European Court of Human Rights - Gen Info + IRA v. UK

[johnkarls]

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The European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights is an international court based in Strasbourg. It consists of a number of judges equal to the number of member States of the Council of Europe that have ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – currently forty-five. The Court’s judges sit in their individual capacity and do not represent any State. In dealing with applications, the Court is assisted by a Registry consisting mainly of lawyers from all the member States (who are also known as legal secretaries). They are entirely independent of their country of origin and do not represent either applicants or States.

The European Convention on Human Rights is an international treaty which only member States of the Council of Europe may sign. The Convention, which establishes the Court and lays down how it is to function, contains a list of the rights and guarantees which the States have undertaken to respect.

The Court applies the European Convention on Human Rights. Its task is to ensure that States respect the rights and guarantees set out in the Convention. It does this by examining complaints (known as “applications”) lodged by individuals or, sometimes, by States. Where it finds that a member State has violated one or more of these rights and guarantees, the Court delivers a judgment. Judgments are binding: the countries concerned are under an obligation to comply with them.


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The decision in Ireland v. United Kingdom (1/28/1978) is too lengthy to post on our bulletin board – 128 Microsoft Word pages!!!

However, it can be found at – http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view. ... n=hudoc-en.

If you have trouble finding it, please e-mail readingliberallyemaillist@johnkarls.com and we will e-mail a copy to you.