The Strasbourg Court – Between Individual or General Justice

Abstract

The main problem under consideration in the present Article is connected with a more visible process of transformation of the European Court of Human Rights – from a judicial organ for typically individual justice into the so-called sub-constitutional court dealing with problems of a general nature. The author tries to select and propose a proper systematization of all the various elements of the said process which have appeared at different moments in the systems’ existence. In the author’s opinion the above-mentioned change of nature of the Strasbourg Court is an unavoidable consequence of present day realities. Nonetheless, an important question still remains open, namely, the one concerning a real need of Europeans as far as the protection of their human rights and freedoms are concerned. In order to construct a full picture of the problem the author also makes references to the basic literature on the subject. In this way the main arguments “pro” and “against” are available. For sure it is still too early to formulate one categorical answer concerning the transformation of the Strasbourg Court. The author only hopes that in the near future European individual justice will not totally disappear and that some kind of proper compromise will be reached.