Direct effect of the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

This article explores the concept of direct effect of the European Convention on Human Rights. In order to discuss this and related issues the authors have selected two opposite approaches to direct effect of the ECHR, the one of the Italian Constitutional Court and the other of the Serbian Court of Cassation as manifested in two similar cases - Scordino and Crnišanin. The two opposite approaches might show how distinct international legal traditions of the two countries (dualist and monist) addressed the direct effect of the ECHR. While the response of the Italian Constitutional Court has been at the expense of legal economy and efficiency, the response of the Serbian Court of Cassation has been to neglect democratic element in determining the relationship between an individual and a general interest in human rights protection. The authors challenged both approaches with suggestions how deficiencies of both systems can equally be addressed despite their differences by relying on the concept of direct effect that was engineered by the European Court of Justice.