The understanding of the term «family life» in the context of Art. 8 of the Convention for the Protection on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Abstract

Since the extension of jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights to
Ukraine, when European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
came into force (11 September 1997; ratified on July 17 of the same year), there are
examples of estimation of norms of Ukrainian legislation in General, and Art. 8,
which is the subject of our consideration, from the point of compliance with the
provisions of the Convention. Unfortunately, the annual practice of the Strasbourg
Court demonstrates the discrepancy of the legislation of Ukraine with the provisions
on protection of rights guaranteed by the Convention itself and the Protocols thereto.
Ukraine is consistently among the top five on amount of applications on the
protection of violated rights to the European Court of Human Rights, taking into the
accountand the fact that object to the appeal against Ukraine could be violations
committed since 11 September 1997. On the contrary, there is consistently low
percentage of enforcement of the European Court Judgments on Ukraine, particularly
in damages. Our work is in grater extent devoted to understanding of the concept of
«family life» within the meaning of Art. 8 of the Convention and its relationship with
the concept of «private life».
Current understanding of the concept of «family life» by the Convention
passed a certain evolutionary way. Not accidentally Art. 8 of the Convention aplies
the term «family» using a multifaceted construction «family life», and of coursr,
considering understanding of «family» in face legal orders. Understanding of the
concept of «family life» constantly goes through expansion due to the influence of
different social processes, from migration to advanced medical technologyies, that
illustrates the application of the principle of effective and dynamic interpretation of
law the Strasbourg court. This principle stipulates the evolutionary interpretation of
Convention norms, transforming Convention into a living instrument that responds to
the changing of present situation and allows to constantly expand guarantees
provided by this document.
In the examples considered in the paper, we note that the interpretation of the
term «family life» primarily carried out by the Court from giving preference to
protecting the interests of children, even if not their rights are violated in fact.