Activism identification in law enforcement approaches of judges of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is a unique institution not only in Europe, but in the whole world; it is by far the most effective among all the international human rights courts. Since its foundationing in 1959, it has dealt a huge number of decisions, becoming the most active participant in the international justice. The success of individual appeals, on which the entire Convention system is based, has inevitably led to the involvement of new areas of human rights in the subject of the court’s research, and has extended it to a new range of subjects. The Court’s systematic expansion of the area (borders) of the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the involvement of new areas in it due to the progressive nature of the practice, is a positive quality. The rich and diverse Strasbourg practice has changed the political and legal landscape of Europe. This has led to the ECHR becoming a victim of its own success, in some cases invading the sovereign powers of states and affecting their constitutional identity. Among practitioners and researchers of international justice issues, the voices about excessive activism of the Court started appearing more often. The author of this article studies the factors that contribute to the manifestation of activist positions by judges of the ECHR, identifies forms of activism, and distinguishes them from judicial passivism. The material for the article includes the work of prominent researchers of international justice problems, judges of the ECHR, Russian authors, and the judicial practice of this supranational court. The author uses traditional research methods — general scientific and special, with an emphasis on the comparative legal method. The subject of the study is the author’s scientific concepts that reveal judicial activism through the case-law of the ECHR. The relevance of the work lies in the problem of using the practice of supranational courts in national justice, and the effective application of the developed standards.