-
Court’s Summer Break
After issuing its last judgments yesterday, the Court has gone on its summer break. This blog will do the same and will return at the end of September (a bit later than the Court itself). For some summer reading, please consult (and…
-
Recognised at Long Last
In one of its last judgments before the summer break, the Court found violations on several counts in a case lodged by the Austrian Religionsgemeinschaft der Zeugen Jehovas (Austrian Jehovah’s Witnesses). The religious community applied for legal recognition as a religious society…
-
Turkish AK Party Fined But Not Dissolved
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party will not be banned. It was a Phyrric victory for the party, however. A majority of the judges voted to close down the party, but the majority…
-
Losing Flux – Freedom of Expression Case
Today the Moldovan newspaper Flux for the first time lost a case before the European Court of Human Rights. The newspaper is famous among Strasbourg watchers. It instituted and won six earlier cases before the Court and each time a violation of…
-
Request for Interim Measure on Turkish AK Party – Dismissed
Last Friday, 25 July, the Court received an application by Ali Sezer relating to the possible dissolution of the ruling party in Turkey, the AK Party (Justice and Development Party). The applicant also asked for an interim measure “to prevent the Turkish…
-
Kononov judgment available
The Kononov judgment I mentioned in last Friday’s post is now available on the Court’s website (in English and in French). To find it, click here.
-
World War II Crimes Revisited
It is relatively rare, but sometimes echoes of crimes committed during World War II reach the Strasbourg Court. In such instances the Court is called upon to look into atrocities which themselves gave rise to the drafting of the Convention and the…
-
Judicial Ethics
Article 21 ECHR provides that the Court’s judges shall be of high moral character, qualified, impartial and independent. These criteria have been further specified in the Rules of Court. Apparently, this was not sufficient – or at least not sufficiently known to…
-
Separate, But Still Equal
After the Czech Republic and Greece, it was Croatia’s turn last week to be faced with a complaint of unequal treatment of Roma in schools. In the case of Orsus and others v. Croatia, the European Court of Human Rights addressed the…
-
Hate Speech Case
Restricting hate speech is often a contentious point from the perspective of human rights. Last week, the Court issued a judgment on such speech in the French case of Soulas and others. Soulas was the publisher of a book written by Guillaume…
