European Court of Human Rights

Lord Marlesford Excerpts

Thursday 24th March 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Marlesford]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what means exist for them to challenge judgments of the European Court of Human Rights which have overruled decisions of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in ways which the Government consider unfounded in law.

[The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Wallace of Tankerness)]

My Lords, if a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights gives a judgment against the United Kingdom, we may request referral of the case to the Grand Chamber. Grand Chamber judgments and Chamber judgments that have become final because there has been no request for referral, or because a request has been rejected, are binding on the parties and not subject to any further challenge.

[Lord Marlesford]

My Lords, I thank my noble and learned friend for that Answer. While we all obviously favour and support human rights, and endorse the role of the judiciary in supporting them, does he agree that the performance of the European Court of Human Rights has done little to enhance its reputation? Perhaps I may give him an example from an Answer given recently to the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, about seven people whom the previous Government sought to have extradited to the United States on terrorist accusations. This was between 2007 and 2009, and the European Court of Human Rights is still considering those cases. Is it really conceivable that it can take up to four years to consider such a case and is it surprising that, as a result, people are beginning to think that the European Court of Human Rights is weak on law but strong on politics?

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

My Lords, with the kind of cases that the European Court of Human Rights deals with, its judgments can inevitably be supported in some cases—as indeed they have been in many cases by the public—and not supported in others. On the point that my noble friend makes, the fact that there is a backlog of around 140,000 applications suggests that something is not working effectively. That is why the Government are committed to supporting and building on the process of court reform which is already under way in Strasbourg. As part of that reform process, the Government wish to see a strengthening of the principle of subsidiarity; that is, that the convention should principally be implemented at national level.