270 / 464
256
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.