EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

ECtHR are among the main sources on which it draws when drafting its opinions and studies. Conversely, by January 2021, the ECtHR has referred to the VC opinions and studies in more than 200 judgements and decisions. The first reference dates back to 2001, when the Court referred to the VC Report on the Preferential Treatment of National Minorities by their Kin- States in the Banković Case. Since then, it has systematically listed VC documents in the section of the judgments providing the overview of the relevant international law and practice and has also, occasionally, relied on them in its reasoning. Concurring and dissenting opinions also contain numerous references to VC opinions and studies. For instance, in Mariya Alekhina and Others v. Russia (2018), concerning the Russian Punk Group Pussy Riots, the ECtHR extensively quoted from the VC Report on the Relationship between Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion and the VC Opinion on the Federal Law on Combating Extremist Activity of the Russian Federation. In Baka v. Hungary (2016), the Court invoked as many as five documents issued by the VC (three opinions on Hungary, one on Armenia and one on Georgia). Moreover, starting from 2005, the ECtHR has requested several amicus curie opinions of the Venice Commission. Some of these opinions relate to general issues. This is so with the 2006 Opinion on the Prohibition of Financial Contributions to Political Parties from Foreign Sources. Most, however, concentrate on questions that have arisen in concrete cases. For instance, in 2019, the Commission produced an amicus curie brief on procedural safeguards which a State must ensure in procedures challenging the result of an election or the distribution of seats, that the Court had requested in the Mugemangango v. Belgium Case. In some cases, furthermore, the Commission itself has sought leave to intervene as a third party in the proceedings before the Court – this was so, for instance, in 2008, in the Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina Case. In addition to the amicus curie opinions produced for the ECtHR, several other VC opinions and studies concern the Court’s activities. The most important among them are the 1999 Opinion on the execution of decisions of the European court of Human Rights, 2002 Opinion on the Implementation of the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the 2007 Opinion on the European Union accession to the European Court of Human Rights or the 2020 Opinion on the draft Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation relating to the execution in the Russian Federation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. In these opinions, the Commission stresses the importance of proper implementation of the ECtHR judgments and suggests that the oversight of this implementation falls; not only on the Committee of Ministers, but also on other actors in the Council of Europe, including the Court itself.

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION

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