Repository logo
 

Non-pecuniary damages before the European Court of Human Rights: Forget the victim; It's all about the state

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThis article studies how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) adjusts damages for human rights violations. The article empirically analyses 13 years of ECtHR’s case law in relation to Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (torture, inhuman and degrading treatment), and 5 (arbitrary detention) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, the Convention). The goal is to understand whether the statements made by the Court about the aims pursued through just satisfaction are confirmed in practice. Through an empirical quantitative study relating to non-pecuniary damages, the article analyses the practice of the Court in awarding non-pecuniary damages for human rights violations and compares it to the competing visions of the ECtHR’s function. In particular, I am interested in determining whether just satisfaction is aimed at redressing the suffering of the victim, her circumstances and vulnerability, or whether the focus is more on the respondent state, its conduct and its past human rights record. The answers to these questions will contribute to the debate whether the ECtHR’s role is one of delivering ‘individual justice’ or whether the Court is – as an international court enforcing an international treaty – focused on the ‘state’.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

damages, European Court of Human Rights, human rights, non-pecuniary, remedies

Journal Title

Leiden Journal of International Law

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0922-1565
1478-9698

Volume Title

33

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N000927/1)
Isaac Newton Trust (unknown)
European Research Council (803981)
ESRC, Newton Trust, Cambridge Humanities Research Grant Scheme