EMD: 7 av 11 overdommere har liten eller ingen juridisk erfaring

Til tross for Den euro­pe­iske men­neske­retts­dom­sto­len (EMD) kan avgjøre juri­diske saker av stor vik­tig­het, er 7 av 11 over­dom­mere aka­de­mi­kere med liten eller ingen juri­disk erfaring.

EMD har bla makt til å til­side­sette dom­mer avsagt av høy­este­rett i de lan­dene som er til­slut­tet Den euro­pe­iske men­neske­retts­er­klæ­rin­gen (EMK). Dom­sto­len over­sit­ter 800 mil­lio­ner euro­pe­ere og har avsagt nær­mere 10.000 dom­mer siden den ble etab­lert i 1959. Dom­merne ved EMD tren­ger ikke å ha vært dom­mere i hjem­lan­det, men blir nomi­nert av Europa­rå­dets par­la­men­ta­riske sam­ling og sit­ter for ni år. Hvert år får dom­sto­len rundt 50.000 nye saker å behandle.

Men hel­ler ikke EMDs pre­si­dent, den bri­tiske advo­ka­ten Nico­las Bratza, har hatt noen over­ord­net juri­disk stil­ling, og hans erfa­ring begren­set seg til å ha arbei­det som retts­skri­ver i en kort periode før han ble pre­si­dent ved EMD.

Last month, he admit­ted that some of the court’s best jud­ges - inclu­ding those on ECHR’s ple­nary court - were for­mer aca­de­mics who had been para­chuted into the role.

Among those from the world of aca­de­mia is Françoise Tul­kens, the Bel­gian vice-president of the court. He has no senior judi­cial experience.

Following Sir Nicolas’s rare appea­rance in par­lia­ment Tory Domi­nic Raab said: ‘The pre­si­dent may not be fus­sed that we have a bunch of aca­de­mics making the law up as they go along, but elected law-makers and the pub­lic in Bri­tain cer­tainly are.’

MPs also attacked the extra­or­di­nary selection sys­tem for the court, which allows the 47 mem­ber sta­tes of the Coun­cil of Europe to nomi­nate jud­ges who have never sat in judgment in their own countries.

Among those who have never had expe­ri­ence as a judge include Alba­nian Ledi Bianku, for­merly a lawyer and lectu­rer. He was key the the Abu Qatada ruling.

Anot­her is Dan­ute Jociene who has no pre­vious expe­ri­ence as a senior judge. At 33 she became the youn­gest judge ever appointed to the court in 2004.

Ana­toly Kov­ler has held no notable posts as a judge and his expe­ri­ence in the judi­ciary extends only to aca­de­mic law.

David Thor Bjorg­vins­son is an aca­de­mic from Ice­land who has pre­viously served rela­tively minor roles as an assi­stant judge and judge’s assistant.

Danish natio­nal Peer Loren­zen was a for­mer aca­de­mic before joi­ning the ECHR and was legal advi­ser to Denmark’s mini­s­try of jus­tice. He was also a judge then pre­si­dent of the Court of Appeal of western Denmark.

Among those with some expe­ri­ence are Lech Gar­licki, from Poland and ECHR’s head of the Human rights sec­tion. He served as a judge at the Polish con­sti­tu­tio­nal Court for eight years after com­mu­nism fell.

Dan­ute Jociene from Lit­hua­nia was the youn­gest judge ever appointed to the ECHR when she was 33 in 2004

Ana­toly Kov­ler has wor­ked in aca­de­mic law but has not held any note­able posts as a judge

Mal­tan Vin­cent de Gaetano was an aca­de­mic before taking up a job as a judge, then deputy attorney-general and before arri­ving at ECHR he was chief jus­tice of Malta. Jan

Sik­uta was judge of the Appeal Court of Bra­tis­lava 1990 and 1994 before a 10-year ten­ure as legal offi­cer at the UN.

Flere land har kla­get over EMDs akti­vis­tiske tolk­ning av EMK, og Stor­bri­tan­nia har i økende grad uttrykt mis­nøye med at EMD har til­tatt seg en rolle som Euro­pas høy­este­rett med sta­dig videre full­mak­ter. EMK, Human Rights Act (HRA) på engelsk, ble imple­men­tert i bri­tisk lov­gi­ving av Labour-regjeringen i 1998, og siden da har både imple­men­te­rin­gen og selve kon­ven­sjo­nen blitt sta­dig mer upo­pu­lære i den bri­tiske offent­lig­he­ten. Kon­ven­sjo­nens klare tendens til å sette far­lige kri­mi­nel­les men­neske­ret­tig­he­ter foran ofre­nes og den øvrige befolk­nin­gens sik­ker­het, står skarpt i strid med folks almin­ne­lige retts­opp­fat­ning og er blitt gjen­stand for utbredt og kraf­tig kri­tikk. Det er i dag en utbredt opp­fat­ning i Stor­bri­tan­nia at HRA er et “ret­tig­hets­char­ter for kri­mi­nelle”, og det er ikke uten grunn. Eksemp­lene på absurde retts­av­gjø­rel­ser og ikke minst inn­skrenk­ning av lan­dets poli­tiske hand­lings­rom er etter­hvert blitt mange.

Flere bri­tiske poli­ti­kere har tatt til orde for å trekke lan­det fra EMDs juris­dik­sjon, og nå har benyt­tet en pågå­ende utred­ning til å legge frem en rekke reform­for­slag for å redu­sere EMDs økende juris­dik­sjon og til­ta­gende inn­blan­ding i spørs­mål av poli­tisk karakter.

Daily Mail: How can they tell us how to run our coun­try? Seven of ele­ven sit­ting at Europe’s human rights court deci­ding fate of hate preacher Qatada have never been judges