Legitimacy and the Future of the European Court of Human Rights: Critical Perspectives from Academia and Practitioners

Abstract

In April 2011, University College Dublin (UCD) School of Law research students held their Fifth Annual Postgraduate Conference, the theme of which was “The Legacy and Future of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Evaluating Sixty Years of the European Human Rights Project.” The articles contained in this special edition of the German Law Journal reflect the efforts made at this conference by its participants. While the papers presented vary quite widely in their substantive content, they are connected by a recurring theme— that the ECtHR faces a crisis of legitimacy. A judgment is legitimate if it is persuasive to the civic society constituted by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and perceived as authoritative by the subjects affected by the ECtHR's decision. The judgments of the ECtHR are fiercely criticized and their legitimacy is repeatedly questioned by the Contracting Parties and media in particular, and by civic society in general. As it stands, the ECtHR is suffocating from the overwhelming number of applications lodged, and even the tiny percentage of those applications that are decided by it face “a barrage of hostile criticism,” as Michael O'Boyle outlines in his article. The ECtHR's future, to a major extent, depends on how this crisis is tackled.