The Kurdish Human Rights Project, Issue 1

The Kurdish Human Rights Project, Issue 1

Kerim Yildiz
Mark Muller

KHRP

The European Court of Human Rights rightly has, like all courts, means to ensure that the list is not clogged up with cases no longer requiring its attention. Thus Article 37 of the Convention authorises it to strike out any case where there is no intention to pursue it, the matter has been resolved or 'for any other reason established by the Court' continued examination is no longer justified. The need for the first and second of these grounds can readily be appreciated but any concern about the seemingly far too open-ended nature of the third - whose use was intended by its drafters to be used only in circumstances comparable to the first two grounds -ought to be assuaged by the overriding obligation on the Court to continue the examination of a case 'if respect for human rights as defined by the Convention ... so requires'. This qualification on the power to strike out a case is essentially similar to the limitation on settlements ...