Overview of Recent Cases before the Court of Human Rights (January – December 2013)
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271401600204 |
| Author | Anne Pieter van der Mei |
| Date | 01 June 2014 |
| Published date | 01 June 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Recent News and Case Law |
European Jour nal of Social Secu rity, Volume 16 (2014), No. 2 165
OVERVIEW OF RECENT CASES BEFORE
THE COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
(JANUARY – DECEMBER 2013)
A P M*
In 2 0131 the European Court of Huma n Rights (ECtHR) delivered a series of
interesting rul ings concerning social security rights. Central in all t hese rulings is
Article1 of Protocol 1 to the European C onvention on Human Rights (ECH R), which
stipulate s that:
‘[e]very natural or legal pers on is entitled to the peacef ul enjoyment of his possession s.
No one shall be deprived of h is possessions except in the public i nterest and subject to the
conditions provided for by law and by genera l principles of internationa l law. e preceding
provisions shall not , however, in any way impair the right of a State to en force such laws as
it deems necessar y to control the use of property i n accordance with the genera l interest or
to secure the payme nt of taxes or other contribution or penalt ies’.
is provision can be invoked by applica nts, and applied by the ECtHR, on its own or
in conjunction with other provi sions, most notably including Article14 ECHR, which
provides that the ‘enjoyment of the rights and f reedoms set forth in [the] Convention
shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or socia l origin, association
with a national mi nority, property, birth or other stat us’.
e ECtHR has given a broad meaning to the concept of ‘possessions’, so as to
capture virtually all social benets schemes, be they contr ibutory or not. In essence,
the Court is willing to review virtually ever y aspect of national benet schemes. 2
Article 1 of Protocol 1 does not provide for a right to acquire property r ights, and
hence leaves the freedom of a State to decide whether or not to set in place a benet
scheme untouched. Yet, when a State does create a benet scheme, it is bound to
observe the lim its imposed by Article1 of the Protocol 1 and/or Article14 ECHR.
* Associate Profes sor in EU Law, Maastricht C entre for European law. Addres s: P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD
Maastricht , e Netherlands; phone : +31 43 3884832; e-mail: ap.vanderme i@maastricht university.nl.
1 is contributi on builds on M (2012) and M (2013).
2 L (2013).
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