UCL / ILA British Branch Event: Protocol 16 to the ECHR: Challenges and Opportunities
Protocol 16 to the ECHR: Challenges and Opportunities
Speaker: Judge Tim Eicke (ECHR)
Chair: Dr Martins Paparinskis (UCL)
Wednesday 28 February 2018, 18:00 - 19:00
Gavin de Beer Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, Gower Street, London WC1
About this event:
As a result of the Brighton process, the Committee of Ministers adopted Protocols 15 and 16 to the Convention. The latter provides for a mechanism by which the highest courts and tribunals of a High Contracting Party to the Protocol may request the European Court of Human Rights to give advisory opinions on questions of principle relating to the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention or the protocols thereto. Protocol 16 will enter into force three months after ten States have notified their consent to be bound by it. Eight States having ratified the Protocol already and with press reports that the Ukrainian President has already signed the ratifying legislation and that such legislation is currently actively being considered by the Dutch Parliament and, following the announcement of an intention to ratify the Protocol by the French President in his address to the ECtHR on 31 October 2017, the French Parliament, entry into force in 2018 seems highly likely. Since its adoption, the Court itself has also been taking active steps to prepare itself for this new and novel procedure inter alia by preparing any necessary changes to the Rules of Procedure. This, therefore, timely presentation will put Protocol 16 into its historical and legal context and seek to identify some of the challenges and opportunities it may bring not only for the Court but also for High Contracting Parties, whether they have ratified the Protocol or not, and for the parties in proceedings which lead to a request for an advisory opinion being made.
About the speaker:
Tim Eicke has been a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, elected in respect of the United Kingdom, since September 2016.
Information regarding sign-up is available at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2018/feb/protocol-16-echr-challenges-and-opportunities