Compliance and Legitimacy of International Human Rights Courts

Abstract

The aim of the panel is to trace the newest research development and challenges regarding the ECtHR and UN human rights treaty bodies. The research on human rights commitments has considerably evolved over the last decade. The growing interest is understandable given the knotty puzzle: the ratification of human rights treaties has become a standard behaviour in the international arena. The understanding how states make their commitment decisions to HR treaties is of utmost importance for the research on compliance and consequently for practical issues such as a proper design of HR treaties and their monitoring bodies. Current international HR treaties encompass a sizable number of bodies overseeing the compliance. States employ different techniques in order to lessen the effect of the HR treaty compliance control, and hence, limit eventual threat of retaliation and reputational costs. The panel “Compliance and Legitimacy of International HR Courts” addresses so-far unexplored areas of international HR regimes. First, it examines how different political regimes commit to HR treaties with different strength of compliance control (treaties establishing monitoring bodies and courts with different competences). Then, it looks more closely on how the character of the treaty body and legal strength of its decisions influences compliance patterns. The European Court of Human Rights undoubtedly belongs among the most significant and influential international HR treaty bodies. The second part of the panel therefore engages in more detail with domestic actors fostering its effectiveness and legitimacy (looking in particular at the interaction between ECtHR and domestic judiciary), as well as with potential threats and backlash the ECtHR faces from governments due to some of its more invasive or politically salient decisions. The panel therefore analyses how international HR courts could respond to non-compliance and legitimacy threats.