Roberto Toniatti
L’interpretazione della CEDU fra giurisdizione e politica: la Dichiarazione di Chisinau (2026)
The article examines the tension between judicial interpretation and political decision-making within the ECHR system, focusing on the Open Letter signed by nine States in 2025 and the 2026 Chisinau Declaration. It reconstructs the criticism directed at the case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning migration and asylum and considers the role of subsidiarity, the national margin of appreciation and the rules of treaty interpretation. Although both documents formally reaffirm the Court’s independence, they reveal an attempt by the States to influence the interpretation of the Convention and to shift the centre of gravity of human rights protection back to the national level.
26 Ottobre 2026
The Principle of Reflective Judiciary in Divided Societies: Challenges and Opportunities in the Western Balkans
Recent evolutions of constitutionalism show, among others, two interactive phenomena: first, a well notable new role plaid by the judiciary, in particular through constitutional adjudication as well as by international and supranational jurisdictions; and, second, a development of «identity» as a key factor increasingly characterising contemporary polities. Hence the dynamics of organising the judiciary in a way that allows a fair representation of societal pluralism, without any reference to representation of cultural communities. The practice of setting up reflective judiciaries is practiced by some territorial and culturally compound polities of the Western legal tradition and, more recently, by some countries in the Balkans – such as Kosovo and North Macedonia but not by Montenegro – as a means of managing cultural identities in divided societies.
31 Ottobre 2023