CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Hadzidedic, Sejla |
|---|---|
| Title | THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN SETTING STANDARDS ON ELECTORAL RIGHTS: Challenges in the United Kingdom and Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Summary | The rights to vote and to stand for election are lately the center of attention of the European Court of Human Rights. The recent jurisprudence demonstrates the growing importance of participation rights in the Convention system and justifies further research of this trend. The Council of Europe member states have, in response to this trend, criticized the Court for becoming too activist and departing from the parties’ intentions at the time Article 3 of Protocol 1 was adopted. Thus, the Court’s legitimacy has often been called into question. This thesis focuses on two very controversial judgments that are still not implemented, Hirst v. United Kingdom (No. 2) and Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reasons for non-implementation lie not only with the political sensitivity of the issues in question, but also with the implications the judgments have in the countries concerned. This thesis identifies common points for criticism that might not be obvious from such diverse cases. In essence, I do not dispute the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights in setting minimum standards on electoral rights. Rather, I argue that the Court has not been consistent in the application of standards established by its early case law. In reviewing the restrictions on electoral rights in Hirst and Sejdić, the Court has given insufficient weight to legitimate aims behind those restrictions and invalidated them based on an obscure and unconvincing review of proportionality. Moreover, the Court has not been entirely clear in relying on evolutive interpretation and in narrowing the wide margin of appreciation. |
| Supervisor | Smilov, Daniel |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/hadzidedic_sejla.pdf |
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