Politics, power and parole in Strasbourg: dissociative judgement and differential treatment at the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

In the judgement rendered by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Hutchinson v. United Kingdom (2017) states were seemingly confirmed as enjoying a wide margin of appreciation with regard to review and release from life prison terms. However, as this paper contends, after the decision of the second section of the European court in Matiošaitis and Others v. Lithuania (2017), that margin of appreciation is wider for the more influential and politically powerful jurisdictions than for newer states before the court, those more susceptible and amenable to policy dictation, who are subject to a differential measure of state discretion.