LO STATO DI EMERGENZA E LA DOTTRINA DEL VACUUM NELLA PRASSI DELLA CORTE EUROPEA DEI DIRITTI DELL’UOMO

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relations between the European Convention on Human Rights and other sources of international law in the specific field of the interpretation of Article 15 of the Convention. The European Court of Human Rights may interpret the Convention in the light of “any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties”, as provided by Article 31, paragraph 3 (c), of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, or in the light of any other source of international law through the use of the vacuum doctrine. Both techniques have been applied in order to make more effective the derogation clause, and hence the protection given by the Convention, thus adopting an evolutive interpretation. For the systemic interpretation of Article 15 of the Convention, the Court does not only refer to Security Council resolutions, humanitarian law and other human rights treaties. Also soft law instruments seem to be useful for the purpose of avoiding the “fragmentation” of international law. Indeed, as it flows from an analysis of the case-law, the European Court of Human Rights is open to foster the reception of rules of international law reflecting specific standards of human rights protection.