| Title |
The crime of genocide against the Lithuanian partisans: a dialogue between the Council of Europe and the Lithuanian Courts / |
| Authors |
Bruskina, Nika |
| DOI |
10.15166/2499-8249/389 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
European papers: a journal on law and integration. 2020, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 137-159.. ISSN 2499-8249 |
| Keywords [eng] |
genocide ; partisans ; Soviet occupation ; Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ; European Court of Human Rights ; non-retroactivity of criminal |
| Abstract [eng] |
The Articlebegins with a historical background and an overview of the earlier case-law of the Lithuanian courtswhich concluded that certain individuals’ acts directed against the Lithuanian partisans as a “separate political group” during the Soviet occupation regime could be qualified as a crime of genocide. Second, the Articleanalys es two relevant decisions – the ruling of the Constitution-al Court of Lithuania of 18 March 2014 and the judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights of 20 October 2015 in the case of Vasiliauskas v. Lithuania(judgment of 20 Oc-tober 2015, no. 35343/05). Third, the Articleargues that in light of the reasoning in these two deci-sions, the Lithuanian courts modified their argumentation as regards the notion of a protected group under the crime of genocide that was done during the Soviet occupation. The Articlenote s that such a change of the caselaw of the domestic courts was positively assessed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of 12 March 2019 in the Drėlingas v. Lithuania case(no. 28859/16). The Articleconcludes that this modified argumenta-tion of the Lithuanian courts demonstrates the existence of effective dialogue between the Council of Europe and the domestic courts of Lithuania as well as theirambition to ensure the rule of law is re-spected while putting the individuals on trial for their crimes committed in the past. |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2020 |
| CC license |
|
