Author Description

"In order to be effective, international tribunals should be perceived as legitimate adjudicators. European Consensus and the Legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights provides in-depth analyses on whether European consensus is capable of enhancing the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Focusing on the method and value of European consensus, it examines the practicalities of consensus identification and application and discusses whether State-counting is appropriate in human rights adjudication. With over 30 interviews from judges of the ECtHR and qualitative analyses of the case law, this book gives readers access to firsthand and up-to-date information and provides an understanding of how the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg interprets the European Convention on Human Rights"-- "Has the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) lost its legitimacy? The answer to this question is perhaps 'no'. If this was the case, the Contracting Parties would stop executing judgments of the Court; the applicants would stop bringing their complaints to the Court; and, finally, the Contracting Parties would denounce the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR or Convention). Another option might be that the ECtHR would continue to exist without having any real impact on human rights standards in Europe and its judgments would lose much of their value. This has not yet happened. International tribunals, including the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), face a substantial structural deficiency; they operate within systems that lack the coercive capacity to enforce their judgments. International courts thus depend, to a greater degree than domestic courts, on the legitimacy of their judgments as a basis upon which to encourage, and in effect coerce, compliance"--