CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020)

CONVENTION IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19: WHO IS THE MASTER…

CONVENTION IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19: WHO IS THE MASTER OF INTERNATIONAL TREATIES? Martina Grochová, Ľubomír Majerčík Abstract: The paper examines the current decision of the European Court of Human Rights to extend certain time-limits, including the six-months for lodging an application, due to the COVID-19 crisis. It has been first announced on 16 March and prolonged on 16 April for further two months, thus extending the time-limit for lodging applications fixed in the Convention by half. Neither of the two Press Releases informing the public about the measures contains any information regarding the entity that took the decision, whether it has been adopted unanimously and what legal basis it has. The paper discusses the measures in the context of the relevant provisions of international law, in particular Article 15 of the Convention and Article 62 of the Vienna Convention. The authors argue that even though the decision is understandable, it is, however, problematic in the light of international law and its fundamental principles. Resumé: Příspěvek rozebírá rozhodnutí prodloužit ve světle epidemie Covid-19 některé lhů- ty v řízení před Evropským soudem pro lidská práva, včetně klíčové šestiměsíční lhůty. Toto prodloužení bylo několikrát nastavováno, aniž by tiskové zprávy, v nichž bylo oznámeno, specifikovaly rozhodující těleso, jež ho přijalo, a především právní základ pro takový krok. Přestože Evropská úmluva i Vídeňská úmluva o smluvním právu počítají s možností poza- stavení aplikace některých práv a přestože je lidsky pochopitelné přijatí takového opatření, ve světle mezinárodního práva a jeho zásad se zdá být problematické. Key words: European Convention on Human Rights, emergency situations, European Court of Human Rights, treaty law, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, ultra vires , admissibility About the authors: Martina Grochová obtained her PhD in constitutional law at Masaryk University, Faculty of Law. She specialises in the area of human rights, the European human rights protection system and children rights. At the moment, she works at the Analytics Department of the Constitutional Court and teaches at the Palacký University, Faculty of Law. In the past, she also worked as a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights and as a legal clerk at the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. Ľubomír Majerčík is in charge of the Analytics Department at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. He studied law and international relations in Brno (M.A., Masaryk University) and human rights in Budapest (LL.M., Central European University). In the past, he worked as a case-lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights, external relations officer at ECRI, Council of Europe, a head of the Secretariat of the Czech Government Human Rights Council or lecturer at the Masaryk University. He specialises in international criminal law, constitutional law and human rights law.

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