I Book Review: Protection of Human Rights within the European Convention on Human Rights
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410802600109 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/1, 149–165, 2008.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 149
PART D: DOCUMENTATION
I bOOk ReVIeWs
A.R. Çoban, P rotection of Human Rights within the E uropean Convention on
Human Rights, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2 004, vii + 274 pp., ISBN: 0–7546–2387–4*
e monogr aph is the commercial version of a Ph.D. dissertation defended by the
author at the University of Leeds in 2002. e topic is very promising, a s, for the time
being, t here are, apar t from a few already outdated German bo oks and one smaller
English book, almost no in-depth studies available – and certai nly not in English – on
the r ight to propert y in a European Convention context, i.e. on a not unimportant
right t hat has even been characterised by a fa mous North-American scholar as ‘t he
guardian of ever y other right’.1
Meanwhile, from a purely statistica l point of view, it cannot be denied t hat the
importance of t he right of property in the ambit of Ar ticle 1 of Protocol No. 1 to
the Eu ropean Convention on Human R ights (ECHR) is certain ly growing. Indeed,
between 1959 and 20 05, a tota l of 1106 property case s have been dealt with by the
European Cour t of Human Rights . In 768 cases, t he Court established a violation of
the right to property u nder Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. In 71 cases no violation of the
right of property was found. In 72 cases the Court decided that it was not necessary to
examine a possible breach of the right of property. Finally, 160 cases were struck o the
list of cases following a friendly settlement, while in 15 other cases the case was struck
o on the basis of another motive. Wh ile from 1960 unt il mid-1980 and even the
beginning of the nineties of the last century, the right to property under the European
Convention can be char acterised as ‘a sleeping right’, recent judgements, especially
since the new European Court has starte d to function, are an indication that the rig ht
to propert y is very much alive and is turning into a sometimes very usefu l tool for
individual applica nts, not to say companies, against State (non)intervention. In short,
Çoban’s book came precisely at the right moment.
However, unlike the title of t he book, i.e. ‘Protection of Human Rights withi n the
European Convention on Human Rights’, suggests, the topic covered by the study is
far broader than the right to propert y in the ambit of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to
the European Convention on Human Rights. e book is divided i n two parts. While
the second part of the monograph (130 pages) is a description and analysis of the
* Yves Haeck, Associate Profess or, Netherlands Institute of Human Ri ghts (SIM), Utrecht University,
the Netherland s and Senior Research Fel low, Human Rights Centr e, Ghent University, Belgium.
1 Ely, J.W., e Guardian of Every Other Right . A Cons titutional His tory of P roperty Right s, Oxford
University Press , New York, 1998.
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