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Death penalty: key facts about the situation in Europe and the rest of the world

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Ombudsman inquiry on Commission President’s text messages is a wake-up call for EU

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The European Ombudsman inquiry into the Commission’s handling of a request for text messages between its President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is a wake-up call for all EU institutions about ensuring accountability in an era of instant messaging. One year after the initial request by a journalist, the Commission has still not clarified whether messages reported to concern major vaccine procurement deals exist and whether the public is entitled to see them. The Ombudsman had asked the Commission, in a finding of maladministration in January, to conduct a more thorough search for the text messages. The Commission’s recent response failed to say whether it had looked directly and correctly for the text messages and if not, why not. While the response recognised that work-related text messages can be EU documents, it reiterated that the Commission’s internal policy is, in effect, not to register text messages. The Ombudsman has closed  the inquiry  and upheld...
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Annual Report on the execution of the European Court's judgments and decisions

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The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, has called for further efforts to implement judgments from the European Court of Human Rights. Commenting on the  annual report for 2024  on the execution of the Court’s rulings, published today, the Secretary General said: “ This report shows what a concrete, positive impact judgments from the European Court of Human Rights have on the daily lives of the people of Europe. While a lot has been achieved, more needs to be done. The efficient execution of the Court's judgments is essential for the rule of law and democratic accountability in Europe .” The annual report from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers shows that 992 cases were transferred from the European Court of Human Rights to Committee, which supervises their implementation by member states, in 2024. Of those 992 new cases, 194 were “leading” cases – often requiring action to be taken by states to prevent the same violations happ...
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First judgment of the ECHR: Lawless v. Ireland

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60 years ago, on 14 November 1960, the Court delivered its first judgment, Lawless v. Ireland, with René Cassin as its President. The judgment concerned preliminary objections and procedural questions regarding the application, on which a judgment on the merits was delivered the following year. Since its inauguration the Court has delivered 23,291 judgments on just over 51,650 applications. The case was filed by Gerard Richard Lawless, who had been an IRA member, although he claimed to have left the IRA. He was arrested on 11 July 1957, as he was about to travel to Great Britain from Ireland, and subsequently detained under the special powers of indefinite detention without trial under the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1940. The case was filed by Lawless for violation, by the Irish Government, of Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the European Convention of Human Rights, providing rights to liberty and security, fair trial and the principle of 'no pu...
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Fully-funded PhD position in AI, Law and Public Power

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Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Law, department Law & Markets, is looking for a fulltime PhD researcher in AI, Law and Public Power (4,5 years with 20% teaching tasks). PhD AI, Law and Public Power Are you curious about how artificial intelligence is changing state actor powers? Do you want to conduct critical and in-depth legal research at the intersection of technology, law and power? And would you like to combine that with academic teaching? Then this PhD position at Erasmus School of Law is for you. Within the Law & Markets team, you will spend 4.5 years researching the legal regulation of AI in the public sector. How do we protect fundamental rights when algorithms help decide on who receives public benefits, how to perform enforcement or how to enact environmental policy? What is the role of the state, and where is the limit of government power in a data-driven society? You will have plenty of space to choose your own research angle and work in a multidisci...
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Prison overcrowding remains a problem in Europe: Council of Europe’s annual penal statistics for 2023

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Prison overcrowding continues to be an acute and persistent problem in a significant number of European prison administrations, according to the Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations ( SPACE I ) for 2023. In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, twelve prison administrations reported having more inmates than places available in January 2023. Overall, in Europe, the number of prisoners per 100 places available grew by 2% from 31 January 2022 to 31 January 2023 (from 91.7 to 93.5 inmates). Seven prison administrations reported a prison density of more than 105 inmates per 100 places available, indicating severe overcrowding: Cyprus (166 inmates per 100 places), Romania (120), France (119), Belgium (115), Hungary (112), Italy (109) and Slovenia (107). Five prison administrations reported very high prison density: Greece (103), Sweden (102), North Macedonia (101), Croatia (101) and Türkiye (100). Other administrations reported a prison density...
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CJEU Ruling C-57/23: Police May Rely on Internal Rules to Store Suspect Data

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Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-57/23 (Policejní prezidium): The police of a Member State may decide, on the basis of internal rules, whether it is ecessary to store the biometric and genetic data of a person accused or suspected of a criminal offence.  Where national law sets appropriate time limits for a review of the need to store those data, it does not necessarily need to provide for a maximum period of storage . A Czech public official was interviewed by the police in the context of criminal proceedings involving him. Despite his objections, the police ordered the taking of his fingerprints, the taking of a buccal smear on the basis of which the police established a genetic profile, the taking of photographs and the drawing up of a description of him. That information was entered into various databases.  In 2017, the public official was convicted by final judgment of, inter alia, misconduct in public office. In separate proceedings, he challenged the identific...
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Judicial Workload and Compensation: EU Law Does Not Mandate Extra Pay for Covering Vacant Posts (CJEU)

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Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-272/24 (Tribunalul Galați) on 13.11.2025: A judge who carries out tasks which fall to a vacant post at his or her court, in addition to those within the remit of the post to which he or she has been appointed, is not necessarily entitled to financial compensation. The grant of a rest period to compensate for the additional work is, under certain conditions, an adequate measure. The Galați Regional Court (Romania) is understaffed due to various judicial posts remaining vacant. A judge who has been working at that court since 2017 took the view that, since 2019, he has performed not only the tasks associated with his own post, but also, in part, those tasks linked to vacant posts.  Being of the opinion that he has worked overtime, that judge requested that he be remunerated for it. Specifically, he brought legal proceedings to claim a share of the net salaries and allowances attached to the vacant posts, divided by the number of judges in ac...
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