Fundamental Rights Cases – the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg

Abstract

This case-law review will present some important decisions adopted by the European Court of Human Rights between 16 November 2016 and 31 January 2017. In respect of Hungary, the judgments covered concern, respectively, the presumption of innocence allegedly infringed by the wording of a law on amnesty, the dismissal of the Vice-president of the Supreme Court, the shortcomings in the handling of an anti-Roma demonstration and the legitimate expectation of receiving disability benefits. The judgments against other countries were related to the following subject matters: the migration crisis following the “Arab Spring”, the expulsion of seriously ill persons, the investigation into forced labour, the lack of certainty in the domestic jurisprudence, the application of the lex mitior principle in sentencing, the removal of a child born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, as well as the relationship between compulsory swimming in school and freedom of religion.