Quo vadis iustitia? The Khodorovskii case in light of jurisprudence concerning European convention on human rights

Initial reactions to the judgement against entrepreneur. Mikhail Khodorovskii on 31 May 2005 focused on criticising violations against basic precepts of rule of law. Since it is impossible to appeal to the Russian Constitutional Court to review such violations of basic rights by the executive and the judiciary, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg remains the only instance of control. The court in the past three years has issued a series of decisions against the Russian Federation in which a number of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights were criticised. Based on these precedents, it appears that a condemnation of the Russian Federation can expected in the Khodorovskii case as well. Whether it will come to this is unclear given current developments in relations between the Russian Federation and the Council of Europe.