European Institutions

ECtHR: Russia Failed to Comply with Ruling on Prisoners’ Family Rights

July 16, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that the Russian government failed to reform its practice of interfering with the ability of prisoners to maintain contact with their families by sending them to far-away prisons in response to a 2017 ECtHR judgment, and that Russia offered no effective remedy to challenge such policies.
ECtHR: Turkey Complied with Rights Law in Disbanding Kurdish Group

July 16, 2018

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recently held that Turkish authorities had complied with European human rights law when they dissolved a Kurdish foundation whose covert aim was to establish a “theocratic totalitarian” Kurdish State based on sharia law in Turkey.
EC Challenges Polish Law on Judges’ Retirement

July 13, 2018

The European Commission (EC) has launched legal proceedings challenging a recently passed Polish law lowering the mandatory retirement age of judges on the country’s Supreme Court from 70 to 65, while giving the President the opportunity to extend their terms, on the ground that the law is a threat to judicial independence.
Article: Poor External Border Security Threatens Schengen

July 13, 2018

An article in The Economist considers the roots of the ongoing migration crisis in Europe as a function of European leaders who established the passport-free Schengen travel area and were only “dimly aware that eliminating internal borders required strengthening external ones.”
EU Parliament Rejects Proposed Copyright Reforms

July 13, 2018

Politico reports that the European Parliament has rejected a proposal that would have required internet companies like Facebook and Google to step up their enforcement of EU copyright rules on their platforms and would have granted copyright license holders more power to enforce their rights against encroachment in online fora.