The European Convention on Human Rights and General International Law

Edited by Anne van Aaken and Iulia Motoc

European Society of International Law

Engages with the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of different international courts
Provides a wide range of perspectives from international judges as well as academics
Focuses on problematic topics surrounding international law such as sources, interpretation, jurisdiction, state responsibility, and immunity

The European Convention on Human Rights and General International Law

Edited by Anne van Aaken and Iulia Motoc

European Society of International Law

Description

The European Court of Human Rights is one of the main players in interpreting international human rights law where issues of general international law arise. While developing its own jurisprudence for the protection of human rights in the European context, it remains embedded in the developments of general international law. However, because the Court does not always follow general international law closely and develops its own doctrines, which are, in turn, influential for national courts as well as other international courts and tribunals, a feedback loop of influence occurs.

This book explores the interaction, including the problems arising in the context of human rights, between the European Convention on Human Rights and general international law. It contributes to ongoing debates on the fragmentation and convergence of international law from the perspective of international judges as well as academics. Some of the chapters suggest reconciling methods and convergence while others stress the danger of fragmentation. The focus is on specific topics which have posed special problems, namely sources, interpretation, jurisdiction, state responsibility and immunity.

The European Convention on Human Rights and General International Law

Edited by Anne van Aaken and Iulia Motoc

European Society of International Law

Preface, Guido Raimondi
Introduction, Anne van Aaken, Iulia Motoc, Johann Justus Vasel
I: Sources
1:European Consensus and International Law, Ineta Ziemele
2:Law or Soft law - Does It Matter?: Distinction Between Different Sources of International Law in the Jurisprudence of the ECtHR, Angelika Nußberger
II: Interpretation
3:The Effect of Subsequent Practice on the European Convention on Human Rights: Considerations from a General International Law Perspective, Anja Seibert-Fohr
4:Evolutive Interpretation in the Light of Other International Instruments: Law and Legitimacy, Geir Ulfstein
III: Jurisdiction
5:Jurisdiction and Responsibility: Trends in the Jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court, Marko Milanovic
6:Extraterritorial Application of the European Convention on Human Rights: Evolution of the Court's Jurisprudence on the Notions of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and State Responsibility, Isil Karakas and Hasan Bakirci
7:Territorial Jurisdiction and Positive Obligations of an Occupied State: Some Reflections on Evolving Issues under Article 1 of the Convention, Ganna Yudkivska
IV: Responsibility
8:Concurrent Responsibilities under the European Convention on Human Rights: The Concurrence of Human Rights Jurisdictions, Duties and Responsibilities, Samantha Besson
9:The Structure of State Responsibility under the European Convention on Human Rights, James Crawford and Amelia Keene
10:The ECHR and Responsibility of the State: Moving Towards Judicial Integration: A View from the Bench, Iulia Motoc and Johann Justus Vasel
11:The UN Security Council, State Responsibility and The European Court of Human Rights: Towards an Integrated Approach?, Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos
12:Punitive Damages in Strasbourg, Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque and Anne van Aaken
V: Immunity
13:A Moving Target: The Approach of the Strasbourg Court to Immunity, Philippa Webb
14:The Myth of the Customary Nature of the United Nations Convention on State Immunity: Does the End Justify the Means?, Riccardo Pavoni
The European Convention on Human Rights and General International Law: Concluding Reflections on the 2015 Strasbourg Conference, Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade

The European Convention on Human Rights and General International Law

Edited by Anne van Aaken and Iulia Motoc

European Society of International Law

Author Information

Edited by Anne van Aaken, Professor for Law and Economics, Legal Theory, Public International Law and European Law, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Iulia Motoc, Judge, European Court on Human Rights

Anne van Aaken is a Professor for Law and Economics, Legal Theory, Public International and European Law at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. She was Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and taught as a guest professor at numerous universities in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. She was a Global Law Professor at NYU in 2016 and a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin in 2010/11. Van Aaken was also a Vice-President of ESIL, President of the Programmatic Steering Board of the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law, Vice-President of the European Association of Law and Economics, and is a Member of ILA Committees. She has been awarded an Alexander-von-Humboldt-Professorship in Germany and will take on her new position at the University of Hamburg in fall of 2018.

Iulia Motoc is a Judge at the European court on Human Rights and Professor at the University of Bucharest. She taught at several universities in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and United States. She was Special Guest Professor at EUI University in Florence and Senior Fellow in NYU and Yale School of Law. Motoc was also a Member and President of the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights (2000-2007) UN Special Rapporteur of the Democratic Republic of Congo (2001-2004), Member and Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Committee ( 2006-2013), and Judge of the Constitutional Court of Romania (2010-2014).

Contributors:

Anne van Aaken, Professor for Law and Economics, Legal Theory, Public International Law and European Law, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Former Vice-President of the European Society of International Law

Hasan Bakirci, Deputy Registrar, Second Section, Registry of the European Court of Human Rights

Samantha Besson, Professor of Public International Law and European Law, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)

Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade, Judge of the International Court of Justice; Former President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Emeritus Professor of International Law of the University of Brasilia; Former President of the Latin American Society of International Law; Member of the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law, and of the Institut de Droit International

James Crawford, Judge of the International Court of Justice, formerly Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Law at Jesus College, Cambridge and Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (Cambridge)

Isil Karakas, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, former Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights

Amalia Keene, Associate at Three Crowns, formerly Associate Legal Officer at the International Court of Justice

Marko Milanovic, Associate Professor, University of Nottingham School of Law; Vice-President, European Society of International Law

Iulia Motoc, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, Professor of International law University of Bucharest, former Judge at the Constitutional Court of Romania

Angelika Nußberger, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights

Riccardo Pavoni, Professor of International and European Law, University of Siena

Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Ordinary Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University Lisboa

Guido Raimondi, President of the European Court of Human Rights

Anja Seibert-Fohr, Hengstberger Chair of Public Law, International Law and Human Rights and Director of the Institute for Constitutional Law and Legal Philosophy, University of Heidelberg

Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights, Associate Member of the Institute of International Law

Geir Ulfstein: Professor of Law, Department of Public and International Law, University of Oslo

Johann Justus Vasel, Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Law School University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)

Ganna Yudkivska, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights

Ineta Ziemele, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia; Professor at the Riga Graduate School of Law; former Judge and Section President at the European Court of Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights and General International Law

Edited by Anne van Aaken and Iulia Motoc

European Society of International Law

Reviews and Awards

"This edited volume is the result of a conference held on 5 June 2015 at the headquarters of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), reflecting the dialogue between judges of the ECtHR, judges of the International Court of Justice (icj) and academics. The book's intention is to contribute to the debate on fragmentation and convergence between the European Convention on Human Rights (echr), on the one hand, and general international law, on the other. It demonstrates the mutual influences between the two by focusing on five specific topics, namely: sources, interpretation, jurisdiction, state responsibility and immunity ... Overall, the book contributes to the clarification of the fluctuating and multi-direction relationships between the ehcr and general international law [... and] is likely to galvanise further studies on convergence and divergence." - Antal Berkes, European Convention on Human Rights Law Review