Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend

The question of when and how a European consensus or trend contributes to shaping rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols is controversial. The European Court of Human Rights quite often performs an analysis of the laws and practices of the Council of Europe’s...

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Main Author: Vincent Martenet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2024-12-01
Series:German Law Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2071832224000403/type/journal_article
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author Vincent Martenet
author_facet Vincent Martenet
author_sort Vincent Martenet
collection DOAJ
description The question of when and how a European consensus or trend contributes to shaping rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols is controversial. The European Court of Human Rights quite often performs an analysis of the laws and practices of the Council of Europe’s Member States or of relevant international material. However, the cases where rights have actually been shaped by a European consensus or trend are quite rare. In the last twenty-five years, some 27 out of 424 judgments on the merits of the Grand Chamber of the Court established a consensus or trend having a “shaping impact” on these rights. Further, only one advisory opinion based on Protocol No. 16 contained comparative law material having such an influence. This Article assesses the intensity of the impact of a consensus or a trend analysis on a judgment’s or an advisory opinion’s ratio decidendi, shows what shaping a right actually means, and suggests that cases that are more prone to a potentially persuasive consensus or trend analysis will typically deal with matters of political or general policy, sensitive moral or ethical issues, or changes in the case law.
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spelling doaj-art-e739cd97861d4efda5494076d462b1352025-08-20T03:42:37ZengCambridge University PressGerman Law Journal2071-83222024-12-01251436147110.1017/glj.2024.40Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or TrendVincent Martenet0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8417-8775Faculty of Law, Criminal Justice and Public Administration, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandThe question of when and how a European consensus or trend contributes to shaping rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols is controversial. The European Court of Human Rights quite often performs an analysis of the laws and practices of the Council of Europe’s Member States or of relevant international material. However, the cases where rights have actually been shaped by a European consensus or trend are quite rare. In the last twenty-five years, some 27 out of 424 judgments on the merits of the Grand Chamber of the Court established a consensus or trend having a “shaping impact” on these rights. Further, only one advisory opinion based on Protocol No. 16 contained comparative law material having such an influence. This Article assesses the intensity of the impact of a consensus or a trend analysis on a judgment’s or an advisory opinion’s ratio decidendi, shows what shaping a right actually means, and suggests that cases that are more prone to a potentially persuasive consensus or trend analysis will typically deal with matters of political or general policy, sensitive moral or ethical issues, or changes in the case law.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2071832224000403/type/journal_articleFundamental rightsmargin of appreciationEuropean consensustrendEuropean Convention on Human RightsEuropean Court of Human Rights
spellingShingle Vincent Martenet
Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend
German Law Journal
Fundamental rights
margin of appreciation
European consensus
trend
European Convention on Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
title Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend
title_full Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend
title_fullStr Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend
title_full_unstemmed Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend
title_short Shaping Rights Through European Consensus or Trend
title_sort shaping rights through european consensus or trend
topic Fundamental rights
margin of appreciation
European consensus
trend
European Convention on Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2071832224000403/type/journal_article
work_keys_str_mv AT vincentmartenet shapingrightsthrougheuropeanconsensusortrend