The European Court of Human Rights has ended advisory proceedings on Slovenian road construction and property rights because a settlement meant the referring court could no longer decide the underlying dispute’s merits.
Announcing the decision on October 15, the court said an advisory opinion’s potential usefulness in future cases was not enough. It had to be capable of application in the case that generated the request.
Slovenia’s Supreme Court had asked whether permitting a motorway to be built before land was expropriated unjustifiably interfered with the owners’ rights.
The parties settled in June, and the landowners sought to withdraw their appeal. The Supreme Court had kept proceedings stayed pending the opinion, while acknowledging that it would ultimately have to accept the withdrawal without deciding the merits.
The Grand Chamber discontinued the proceedings by a majority. It did not answer whether Slovenia’s road-building arrangements complied with the Convention.
The outcome concerns the limits of the Protocol No. 16 procedure, which allows designated national courts to seek advisory guidance in pending cases.
Official court announcement and case summary.
