The Right to Form and to Join Trade Unions for the Protection of His Interests under Article 11 ECHR

Abstract

The case law of the (ILO) Freedom of Association Committee as well as that of the (Council of Europe) European Committee on Social Rights regarding the right to organize (freedom of trade union association) has been summarized in so-called Digests. No official summary exists with regard to the case law of the European Court on Human Rights in the field of the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of one's interest (Article 11 European Convention on Human Rights). The present contribution seeks to digest this case law (1975–2009) in a critical manner. The historical development of the case law will be analyzed according to the conceptual bifurcation between the individual versus the collective dimension of the freedom of association. The analysis will be confronted with the case law enshrined in some of the other Digests. The contribution seeks to reconstruct how the Court gradually strengthened its scrutiny of the domestic law of the Contracting Parties and assesses how the protection of the individual dimension relates to that of the collective dimension of the right to organize.