Share it
The United Kingdom judge on the European Court of Human Rights, Sir Nicholas Bratza, has been re-elected for another 3 year term. The Supreme Court, in all but exceptional cases, treats itself as bound by decisions of the Court of Human Rights and Judge Bratza is a party to every UK case in that Court. His position is, therefore, an extremely important and influential one. He is a Vice-President of the Court and has been a member since 1998 (when he was appointed a High Court Judge). Before that he had been a member of the (now defunct) European Commission on Human Rights for 6 years. His profile on the Court’s website can be found here.
At the same time the President of the Court, the French judge, Jean-Paul Costa, and the other Vice-President, Greek Judge Christos Rozakis, were also elected for further three year periods. The results of the elections are reported on the Court of Human Rights website here. We also draw attention to the post on ECHR blog on these re-elections.
As Joshua Rozenberg pointed out in a recent blog post if Russia finally ratifies Protocol 14 to the Convention then Judges of the Court of Human Rights will be limited to one 9 year term and cannot be re-elected. He suggests that Sir Nicholas might then return to England as a Court of Appeal judge and, “before long to the Supreme Court”. There is no sign yet of Russia ratifying this Protocol (which is aimed at streamlining the procedure of the court) so, at present, Sir Nicholas would be eligible to stand for a further term, taking him to the Court’s retirement age of 70 in 2015.
