Surname 1

Students Name

Professors Name

Course

Date

European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights is a judicial body or organ based in Strasbourg,

France. This agency was established to deliver judgment concerning alleged assaults of the

European Conventions on Human Rights. However, on October 6, I was surprised by how

arbitration unfolds and the disagreements in the choice of international judges and arbitrators on

various international adjudicative bodies such as the Inter American Court of Human Rights,

World Trade Organizations Appellate Body, and investors state disagreements. According to

Sean D. Murphy, the selection of these judges for instance, in the European Court of Huma

Rights is free and fair. This lecture raised a lot of questions in my mind about International

Adjudication. For example, why should disputes be referred to third party tribunal. On the other

hand, the selection of the fifteen judges in the International Court of Justice is also fair and

perfect. Nonetheless, what I find intriguing about this lecture is on how International

Adjudication is done in various courts.

The European Court of Human Rights statute is taken over by the Parliamentary

Assembly of the Council of Europe. The chief purpose of this law is to organize the functioning
 Surname 2

and composition of the court. Therefore, this law can only be amended in the same way as the

Charter. For instance, this can be done by the ratification of two-thirds of the States (Art 69) and

majority votes in the General Assembly. Nonetheless, the International Court of Justices is

empowered to hear two type of cases. First, disputes between states and appeal for advisory

suggestions on legal interrogations directed to it by the United Nations and specialized

organizations (Merrills, 294). As a result, it is skilled to entertain disagreements only if the

involved States have agreed its jurisdiction in either of the following conditions. This may

include coming into a serious and unique agreement to hand over the dispute to the court.

Moreover, the International Court of Justice has dual jurisdiction by deciding in agreement with

international laws. This court may also preside on disputes of a legal nature which are submitted

by its states ((Arold, 84). Competence other words, this court is authorized to offer advisory

jurisdiction and jurisdiction in controversial cases.

The ECHR is composed of forty-seven judges. These judges are usually elected after

every three years by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and parliamentarians. In

this case, the judges usually first send their resumes after which they are interviewed and their

CVs scrutinized properly. After that, their names are forwarded to the parliament where they are

finally elected (Arold, 93). To do this democratically, these two organs must work hand in hand

with one another to ensure that the most suitable candidate is elected. In the voting is done using

the secret ballot during the plenary session. This voting may take several rounds due to number

of parliamentarians. If majority votes are not received, a second round is held and the aspirants

with majority vote sis elected. Moreover, in case an elected judge dies during his or her reign, a

special election is held to occupy that position (Forowicz, 187)

 Surname 3

One of the major thing that stuck out to me about this court that its on how its judges are

elected. First, the election process is quite good and tough at the same. Being nominated by your

states isnt an easy task. For instance, having a chance or opportunity to qualify can be a very

daunting task since out of the applicants, only forty-seven will manage to go through. This

election method is more democratic and strict in that these judges must first be first by the

Permanent Court of Arbitration. After this nomination, the candidates who have been

successfully nominated are then elected by two different organs separately and simultaneously.

This means that those who will manage to go through must have majority votes from both

organs. This is not the same as in the case of International Court of Justice where the judges are

voted by to different organs that is UN and Security Council (Forowicz, 193).

Unlike in the EHCR, these judges are elected based on votes garner during the first

election process. Other than that, the election is done in two phases which involves the United

Nations and Security Assembly. In some instances, this process may take long due to ties or

unbalances in the votes. The election is then taken by the Assembly in where 247 legislators

evaluate the qualification of the selected nominees. This is quite different from the way ICJ

decides it judges since it is only done by two organs. Therefore, I find it unique on how

European Court of Human Rights elects their judges since it has no chance for biases. Other than

that, one thing that stood about this court is on how International Jurisdiction is done. Moreover,

there exist a lot of controversies on various international adjudicative bodies in the selection of

arbitrators and judges which was not well covered in the lecture. As a result, various

international bodies have different ways of selecting their judges.

 Surname 4

Works Cited

Merrills, J G. The Development of International Law by the European Court of Human Rights.

Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. Print.

Arold, Lorenz N.-L. The Legal Culture of the European Court of Human Rights. Leiden,

Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007. Print.

Forowicz, Magdalena. The Reception of International Law in the European Court of Human

Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.