Publication details
The Invisible Majority: The Unsuccessful Applications Against The Czech Republic Before the European Court of Human Rights
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Czech Yearbook of International Law |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://files.cyil.eu/200000021-222f123290/CYIL_15_majercik.pdf |
| Field | Law sciences |
| Keywords | European Court of Human Rights; human rights |
| Description | In 2009 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered 3 judgments against the Czech Republic while rejecting 765 applications. Th e number of rejected applications is nearly the same as the number of newly introduced ones adding up to the insurmountable backlog of pending cases. Most often the attention is focused on judgments, leaving this majority of applications unnoticed. Th e failure to examine the rejected applications has two adverse eff ects. First, it might be a contributing factor to the expectation gap, i.e. the applicants, not knowing their small chances of success, lodge constantly raising number of applications before the ECtHR. According to their letters, the ECtHR is seen as the only avenue that can bring the “real” justice. At the same time, on numerous occasions the applicants seem not to be aware of the admissibility criteria. Attempting to bridge this expectation gap and to shed more light on the formal requirements this paper deals precisely with this group of “invisible” cases. Based on a small sample of applications it explores the “typical application”, motives behind it and the most common reasons for rejection. |