Judicial and Non-Judicial Elements in the Enforcement Mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights

Typically, in national law, the determination of legal consequences of a breach of the law is the power of the State organ which finds such a breach. If a breach is found by a court, the determination of the legal consequences of this breach belongs to the same court. The letter of the European Convention on Human Rights Convention justifies the interpretation according to which the Court is competent to determine the legal consequences of a violation of the Convention. The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the practice of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe have not followed the interpretation of the Convention based upon the letter of the treaty. The Convention system as shaped by the practice is based upon a repartition of judicial tasks between the ECHR and the Committee of Ministers. The ECHR usually limits itself to deciding the question of violation of the Convention and if necessary awards a pecuniary compensation for the moral damage suffered by the applicant and sometimes for material damage. The Committee of Ministers assesses the measures adopted or proposed by the State and makes the final determination in this respect. Accepting those measures or declaring them—explicitly or implicitly—as insufficient. The legal consequences of violations of the Convention are therefore determined in a process in which the respondent State interacts with the Committee of Ministers and the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in non-judicial proceedings.