Alex Tinsley discusses ECtHR litigation at Academy of European Law seminar

On 7-8 December 2023 Alex spoke at the seminar Criminal Law and Human Rights: Recent ECtHR Case Law, hosted by the Academy of European Law (Europäische Rechtsakademie (‘ERA’)) (see here).

The ERA is a leading European legal training organisation dealing with the European Union law and Council of Europe standards including case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’).

On 7 December Alex presented recent Article 3 ECHR case-law relevant to extradition e.g. Bivolaru & Moldovan v France (presumption of equivalent protection in EU systems); Sanchez-Sanchez v UK and linked cases (life without parole); Rakhmanov & Khasanov v Russia (restatement of the general principles); Liu v Poland (systemic torture in the destination country) and related cases of the UN Committee Against Torture and Court of Justice of the EU.

The presentation also covered mutual legal assistance and cross-border issues e.g. Kupinskyy v Ukraine (Articles 3 and 7 / transfer and conversion of sentence), Shorazova v Malta (Article 1 First Protocol / cross-border asset-freezing); and Shenturk & Others v Azerbaijan (Article 5 / disguised extradition).

On 8 December Alex participated in a panel on the ‘making a valid application to the ECtHR’ – an issue of significant interest to practitioners because of the ECtHR’s strict application of Article 47 of the Rules of Court and associated Practice Direction on validity requirements. 

Alex discussed the relationship of the application form and supplementary memorandum and practical issues arising when making applications together with lawyers in other jurisdictions and/or for clients in custody or in remote locations, and the contrast with the more user-friendly individual complaint mechanisms within the United Nations such as the UN Human Rights Committee.