European Court of Human Rights: review of the Grand Chamber judgment of 25 September 2018 in the case of Denisov v. Ukraine (application no. 76639/11)

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Denisov v. Ukraine considered the complaint of Anatoly Denisov who asked that his removal from the office of president of the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal be deemed a violation of Article 6 (the right to a fair trial) and Article 8 (the right to privacy) of the Convention. The Court once again confirmed its prevailing point of view, which was first formulated in the case of Vilho Eskelinen and Others v. Finland on whether the labor disputes of civil servants, including judges, fall under the civil limb of Article 6 of the Convention. In this case, the Court analyzed the specifics of the process of removing a judge in Ukraine, relying on previously made conclusions in the case of Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine. The Court came to the conclusion that neither the process of removing the appellant from his office in the High Council of Justice nor the process of considering his appeal of the decision of the Council in the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine are in harmony with the basic principles contained in Article 6 of the Convention, first and foremost as pertaining to the requirement of an independent and impartial trial. With regard to Anatoly Denisov’s complaint regarding the violation of Article 8, the Court indicated that, although the removal of office might have brought about negative consequences for Denisov’s private life, the most significant of which being his business reputation among his colleagues, nevertheless in this specific instance these consequences were insufficiently significant in order to justify the application of Article 8 of the Convention.

Citation: (2018) Evropeyskiy Sud po pravam cheloveka: obzor postanovleniya Bol'­shoy Palaty ot 25 sentyabrya 2018 goda po delu Denisov (Denisov) protiv Ukrainy (zhaloba No.76639/11) [European Court of Human Rights: review of the Grand Chamber judgment of 25 September 2018 in the case of Denisov v. Ukraine (application no.76639/11)]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol.8, no.4, pp.21–28. (In Russian).