EN
TR
Introductory Note
Adem Sözüer*
F. Pınar Ölçer**
* Professor of Criminal Law, Department of Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law, Istanbul University, Faculty of Law.
** Associate Professor of Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law, Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden Law School, Leiden University.
‘ … of Judge Pinto de Albuquerque’
An alliance of associated aspirations underlies the development of this book. Primarily, the undertaking, by a group of young Turkish lawyers, to translate into Turkish and annotate the selected separate opinions of Judge Pinto de Albuquerque, and the judgments to which they are attached, is fostered by the own agency of that body of work. Delivered throughout the course of his tenure between 2011 and 2020 as Judge in respect of Portugal at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), this Opera Omnia of 160 opinions annexed to judgments of the Court,(1) autonomously commands contemplation by any legal community, those engaged in scholarship and practice alike. Irrefutably, the immediate stand-out feature of the compilation is the quality of the work, evinced loudly from the page by the laborious commitment and profound devotion to the progressive development of European Human Rights Law driving it. The depth, breadth and prolificacy of the opinions allow for robust reflection thereupon, separately and as a sequential whole, from a myriad of perspectives - ranging from their substantive contributions in relation to a rich diversity of themes, to the consequential propositions they engender in relation to the machinery and narrative of supranational judicial decision-making. Indeed, this Turkish volume is but one of an impromptu series, similar anthologies celebrating and pondering the opinions of Judge Pinto de Albuquerque having been spawned spontane- Sayfa XXXVIII ously in multiple jurisdictions, each from an own vantage point of query or reflection, yet all propelled by the same consideration, namely that is it simply necessary to stand and look at the view from the shoulders of this legal giant.(2)
As such, our team of young legal scholars have worked, at the close of his tenure at the Court, to draw with the present anthology, the opinions of Judge Pinto de Albuquerque, brightly and permanently within the spotlight of Turkish legal discourse and practice. We are, as a company, profoundly grateful to him for allowing us to do so.
A second and equally important aim of this book is to deploy the collection of opinions instrumentally and experimentally, as a basis from which to explore new potential for avenues and formats of interaction between the Turkish legal system and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This unfolds into a further objective, namely to incentivize young Turkish legal scholars and practitioners towards ownership of novel platforms from which the complexities of ECtHR case law and its proper interface with the Turkish legal system can be further navigated. Here, the rationale again connects closely to the features of the opinions, taken separately and as a consolidated whole. Each of them reflecting carefully-considered and technically adept legal contemplation on a slew of diverse themes, read in concert, they resolve into a solid architecture of not only opinions on specific, but rather also a general theoretical perspective on European Human Rights Law. Therewith, the opinions provide a powerful basis from which to reflect on the particular subject matter discussed within them, but also elicit conference on more general patterns which emerge from them and, in an even more overarching sense, a clear meta-thesis on the manner in which Human Rights should be understood and behave in the Espace Juridique of the Council of Europe. This substantive abundance renders the collection entirely appropriate as a framework from which ECtHR case law can be more generally examined. Doing so from the vantage point of the separate opinions of Judge Pinto de Albuquerque connects then to the aim Sayfa XXXIX of exploration of new avenues, formats and platforms for discourse, in that his - often critical, always sophisticated - voice offers so instructive a blueprint for sound consideration.
The opinions lend themselves well therewith as a springboard for the practice of critical review of case law. They demonstrate adeptly and methodically how the adjudicative output of the ECtHR should be understood and can be assessed, how each judgment should be read in light of pertinent standards, how these could be further refined and what alternate directions are laid bare for ever-improving outcomes. ECtHR case law is rich and complex and its understanding and operationalization can be difficult, for the scholar and practitioner alike. Reconnoitering it through the guidance of the viewpoint of Judge Pinto de Albuquerque, aided by his generosity of intellect, his beau idéal grip on and appreciation of case law, shows what it takes to properly comprehend and operate the judicial output of the Court. Looking through his eyes, aids the jurist and eases the job to be done.
Given its aspirations, the particular format of this book requires some elucidation, with respect to the process of selection of opinions included within it, as well as the design of its chapters in accordance with its discourse-inducing paradigm. The following introductory chapter will further describe the trajectory by which the book was developed, including the process of selection of opinions, in relation to the rationale of its design. That chapter is followed by the twenty-nine substantive chapters of the book, each dealing with a particular judgment and opinion, ordered in accordance with the ECHR rights which feature most prominently as their subject matter. Sayfa XL
