The last Friday in January is traditionally associated with the solemn hearing marking the opening of the judicial year at the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the ECHR) in Strasbourg. The event is remarkable as it offers a unique opportunity for representatives of the highest judicial institutions of the Council of Europe member states (constitutional courts, supreme courts and supreme administrative courts) to meet in one room. The judges of the Court of Justice (the host) were of course also present and they were joined by the judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The evening ceremony is usually preceded by a seminar. This year's event focused on subsidiarity and shared responsibility in the protection of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (Revisiting subsidiarity in the age of shared responsibility). Specifically, the expert meeting focused on four topics: 1) The impact of Protocol No.15 on subsidiarity, 2) Constitutional review and exhaustion of domestic remedies, 3) The age of subsidiarity and process-based review, and 4) Subsidiarity: the view from the national judiciary. Two leading legal scholars (Peggy Ducoulombier, Professor at the University of Strasbourg, and Fiona de Londras, Professor at the University of Birmingham) were among the keynote speakers, joined by Julia Hänni, Judge of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, and Michal Bobek, Judge of the Czech Supreme Administrative Court.   

President of the Strasbourg Tribunal, Síofra O'Leary, gave a speech during the ECHR solemn hearing and recalled, among other things, some of last year's important judgments. She then gave the floor to Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice and this year's guest of honour.

Josef Baxa attended the event for the first time in his capacity as President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. He also had the opportunity to meet a Czech judge of the ECHR Kateřina Šimáčková. 

For more information about the Opening of the judicial year click here .

Pavel Dvořák
Head of External Relations and Protocol Department