The 'conscience of Europe' in the European sovereign debt crisis : an analysis of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights on austerity measures

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights arising from austerity measures in the European sovereign debt crisis. The thesis considers the protection afforded to socio-economic interests under the two systems, and how this protection has been tested by the challenges arising from the economic crisis. The first chapter is an analysis of the social Euro-crisis cases. Brought under Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the ECHR the measures enacted to reduce government spending were an alleged violation of the right to property. Almost all of the social Euro-crisis cases were held to be inadmissible by the Court, which cited the gravity of the economic crisis in the respondent states and the executive’s margin of appreciation in matters of social and economic policy. The second chapter places the social Euro-crisis cases in context temporally and thematically, in considering two previous lines of case law developed by Strasbourg: financial and economic stability, and emergency and exceptional circumstances. The ECtHR decisions focus on the severity of the crisis, determining that the margin of appreciation is broader in such circumstances. The ECtHR section concludes that it does not appear that the European sovereign debt crisis has seen Strasbourg develop any definitive crisis approach to ensure that Convention rights are protected in times of economic instability. The third chapter examines the case law generated by the European Committee of Social Rights during the same period. This section serves to act as a counterpart to the ECtHR section. The Committee emphasised that times of crisis require socio-economic rights to be protected, and finds many of the challenged austerity measures incompatible with the European Social Charter.