Earlier this week, the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Dean Spielmann, in one of the last weeks of his term, delivered the Thomas More lecture at Lincoln’s Inn in London. The lecture, entitled “Whither Judicial Dialogue”, president Spielmann argues for the importance of dialogical mechanisms between European and national judges (and between the two highest European courts) both in formal ways, through case-law) and informally through face-to-face meetings. This should not only be done in the classical ways – national judges in case-law formulate reactions to European judgments and vice versa – but also through Protocol 16 (allowing for advisory opinions and so far not yet entered into force due to the small number of ratifications) and through the recently created network of superior courts. This network can not only help the highest national courts to stay up-to-date with Strasbourg case-law but may also help, the other way around, Strasbourg in its comparative-law endeavours which it frequently undertakes. Spielmann also pointed to the use of Article 46, para 3 ECHR, on the elucidation of judgments, which may not only be useful to domestic executives, but also to domestic courts. The Court’s President, in the lecture, called judicial dialogue “a necessity, a corrective and an incentive” and even “the golden key” to the future protection of human rights. The full lecture can be found here.
