{"title":"The Council of Europe’s Responses to the Decay of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Protections: A Comparative Appraisal","authors":"B. Çalı, Esra Demir-Gürsel","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10027","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article introduces the Special Issue on ‘The Responses of the Council of Europe to the Decay of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Protections’. The Council of Europe (CoE), a unique international organisation with its commitment to protect and promote human rights, the rule of law, and democracy, has been severely tested by the spread and consolidation of trends posing systemic threats to its foundational goals. The authors of this Special Issue assess how the European Court of Human Rights, the Venice Commission, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers, and the office of the Secretary General have addressed systemic threats to the foundational principles of the organisation in the last decade. The Special Issue finds that the respective legal-institutional features and capacities of the CoE organs as well as the constraining influence of the broader political context in Europe on them vary significantly, hampering the CoE’s ability to produce timely, consistent, and co-ordinated responses against systemic threats.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123964754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Venice Commission and Rule of Law Backsliding in Turkey, Poland and Hungary","authors":"Emre Turkut","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10028","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How did the Council of Europe cope with its member states that engaged in rule of law backsliding? This article analyses the responses of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s expert body on constitutional matters, to Turkey, Hungary, and Poland as their governments eliminated key checks and balances on their power, curtailed judicial independence, and undermined political pluralism and civil society. It finds that the Venice Commission managed to address a set of particularly vital issues that get to the heart to rule of law backsliding in these countries. Despite the breadth of the Venice Commission’s forthright involvement, these case studies display the limitations on the part of other Council of Europe bodies in forming a coordinated approach and response to rule of law backsliding.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124789968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Time for the Gloves to Come Off?","authors":"Alice Donald, Anne-Katrin Speck","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has limited tools to respond to rule of law backsliding by member states. Sanctions have never been used for this purpose, and the Assembly’s monitoring procedure—the most significant tool of scrutiny—presents a mixed picture. This article focuses on four states exhibiting severe rule of law backsliding: Hungary, which has evaded the procedure; Poland, which was placed under monitoring in 2020; Turkey, which in 2017 became the first state to have monitoring reopened; and Azerbaijan, which has been under monitoring since 2001. Through a first-ever analysis of debates, voting patterns, and tactics used in the Assembly, the article elucidates how proponents and opponents of monitoring have framed their arguments in the battleground of ideas about democracy and the rule of law in Europe. It concludes that the Assembly should fundamentally reappraise monitoring—and the possible use of sanctions—to meet the severity of the challenge.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114815682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Former Secretary General of the Council of Europe Confronting Russia’s Annexation of the Crimea and Turkey’s State of Emergency","authors":"Esra Demir-Gürsel","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10026","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article investigates the influence of the former Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE), Thorbjørn Jagland, on the responses of other CoE bodies to the systemic breaches of the core principles of other CoE bodies to the systemic breaches of the core principles of the CoE in the context of two critical events: Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014 and Turkey’s state of emergency that followed the attempted coup in 2016. Specifically, it examines the influence of the Secretary General’s policy preferences on the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE and the European Court of Human Rights. The article argues that Jagland’s policy preferences in the context of these two events prioritised political expediency to the detriment of the CoE’s normative mission. The article finds that the Secretary General played a crucial role in facilitating the reversal of the sanctions imposed by the Assembly against Russia and the postponement of the processing of Turkey’s post-coup cases by the Court.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131315575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Loud Do the Alarm Bells Toll? Execution of ‘Article 18 Judgments’ of the European Court of Human Rights","authors":"B. Çalı","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article investigates whether Article 18 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, indicating that the state authorities pursued ulterior and illegitimate motives when violating the Convention, receive the seriousness and the urgency that they call for at the execution phase. By way of an analysis of the responses of the Committee of Ministers and states on the receiving end of Article 18 judgments between 2004 and June 2021, this article finds that the collective responsiveness of the Committee of Ministers to Article 18 judgments has increased over time, especially with respect to individual measures required to implement Article 18 judgments. So far, the responsiveness of individual states to their Article 18 judgments does, however, vary significantly, ranging from taking concrete steps to implement the judgments to outright resistance and no response, posing a significant risk to the Convention system’s ability to respond to the decay of rule of law.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"41 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113939079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Narrowing of the European Court of Human Rights? Legal Diplomacy, Situational Self-Restraint, and the New Vision for the Court","authors":"M. Madsen","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has faced a growing number of challenges, stemming, among other reasons, from problems with the implementation of some of its judgments, an upsurge of sovereigntist sentiments in some member states, and the rise of de facto illiberal democracies within its jurisdiction. This article examines the effects that these changing contexts have had on the operation of the ECtHR. In very general terms, the article finds that the ECtHR has become increasingly more restrained, but that this restraint plays out in multiple different ways which reflect the structural differences among the member states with regard to the protection of human rights. The article argues that the ECtHR has developed a new and differentiated legal rationality that combines elements of its original legal diplomacy with new forms of self-restraint and a new, revised vision for its overarching role in the protection of European human rights. The overall result is a narrowing of the role of the Court.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134068624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Restricting Freedom of Expression for Religious Peace: On the echr’s Approach to Blasphemy","authors":"Eva Hauksdóttir","doi":"10.1163/26663236-BJA10008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-BJA10008","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The ECtHR’s ruling in ES v Austria raises questions about the Court’s methodology in blasphemy cases. The ECtHR interprets Article 9 of the Convention as including a right to respect for religious feelings and presumes that ‘justified indignation’ may disrupt ‘religious peace’. Therefore, expression counting as ‘gratuitously offensive’ to religious feelings is not granted protection under Article 10. es v Austria reveals certain problems that arise when criticism of religion is driven by hatred and when religious insult merges with political criticism. This article argues that Strasbourg’s approach to blasphemy increases uncertainty about the boundaries of free speech. The terms ‘religious feelings’ and ‘religious peace’ are scrutinised, and the political context of es v Austria analysed. It concludes that by failing to distinguish clearly between blasphemy and incitement to hatred, and by upholding the criminalisation of questioning the Prophet Muhammad’s morals, the Court has jeopardised freedom of expression in Europe.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133788592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Inclusion of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Relationships Education","authors":"Paul Johnson, S. Falcetta","doi":"10.1163/26663236-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000All primary schools in England are under a statutory requirement to provide ‘relationships education’, which includes ‘lgbt content’. The inclusion of content relating to sexual orientation and gender identity has attracted faith-based opposition. Such opposition, which is based on assertions about relationships education interfering with the right of parents to ensure that the education of their children is in conformity with their religious convictions, is likely to lead to legal action in the English courts and perhaps the European Court of Human Rights. This article anticipates the claims that would be made in any such legal action and critically interrogates them through the lens of the European Convention on Human Rights.","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127112349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autocratic Strategies and the European Court of Human Rights","authors":"B. Çalı","doi":"10.1163/26663236-BJA10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-BJA10015","url":null,"abstract":"Comparative politics scholarship tells us that Europe and, in turn, the Council of Europe, is currently composed of a spectrum of political regime types ranging from democracies to hybrid regimes to autocracies.1 The degree of regime autocratisation and the ideological sources for it no doubt vary from one place, time and context to another. Autocratising or autocratic powers, however, share common strategies and practices with a view to establishing and consolidating their long-term rule. The use of constitutional and ordinary law to curb pluralism, dissent, democratic institutions and the independence of the judiciary, also understood as ‘autocratic legalism’,2 the use of domestic courts and judicial review in the service of democratic erosion, coined as ‘abusive judicial review’3 and the use of administration of justice mechanisms as a tool of social and political control over dissident voices, known as ‘administrative and judicial","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115881653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interim Measures: Are Some Opportunities Worth Missing?","authors":"K. Dzehtsiarou, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos","doi":"10.1163/26663236-BJA10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-BJA10017","url":null,"abstract":"In this issue of the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review, we have the pleasure to host two guest editorial notes. Our esteemed guests, Professor Başak Çalı and Judge Armen Harutyunyan, discuss the effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, Court) in the circumstances when more and more European states are facing a real risk of becoming illiberal democracies or even outright authoritarian regimes. In this editorial note we are also considering the effectiveness of the Court, but from a different perspective. What we are briefly discussing below is the usefulness of interim measures in inter-state disputes. This is a rather controversial issue, which is reflected in the two sets of arguments, pointing in different directions, that we are presenting towards the end of this editorial note. The purpose of presenting two different points of view in this co-authored editorial note of ours is to illustrate some of the delicate trade-offs that a Court like the ECtHR might face. More than once, authors of one of the leading blogs dedicated to the ECtHR, Strasbourg Observers, commented on case law, characterising it in the title of their notes as a ‘missed opportunity’ for the Court.1 Often the Convention","PeriodicalId":306057,"journal":{"name":"European Convention on Human Rights Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124333721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}