The Case Law of the ECtHR in 2022: Strasbourg in the ‘Age’ of Protocol No. 15

Summary

ABSTRACT

Th is contribution analyses the developments in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in 2022. This is the first year aft er Protocol No. 15, which, inter alia, introduced an express reference to the principle of subsidiarity and the doctrine of margin of appreciation into the Preamble of the European Convention on Human Rights, entered into force. Therefore, although the increased relevance of subsidiarity and margin of appreciation in the Court's approach to the interpretation and application of the Convention is not a new trend, it seems that it can provide an appropriate lens through which the relevant case law developments should be assessed. In light of the above, the contribution examines (some of) the relevant ‘key cases’ decided by the Court in 2022, and tries to highlight the relevance of the above-mentioned principle and doctrine in the identification of the scope and content of the obligations imposed on the domestic authorities by the Convention, as well as in the determination of the nature and scope of the Court's review over compliance with such obligations.

INTRODUCTION

In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or ‘the Court’) faced unexpected challenges, caused by the expulsion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe (CoE) on account of the armed aggression perpetrated on 24 February 2022 against Ukraine. Among other issues caused by this situation, the Court needed to rule on its jurisdiction over pending and new cases against Russia, to decide how to process these without the participation of the Russian government in the adversarial proceedings, and to decide how to manage Russia's huge backlog of pending cases in the absence of financing by the latter. Moreover, the ongoing armed conflict gave rise to a huge number of applications and interim measures requests, lodged with respect to the alleged violations of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR or ‘the Convention’), perpetrated in that context. At the same time, 2022 was a year of great satisfaction.