CYIL vol. 7 (2016)

490

IRENA MARKOVÁ

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ

Convention is considerably wider in comparison to the “classic” definition. Then, after

distinguishing four major roles which the NGOs play in the Convention system, she

concentrates on what she has named “Article 34 NGO”. According to the author,

who qualifies this definition as “unprecedented” (p. 298), Article 34 NGO is “a profit

or non-profit making legal entity, with or without formal existence, which does not

directly participate in the exercise of governmental powers and has a sufficient degree

of independence from governmental control. Such an organization must have victim

status in accordance with the Court’s case-law.”

The most significant part of the book lays out the rights of Article 34 NGOs

under the Convention. In this context, attention is drawn to a very new concept,

that of a

de facto

representative, elaborated by the Court in the case of

Centre for Legal

resources on behalf of Valentin Câmpeanu v. Romania

The two parts of the second

chapter are devoted to the rights bestowed on Article 34 NGOs by the Convention

in its narrow sense, on one hand, and by the Protocols to the Convention, on the

other hand.

The final chapter deals with just satisfaction awarded under Article 41 of the

Convention. The last part of this chapter is based in the author’s research concerning

the highest amounts of the just satisfaction awarded to Article 34 NGOs, providing

a table of the top ten cases in this respect.

The book reveals the author’s profound knowledge of the Court’s case-law. Her

analysis of the Court’s practice in respect of NGOs is very thorough and comprehensive.

One of the merits of this book is that it sets out to combine abstract notions with

empirical application. Indeed, the book’s greatest strength is that it provides a systematic

overview of the relevant case-law generated by the Court, until mid-2015, in relation

to each of the Convention rights which can be relied upon by the NGOs. Namely

the second chapter may thus attract a broader public interest since it also contains

general observations on the rights guaranteed by the Convention which go beyond

the sole context of NGOs. Interestingly, the author’s research on the existence of

legislation pertaining to the corporate criminal liability in the 47 Member States of

the Council of Europe is also included.

In my view, however, Tymofeyeva is too generous in stating, in the third chapter

of her book, that “the most elaborated system of victim’s compensation is seen in the

practice of the Court” (p. 260).

I would personally tend to think that comprehensive reparations developed by

the Inter-American Court of Human Rights under Article 63.1 of the American

Convention on Human Rights provide a mechanism which is more refined and

which can better lead to remedying the consequences of the breaches in question.

See

Centre for Legal Resources on behalf of Valentin Câmpeanu v. Romania

[GC], no. 47848/08, § 114,

ECHR 2014, and also the critique of the Court’s approach to standing in this case made by Judge Pinto

de Albuquerque in his concurring opinion.