ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the role of the legislative branch in implementing the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Parliaments are accustomed to being the highest representative of their people, and they sire rightly proud of their independence. Instructions for action by a court are therefore not only disliked by parliamentarians. Human rights are supposed to effectively counterbalance this extensive competence of the government and parliamentary majority, thereby protecting the individual. Based upon that recognition, the Convention created a court to ensure respect for human rights; and this court can also assert itself against the national parliaments. The Court’s deadlines attempt to provide the necessary balance between the human rights demand for immediate implementation on the one hand, and the democratic demand of providing legislators with adequate consultation time on the other. In democratic systems, the necessary supervision of the first and second powers can be performed only by the third power, the courts.
