The Approach of the European Court of Human Rights to the Relationship of the Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and International Humanitarian Law: Court's Decisions and Their Implementation at the National Level

The issue of coexistence of international humanitarian law and ECHR law in situations of armed conflicts currently has no established case-law based solution. ECHR often decides on applicability of IHL ad hoc. Consequently, the principle of legal certainty is undermined and the minimum standard of protection for victims of armed conflicts is reduced greatly. This is substantiated by the most recent ECHR case of Georgia v. Russia and others that preceded. This research thus systemizes the main patterns and mechanisms of IHL application in ECHR jurisprudence in situations of armed conflict. Apart from that, some conclusions with regard to implementation of such decisions on the national level were made. It is expected that this research will result in a complete analysis of ECHR main approaches to the application of the IHL in situations of armed conflicts. It will thus be possible to formulate a general approach to the application of the IHL in ECHR jurisprudence.