THE LEGAL METHOD AND STRUCTURE OF THE DECISIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

The European Court of Human Rights is a cornerstone and a symbol of the human rights protection machinery centred around the European Convention on Human Rights, which 70 years since its signing, has remained innovative, progressive and inspirational world-wide. Undoubtedly, the institutional set-up has enabled the Court to profile itself as a standard-setter with important achievements in judicial protection of human rights. But, is the Court's success predetermined by its institutional positioning and the place that it was given by the Contracting Parties in the European system of human rights protection? This paper argues that in addition to the place given by the States, the Court has, through its jurisprudence, developed its own 'legal method' that has proven instrumental to the institution's success. The paper will try to analyse the Court's legal method, understood as an entirety of legal reasoning, presentation of legal argumentation and structuring of decisions in individual applications. The legal method will be presented through the Court's approach in the establishment of the facts of the case, determination of the applicable law, characterization of the complaints, as well as some standard principles and doctrines usually applied in the Court's legal reasoning. These elements will be linked to the standard structure of the Court's decisions and drafting techniques. The paper will demonstrate that the understanding of the Court's legal method and structure of its decisions is important in order to grasp the Court's logic and facilitate the 'reading', execution and further use of the Court's jurisprudence. The paper will show that the Court's legal method authentically integrates various European legal traditions and offers an important contribution to the pan-European space of legal culture and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]