What price for human rights? Compensating human rights violations

当个人受到欧洲各国政府的虐待时，欧洲人权法院负责审查根据《欧洲人权公约》采取的国家行动。如果个人成功证明了违规行为，欧洲人权委员会可以判给他们所受待遇的损害赔偿金。欧洲委员会有管辖权的47个成员国的国内法院通常根据公开的比例尺判给损害赔偿金，但欧洲人权委员会的情况并非如此。法院没有就个人何时可能获得赔偿制定规则或指导方针；它也没有解释申请人应该强调其待遇的哪些要素，也没有解释他们应该要求多少。没有关于具体违法行为判给个人的最高或最低金额的资料，也没有关于某一案件的索赔与其他案件的索赔如何比较的资料。通常，向法院求助的个人要求数百万欧元的损害赔偿，但只得到几千欧元。许多学者坚持认为，在人权背景下，损害赔偿可以在确保个人正义方面发挥关键作用。根据赔偿的程序将法院的诉讼重点放在个人--侵权行为的受害者身上，并允许他/她维护自己的权利。为了回应实践的要求(代表侵犯人权行为受害者的律师和执行法院判决的国家法官)，该项目首次寻求填补欧洲人权委员会实践所造成的空白。通过对过去十年与正义满足有关的判例法进行实证、定量和定性研究，该项目将从法院的实践中辨别法律原则，并对法院在裁决侵犯人权行为赔偿方面的作用进行批判性评估。它分三个步骤完成这项工作：首先，该项目对《欧洲人权公约》的12,000个案件进行量化分析，以确定法院何时以及如何裁决侵犯人权行为的损害赔偿。第二，该项目着眼于法院行使其职能的法律基础。作为一个国际法院，欧洲人权委员会只有附属管辖权来裁决损害赔偿。可以说，国家法院可以更好地根据具体的司法管辖权或案件事实调整赔偿。因此，当法院决定给予损害赔偿时，它面临着重要的合法性问题。因此，该项目通过与法官的访谈，试图了解法院成员如何看待法院在保护人权方面的作用。在这两个阶段的基础上，该项目的最后一步审查了欧洲人权委员会法官对人权的看法与他们给予人权的货币价值之间的差异。通过与法官的对话，将查明这些差异的原因和理由，并探索可能的解决办法。该项目汇集了来自欧洲共同体不同管辖区的学者和从业人员，以填补法院造成的空白。通过对法院的研究访问、咨询小组会议和为期三天的传播讲习班，将征求从业人员、政府官员以及国家和欧洲法官的意见，以确保交流和知识交流。他们将参与该项目的准备、实施和传播，以确保产生最大的影响。该项目可以通过制定一部新的人权损害法，为人权法作出根本性贡献。它将产生大量新数据，将首次对这些数据进行经验分析，以寻找在今后的国际案件中和在欧洲共同体47个国家的法院中适用的法律原则。更广泛地说，该项目是一个令人兴奋的机会，可以更好地解释欧洲人权委员会的作用，并了解是什么推动了其赔偿侵犯人权行为的做法。

When individuals are mistreated by European governments, the European Court of Human Rights is responsible for reviewing state actions under the European Convention of Human Rights. If the individuals are successful in proving a violation, the ECtHR may award them damages for the treatment suffered. Whilst domestic courts of the 47 Council of Europe (COE) Member States, over which the Court has jurisdiction, usually award damages on the basis of scales that are public, this is not the case with the ECtHR. The Court sets out no rules or guidelines as to when individuals are likely to get compensation; it also does not explain which elements of their treatment applicants should emphasise nor how much they should ask for. There is no information about maximum or minimum amounts awarded to individuals for specific violations nor about how claims in one case might compare to those in other cases. Often, individuals turning to the Court ask for millions of euros in damages, but only receive a few thousand.Many scholars insist that in the human rights context damages can play a crucial role in ensuring individual justice. The process of according compensation focuses the proceedings before the court on the individual, the victim of the violation and allows him/her the vindication of their rights. But the current practice of the Court appears arbitrary and opaque.In response to demands from practice (lawyers who represent victims of rights violations and national judges who enforce judgments of the Court), this project seeks to fill the gap created by the ECtHR practice for the first time. Through an empirical quantitative and qualitative study of the last ten years of caselaw relating to just satisfaction, the project will discern the legal principles from the practice of the Court and critically assess the Court's role in awarding compensation for human rights violations. It does this in three steps:First, the project quantitatively analyses 12,000 cases of the ECtHR to determine when and how the Court awards damages for human rights violations. Second, the project looks at the legal basis on which the Court exercises its function. As an international court, the ECtHR only has subsidiary jurisdiction to award damages. National courts are arguably better placed to adapt compensation to the specific jurisdiction or the facts of the case. Thus, when the Court decides to award damages, it faces important questions of legitimacy. Through interviews with judges the project therefore seeks to understand how those who sit on the Court perceive its role in protecting human rights. Building on both stages, the final step of the project examines the discrepancies between how the ECtHR judges perceive human rights and what monetary value they attach to them. In dialogue with judges, causes and justifications for these discrepancies will be identified and possible solutions explored.The project brings together academics and practitioners from different jurisdictions of the COE to fill the gap created by the Court. Through research visits to the Court, advisory group meetings and a three-day dissemination workshop, practitioners, government officials, and national and European judges will be consulted to ensure cross-fertilisation and knowledge exchange. They will be involved in the preparation, implementation as well as dissemination of the project so as to guarantee the greatest impact.This project can make a fundamental contribution to human rights law by creating a new law of human rights damages. It will generate an important amount of new data, which will be empirically analysed for the first time to seek out legal principles to be applied in future cases both on the international level and in courts of the 47 countries of the COE. More broadly, the project represents an exciting opportunity to explain better the role of the ECtHR and understand what drives its practice of compensating for human rights violations.