The peculiarities of enforcement of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights: experience of Germany relevant to Russia

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the problem of enforcement of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Federal Republic of Germany. The author explores the experience of West Germany in settling the conflict between the national law and international treaty – the European Convention on Human Rights. Special attention is given to the analysis of positions of the Federal Republic of Germany related to the decisions of ECHR made in regard to other countries and constituting precedents in German courts, as well as mandatory for considering in the work of government bodies. The scientific novelty is defined by focusing on the previously uncovered by the Russian legal experts combination of relevant aspects of the enforcement of decisions by ECHR in Western Germany through the prism of the realities of Russian law. Being fluent in German language, the author used the original laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as scientific literature in German language. The conclusion is made that by imparting the status of general law upon the European Convention on Human Rights, Germany still relies on priority of the norms of international law over the national legislation and compliance with the decisions of ECHR. The author recommends to incorporate the German practice, according to which for preventing the instances of violating Convention in the future, the government bodies of the Federal Republic of Germany must consider the directive of ECHR not only with regards to Germany, but also foreign countries, as the practice of the European Court of Human Rights accordant to the position of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany constituents has precedential value.