Der Status der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention im deutschen Recht.

Abstract

The Status of the European Convention on Human Rights in German Law.

This paper focuses on the status of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the German legal system with regards to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court. The ECHR, drawn up within the Council of Europe, is the oldest legally binding multilateral human rights treaty and one of the most important human rights instruments in general. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), founded on the basis of this Convention, exercises an effective control over the observance of the Convention rights. Its final judgments are binding on the respondent states concerned. In the Görgülü Case, the German Federal Constitutional Court analyzed the way of the execution of the ECtHR judgments in the German legal system. This decision attracted a lot of media attention and aroused a lot of criticism among the experts. Its key statements will be examined in this study, along with the general question of the relationship between international law and German national law, the status and application of the ECHR, and the legal effects of the ECtHR judgments in German law.

Keywords: European Convention on Human Rights, Federal Constitutional Court, European