The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Administrative Court: ECtHR's case law as a no-entry sign at the crossroads of legal solutions
Abstract
The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Administrative Court recently denied its authority to hear a proposal to overrule existing case law submitted by a three members' chamber. According to the Grand Chamber three members' chambers cannot decrease a standard of human rights protection already attained by Supreme Administrative Court's case law, if the European Court of Human Rights found the standard as a necessary condition for compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights.
This paper analyzes the decision of the Grand Chamber in a greater detail. First, we examine the conditions of applicability of the Supreme Administrative Court's Grand Chamber's conclusions and show how it contributed to the debate about normative effects of ECtHR's rulings.
Next, we discuss the Grand Chamber's decision in the context of the mechanism of case law unification at the Supreme Administrative Court in relation to the case law of "superior courts". As a result, we develop eight typical scenarios of conflicts between opinions of a three members' chamber and a superior court.
In each case we sketch a possible solution as to the Grand Chamber's involvement.