The newest issue of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights (Volume 27, No. 2, 2009) contains an article by Robin C. White and Iris Boussiakou entitled ‘Voices from the European Court of Human Rights’. It is based on interviews with a number of Strasbourg judges themselves and thus provides interesting insights on the Court’s own views on its own function. Here is the abstract:
The future of the Strasbourg Court, a large and very busy court, has been the subject f much discussion. The capacity of the Court to handle the volume of admissible cases remains a significant challenge, and is made more difficult by the absence of ratification by all contracting parties of Protocol No. 14. Ten years after the establishment of the new permanent court, nine judges reflected on aspects of the work of the Court and the challenges it faces. The main purpose of this article is to put into the public domain some extracts from those interviews, which cover a wide range of issues. The voices from the Court are offered in the context of an argument that the contracting parties need to recognise the constitutional nature of the Strasbourg Court, and should be, but probably are not, willing to change the admissibility rules to make determination by the Strasbourg Court a matter of discretion rather than entitlement.
