European Institutions

Irish Court Surrenders Man to Poland Despite Judicial Controversy

December 10, 2018

The Irish Times reports that Ireland’s High Court has ordered authorities to surrender a man wanted in Poland on drug trafficking charges under the terms of the European Arrest Warrant because alleged “generalised and systemic” violations of Polish judicial independence did not threaten the suspect’s right to a fair trial.
ECtHR Finds Russian Rights Violations Against Opposition Leader

December 07, 2018

In a ruling in November, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the Russian government had violated the rights to liberty, fair trial, and assembly of political opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyy by repeatedly arresting him while he led peaceful public demonstrations.
EU Acknowledges Risks of Sale of Passports, Citizenship

December 07, 2018

The Express reports that EU officials are acknowledging the practice by several of the bloc’s member states of permitting people to buy passports for and citizenship of those countries, thus granting the purchaser the right to live and work anywhere in the EU.
ECtHR: Turkey Failed to Weigh Privacy in “Hate Speech” Case

December 07, 2018

In an October ruling, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the Turkish courts had not sufficiently weighed the privacy rights of two professors when they found that insults and threats made against these academics in various media over a report on minority rights must be protected as freedom of the press.
Article: ECtHR Shows Sensitivity About National Sovereignty

December 07, 2018

Erik Voeten of The Washington Post argues that an October European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling upholding an Austrian court’s conviction of a woman for “blasphemy” regarding the Islamic prophet Muhammed simply shows the “embattled” ECtHR is “extremely reluctant to interfere with state laws on sensitive domestic issues.”