Can the european court's pilot judgment procedure help resolve systemic human rights violations? Burdov and the failure to implement domestic court decisions in Russia

Human Rights Law Review

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 346-359

  Leach, Philip ^a   Hardman, Helen ^b   Stephenson, Svetlana ^a  

^a LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b HRSJ ^*  (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77953906694     PISSN: 14617781     EISSN: 17441021     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hrlr/ngq011     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. This article is based on research carried out by the authors, and Professor Brad Blitz (Kingston University) on the European Court's pilot judgment procedure. The full report will be published in Leach, Hardman, Stephenson and Blitz, Responding to Systemic Human Rights Violations - An Analysis of Pilot Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and Their Impact at National Level (Antwerp: Intersentia, 2010). Our thanks to Professor Bill Bowring (Birkbeck College, University of London) for commenting on an earlier draft of this article.
2. Broniowski v Poland 43 EHRR 1.
3. Burdov v Russia 38 EHRR 29 at paras 7-22.
4. See, for example, Leach, 'Strasbourg's Oversight of Russia - an Increasingly Strained Relationship', (2007) Public Law 640 at 643-645.
5. Trochev, 'All appeals lead to Strasbourg? Unpacking the Impact of the European Court of Human Rights on Russia', (2009) 17 Demokratizatsiva 145.
6. Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Non-enforcement of domestic judicial decisions in Russia: General measures to comply with the European Court's judgments: Memorandum prepared by the Department for the execution of the European Court's judgments (Application of Article 46 of the ECHR), 4 June 2007, CM/Inf/DH(2006)19 rev.3 at Introduction, para. 4.
7. Committee of Ministers, Interim Resolution CM/ResDH(2009)43, Execution of the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in 145 cases against the Russian Federation relative to the failure or serious delay in abiding by final domestic judicial decisions delivered against the state and its entities as well as the absence of an effective remedy; see also CM/Inf/DH(2006)19 revised, CM/Inf/DH(2006)45 and CM/Inf/DH(2006)19 revised.
8. Ministry of Finance, Order No. 271, 15 August 2006.
9. Ministry of Finance, Res. 579 on the form of the writ of execution, 31 July 2008. 14 Federal Treasury, Order No. 103, 24 April 2008.
10. See, for example, Wasserman v Russia (No. 2) Application No. 21071/05, Judgment of 10 April 2008; and Kukalo v Russia (No. 2) Application No. 11319/04, Judg ment o f 24 Ju ly 2008. 18 A backlog of 121,250 cases as at 31 January 2010.
11. Council of Europe, Resolution Res(2004)3 of the Committee of Ministers on judgments revealing an underlying systemic problem (adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 12 May 2004 at its 114th Session), available at: https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=743257&Lang=fr [last accessed 2 March 1010].
12. Hutten-Czapska v Poland 45 EHRR 4.
13. Olaru and Others v Moldova Application Nos 476/07, 22539/05, 17911/08 and 13136/07, Judgment of 28 July 2009.
14. Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v Ukraine Application No. 40450/04, Judgment of 15 October 2009. 23.
15. Suljagićv Bosnia and Herzegovina Application No. 27912/02, Judgment of 3 November 2009.
16. There is another group of cases relating to systemic violations of the ECHR, which we would characterise as 'quasi-pilot judgments'. These are cases in which the ECtHR also invokes Article 46(1) ECHR (and for that reason they have sometimes been referred to as 'Article 46 judgments'), but the ECtHR does not describe the decision as a pilot judgment. Only very rarely in 'quasi-pilot' judgments does the ECtHR also prescribe general measures in the operative part of the judgment (two examples being Lukenda v Slovenia 47 EHRR 32 and Xenides-Arestis v TurkeyApplication No. 46347/99, Judgment of 22 December 2005).
17. Interview with Judge Anatoly Kovler, Strasbourg, 26 March 2009 [on file with authors].
18. Burdov v Russia (No. 2), supra n. 16 at para. 38. See also, Prezident Rossii, Poslanie Federal'nomu Sobraniiu Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii ('Memorandum from the President of Russia to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation'), 5 November 2008, available at: http://tours.kremlin.ru/appears/2008/11/05/1349_type63372type63374type63381type82634_208749.shtml [last accessed 2 March 2010].
19. Medvedev rasskazal sud'iam o reforme: otkryto,ėffektivno, bezopasno ('Medvedev told judges that reform should be transparent, effective and foolproof'), available at: http://www.newsru.com/russia/02dec2008/medsud_print.html [last accessed 2 March 2010]. The proportion of judicial decisions that are not enforced has remained at around 50% at least since 2005: see European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), Examination of problems related to the execution of decisions by national civil courts against the state and its entities in the Russian Federation, 9 December 2005, CEPEJ(2005)8 at para. 11. 28 Burdov v Russia (No. 2), supra n. 16 at para. 132.
20. Interview with Olga Shepeleva, Public Interest Law Institute, Moscow, 22 September 2009 [on file with authors].
21. Interview with Maria Voskobitova, International Protection Centre, Moscow, 23 September 2009 [on file with authors].
22. Russia (Federation), Federal'noe Sobranie, Gosudarstvennaia Duma, O federal'nom budzhete na 2005 god (On the federal budget for 2005), available at: http://www.budgetrf.ru/Publications/2005/Adoption/Federal/Npd/Budgetlaws/173fz231204/173fz231204000.htm [last accessed 2 March 2010].
23. Postanovlenie Konstitutsionnogo Suda RF ot 14 iiulia 2005 g. N 8-P,'Po delu o proverke konstitutsionnosti otdel'nykh polozheniǐ federal'nykh zakonov o federal'nom biudzhete na 2003 god, na 2004 god i na 2005 god i postanovleniia Pravitel'stva Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii,'O poriadke ispolneniia Ministerstvom finansov Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii sudebnykh aktov po iskam k kazne Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii na vozmeshchenie vreda, prichinennogo nezakonnymi deǐstviiami (bezdeǐstviem) organov gosudarstvennoǐ vlasti libo dolzhnostnykh lits organov gosudarstvennoǐ vlasti' v sviazi s zhalobami_grazhdan.
24. E.D.Zhukovitskogo,I.G.Poǐma,A.V.Poniatovskogo,A.E.CheslavskogoiOAO 'Khabarovske_nergo', Decision of the Constitutional Court RF 14.07.05 g. N 8-P (On the matter of verifying the constitutionality of separate positions of the federal laws on the federal budget for 2003, 2004, 2005 and decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation, 'On the situation of how the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation is implementing court decisions against the Russian state to provide compensation for violations, unlawful acts (or failure to act) by state organs or authorities in connection with the complaints of citi_zens E.D. Zhukhovitskogo, I.G. Poǐ ma, A.V. Poniatovskogo, A.E. Cheslavskogo i OAO 'Khabarovske_nergo') at para 2.1, available at: http://ksportal.garant.ru:8081/SESSION/S__yUcOFK1X/PILOT/main.html [last accessed 2 March 10].
25. Russia (Federation), Verkhovnyǐ Sud., Postanovlenie Plenuma Verkhovnogo Suda Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii No. 52 ot 27 dekabria 2007 g., 'O srokakh rassmotreniia sudami Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii ugolovnykh, grazhdanskikh del i del ob administrativnykh pravonarusheniiakh' (Resolution of the Plenary session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, No.52, 27 December 2007.
26. Uskov (Viktor Mikhaylovich) (and 17 other applicants) v Russia Application Nos. 6394/05, 7144/05, 9464/05, 10542/05, 30006/06, 39119/06, 50742/06, 2229/07, 5951/07, 31624/07, 31698/07, 51340/07, 51342/07, 9463/08, 13132/08, 16251/08, 16849/08 and 39590/08, Judg ment o f 12 November 2009 (the compensation payments ranged from E1,400 to E3,350).
27. Pushkarskaia,'Evropeǐ skiǐ sud pozhalovalsia na Rossiiu Konstitutsionnomu: potrebovav ispolneniia sudebnykh resheniǐ', Kommersant No.36P (4091), 2 March 2009, available at: http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1128309 [last accessed 2 March 2010].
28. See also: http://www.newsru.com/russia/02mar2009/eurosud_kovler.html [last accessed 2 March 2010].
29. The Russian Federation has since ratified Protocol No. 14 (on 18 February 2010), which will enter into force on 1 June 2010.
30. Verkhovnyǐ Sud.,VnositsiaVerkhovnym Sudom Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii Proekt Rossiǐskaia Federatsiia Federal'nyǐ Konstitutsionnyǐ zakon o vozmeshchenii gosudarstvom vreda, prichinennogo narusheniem prava na sudoproizvodstvo v razumnye sroki i prava na ispolnenie v razumnye sroki vstupivshikh v zakonnuiu silu sudebnykh aktov (The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation introduces a Russian Federation Constitutional Bill on compensation for state violations of the right to trial within a reasonable time and the right to the execution of judgments that should have come into force), available at: http://asozd.duma.gov.ru/work/dz.nsf/ByID/325C666567526F04C32574D50027E910/$File/qeipq0002.rtf?OpenElement [last accessed 2 March 2010].
31. Although its first reading was originally planned for autumn 2009, the electronic registration card for the bill does not currently indicate a prospective date for this, see: http://asozd.du-ma.gov.ru/main.nsf/(Spravka)?OpenAgent&RN=103575-5&0d [last accessed 22 January 2010].
32. Federal'noe Sobranie, Gosudarstvennaia Duma. Komitet Gosudarstvennoǐ Dumy po konstitutsionnomu zakonodatel'stvu i gosudarstvennomu stroitel'stvu Po porucheniu Soveta Gosudarstvennoǐ Dumy ot 21 maia 2009 goda (protocol No.113, punkt 6) Zakliuchenie po proektu federal'nogo konstitutsionnogo zakona No. 103575-5, 'O vozmeshchenii gosudarstvom vreda, prichinennogo narusheniem prava na sudoproizvodstvo v razumnye sroki i prava na ispolnenie v razumnye sroki vstupivshikh v zakonnuiu silu sudebnykh aktov' vnesennomu Verkhovnym Sudom Rossiǐskoǐ Federatsii (pervoe chtenie) (Committee of the State Duma on Constitutional legislation and state institutions, commissioned by the Council of the State Duma, 21 May 2009 (Protocol No. 113, Article 6), Conclusions on the project of the federal constitutional bill No. 103575-5 'On compensation for state violations of the right to trial within a reasonable time and the right to the execution of judgments that should have come into force', laid by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (first reading)), available at: http://asozd.duma .gov.ru/work/dz.nsf/ByID/6A92F9F9B257A0F6C32575DA00213024/$File/0617103575-5.165.RTF?OpenElement [last accessed 2 March 2010].
33. Entin (2010), 'Nastoiashchee i Budushchee Interlakenskogo Protesessa', (2010) 40 Internet zhurnal Vsia Evropa ('The Present and the Future of the Interlaken Process'), available at: http://alleuropa.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1419#_f tnr [last accessed 2 March 2010].
34. Committee of Ministers, Interim Resolution CM/ResDH(2009)158, Execution of the pilot judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Burdov No. 2 against the Russian Federation relative to the failure or serious delay in abiding by final domestic judicial decisions delivered against the state and its entities as well as the absence of an effective remedy, adopted on 3 December 2009. An earlier interim resolution, CM/ResDH(2009)43, supra n. 9, was adopted on 19 March 2009.
35. Interview with Vladislav Ermakov, Strasbourg, 25 March 2009 [on file with authors].
36. Interview with Court Registry lawyer, Strasbourg, 27 March 2009 [on file with authors].
37. Russia (Federation), Federal'noe Sobranie, Gosudarstvennaia Duma, Sessiia GD 4-ia sessiia GD piatogo sozyva (osen' 2009 g.) Presedatel'stvuiushchiǐ (State Duma session, 4th session of the 5th Duma [2008-2011] (autumn 2009), 11 September 2009), available at: http://www.cir.ru/docs/duma/302/2091794?QueryID=2872326&HighlightQuery=2872326 [last accessed 2 March 2010].
38. High Level Conference on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights - Interlaken Declaration, 19 February 2010, available at: http://www.eda.admin.ch/etc/medialib/downloads/edazen/topics/europa/euroc.Par.0133.File.tmp/final_en.pdf [last accessed 2 March 2010].
39. See, for example, Fribergh, Bringing Rights Home or How to Deal with Repetitive Applications in the Future, Round Table, Bled, Slovenia, 21-22 September 2009, at para. 21.