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Much Ado About Human Rights: The Federal Constitutional Court Confronts the European Court of Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Matthias Hartwig

Extract

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On October 14, 2004 the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG – German Federal Constitutional Court) delivered a judgment which gave rise to vivid reactions in the mass media and to a dispute between the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the German Federal Constitutional Court. In interviews, members of the Strasbourg court spoke about their disappointment in the German Court's unwillingness to implement decisions of the ECtHR while members of the German court referred to the necessity to respect national particularities. Whereas, normally, the ECtHR and the constitutional courts of the Member States of the Council of Europe are fighting side by side for human rights and, therefore, consider themselves as natural allies, this time their decisions, which seem to be incompatible, led to a dispute which attracted as much public interest as a film or theatre premiere.

Type
Developments
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 5 , 01 May 2005 , pp. 869 - 894
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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