Full Professor of Human Rights in a Multidisciplinary Perspective at Utrecht University.
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Two Grand Chamber Judgments Today
Today the Grand Chamber of the Court issued two judgments. The first was the Turkish case of Kozacioğlu in which the Grand Chamber unanimously found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol 1 ECHR (peaceful enjoyment of property). That cleared the skies…
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Elected Once More
This week the Danish judge Peer Lorenzen was re-elected by his peers (what’s in a name!) as president of one of the Court’s fifth section. Judge Lorenzen has been around for a long time inm Strasbourg; previously, he served in the European…
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The Non-Legal Approach to the ECHR
Allow me to point your attention to the International Courts Data site, made by Erik Voeten of Georgetown University. A portal of information on international and regional courts from a political sciences perspective. The site has a special page devoted to the…
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Article on Procedural ECHR Aspects and Legitimacy
Two of my former colleagues, Tom Barkhuysen and Michiel van Emmerik of Leiden University, have just made available online their contribution to the book: Huls, Adams & Bomhoff (eds.), The Legitimacy of Highest Court Rulings (TMC Asser Press, the Hague 2009). Their…
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Judges Who Are Too Talkative
It happens around the world that politicians comment on ongoing court cases. Rightly so, this is very often condemned as being detrimental to good and fair judicial proceedings, especially in the public perception. A fortiori, one would say, judges themselves should not…
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Women on Waves
Yesterday, the Court issued its judgment in the case of Women on Waves and others v. Portugal and found a violation of Article 10 ECHR (freedom fo expression). The applicants were three NGOs: a Dutch one (owning a boat on which they…
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Costa’s Views on the Court
As announced, the Court formally opened its judicial year last Friday – a very special occasion, since the Court exists fifty years. Thus, it provided the oppportunity for the Court’s president, Jean-Paul Costa, to look back in his speech at what the…
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Yukos Lawsuit
In December, I mentioned a judgment of the Court in the case of Aleksanyan, one of the former executives of the now defunct Russian oil company Yukos. Today the EU Observer reported that the Court declared a claim of the shareholders of…
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Annual Report of the Court
Yesterday, at a press conference in Strasbourg, the Court presented its annual report. For Court watchers, the report presents a familiar continuation of the trends of the last few years. A rising number of Court judgments (1,543: up 3%) and 30,163: up…
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Environmental Pollution Judgment
It is widely known that the extraction of precious metals from mines often happens by using dangerous chemical substances. If not properly used, such substances can cause damage to the health of people living in the vicinity of such a mine and…