The European Convention Of Human Rights Regime

The model system created by the European Convention on Human Rights is internationally renowned. The rights it protects are among the most important, covering not only civil and political rights, but also certain social and economic rights, such as the right to respect for personal possessions. The European Court of Human Rights stands at the heart of the protection mechanism guaranteeing these rights. It is now an entirely judicial system since the adoption and entry into force of Protocol No. 11, which reorganised the whole system and extended the Court's jurisdiction. The Court's excessive caseload is a problem, though, and this has led to the further improvements contained in Protocol No. 14, designed to strengthen the operation and effectiveness of the Court.

European Convention on Human Rights – Article 10 – Freedom of expression 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. 2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary. In the context of an effective democracy and respect for human rights mentioned in the Preamble to the European Convention on Human Rights, freedom of expression is not only important in its own right, but it also plays a central part in the protection of other rights under the Convention. Without a broad guarantee of the right to freedom of expression protected by independent and impartial courts, there is no free country, there is no democracy. This general proposition is undeniable. This handbook is a practical tool for legal professionals from Council of Europe member states who wish to strengthen their skills in applying the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in their daily work.

2. The right to marry

The European Court of Human Rights has long been part of the most advanced human rights regime in the world. However, the Court has increasingly drawn criticism, with questions raised about its legitimacy and backlog of cases. This book for the first time brings together the critics of the Court and its proponents to debate these issues. The result is a collection which reflects balanced perspectives on the Court's successes and challenges. Judges, academics and policymakers engage constructively with the Court's criticism, developing novel pathways and strategies for the Court to adopt to increase its legitimacy, to amend procedures to reduce the backlog of applications, to improve dialogue with national authorities and courts, and to ensure compliance by member States. The solutions presented seek to ensure the Court's relevance and impact into the future and to promote the effective protection of human rights across Europe. Containing a dynamic mix of high-profile contributors from across Council of Europe member States, this book will appeal to human rights professionals, European policymakers and politicians, law and politics academics and students as well as human rights NGOs.

The third edition of European Human Rights Law: Text and Materials has been substantially expanded to provide a complete review of the wide range of rights the Convention protects, with new chapters on the right to life, property, discrimination, religious freedom, and education. The book introduces both the process and the substance of this increasingly important area of European law. A broad selection of extracts from essential cases and materials is accompanied by stimulating commentary that guides the reader through the legal rules and court system that have evolved in Strasbourg, how the court works, and how European human rights law is enforced both at the national and international level. European human rights law is also placed into a useful comparative framework alongside human rights cases decided by courts in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. This third edition has been extensively updated to cover the major developments of recent years, including the reform of the European Court of Human Rights and the expansion of the system to central and eastern Europe.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 8/10, University of Sarajevo (Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies), course: European Studies, language: English, abstract: The paper offers a review of a parallel development of two distinct but increasingly overlapping systems of the protection of human rights, the one under the auspices of the Council of Europe and its European Convention on Human Rights and the other integrated within the Community Law of the European Communities and later the European Union. The former established the individual citizen as the subject of international law, who may seek protection for alleged violations of his/her rights directly from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This system operates relatively efficiently since it is based on the largely universally accepted political principles of democracy and human rights by all member states of the Council of Europe. In contrast, the Community Law system is concerned more with economic and social rights of the European Union citizens. Given a specific supra-national legal system of the European Union some of its norms may collide with the European Convention on Human Rights as well as with national constitutions of EU member states. Under the doctrine of "surrendered sovereignty" the European Court of Justice is authorized to issue direct orders to national courts when applying the Community Law. This is not the case with the European Court of Human Rights, which can act only on an individual case-to-case basis without giving preliminary judgements on national laws in general. Moreover, the two courts gave different interpretations of certain provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights in the past and issued contradictory judgements. To avoid such problems, some have proposed an idea that, despite the fact that all EU member states have signed the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Union as an entity should do the same in order to ensure uniformity of legal interpretations and judicial practice, which again raises questions on the legal nature of the European Union.

The reason of State plays an important role under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Not only does Article 15 authorize States to take measures derogating from their obligations under the Convention `in time of war or other public emergency, threatening the life of the nation'; most of the rights and liberties defined in the Convention are subject to escape clauses as well. This book demonstrates first that the `system' of the Convention is much more ambiguous than could have been expected. Secondly, it shows, on the basis of study carried out in most of the Member States of the Council of Europe, that a certain resistance exists to the Convention. Neither the ambiguity of the European system, nor the resistance of States to the system must be overlooked. These should not, however, conceal the dynamics of the Europe/States relationship which could well lead to a more `reasoned' conception of the reason of State. Has a `Europe of human rights' begun to develop through the complex interplay of national and European norms? This is the question raised in this fascinating book. Mireille Delmas-Marty is professor of Law at the Université de Paris 1 (Panthéon -- Sorbonne) and Director of the Section de Sciences Criminelles of the Institute of Comparative Law in Paris.

The system for the protection of human rights under the European Convention to Human Rights (`ECHR') represents the most complete judicial model for protecting such rights. The case law of the Court of Human Rights has elaborated and defined the substantive rights so that there is now adetailed set of standards for State conduct towards those within their jurisdiction. This completely re-written new edition of Francis Jacob's 1975 book on the Convention takes the case law of the Court as its starting point, but also offers full consideration of the Commission's case law onquestions of admissability. The result is a highly readable text which both explains the procedural aspects of bringing a case to Strasbourg (including the changes contained in Protocol No. 11) and analyses the substantive law of the Convention.