Just satisfaction under the convention is there a southern dimension?

Abstract

When the European Court of Human Rights finds a violation of any protected right, the Convention relies on 'just satisfaction' to re-establish the equilibrium disturbed by the national authorities through the agency of that violation. The Court, mindful of its supranational character and desirous to intrude as minimally as possible in the sphere of national sovereignty, has deliberately imposed on itself a self-discipline that is mostly manifest in how far it will go in ordering the offending state to redress the wrong inflicted From its early days the Court determined never to order violating states any acts of specific performance, but to limit itself to a declaratory judgement that the Convention has been violated, followed occasionally, but not always, by an order to the state to pay a sum of money to the victim by way of compensation. The Court does not declare laws or administrative acts which it finds in breach of the Convention to be null, nor does it enjoin a restitutio in integrum, even in cases where this would be factually possible. In the final analysis, the applicant can at best, expect a certificate of having been a victim of a human rights abuse, and a payment of a sum of money to cover real damages, moral damages and reimbursement of costs.