PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The article refers to the topicality of the use of the comparative method in the studies dedicated to global socioprofessional groups of people involved in international relations and world politics. The authors put an emphasis on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the groups of people, who establish the functioning of the Court in Strasbourg: the judges of the Court are compared to the government agents, the servants of the Secretariat, the applicants’ representatives before the Court and, basically, the applicants. The authors introduce several criteria for the comparative analysis: emerging sub-groups, number of people, the legal status of a group representative, the way of becoming a member of a group, functions. The judges of the ECHR appear to act as the main group ensuring the interaction of the national legal systems with the Court in Strasbourg. The judges are characterized by the rule of law and political democracy orientation, they bear group solidarity, interacting mechanisms. At the same time, the judges maintain individuality acting as representatives of national legal systems, adherence to principles of national legal systems, commitment to the state. The particular cultural identity of the judges does not interfere with the key values of the Council of Europe and national legal system of the state, as a candidate of that a judge is elected.