ABSTRACT
The chapter lays out a general systematic framework explaining the importance of the role of domestic courts in the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) regime. It sets the book into a wider debate on the ECtHR’s system and answers the questions of why and how to study domestic judicial treatment of the ECtHR’s rulings. It argues that implementation of the ECtHR’s case law is crucial both for the Strasbourg Court’s legitimacy and the practical functioning of the entire Convention system. The chapter first briefly sketches the basic features of the domestic effects of the Strasbourg judgments, namely the inter partes effect and the so-called res interpretata effect. It also presents the typical roles domestic authorities play in the processes of the ECtHR’s case law implementation, and shows their “diffusing” and “filtering” functions vis-à-vis the Strasbourg Court. Subsequently, it problematizes the model of diffusers and filters, and provides a more nuanced account of the domestic actors’ significance in the Convention system.
