it would weaken the principles of legal security and certainty, which, in the case of
human rights, also benefit the victims of their violation by ensuring compliance with
the Court’s judgments because they are solidly based on the undertakings sovereignly
made by the States.
104. Regarding the last point, it should be recalled that, in practice and over and above
any theoretical consideration, the Court’s function is, in particular, to deliver judgments
that re-establish as soon as possible respect for the human rights violated in any
specific case. It is not so sure that this is achieved with regard to violations of rights
that were not considered justiciable before the Court in the Convention, or when, rather
than trying to decide the case submitted to it, it would appear that the main concern
has been to establish norms, rules or standards of general application and not to
specifically deliver judgment in a case and that, based on this and on several judgments
delivered in the same sense or in the same direction, case law is consequently
developed composed of several similar precedents.
Eduardo Vio Grossi
Judge
Pablo Saavedra Alessandri
Secretary