Sul meccanismo di co-respondent previsto nel progetto di accordo per l’adesione dell’Unione Europea alla Convenzione europea dei diritti umani

The article first analyzes the case-law of the European Court of Human rights in relation to the European Union, and then goes on to explore one of the most controversial points of the draft agreement of the UE accession to the European Convention on Human Rights of 5 April 2013, i.e. the “co-respondent-mechanism”, which, under certain circumstances, might allow the extension of the proceedings against a Member State to the European Union, and vice versa. After considering one of the greatest advantages of such a mechanism, i.e. the possibility/power to involve – and eventually allow the condemnation of – the subject who is able to remedy the violation effectively, the author analyzes in particular some cases – submitted in the past to the Court of Strasbourg or which might be submitted in the future – to which the “co-respondent mechanism” might be applied, in order to ascertain whether it really could make the protection of individuals more effective (without - as envisaged by some authors – simply leading to procedural delays).