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The Transformation of Constitutional Law through the European Convention on Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2012

Jochen A. Frowein
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Abstract

Only five years after the end of the Second World War terminating the complete disregard for human rights in one of the important European countries and in the occupied territories, the governments of European countries agreed on a European Bill of Rights and took the first steps toward collective enforcement of certain rights of the Universal Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. Evidently the Convention was a response to the totalitarian ideologies prevailing in national socialism but also to the communist ideology and practice governing the Soviet Union and the European countries behind the iron wall. Was the Convention intended to be more than a response and clarification of the fundamental principles which were well recognized in the constitutional structure of the free European states? If this is the case it should have had an impact on the legal system of member states.

How far that impact would go was certainly not foreseen in 1950 or 1953 when the Convention came into force. By hindsight we may say that the establishment of the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights as judicial organs to enforce the Convention had something that is called “List der Vernunft” in German, a certain rule of reason, not fully understood by the drafters.

Type
A Symposium on Constitutional Rights and International Human Rights honoring Professor David Kretzmer
Information
Israel Law Review , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , Winter 2008 , pp. 489 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2008

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References

1 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, sect. 2, 213 U.N.T.S. 222, Sept. 3, 1953, as amended by Protocols Nos. 3, 5, 8, and 11 entered into force Sept. 21, 1970, Dec. 20, 1971, Jan. 1, 1990, and Nov. 1, 1998 respectively [hereinafter the Convention].

2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A, at 71, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., 1st plen. mtg., U.N. Doc A/810 (Dec. 12, 1948).

3 Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands v. Greece, 1968 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on H.R. 691 (Eur. Comm'n on H.R.); France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands v. Turkey, App. No. 9940-9944/82, 35 Eur. Comm'n H.R. Dec. & Rep. 143 (1984).

4 The Convention, supra note 1, at, section 2.

5 Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803).

6 Case Relating to Certain Aspects of the Laws on the Use of Languages in Education in Belgium v. Belgium, 5 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) 19 (1967).

7 Id. at 19.

8 Marckx v. Belgium, 31 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1979).

9 Id. at 25.

10 Axen v. Germany, 72 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at 11 (1983).

11 Id. at 11.

12 Broniowski v. Poland, 2004-V Eur. Ct. H.R.

13 Van Marle and Others v. the Netherlands, 101 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at 11 (1986).

14 Tsfayo v. the United Kingdom, No 60860/00 Eur. Ct. H.R (Nov. 14, 2006), available at http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int////tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?action=open&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=63889&sessionId=9613398&skin=hudoc-en&attachment=true; Potocka v. Poland, 2001-X Eur. Ct. H.R.

15 Statute of the Council of Europe, May 5, 1949, art. 3, E.T.S. 1.

16 Lingens v. Austria, 103 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1986).

17 Thorgeir Thorgeirson v. Iceland, 239 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1992).

18 The Liberal Party v. the United Kingdom, App. No. 8765/79, 21 Eur. Comm'n H.R. Dec. & Rep. 211, 223-225 (1980).

19 Mathieu-Mohin and Clerfayt v. Belgium, 113 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1987).

20 Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789. Approved by the National Assembly of France, Aug. 26, 1789.

21 Malone v. the United Kingdom, 82 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A), at 32 (1984).

22 Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.

23 A(FC) and Others (FC) v. Secretary of State [2004] UKHL 56.

24 See HCJ 3451/02 Almadani v. IDF Commander in Judea & Samaria [2002] IsrSC 56(3) 30, 34-35. See also Judgments of the Israel Supreme Court: Fighting Terrorism within the Law (Jan. 2, 2005), available at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Law (last visited Oct. 15, 2008), discussing the High Court of Justice (HCJ) case law regarding human rights, terrorism, and democracy.

25 Loizidou v. Turkey, 310 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) at 27, 31. (1995).

26 Tyrer v. the United Kingdom, 26 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1978).

27 See Judge Fitzmaurice's opinion in Tyrer, supra note 26 and Marckx case, supra note 8.