Bossuyt, Marc --- "Is the European Court of Human Rights on a slippery slope?" [2013] ELECD 782; in Flogaitis, Spyridon; Zwart, Tom; Fraser, Julie (eds), "The European Court of Human Rights and its Discontents" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 27

Book Title: The European Court of Human Rights and its Discontents

Editor(s): Flogaitis, Spyridon; Zwart, Tom; Fraser, Julie

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782546115

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Is the European Court of Human Rights on a slippery slope?

Author(s): Bossuyt, Marc

Number of pages: 10

Abstract/Description:

An examination of all judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’ or ‘the Court’) concerning asylum seekers from 20 March 1991 to 30 June 2009 led to the conclusion that the Court is on a slippery slope. Several new developments with respect to asylum cases give rise to additional concern. This includes I) the continuous lowering of the threshold of the prohibition of torture in Article 3 ECHR; II) the recognition of vulnerable population groups in need of special protection; the extension of the applicability of Article 3 ECHR to the living conditions of asylum seekers in member and non-member States; and IV) the attribution of extraterritorial effects to Article 6 ECHR. In addition, the President of the Court himself expressed concern about the ‘alarming rise’ in the number of requests for interim measures. The Court’s growing awareness that the rise of such requests was becoming unmanageable resulted in a sharp drop of the number of interim measures granted from 1,443 in 2010, to 342 in 2011. The number of requests for interim measures also dropped from 3,775 in 2010, to 2,778 in 2011. This development clearly illustrates how the position taken by the Court on a particular issue directly influences its caseload. Other developments also give rise to concern regarding the Court’s practices.