Monday, 27 January 2025

Court Creates Internal Ethics Council

It was announced today that the European Court of Human Rights will create an Ethics Council to advise the Court's President on questions of judicial ethics. The Court explains this as another step in showing its commitment to judicial ethics. More concretely to guarantee that the ethical standards its judges are being held to are both visible and robust. Indeed, the ECHR itself, in Article 21, famously requires that "[t]he judges shall be of high moral character" but that in itself does not solve all ethical dilemmas judges may face during or after their term of office. 

The creation of the Ethics Council, decided by the Court's plenary in December, is integrated into the existing resolution on judicial ethics which already provided that the Court's President has a key role in giving advice on this matter. The President will now thus formally be supported on these issues by the coming Ethics Council. According to the Court's press release:

'The Plenary Court has decided that its President will now be able to consult an Ethics Council whenever he or she considers it necessary to give guidance to a Judge seeking advice on compliance with the ethical standards in a given situation. The Ethics Council will have competence to give guidance regarding serving, ad hoc and former judges. Guidance can also concern the Court itself, as an institution.

The Ethics Council will be made up of five members: the most senior Vice-President of the Court, the most senior Section President and the three most senior sitting judges. The Ethics Council will be assisted by the Registrar of the Court.'