Regional Challenges in Implementing the ECHR

The implementation of the ECHR is a perennial challenge, whether it is securing its proper and effective ‘domestication’ in domestic legal systems, or ensuring adverse judgments are executed, it is important that we continue to question how and why the Convention is not always as well implemented as it could be. Partly in an attempt to pursue this question, I have been involved–with others–in organising a conference to be held in the Constitutional Court of Lithuania in Vilnius (pictured; credit) the week after next on Regional Challenges in Implementing the ECHR. The key question that the conference seeks to address is whether there are any regional variations or factors that are relevant to the question of implementation. We describe the conference thus:

The conference brings together academics, members of the judiciary and practicing lawyers from across Europe to facilitate a timely discussion of the challenges and underlying causes of insufficient compliance with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The aim of the workshop is to examine common approaches and practices from different parts of Europe to the implementation and application of the Convention. The key question of the conference is whether the challenges to implementation of the Convention are country-specific, regional or European.

The reality, I suspect, is that the challenge is a little bit of all of the above, which of course only exacerbates the complexity of addressing it. I am very pleased to say that we will have representatives of the judiciaries of Lithuania, Germany, Turkey, Croatia, Ukraine, Georgia and the European Court of Human Rights itself participating in the conference. Indeed, I will lead a ‘conversation’ with a number of senior judges on the first day, partly to garner their judicial experiences and partly to scope out some key questions we hope will then be explored by the predominantly academic panels on the second day. These panels will consider implementation of the Convention in Eastern and Central Europe (Croatia, Ukraine and Russia), Western (incl. Northern) Europe (the UK, Denmark, and Germany), and Southern Europe (Greece, Turkey and Azerbaijan).

For me, this is the latest in my very fruitful collaboration with Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou (Liverpool) with whom I have already published some work on the Court, and have an article (on non-execution of judgments; in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly) and book (Great Debates on the ECHR (Palsgrave)) forthcoming next year. The conference is organised by us together with Max Timofeev of the European Humanities University, Sergey Dikman of the Council of Europe, and Ingrida Danėlienė of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. It is supported by the COE and the Constitutional Court, and the two keynote lectures will be delivered by Prof Dainius Zalimas (President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania) and Judge Ganna Yudkivska (of the European Court of Human Rights).

The conference is open to the public, but registration is required for security reasons. All details are available on the conference website here.