Yellow light for disciplining inconvenient judges? The ECtHR’s ambivalent judgment in Todorova v Bulgaria

The ECtHR judgment in the case of the disciplinary proceedings against Bulgarian judge Miroslava Todorova attracted much attention. On the surface, it appears that the judgement is a mere example of the ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ legal maxim – after all, the application was submitted in 2013 and the Court ruled against Bulgaria only in 2021. However, a closer look reveals that the ECtHR found in favor of Bulgaria on the two most worrisome questions – compatibility of the disciplinary proceedings against Todorova with Article 6 (fair trial) and Article 8 (right to private life) of the ECHR. This leads to the sad conclusion that unless a judge picks up a public fight with the government, she cannot defend herself before the ECtHR against bogus disciplinary proceedings. While judge Todorova tried to highlight some systemic issues of Bulgaria’s justice system in her application, the ECtHR treated her case as an exception intimately tied to her role as president of a professional organization, and thus may have limited access to relief for other judges in similar circumstances.

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Suggested citation: Vassileva, Radosveta: Yellow Light for Disciplining Inconvenient Judges?: The ECtHR’s Ambivalent Judgment in Todorova v Bulgaria VerfBlog, 2021/11/04, https://verfassungsblog.de/yellow-light-for-disciplining-inconvenien... DOI: 10.17176/20211105-011230-0.