CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ THE CZECH REPUBLIC BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2017 THE CZECH REPUBLIC BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2017 Vít Alexander Schorm* Abstract: The aim of this article is to provide a short overview of the European Court of Human Rights’ activities towards the Czech Republic in 2017. The year of reference is characterised by a limited number of delivered judgments and decisions and only one instance of a violation established by the Court. It nevertheless addressed interesting questions, such as the use of classified evidence in judicial review of administrative decisions in the field of national security, the examination of witnesses in criminal proceedings, or the possibility of abuse of the right of petition after the Court’s principal judgment. Resumé: Účelem článku je poskytnout krátký přehled aktivit Evropského soudu pro lidská práva vůči České republice v roce 2017. Referenční rok je charakteristický omezeným po- čtem vydaných rozsudků a rozhodnutí a toliko jedním případem porušení Úmluvy, které shledal Soud. Přesto Soud řešil zajímavé otázky, jako je použití utajovaných důkazů při přezkumu správních rozhodnutí v oblasti národní bezpečnosti, výslech svědků v trestním řízení nebo možnost zneužití práva stížnosti po rozsudku Soudu ve věci samé. Key Words: human rights; European Court of Human Rights; right to a fair trial; principles of adversarial proceedings and equality of arms; access to court; abuse of the right of petition; effective domestic remedies. About the Author: JUDr. Vít Alexander Schorm has been the Agent of the Government of the Czech Republic before the European Court of Human Rights since 2002. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno in 1996, studied public comparative law at l’Université de Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne (D.E.A. in 1998) and is an alumnus of the French École nationale d’administration (2002). Introduction This annual contribution aims at providing a short overview of the European Court of Human Rights’ (“the Court”) most relevant activities with regard to the Czech Republic as a high contracting party to the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”) in the respective previous year – 2017 in the circumstances. I have usually been forced to say that there was not much to say, except for a couple of interesting judgments, and expressed a hope that this would change in the next year. The truth is that a judgment of non-violation or inadmissibility decision seems a priori to be a non-event, in spite of all the labour of the Government Agent’s Office behind the success of the State’s defence in the proceedings before the Court. In 2017, the Court delivered seven judgments. Out of them, it found a violation of the Convention rights or freedoms in one single case, in three judgments concerning four applications, the Court awarded just satisfaction and three judgments, one of which pronounced by the Grand Chamber, established no violation of the Convention. A couple of formal inadmissibility decisions 1 and one friendly settlement complete the picture. * The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not correspond with the official position of the Government of the Czech Republic and do not bind this State Authority in any way . 1 Committee, Chamber or Grand Chamber admissibility decisions formulated with reasoning and published

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