Council of Europe law

248 Pages·1.413 MB·English

by  Benoît-Rohmer Florence, Klebes Heinrich.

Council of Europe law
Towards a pan-European legal area
Florence Benoît-Rohmer and Heinrich Klebes
Council of Europe Publishing
French edition:
Le droit du Conseil de l’Europe
ISBN92-871-5593-3
The opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe.
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or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rom, Internet, etc.)
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage
or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the Publishing
Division, Communication and Research Directorate (F-67075 Strasbourg
Cedex or [email protected]).
Acknowledgements
The authors are particularly grateful to Mario Heinrich, Doctor of Law and
Head of Secretariat of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities,
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and Elise Cornu, Doctor of Law.
They also wish to thank the Council of Europe Directorates for reading and
correcting the manuscript. The opinions expressed in this book are theirs
alone.
Cover design: Mediacom
Layout: SAG+ / Saverne
Edited by Council of Europe Publishing
http://book.coe.int
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
ISBN92-871-5594-1
© Council of Europe, June 2005
Printed at the Council of Europe
Contents
page
Preface
by Terry Davis ................................................................................................................. 9
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 11
Part One – The “constitutional” status of the Council of Europe........... 15
Chapter 1: The Council of Europe – Basics ........................................................ 19
Aim ............................................................................................................................... 19
Responsibilities ........................................................................................................ 20
Excluded – national defence ......................................................................... 21
Membership of other international organisations – non-interference 22
Resources ................................................................................................................... 22
Operational ......................................................................................................... 22
Financial .............................................................................................................. 23
Privileges and immunities ................................................................................... 23
Official and working languages ........................................................................ 24
Location ...................................................................................................................... 25
Chapter 2: “Constitutional” sources ...................................................................... 27
The 1949 Statute ..................................................................................................... 27
The Council’s constitutional charter ........................................................... 27
Amendment or review of the Statute – the procedure ......................... 28
Failure of plan for general review of Statute .......................................... 28
Statutory resolutions ............................................................................................. 30
Adoption procedure .......................................................................................... 30
Content ................................................................................................................. 30
Statutory conventions ........................................................................................... 31
The statutory character of the European Convention
on Human Rights ............................................................................................... 31
Should other Council treaties be “constitutionalised”? ......................... 32
Final declarations of summits ........................................................................... 33
Chapter 3: Members and special status ............................................................... 35
Members ..................................................................................................................... 35
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Council of Europe law – Towards a pan-European legal area
Conditions for membership ............................................................................... 36
Being part of Europe ........................................................................................ 36
Accepting democratic values ......................................................................... 37
Joining – the procedure ....................................................................................... 38
Withdrawal, suspension and expulsion ......................................................... 40
Voluntary withdrawal ..................................................................................... 40
Suspension and enforced withdrawal ........................................................ 40
Suspension for failure to respect financial obligations ....................... 44
Special status ............................................................................................................ 44
Associate member status ................................................................................. 45
Observer status ................................................................................................... 45
“Special guest” status ........................................................................................ 46
The special case of the European Union ................................................... 46
Chapter 4: The Council of Europe’s structure .................................................. 47
The Council’s statutory bodies: ........................................................................ 48
• The Committee of Ministers..................................................................... 48
Membership .................................................................................................. 48
How the Committee operates ................................................................. 50
Powers............................................................................................................. 51
Relations with member States ................................................................ 54
Voting rules................................................................................................... 55
• The Parliamentary Assembly.................................................................... 56
Membership .................................................................................................. 57
How the Assembly operates ..................................................................... 61
Powers............................................................................................................. 65
Monitoring commitments ........................................................................ 69
Voting rules................................................................................................... 69
Relations between the Committee of Ministers and the Assembly ...... 69
Liaison body: the Joint Committee ............................................................. 70
How the Assembly and Committee of Ministers interact .................... 70
Secretariat and Secretary General .................................................................... 71
Appointment of the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary
General ............................................................................................................................. 72
Powers ............................................................................................................................... 73
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Contents
Specialised agencies ............................................................................................... 74
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council
of Europe .............................................................................................................. 75
The Commissioner for Human Rights ....................................................... 76
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)... 76
Specialised bodies based on partial agreements.................................... 77
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 79
Part Two – Harmonising the laws of member States ................................. 81
Chapter 1: The Council of Europe as law-maker: the European
Conventions ..................................................................................................................... 85
Treaties – the rules ................................................................................................ 86
Preparing a treaty – prelude and process ............................................... 86
Adopting the text................................................................................................ 87
Signing, accepting, approving or ratifying .............................................. 89
Declarations and reservations ...................................................................... 90
Interpretation ...................................................................................................... 91
Revision – the procedure ................................................................................ 93
Denunciation ...................................................................................................... 93
Characteristics of treaties .................................................................................... 94
Multilateral conventions ................................................................................. 94
Increased number of conventions open to non-members ................... 94
Participation by the European Community in Council of Europe
Conventions ........................................................................................................ 96
Classifying treaties ................................................................................................. 96
Classification by title – reasons against ................................................... 96
Classification with reference to subject ..................................................... 99
Classification with reference to state obligations .................................. 101
Classification with reference to type of supervisory machinery ....... 103
Conventions – do they work? ........................................................................... 104
Chapter 2: Harmonising law – other approaches ............................................ 107
Committee of Ministers’ recommendations ................................................ 107
Projected legislation – exchanging information and views at the
drafting stage ............................................................................................................ 108
“Soft law”: the indirect impact of non-binding texts ............................... 108
Part Three – Council of Europe law in the European area ...................... 111
Chapter 1: Towards a common legal area ........................................................... 115
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Council of Europe law – Towards a pan-European legal area
Geographical enlargement and new members’ commitments ............ 115
The search for a common legal area ......................................................... 115
Two yardsticks for membership ........................................................................... 116
Monitoring commitments ............................................................................... 118
Incorporation of Council of Europe conventions into domestic law..... 124
Council of Europe law as regional international law .............................. 126
Chapter 2: The Council of Europe and other international organisations 127
Council of Europe and European Union ....................................................... 127
Participation by the European Community in treaties negotiated at
the Council of Europe ...................................................................................... 129
Institutional participation by the Union or the Community in the
work of the Council of Europe ..................................................................... 131
EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights .......... 132
An associate partnership between the Council of Europe and the
European Union? ............................................................................................... 134
Relations with other international organisations ...................................... 135
Co-operation and co-ordination agreements ......................................... 135
Interparliamentary agreements ................................................................... 139
International organisations – their “complementary and mutually
reinforcing role” ....................................................................................................... 139
Conclusion: Towards a new shape for Europe ............................................... 141
Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 143
Appendix I – Statute of the Council of Europe, statutory texts and
resolutions ........................................................................................................................ 145
Appendix II – Member States of the Council of Europe – Dates
of accession.................................................................................................................... 175
Appendix III – Complete list of the Council of Europe’s treaties ............. 177
Appendix IV – List of partial agreements ............................................................ 185
Appendix V – List of agreements between the Council of Europe and
other international organisations ........................................................................... 187
Appendix VI – Model final clauses for conventions and agreements
concluded within the Council of Europe ............................................................ 193
Appendix VII – Exchange of letters between the Council of Europe and
the European Community ......................................................................................... 197
Appendix VIII – Council of Europe agreements with the UN ................... 205
Appendix IX – Council of Europe agreements with the OSCE .................. 213
Appendix X – Draft revised Statute ....................................................................... 225
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Contents
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 239
Index ................................................................................................................................... 241
7

Preface
By Terry Davis
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
This book, Council of Europe law, provides a clear and carefully considered
picture of the means which the Council of Europe uses in pursuing its aim
of bringing the democratic states of Europe together around a community
of values, and particularly a community of law. It is the first comprehensive
study of Council of Europe law, as it has developed from 1949, when the
Organisation was founded, up to the present.
Subjects covered include the foundations of the Council’s work, the instru-
ments it uses to harmonise the law of its forty-six member States and its role
in helping to build a common European legal area.
The authors are particularly well qualified to discuss these questions:
Florence Benoît-Rohmer is a specialist in public law and President of Robert
Schuman University in Strasbourg, and her profound grasp of the legal
issues is usefully complemented by the practical knowledge and experience
accumulated by Heinrich Klebes in his thirty-year career at the Council,
where he served as Secretary to the Committee of Ministers and Clerk of the
Parliamentary Assembly.
One of their merits is facing up squarely to the difficulties inherent in the
Council’s law-making process. They show that, far from being a weakness,
most of these difficulties are symptomatic of the flexibility needed for the
gradual building-up of legal standards that apply to all the member States.
Their descriptions of the way the Council operates in constructing a
European jus communis, and of its achievements in this area, are not the
only things that make the book interesting. It also looks at the numerous
challenges – such as participation by non-member States in Council con-
ventions, relations between the Council and the EU, and co-ordination of
the Council’s work with that of other international organisations – which
call for a new approach to harmonising the law of member States.
This book appears at a time when these same challenges are being exam-
ined by the Council of Europe bodies responsible for preparing its Third
Summit of Heads of State and Government, in May 2005. Apart from con-
firming, at the highest political level, that the central objective remains a
Europe without dividing lines, based on commitment to the shared values
of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, one of the Summit’s aims
will be to deepen the existing complementarity between the Council and
the EU, ensuring that the EU’s work takes due account of the Council’s
achievements and the possibilities it offers for pan-European standard-
setting.
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Council of Europe law – Towards a pan-European legal area
This will undoubtedly strengthen the political momentum in favour of EU
accession to the European Convention on Human Rights in the near future
– a step which will ensure that Europe gets a uniform system for the pro-
tection of fundamental human rights.
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