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The theory of constitutional pluralism suggests that interacting legal orders that are (or claim to be) constitutional in nature need not—and should not—necessarily be regarded as being hierarchically arranged, with one ‘on top of’ the others. Rather, the relationships between the orders can be conceived of heterarchically. However, there is an assumption in much of the literature that the ‘interface norms’ that regulate the relationships within such a heterarchy are universal by nature, capable of undifferentiated application across differing constitutional orders. This thesis examines whether interface norms are in fact universal by nature, or whether they are relationship- and context-dependent, taking as its field of study three interacting legal orders—those of Ireland, the European Union, and the European Convention on Human Rights. It uses an established model of constitutional pluralism based on ‘coordinate constitutionalism’ to test the assumption of universality across three constitutional frames: the ‘vertical’ relationship between Ireland and the European orders, the ‘horizontal’ relationship between the European orders, and the ‘triangular’ panoply of state, Union and Convention. Having analysed the interface norms at work in these relationships, both in isolation and in the round, the thesis concludes that these norms are not in fact universal, and that different conceptions of constitutional pluralism need to pay much greater attention to the specific nature of any given constitutional order and its relationship with other orders in the constitutional heterarchy.

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1 Abstract European Court of Human Rights: its position and role in the protection of personal rights of an individual including analysis of judgments and the influence on domestic judicial decisions The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to the theoretical background of the ECHR, its function within the Council of Europe, personal ground and analysis of statistics. The thesis is also focused on the procedural rules of proceeding, with emphasis on the filing of the complaint, its formal and substantive requirements and its compliance with the Convention. In this section, is also presented to the reader the procedure, the enforceability of the decisions and the renewal of the proceedings before the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. In the second part, the concept of personal rights and the Convention are presented in the light of the Article 8 and 10 of the Convention because these are the most important articles when it comes to personal rights. The third part is devoted mainly to the analysis of the case law of ECHR with a connection to the domestic case law. This part is further divided into three sections, protection of personal data, right to reputation and defamation and right to own portraits. The protection of personal data consists of two parts, call monitoring...

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This study seeks to flesh out a theory of national application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It does so by seeking to provide an answer to the research question, ‘what is the proper role of the domestic courts in the application of the European Convention?’ By relying upon the examples of French, German, and UK law, the study argues that it is not true in descriptive terms, nor desirable in normative terms, that the domestic courts take an approach to the ECHR based upon friction and assertion of sovereignty. This study argues instead that domestic application of the ECHR is built on the attainment of certain aims. These aims are inferred, in the main, from the domestic courts’ jurisprudence, such as it relates to four central ECHR doctrines, and they are: the doctrines of evolutionary interpretation; proportionality; the margin of appreciation; and autonomous concepts. On the basis of an analysis of this jurisprudence, the four aims are identified as being, first, honouring the principle of pacta sunt servanda; secondly, the safeguarding of human rights based upon the insight that human rights are a paramount good to be pursued; thirdly, the aim of positive, as opposed to negative, rights diversity; and, fourthly, the aim that conclusions reached on the domestic level of one state must be capable of being universalized. The approach of the domestic courts to the application of the ECHR can be explained on the basis of the domestic courts’ wish to attain these four aims. The proper role played by the domestic courts, the study argues, is one in which they are willing to give a lead to Strasbourg as well as to be led, in both, to use the wording of the Preamble of the ECHR, ‘the maintenance’ and in the ‘further realisation’ of the Convention rights.

La Cour européenne des droits de l’homme a clairement intégré le droit international général au sein de la CEDH en l’utilisant à de nombreuses reprises. Ce faisant, elle n’a pas adopté de méthode unique pour résoudre les tensions entre les interprétations du droit international général et les spécificités de la CEDH. Elle a mélangé différentes approches : application des opinions dominantes issues du droit international, utilisation du droit international pour renforcer ses pouvoirs juridictionnels, priorité aux droits de l’homme et enfin transformation du droit international selon la version reprise par la Cour dans sa jurisprudence. Toutes ces approches possèdent un objectif commun. Le droit international a été utilisé pour renforcer la Cour en tant qu’institution, pour lui permettre d’accroitre sa capacité à influencer la politique juridique des États membres du Conseil de l’Europe. / The European Court of Human Rights has consistently applied general international law to the ECHR. However, it did so without a clear theory as to how to solve the inherent tensions between the interpretations derived from international law and the objectives specific to the ECHR. The Court has employed various methods : interpretation according to the dominant views within international law, use of emerging international principles to increase its institutional powers, prioritisation of human rights principles within international law, and finally transformation of international law according to how it has been incorporated in the Court’s case-law. All these approaches enable a reinforcement of the Court as a judicial institution.They all increase the Court’s capacity to influence the legal policies of the Council of Europe member States.

The primary objective of this work is to provide a comprehensive view of the human rights protection system concerning the prohibition of torture, focusing specifically on its European regulation. On the way to fulfill this aim, the following three hypotheses were confirmed: the prohibition of torture is currently regulated at all levels of protection of human rights, namely the universal, regional and national levels; from a comparative perspective, the highest level of protection has been achieved within the European system; and the prohibition of torture has recently acquired a social dimension. This work provides a comprehensive view, of the prohibition of torture at present time, and analyzes the instruments and mechanisms created to date. The interpretation was put into historical context, which is highly important, not only because it provides an exhaustive insight into the regulation of this issue in different sources, but also because this approach helps to understand the regulation correctly and enables the interpretation and application of respective standards in an adequate manner. It also makes it possible to better predict future developments in this area. The most interesting part of this thesis is the section that questions whether the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment are...