Download This PaperSignificantly Insignificant? The Life in the Margins of the Admissibility Criterion in Article 35 § 3 (b) ECHR
Brianne McGonigle Leyh, Yves Haeck, Clara Burbano Herrera, and Diana Contreras Garduno (eds.), The realization of human rights: when theory meets practice. Studies in honour of Leo Zwaak (Antwerp: Intersentia 2013, Forthcoming)
13 Pages Posted: 5 Apr 2013 Last revised: 27 Jun 2013
Date Written: April 3, 2013
Abstract
Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) introduced a new admissibility criterion: the lack of a significant disadvantage. The criterion, included after long and very principled discussions about the accessibility and effectiveness of the European system of human rights supervision, will be the object under scrutiny in this contribution. The main issue under review will be whether the concerns in the run up to the introduction of this admissibility have materialised. Has the practice of the Court in applying the “lack of a significant disadvantage” as a threshold at the entrance of the European system indeed endangered the access of individual applicants to the Court? In order to answer this question I will first look at the discussions which led to the creation of this criterion. Subsequently, its scope and application will be addressed by looking at the jurisprudence of the Court.
Keywords: ECHR, human rights, admissibility, Protocol 14
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