgment on Apology of Terrorism
Cartoons are, as we have seen in recent years, not always completely innocuous. Today the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in a case focusing on the controversy about a cartoon depicting the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
-

Interpretation of International Humanitarian Law
Still catching up on recent Court judgments, allow me to highlight a recent Grand Chamber decision of the Court. In Korbely v. Hungary the Court found a violation of Article 7 ECHR (no punishment without law) by eleven votes to six. The applicant had participated