THE LEGAL METHOD AND STRUCTURE OF THE DECISIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

The European Court of Human Rights is a cornerstone and a symbol of the human rights protection
machinery centred around the European Convention on Human Rights, which 70 years since its
signing, has remained innovative, progressive and inspirational world-wide.
Undoubtedly, the institutional set-up has enabled the Court to profile itself as a standard-setter
with important achievements in judicial protection of human rights. But, is the Court’s success
predetermined by its institutional positioning and the place that it was given by the Contracting
Parties in the European system of human rights protection? This paper argues that in addition to
the place given by the States, the Court has, through its jurisprudence, developed its own ‘legal
method’ that has proven instrumental to the institution’s success. The paper will try to analyse the
Court’s legal method, understood as an entirety of legal reasoning, presentation of legal
argumentation and structuring of decisions in individual applications. The legal method will be
presented through the Court’s approach in the establishment of the facts of the case, determination
of the applicable law, characterization of the complaints, as well as some standard principles and
doctrines usually applied in the Court’s legal reasoning. These elements will be linked to the
standard structure of the Court’s decisions and drafting techniques.
The paper will demonstrate that the understanding of the Court’s legal method and structure of its
decisions is important in order to grasp the Court’s logic and facilitate the ‘reading’, execution and
further use of the Court’s jurisprudence. The paper will show that the Court’s legal method
authentically integrates various European legal traditions and offers an important contribution to
the pan-European space of legal culture and identity.