PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF INTERPRETATION OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

The ECHR represents a relatively short document. In order for it to be effective, it requires
interpretation.
According to article 32(1) “The jurisdiction of the Court shall extend to all matters concerning
the interpretation and application of the Convention and the Protocols”, hence it is the role of
the Strasbourg Court to interpret and apply the Convention. The role of the Strasbourg Court
is to interpret and apply the Convention [European Convention for Human Rights, Article
32(1)].
An understanding of the development of the Convention case-law requires understanding of
the Court’s approach to its interpretation. The starting point for the Strasbourg Court were the
rules of international law on the interpretation of treaties, since the convention in an
international treaty. When the Strasbourg court first came to consider this question, the Vienna
Convention on the Law of Treaties had not entered into force, but the Strasbourg Court decided
that its provisions represented customary international law and should be applied to the
interpretation of the Convention.
What no one denies is the ECHR has a special character. It penetrates the national legal orders
by requiring contracting parties to behave in a particular way towards their own citizens and
those citizens of other countries who are within their jurisdiction. Thus it is undisputed that the
Convention has a great impact on national law. This influence seems to be at least partly due
to the authoritative role played by the Court and the interpretative mechanisms and techniques
developed in its case-law. The Court’s jurisdiction extends to all issues concerning the
interpretation and application of the Convention.
Interpretative principles and standards developed in the Court’s case-law can be said to have
res interpretata or to constitute ‘interpretative authority’.
Although its main function is to decide on individual applications, the Court has accepted that
its role is, more generally, to elucidate and develop the meaning of the rights protected by the
Convention.