Woolfie in Retirement

For those who've wondered what Lord Woolf's been up to since he retired last autumn, here's part of the answer - he's been working with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Their site currently makes available the text of his initial Review (dated December 2005) of the ECHR's chances of sorting out its problems by administrative means. As he himself (in effect - page 6) says, the real problems are of substance rather than procedure, but this seems a good start. He is also, apparently, part of a Group of Wise Persons (from which language is that a bad translation ?) looking at those questions of substance (page 13).

For the moment - ah, the joys of executive summaries ! - he recommends especially:

1. more education about what the court does
2. satellite registries both to do (1) and to deal with problems nearer 'ground level'
3. pilot judgements (inc on remedies) to help deal with serial problems
4. more encouragement of (and national establishment of) Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms
5. more training for judges

The material about Protocol 14 (pages 12-13) is also of interest, in terms of future single-judge disposal, and a 'significant disadvantage' test. The latter is necessitated (IMHO) by the Court's tendency to forget the flipside of its concern to ensure that the rights it protects are 'real and substantial' - that cases that are academic (in the popular sense) be rejected.

One might also add that the ECHR's increased workload also reflects an increased workload for the concept of 'human rights' generally - that it is being extended to cover all sorts of matters not previously seen thus. Whether that is natural 'mission creep' given its 'trump card' status, or indicates some wider social breakdown (or those two are related), awaits another post ...