Wednesday 24 June 2009

Problems in Appointing New ECtHR Judges

A procedural battle is being waged about the appointment of a new Ukranian Judge at the Court. There is currently no Ukrainian judge, which has meant thus far that for each case an ad hoc judge had to be appointed. The origin was the fact that in 2007 one of the three candidates on the list submitted to Ukraine withdrew. Thusfar, the authorities refused to submit a new third candidate. Instead they have submitted a completely new list, without even justifying such a move with a reference to exceptional circumstances. This is the report on the issue by rapporteur Dick Marty of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Both Ukraine and PACE now want the Committee of Ministers to ask the Court for an Advisory Opinion. To be continued...

Thanks to my colleague Leo Zwaak for pointing this out to me!

Meanwhile PACE did elect a new judge in respect of San Marino, Ms.Kristina Pardalos. for an overview of the votes cast, click here. And here for the CVs of the three candidates.

The saga of finding a successor for the Maltese judge Bonello is also still continuing, as the Times of Malta reports. Thus far Malta has failed to submit a list of candidates which contains at least one woman.