21 February 1994

Doc. 7021

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

on the election of one member of the

European Court of Human Rights in respect of

the Republic of Estonia 1

(Articles 38 to 40 of the Convention for the Protection of

Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms)

Letter from the Secretary General to the President of the Assembly

dated 4 February 1994

Sir,

      The Republic of Estonia became a member of the Council of Europe on 14 May 1993. It is therefore necessary to proceed to the election of one judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of this country.

      Article 39, paragraph 1, of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms provides as follows: "The members of the Court shall be elected by the Assembly by a majority of the votes cast from a list of persons nominated by the Members of the Council of Europe; each Member shall nominate three candidates of whom two at least shall be its nationals". Paragraph 2 of the same Article provides that "as far as applicable the same procedure shall be followed to complete the Court in the event of the admission of new Members of the Council of Europe".

      The list of candidates drawn up by the Committee of Ministers at the 507th meeting of the Deputies (3 February 1994), on the basis of the nominations made by the Republic of Estonia is as follows:

      1.       Uno Lõhmus

      2.       Rait Maruste

      3.       Igor Gräzin

      The biographical notes of the candidates are appended to this letter.

      It should be noted that members of the Court are elected for a period of nine years (Article 40, paragraph 1, of the European Convention on Human Rights), but that in order "to ensure that, as far as possible one-third of the membership of the Court shall be renewed every three years, the Assembly may decide, before proceeding to any subsequent election, that the term or terms of office of one or more members to be elected shall be for a period other than nine years but not more than twelve and not less than six years" (Article 40, paragraph 3 of the convention). In order to maintain the balance between the different groups of mandates, the mandate of the judge to be elected would expire on 20 January 2004.

      .....

      Signed: Catherine Lalumière

APPENDIX

Uno Lõhmus

Personal:

      Date of birth: 30 October 1952 in Moisaküla, Estonia

      Nationality: Estonian

      Married to Anu Kozlova, two daughters: Karin born in 1976 and Katri born in 1978

Education:

1971-76       Tartu University, Faculty of Law

Professional activities:

1976-77       Assistant to Advocate

From 1978       Member of the Estonian Bar Association

1976-92       Advocate, Tartu Law Office

From 1985       Senior lecturer, Faculty of Law, Tartu University

1986       Candidate of Sciences, Leningrad University

1986       Docent, Faculty of Law, Tartu University

From 1989       Member of Board, Estonian Bar Association

From 1989       Member of Board, Estonian Academic Law Society

From 1992       Partner, Law Office "Lõhmus & Teeveer"

Other activities in the legal field:

      Member of Criminal Law Reform Commission of Estonia

      Member of the Governmental Commission for the investigation of the        repression politics of the occupational regimes in Estonia

Membership of social organisations:

      Member of the Lions Organisation

Publications:       31 articles

Dis. of cand.: The qualification of participation in a crime, Leningrad, 1985

Legal state. Vol. I: Problems of Law Creation, Tartu, 1989

Rait Maruste

Born 27 September 1953 in Estonia; Estonian; married with Mare Maruste; two children.

Education:

1972-77       Faculty of Law of Tartu University, Estonia

1978-82       Postgraduate student at Tartu University

1984       Academic degree - candidate of legal science (LL.M.), Leningrad

Advanced studies:

1991       Helsinki Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI) Finland

1991       Abo Akademi University Institute for Human Rights, Finland

1991-92       Max-Planck Institute of International and Comparative Criminal Law, Germany

1992       Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Professional career:

1977       Public Prosecuting Office

1977-84       Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Tartu University

1984-91       Assistant professor at the Faculty of Law, Tartu University

1986-91       Head of the Department of Criminal Law and Procedure, Tartu University

1991-92       Ph.D. candidate

1992       Chairman of the National Court of the Republic of Estonia

Subjects taught:

Criminalistics; legal (forensic) psychology; legal ethics; human rights in administration of justice

Publications:

Over seventy items, including five study aids for students and a book entitled "Human Rights and Principles of Fair Trial" (in Estonian, 1993)

Legal work:

Participation at different Estonian law-drafting commissions; translation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter into Estonian; Council of Europe grant for studies of human rights

Membership:

Estonian Academic Law Society

Estonian Judges Society

The Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (international)

Law and Society (international)

Igor Gräzin

Born in Tartu, Estonia - 1952

Citizenship: Estonian

Education:

1975       Graduate summa cum laude, Tartu University, Law School

1979       Candidate of sciences (Ph.D.), (Jurisprudence). All-Union Institute of Law, Moscow

1984       Docent (Philosophy)

1987       Doctor of Sciences (Jurisprudence), Moscow Institute of State and Law

1988       Professor of Philosophy of Law

Professional associations

1975-78       Lecturer in Philosophy, Tartu University

1978-84       Senior lecturer; Executive Assistant and Legal Counsellor to the President of Tartu University and the Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

1984-86       Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Tartu University

1987-91       Editor-in-Chief, Studia Juridica: Historia et Theoria, semi-annual magazine

1986-88       Vice-Dean of Tartu University Law School; Chairman, Editorial Board of "Proceedings of Tartu University Law School"

1988-89       Director, Law Department, Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, Academy of Sciences of Estonia

1988-90       Member, Council of Popular Front, Estonia

1989-Sept.

1991       People's Deputy of the USSR; member, Supreme Soviet of the USSR; member, Constitutional Commission of the USSR (Chairman: Mr Gorbachev); member, minority leader of committee drafting the law on constitution supervision (Chairman: D. Kerimov); member, Committee on Capital Construction Architecture (Chairman: B. Yeltzin); member, Deputies' Legal Analysis Group of Soviet-German Treaty of 1939 (Chairman: A. Yakovlev)

1990-92       Paul Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics, Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, Indiana

1992-present       Faculty Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies; Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

1993-present       Counsellor to the President of the Republic of Estonia

Subjects taught: philosophy (epistemology), jurisprudence (general theory of law), history of philosophy of law, legal interpretation, constitutional law of the USSR, Roman private law

Subjects taught in the United States of America: comparative constitutional law: United States of America and USSR; recognition in public international law; Soviet business law; introduction to classical Roman law; introduction to markets in east Europe and Russia; east European/Russian business law

Publications: many books and articles

Parliamentary legal work in the Supreme Soviet, USSR: introduced and presented (as co-author) the Bickauskas-Gräzin clause to the Federal Rules of Parliamentary Procedure (on the rights of minority groups in parliament); participated in writing the Soviet law on constitutional supervision; wrote and presented the minority opinion for the Second Congress of Peoples' Deputies

Other legal work: co-author of the Declaration of Sovereignty of Estonia, 16 November 1988; drafted the Constitution of Estonia (first transitional variant); member of Constitutional Commission of Estonia

Membership in social organisations:

      Vice-Chairman, the Academic Society of Lawyers of Estonia

      Member, Estonian Institute for State and Constitutional Law

      Member, Board of Directors, Centre for the Post-Soviet Studies (USA)

      Member, Taxpayers' Union of Estonia

      Founder member of the Board of the Estonian Institute for Open Society Research

Federalist Society, USA; American Association of University Professors; Rotary International

Personal:       Married to Elena Rozina. One child - son, Anton, born in 1988

1 ¹See Docs. 918, 1361, 1652, 1856, 1968, 2063, 2120, 2272, 2314, 2877, 3010, 3171, 3231, 3240, 3315, 3388, 3461, 3594, 3599, 3700, 3811, 3901, 3915, 3966, 4141, 4459, 4515, 4604, 4653, 4654, 4819, 4996, 5387, 5489, 5498, 5619, 5833, 5861, 5925, 5987, 6083, 6153, 6269, 6407, 6415, 6467, 6468, 6542, 6596, 6601, 6657, 6913