The European Court of Human Rights as a Constitutional Court for Europe?

Abstract

The European Court of Human Rights describes itself as the most effective international human rights tribunal in the world. However, on the threshold of the third decade of the 21st century, the ECtHR has been facing serious challenges. Regardless of the crisis caused by the failure of the mechanism of Convention implementation, in the face of the growing number of complaints and Eurosceptics, the populist tendencies have been emerging, especially in some European countries. The Court itself has become the subject of criticism, especially from some state parties to the European Convention of Human Rights. In this context arises a question about the
topicality of the debate on the constitutional nature of the ECtHR. In particular, is it still possible to speak about the constitutional nature of the ECtHR?
The author tries to answer this question through the perspective of the debate on the constitutional nature of the ECtHR as well as the constitutional nature of its judgements. Then he analyzes the issue of the constitutional nature of the Tribunal in the context of its legitimacy. The author concludes that the phenomenon of constitutionalization of the ECtHR is rather a longterm process than the existing state of affairs. The course of this process and its result depend on various factors. It depends on the Tribunal itself, its courage, the quality of issued judgments, as well as the readiness of states to recognize the constitutional role of the ECtHR. In the long term, the ECtHR should not stop carrying out its mission to implement the spirit of the Convention and defend human rights in Europe, but it should implement it in a constitutional manner, as the European constitutional tribunal in the field of human rights.