Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:56:11.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

European Consensus and the Evolutive Interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) should be an instrument of development and improvement rather than an “end game” treaty which froze the state of affairs that existed 60 years ago. At the same time, evolutive interpretation should not be tantamount to arbitrary interpretation. This paper seeks to explain how the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) strikes a balance between development and stability.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Wessel, Jared, Relational Contract Theory and Treaty interpretation: End-Game Treaties v. Dynamic Interpretation, 60 Annual Survey of American Law 149, 149 (2004).Google Scholar

2 Micallef v. Malta, 50 Eur. Ct. H. R 37 (2010), at para. 78.Google Scholar

3 Vo v. France, 40 Eur. Ct. H. R. 12, at para. 82 (2005).Google Scholar

4 Christine Goodwin v. the United Kingdom, 35 Eur. Ct. H. R. 18, at para. 74 (2002).Google Scholar

5 Tyrer v. the United Kingdom, 26 Eur. Ct. H. R. (ser. A), at para. 183 (1978).Google Scholar

6 Id. at para. 183.Google Scholar

7 In relation to the death penalty: Soering v. the United Kingdom, Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A, No. 161), at para. 104 (1989), and the definition of torture: Selmouni v. France, 29 Eur. Ct. H. R. 403, at para. 101 (2009).Google Scholar

8 Free legal aid in civil cases: see Airey v. Ireland, 32 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at para. 26 (1979. For certain procedural matters in the French Administrative Court, see Kress v. France, VI Eur. Ct. H.R., at para. 70 (2001); for pre-trial injunctions see Micallef, supra, note 2, at paras. 78-86.Google Scholar

9 Stafford v. the United Kingdom, 35 Eur. Ct. H. R. 32, at para. 68 (2002).Google Scholar

10 For the clarification of the terms “family life,” see Marckx v. Belgium, 31 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A, 1979), McMichael v. the United Kingdom, 307B. Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A, 1995); “private life,” see Christine Goodwin v. the United Kingdom, supra note 4, Niemietz v. Germany, 251B Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) at para. 29 (1995), Halford v. The United Kingdom, 32 Eur. Ct. H. R. at para. 43-46 (1997), reports of Judgments and Decisions, Judgment of 25 June 2007; and “home,” see Société Colas Est and Others v. France, 39 EUR. Ct. H. R. 17 (2004). So-called “environmental” case law also found its way into ECtHR's jurisprudence by means of evolutive interpretation; see Hatton and Others v. the United Kingdom, 34 EUR. Ct. H. R. 1 (2002).Google Scholar

11 For an analysis of equality between children born in wedlock and outside of marriage see, Marckx v. Belgium, supra note 10; heterosexuals and homosexuals see Dudgeon v. the United Kingdom, 45 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A, 1981); gender equality, see Schuler-Zgraggen v. Switzerland, 263 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A, 1993).Google Scholar

12 Wildhaber, Luzius, European Court of Human Rights, 40 Canadian Yearbook Of International Law 310 (2002).Google Scholar

13 Letsas, George, A Theory Of Interpretation Of The European Convention On Human Rights 79 (2009).Google Scholar

14 Varju, Marton, Transition as a concept of European human rights law, European Human Rights Law Review (EHRLR) 170, 172 (2009).Google Scholar

15 See Wildhaber, supra note 12, at 310.Google Scholar

16 Rozakis, Christos, The European Judge as Comparativist, 80 Tulane Law Review 257, 260-261 (2005).Google Scholar

17 See Dzehtsiarou, Kanstantsin, Does Consensus Matter? Legitimacy of European Consensus in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights, Public Law 534, 541-548 (2011).Google Scholar

18 Morawa, Alexander, The ‘Common European Approach’, ‘International Trends’, and the Evolution of Human Rights Law. A Comment on Goodwin and I v. the United Kingdom, 3 German Law Journal (GLJ) (2002), available at http://www.germanlawjournal.com/index.php?pageID=11&artID=172 (last accessed: 27 September 2011).Google Scholar

19 Eva Brems, Human Rights: Universality and Diversity 420 (2001).Google Scholar

20 Ünal Tekeli v. Turkey, 42 Eur. Ct. H. R. 53, at para. 62 (2006).Google Scholar

21 A, B. and C. v. Ireland, 2032 Eur. Ct. H.R., at para. 188 (2010).Google Scholar

22 Republican Party of Russia v. Russia, 12976 Eur. Ct. H.R. 7, at para. 126 (2011), available at: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=1&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=Republican%20|%20Party%20|%20of%20|%20Russia%20|%20v.&sessionid=79205413&skin=hudoc-en (last accessed: 28 September 2011) (last accessed: 27 September 2011).Google Scholar

23 Vo, supra note 3, at para. 82.Google Scholar

24 Selmouni, supra note 7, at paras. 96-100.Google Scholar

25 Stafford, supra note 9, at paras. 68-69.Google Scholar

26 Micallef, supra note 2, at para. 78.Google Scholar

27 Goodwin, supra note 4, at paras. 85-86; Tekeli, supra note 20, at para. 61; Handyside v. the United Kingdom, Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at para. 48 (1976); Switzerland, Stoll v., 47 Eur. Ct. H. R. 59, at para. 155 (2007).Google Scholar

28 Mazurek v. France, 42 Eur. Ct. H. R. 9, at para. 31 (2006).Google Scholar

29 D.H. and others v. the Czech Republic, 47 Eur. Ct. H.R. 3, at para. 181 (2008).Google Scholar

30 Hirst v. the United Kingdom, 42 Eur. Ct. H. R. 41, para. 81 (2006).Google Scholar

31 European consensus links evolutive interpretation to external circumstances which can be verified.Google Scholar

32 Legitimacy of evolutive interpretation was challenged in Golder v. United Kingdom. In this case the ECtHR interpreted ECHR dynamically and stated that right to access court is to be protected under Article 6 of ECHR. Judge Fitzmaurice in his separate opinion stated that the Contracting Parties cannot be expected to comply with an obligation which is not articulated or defined. See Golder v. the United Kingdom, 18 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A, 1975). Separate opinion of Judge Fitzmaurice, at para. 30.Google Scholar

33 The legitimacy of constitutional judicial review of legislation is often challenged from the point of view of the so-called “counter-majoritarian difficulty.” See Luc B. Tremblya, General legitimacy of judicial review and the Fundamental basis of constitutional law 23 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 525, 525 (2003). This difficulty relates to the fact that, in systems with judicial review of legislation, non-elected judges are able to question a decision made by a democratically elected representative organ. See Jeremy Waldron, The Core of the Case Against Judicial Review 115 Yale L. J. 1346 (2006). This difficulty is relevant in the case of international tribunals like the ECtHR.Google Scholar

34 See Gribnau, Hans LM, Legitimacy of the Judiciary, 6 Electronic Journal of Comparative Law (2002).Google Scholar

35 There is a group of theorists who define legitimacy as an attribute which a norm, decision, or institution possesses only if it was adopted or created in accordance with accepted procedure. Weber argued that readiness to conform to rules follows from the fact that it is ‘formally correct and imposed by accepted procedures.’ Id. See also Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 19 (1972); Joseph Raz, The Authority of Law (1979)). Kelsen, for instance, disregarded the norm content while discussing its validity; he stated “a legal norm is valid… because it is created in a certain way;” See Hans Kelsen, Pure Theory of Law 198 (1989).Google Scholar

36 Mowbray, Alastair, The Creativity of the European Court of Human Rights 5 Human Rights Law Review (57, 61 (2005).Google Scholar

37 Letsas, George, The Truth in Autonomous Concepts: How to Interpret the ECHR, 15 European Journal Of International Law 279, 304 (2004).Google Scholar

38 Benvenisti, Eyal, Margin of Appreciation, Consensus, and Universal Standards 31 Journal of International Law and Politics 843, 852 (1999).Google Scholar

39 Letsas argues that dynamic interpretation “surprise[s] Contracting States in that they often have to introduce legislative measures in order to comply with their Convention obligations. These measures may be quite extensive, involving, among other things, financial costs that will affect the community as a whole.” This inconvenience, according to Letsas, is outweighed by the moral value of human rights. See Letsas, supra note 13, at 74.Google Scholar

40 A., B. and C. v. Ireland, supra note 21, at para. 234.Google Scholar

41 Tyrer, supra note 5, at para. 183.Google Scholar

42 Sheffield and Horsham v. the United Kingdom, V Eur. Ct. H.R. at para. 58 (1998).Google Scholar

43 Goodwin, supra note 4, at para. 85.Google Scholar

44 Lord Hoffmann recently has authored a foreword to a report that advocated denunciation of the ECHR by the United Kingdom. Lord Leonard Hoffmann, Bringing Rights Back Home: Making Human Rights Compatible with Parliamentary Democracy in the UK 7, 8 (Michael Pinto-Duschinsky ed., 2011).Google Scholar

45 Von Hannover v. Germany, 43 Eur. Ct. H. R. 7 (2006). Concurring opinion of Judge Zupančič.Google Scholar

46 Hoffmann, Lord Leonard, The Universality of Human Rights, 125 Law Quarterly Review 416, 428-429 (2009).Google Scholar

47 Interview with Bostjan Zupančič, Judge of the ECtHR, in Strasbourg (30 April 2010).Google Scholar

49 Wicks, Elizabeth, The United Kingdom Government's Perceptions of the European Convention on Human Rights at the Time of Entry, PL 438, 447 (2000).Google Scholar

50 Lord Hoffmann argued that ECHR should not be used against “old democracies.” He pointed out, “When we joined, indeed, took the lead in the negotiation of the European Convention, it was not because we thought it would affect our own law, but because we thought it right to set an example for others and to help to ensure that all the Member States respected those basic human rights which were not culturally determined but reflected our common humanity.” See Lord Leonard Hoffmann, Human Rights and the House of Lords, 62 Modern Law Review 159 (1999).Google Scholar

51 Nicol, Danny, Original Intent and the European Convention on Human Rights’ Spring, PL 152, 156 (2005).Google Scholar

52 Gerards, Janneke, Judicial Deliberations in the ECtHR, in The Legitimacy of Highest Courts’ Rulings: Judicial Deliberations and Beyond (Nick Huls, Maurice Adams & Jacco Bomhoff eds., 2009).Google Scholar

53 See Letsas, supra note 13, at 79.Google Scholar

54 Richard A Posner, The Problems of Jurisprudence 72 (1990).Google Scholar

55 In the beginning of the 20th century American lawyer Roscoe Pound defined mechanical jurisprudence and criticized it. He pointed out that “the marks of a scientific law are, conformity to reason, uniformity, and certainty. Scientific law is a reasoned body of principles for the administration of justice, and its antithesis is a system of enforcing magisterial caprice, however, honest, and however much disguised under the name of justice or equality or natural law.” See Roscoe Pound, Mechanical Jurisprudence, 8 Columbia Law Review 605 (1908). See also Posner, supra note 53, at 39-42.Google Scholar

56 Brian Z. Tamanaha, Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide 27-43 (2010).Google Scholar

57 It should be note that there were a few attempts to compare law and science in legal scholarship. Kelsen, for instance argued that there are similarities between law and science. However, he also pointed out emphasized an important difference. He argued “The rule of law and the law of nature differ not so much by the elements they connect as by the manner of their connection. [T]he principle according to which natural science describes its object is causality; the principle according to which the science of law describes its object is normativity.” See Hans Kelsen, General Theory of Law and State 50 (1945).Google Scholar

58 Namely “[i]t cannot be right that the balance we in this country strike between freedom of the press and privacy should be decided by a Slovenian judge.” See Hoffmann, supra note 45, at 428.Google Scholar

59 Dzehtsiarou, Kanstantsin, Comparative Law in the Reasoning of the European Court of Human Rights, 10 UCD Law Review 109, 137-139 (2010).Google Scholar

60 Lautsi and Others v. Italy, Eur. Ct. H.R., at para. 70 (2011) available at: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=1&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=lautsi&sessionid=79286733&skin=hudoc-en (last accessed: 27 September 2011).Google Scholar

61 Kavanaugh, Kathleen A., Policing the Margins: Rights Protection and the European Court of Human Rights, EHRLR 422, 423 (2006). Thomas A. O'Donnell, The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine: Standards in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, Human Rights Quarterly 474, 479, (1982). Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral, The Increasingly Marginal Appreciation of the Margin-of-Appreciation Doctrine, 7 German Law Journal 611, 617 (2006), available at: http://www.germanlawjournal.com/index.php?pageID=11&artID=736 (last accessed: 27 September 2011).Google Scholar

62 See Brems, supra note 19, at 420.Google Scholar

63 See A., B. and C. v. Ireland, supra note 21.Google Scholar

64 See Gribnau, supra note 33.Google Scholar

65 Mamatkulov and Askarov v. Turkey, 41 EUR. Ct. H. R. 25, at para. 121 (2005); Vilho Eskelinen and Others v. Finland, 45 Eur. Ct. H. R. 43, at para. 56 (2007).Google Scholar

66 Micallef, supra note 2.Google Scholar

67 Cossey v. the United Kingdom, 184 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at para. 35 (1990)Google Scholar

68 S.H. and others v. Austria, 52 Eur. Ct. H. R. 6, at para. 69 (2011); Goodwin, supra note 4, at para. 81.Google Scholar

69 French, Duncan, Treaty Interpretation and the Incorporation of Extraneous Legal Rules, 55 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 281, 285 (2006).Google Scholar

70 For more comprehensive discussion of the doctrine of precedents adopted by the ECtHR see Alastair Mowbray, An Examination of the European Court of Human Rights’ Approach to Overruling its Previous Case Law, 9 HRLR 179 (2009).Google Scholar

71 S.W. v. the United Kingdom, 335B Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at para. 43 (1995).Google Scholar

72 Fitzmaurice, Małgosia, Dynamic (Evolutive) Interpretation of Treaties (Part II), in Hague Yearbook of International Law 29 (Johan G. Lammers ed., 2009); Varju, supra note 14, at 172.Google Scholar

73 Scoppola v. Italy (no. 2), 51 Eur. Ct. H. R. 12, at para. 104 (2010).Google Scholar

74 Koch, Ida Elisabeth & Vedsted-Hansen, Jens, International Human Rights and National Legislatures – Conflict or Balance? 75 Nordic Journal of International Law 3, 11 (2006).Google Scholar

75 Letsas, supra note 13, at 74.Google Scholar

77 Fitzmaurice, Małgosia, Dynamic (Evolutive) Interpretation of Treaties (Part I), in Hague Yearbook of International Law 151 (Johan G. Lammers ed., 2008).Google Scholar

78 See Goodwin, supra note 4, at para. 84-85; Micallef, supra note 2, at para. 78.Google Scholar

79 See Koch, & Vedsted-Hansen, supra note 73, at 12.Google Scholar

80 See Gerards, supra note 51.Google Scholar

81 See Mowbray, supra note 35, at 61.Google Scholar

82 Id. at 69-71.Google Scholar

83 See Hoffmann, supra note 45, at 428-429.Google Scholar