Mantovani, Martina; Hess, Burkhard --- "European perspectives on human rights litigation" [2019] ELECD 2909; in Ferrari, Franco; Fernandez Arroyo, P. Diego (eds), "Private International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 293

Book Title: Private International Law

Editor(s): Ferrari, Franco; Fernández Arroyo, P. Diego

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: European perspectives on human rights litigation

Author(s): Mantovani, Martina; Hess, Burkhard

Number of pages: 39

Abstract/Description:

This chapter analyses the approach of national and international courts in Europe vis-à-vis the use of procedural mechanisms based on judicial discretion in human rights and public interest litigation. Before European courts, the doctrines of forum necessitatis and forum non conveniens find their natural limitation in the hard-and-fast logic which underpins the Brussels Ibis Regulation. In matters covered by this instrument, recent litigation evidences that, in continental Europe as in common law countries, the prima facie approach to the jurisdictional test required under EU law has been successfully exploited by victims of human rights infringements to circumvent most of the traditional hurdles barring accessing to a court with jurisdiction. Nonetheless, although establishing jurisdiction might no longer be an insurmountable impediment, other procedural and substantive law hurdles might still come between these claimants and a favourable judgment on the merits.