CYIL 2015

ALLA TYMOFEYEVA CYIL 6 ȍ2015Ȏ Prague. She holds seminars on Public International Law and Protection of Human Rights in the Post-Communist Countries in the Context of the Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights. Alla is also a member of the Czech Society of International Law. Introductory remarks on the compensation system This article will primarily deal with the highest amounts of just satisfaction set forth in the judgments of the Court. In order to give a better explanation of just satisfaction, which is a certain type of compensation awarded by the Convention body to the applicants, it would be of value to say a few words on the compensation system in public international law. The issue of compensation in international lawhas no general codification. A number of provisions dealing with redress for victims of violations exist on the international level. None of them, however, is of an exhaustive nature. The main document on the responsibility of states for wrongdoings is the Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts of 2001 (hereinafter the ‘DARS’). 2 In accordance with Article 34 of the DARS, reparation for the injury caused by an internationally wrongful act shall take the form of 1) restitution, 2) compensation and 3) satisfaction. Restitution , in this document, is understood as the re-establishment of the situation that existed before the wrongful act was committed. 3 Article 36 of the DARS specifies that the ‘ compensation ’ covers reimbursement of a financially assessable damage, including loss of profits insofar as it is established. In its commentary to the DARS, the International Law Commission (hereinafter the ‘ILC’) explains that the qualification “financially assessable” is intended to exclude compensation for moral damage, i.e. the injury caused by a violation of rights not associated with actual damage to property or persons. 4 Satisfaction , under the DARS, consists of an acknowledgement of the breach, an expression of regret, a formal apology or another appropriate modality. 5 It would also include redress for moral damage. In 2011 the ILC also adopted the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations , 6 which regulates the international responsibility of both the international organization and the state for an internationally wrongful act connected to the conduct of the international organization. The definitions of ‘reparation’, ‘compensation’, and ‘satisfaction’ given here are the same as in the DARS. The Basic Principles and 2 Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts. Yearbook of the International Law Commission , 2001, vol. II, Part Two. 3 Article 31 of the DARS. 4 Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries, 2001. Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 2001 , vol. II, Part Two, as corrected. 5 Article 37 of the DARS. 6 Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations . Yearbook of the International Law Commission , 2011, vol. II, Part Two.

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