CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Tesfamhret Teklesenbet Haile |
|---|---|
| Title | The Legal Status of Regional Human Rights Conventions in National Constitutions: Implication for Compliance with the Decisions of Regional Human Rights Courts |
| Summary | This paper attempts the legal status of regional human rights conventions in the hierarchy of municipal laws and their implication for state compliance with the decisions of regional human rights courts. Although, relying on a data of 108 constitutions collected over a period of 200 years, Kevin et al. in their publication of September 2021 claimed that there are only three possibilities for the legal status of international treaties in national constitutions (i.e., equal to legislation, inferior to legislation, and those that require legislation to be incorporated), this research, however, relying on a primary data of 138 constitutions, finds that there are over seven legal status of international treaties including superior to ordinary laws but inferior to organic laws, superior to legislation, equal to constitution and superior to constitution. Thus, the implication of the legal status of international treaties to state compliance would differ accordingly. Furthermore, the paper observes that by comparison with margin of appreciation, the doctrine of conventionality test seems helpful to enhance the legal status of international treaties and it is one possible reason to explain as to why constitutions of member states to the American Court tend to grant a higher legal status than their European and African counterparts. Importantly, this paper finds that the margin of appreciation as applied by the European and African human rights courts are not the same in that the latter doesn’t consider consensus in the practice of contracting states. Thus it is recommended that the African Court be cautious while referring to the jurisprudence of the European Court on that matter and that it delineates the margins of appreciation and ensure that the same is included in its Charter/Protocol in conformity with the principle of the rule of law. Finally, a number of recommendations are suggested to enhance compliance with the decisions of regional human rights courts. |
| Supervisor | Professor Markus Bockenforde |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/haile_tesfamhret.pdf |
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