Rule of law requirements in line with the European Court of Human Rights case law

The article is dedicated to outlining the importance of judges acquiring the skill to identify requirements of the rule of law in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR) for them to fulfil their constitutional duty of «being guided by the rule of law while administering justice». Since the ECtHR looks into a vast variety of individual applications, its decisions reference various elements and requirements of the rule of law that are not systematized and vary depending on the scope of various Articles of the Convention, the subject and grounds of the application, the need to assess the circumstances of each specific situation. Therefore, an important skill of a judge is the ability to «see» certain requirements of the rule of law in a specific ECtHR decision and, eventually, create a holistic picture of the phenomenon. At the same time, it has to be stated that only a thorough and systematic analysis of the ECtHR practice affords judges to understand the rule of law requirements and links thereof, and, consequently, duly fulfil their constitutional duty. In contrast, a superficial approach to analysing the ECtHR case law leads, firstly, to erroneous conclusions (e.g. «it is impossible to evict from a residence, even if it was taken illegally»), and, secondly, to citations, which are subsequently assessed as «superfluous» or «formal» based on the monitoring outcomes. The elements of the rule of law and its requirements (across these elements) are summarized in the Venice Commission «Report on the Rule of Law» and the «Rule of Law Checklist». The analysis of the ECtHR practice and the said Venice Commission documents gives grounds to conclude that the rule of law elements and requirements presented therein are concordant, albeit set out in slightly different terms and structure, and are closely interrelated. For example, the ECtHR jurisprudence clearly indicates the links between the requirements of legality, protection against arbitrariness and protection of human rights, which, under the Venice Commission Report, are defined as separate rule of law elements. The author emphasizes that the court decisions’ justification is a necessary prerequisite for the court to fulfil its role as a guarantor of justice and ensure access to justice. Key words:requirements of the rule of law, «Rule of Law Checklist», ECtHR case law, legality, protection against arbitrariness.