A serious case of Strasbourg-bashing?: An evaluation of the debates on the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights in the Netherlands

Over the past several years, there has been an increase in critiques of the European Court of Human Rights, most notably and surprisingly amongst its founding members, like the Netherlands. These critiques are often understood as a crisis of legitimacy. In order to assess whether this is the case, the definition and operationalisation of legitimacy is crucial. This article evaluates the critiques in the Netherlands, using a subjective understanding of legitimacy based upon works by Sharpf and Schmidt, who emphasise input, throughput and output legitimacy, but also that of the demos concerned.... Mehr ...