Are Rights of Judges Becoming Rule of Law Standards in Europe?

Abstract

Recent examples from the case law of the European Court of Human Rights as well as of the Court of Justice of the European Union show that the situation of judicial independence across Europe is still under stress. In the last 4 years, a rich body of jurisprudence has been developed by the ECtHR around the rights of judges: right to a fair trial, right to privacy, freedom of expression, right to liberty and security. These cases comprise a strong component of rule of law references by the Strasbourg Court. The attacks against judicial independence that have been at the origin of these cases are diverse and there is no unique recipe of how to respond. The article posits that this jurisprudence can become one of the criteria to assess a state’s compliance with the rule of law requirements, although the results still depend too much on the political will of the states.

Keywords: rule of law, judges, right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, right to private life, European Court of Human Rights, judicial independence