ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as an international institutional context of the EU-Russia relationship. It proceeds by first reviewing the literature on international human rights regimes and their efficacy. Then the chapter reviews cooperation between the EU and Russia, followed by an examination of the role of the European Court of Human Rights. Recent developments have highlighted that perceptions regarding the role of human rights differ profoundly between the two actors. The chapter compares the number of judgments across 47 Member States from 1995-2012. The analysis, carried out for each year in this time period, examines the impact of various factors on the number of ECtHR judgments per country per million inhabitants. The Chechen conflict resulted in a number of ECtHR judgments against Russia and continues to define Russia's troubled relationship with the ECtHR. Given the current geopolitical situation, the possibilities for cooperation between the EU and Russia on human rights are limited.
