THE CONCEPT OF INDIRECT VICTIM IN THE PRACTICE OF ECHR

Abstract

One of admissibility criteria for accepting the application to the European Court of Justice is victim status. This criteria has a roll to prevent actio popularis in Court proceedings. Concept of victim is much more complicated than it seems. Court has developed, through its case-law, autonomous concept of victim. ECHR, brought over half a century ago, with only 14 protocols, proved to be incapable of staying in touch with modern legal life and human rights development. This is why, in some cases, we can find inadequate use of some legal terms. Those mistakes are made in good fate, in order to made ECHR applicable to some new legal situations, but regardless to that, they are unacceptable. One of them is confusion between terms of direct and indirect victim.