TY - JOUR

T1 - Language and Persuasion

T2 - Human Dignity at the European Court of Human Rights

AU - Fikfak, Veronika

AU - Izvorova, Lora

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s) [2022]. Published by Oxford University Press.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Although the concept of human dignity is absent from the text of the European Convention on Human Rights, it is mentioned in more than 2100 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The judges at the Court have used dignity to develop the scope of Convention rights, but also to signal to respondent states just how serious a violation is and to nudge them toward better compliance. However, these strategies reach dead ends when the Court is faced with government submissions that are based on a conception of dignity that is different from the notion of human dignity relied on by the Court. Through empirical analysis and by focusing on Russia, the country against which the term dignity is used most frequently, the paper maps out situations of conceptual contestation and overlap. We reveal how the Court strategically uses mirroring, substitutes dignity for other Convention values, or altogether avoids confrontation. In such situations, the Court's use (and non-use) of dignity becomes less about persuading states to comply with the Convention and more about preserving its authority and managing its relationship with states.

AB - Although the concept of human dignity is absent from the text of the European Convention on Human Rights, it is mentioned in more than 2100 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The judges at the Court have used dignity to develop the scope of Convention rights, but also to signal to respondent states just how serious a violation is and to nudge them toward better compliance. However, these strategies reach dead ends when the Court is faced with government submissions that are based on a conception of dignity that is different from the notion of human dignity relied on by the Court. Through empirical analysis and by focusing on Russia, the country against which the term dignity is used most frequently, the paper maps out situations of conceptual contestation and overlap. We reveal how the Court strategically uses mirroring, substitutes dignity for other Convention values, or altogether avoids confrontation. In such situations, the Court's use (and non-use) of dignity becomes less about persuading states to comply with the Convention and more about preserving its authority and managing its relationship with states.

KW - compliance

KW - dignity

KW - European Court of Human Rights

KW - human rights

KW - judicial strategies

KW - Russia

U2 - 10.1093/hrlr/ngac018

DO - 10.1093/hrlr/ngac018

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85136171027

VL - 22

SP - 1

EP - 24

JO - Human Rights Law Review

JF - Human Rights Law Review

SN - 1461-7781

IS - 3

ER -