28 October 2020
LawRules #6: We need to talk about Attorneys
Attorneys are not on everyone's mind when they think about the rule of law. The European Commission gave a prime example for that when it remained conspicuously silent about the role of lawyers in its recent Rule of Law report. Yet, attorneys play just as important a role in preserving the rule of law as other parts of the judicial system do. What's more: Where they are at risk of being prosecuted for doing their jobs, the erosion of the rule of law is imminent. We talk about attorneys with our distinguished guests in this week's episode of our podcast, co-hosted by the German Bar Association, We Need to Talk About the Rule of Law Continue reading >>
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24 May 2020
Impacts of COVID-19 – The Global Access to Justice Survey
In addition to initiating a humanitarian crisis, the coronavirus outbreak is triggering multiple impacts (social, political, economic, environmental etc.) on the global stage, whose consequences – both negative and positive – were not only unforeseen, but remain unpredictable. We can be sure, however, that they will inevitably touch, one way or another, our justice and legal aid systems. Continue reading >>
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04 December 2019
Time for Strasbourg to Open its Doors to Turkey’s Purged Public Servants
A report by the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) provides fresh evidence that the Commission formed in 2017 to examine the mass dismissals of public servants and liquidation of media outlets and other organisations functions arbitrarily and without transparency. Together with concerns about judicial review by administrative courts and the Constitutional Court, the report casts serious doubt on whether victims of abuses committed under emergency laws have access to an effective domestic remedy – a finding with implications for the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as it considers the long queue of Turkish applications before it. Continue reading >>27 August 2019
Pseudo-Legal Justice
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., a member of the Council of the Anti-corruption Agency of Montenegro, was dismissed of his duties, by the very same body that appointed him: the Parliament of Montenegro. This could be the first sentence of a novel written by Franz Kafka if he was with us today. While Kafka’s Josef K. was arrested and left to roam free through a court building to find a courtroom in which his destiny would be determined, Josef K. in this story is in a similarly peculiar situation: He does not know which court in Montenegro he should appeal to and present his grievances. This Kafkaesque reality is the result of a questionable interpretation of the law by Montenegro’s Supreme Court – just another piece in the demise of the country’s rule of law. Continue reading >>
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14 June 2019
Producing Legal History
Iustitia dilata est iustitia negata is a famous legal maxim meaning that “justice delayed is justice denied”. It goes without saying that it represents a universal truth. This truth is particularly relevant to the European Court of Human Rights which - on average - takes several years to deliver a judgment. Continue reading >>
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