Beyond Bosphorus: The European Court of Human Rights’ Case Law on the Responsibility of Member States of International Organisations Under the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

The paper examines and critically assesses the ECtHR’s case law applying and distinguishing the Bosphorus decision. The discussion revolves around two major points: the first is the ECtHR’s distinction between cases where there was a domestic act or omission of some sort so that the Bosphorus case applies and member states can (generally) be held responsible; and cases where no such act can be found so that they are dismissed as inadmissible ratione personae. It is argued that this distinction is not convincing. The second point is the application of the Bosphorus decision in a number of cases. The paper tries to explore whether the exact conditions for the applicability of the presumption and its rebuttal have become any clearer.

Keywords: ECHR, EU, Bosphorus presumption, responsibility of Member States

JEL Classification: K19