Overview of Recent Cases before the European Court of Human Rights (January – December 2014)

In 2014 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) did not deliver landmark rulings establishing new principles relevant for, or overturning previous jurisprudence on, social security. Rather, the cases that were decided by the ECtHR confirmed key principles developed in older case law and clarified their practical meaning and implications by applying these in new or comparable cases. Notably, most of the cases decided by the Court in 2014 concerned pension reforms and the concrete implications of these for individuals.1