Thursday 2 July 2009

New Vice-President

Today, the Court has elected Renate Jaeger from Germany as Vice-President of one of its Sections, with effect from 1 July 2009. This is the main part of the Court's press release:

Judge Jaeger was born on 30 December 1940 in Darmstadt and studied law at the Universities of Cologne, Munich and Lausanne. She was judge at the Social Court in Düsseldorf between 1968 and 1974, judge at the Social Court of Appeal of North Rhine-Westphalia between 1974 and 1987 and, between 1987 and 1994, judge at the Federal Social Court. After holding the post of judge at the Constitutional Court of North Rhine-Westphalia between 1988 and 1994, Mrs Jaeger was judge at the Federal Constitutional Court until 2004, when she was elected to the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights is composed of a judge elected in respect of each of the 47 States that have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court is divided into five judicial Sections and each judge is a member of one of the Sections. The plenary Court elects the Presidents of Sections for a three-year term, and each Section also elects a Vice-President for a three-year period. Chambers of seven judges are formed within the Sections; the Court also sits as a Grand Chamber of 17 judges.