Thursday 26 June 2008

Official Case Law Overviews

With the huge amount of judgments and decisions flowing from Strasbourg, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep a good overview of the Court's case law. Strasbourg itself offers several possibilities to alleviate any Court watcher's burden. One important way are the Court's case law information notes which categorise cases (judgments, decisions and communicated cases) by Article and theme. They are searchable here. A new and exciting service provided by the court are the key case law issues. This comprehensive overview in the making compiles the leading cases per Convention article - useful and extremely handy for both academics and practioners (and an authoritative addition to existing books which provide similar overviews). Thusfar Articles 6(1), 8, 34, 35 en Article 1 of the first Protocol have been made available online. Meanwhile, a remake of the HUDOC search engine is being considered, with possibly even the option to search for existing translations in other languages than French or English. For the new plans, see this speech by Roddick Liddell from the Court's registry, delivered at a colloquy in Stockholm earlier this month. To be continued!