ABSTRACT
The margin of appreciation implies, among other things, that it is the responsibility of democratically-elected national parliaments to decide how to implement the Convention in reasoned judgments. In this respect, the role of the Court is to review whether decisions taken by national authorities are compatible with the Convention, having due regard to the State’s margin of appreciation. The so-called margin of appreciation doctrine of the ECtHR grants a state the authority, within certain limits, and on certain conditions, to determine in a particular case whether the rights of the ECHR are violated. The ‘principle of subsidiarity’ is a principle of political ordering which regulates the allocation and use of political or legal authority, typically among a centre and member units. A ‘person-centred’ version of subsidiarity does not give such primacy to the state and the interests of states, but instead insists that subsidiarity goes ‘all the way down’ to the interests of individuals.
