BENHAM v. THE UNITED KINGDOMOPINION OF Mr. B. MARXER
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Document date: November 29, 1994
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OPINION OF Mr. B. MARXER
It is established in the case-law that the Convention organs may
find a violation of Article 5 para. 5 where the domestic authorities,
directly or in substance, find a violation of Article 5 paras. 1 - 4
of the Convention (Huber v. Austria, No. 6821/74, Dec. 5.7.76, D.R. 6
p. 65, at p. 69). It is true that the Divisional Court in this case
could not find a violation of Article 5 para. 1 of the Convention
because the Convention is not incorporated into domestic law, and that
it did not expressly find that the applicant's detention was unlawful
in domestic law because the nature of the appeal in question did not
allow for such a finding.
In such a case it is inevitably difficult for the Convention
organs to establish whether the detention was lawful in domestic or
Convention terms. The majority of the Commission has approached the
question as going to lawfulness under Article 5 para. 1 of the
Convention. In a case such as the present, where the applicant was
successful in his challenge to the decision to detain him, I prefer to
approach the question on the basis that - given the domestic law
background which is so well explained in Mr. Bratza's concurring
opinion - the Divisional Court's judgment was substantially a
declaration that the applicant's detention was unlawful in domestic
law.
Accordingly, I conclude that there was a violation of Article 5
para. 5 because the applicant had no enforceable right to compensation
in respect of the unlawful detention be suffered. The applicant's
claim under Article 5 para. 1 does not have to be answered by the
Commission, as he had, in effect, a domestic finding of unlawfulness.
He may still claim under Article 5 para. 5, however, because the
Divisional Court's findings do not go as far as redressing the wrong
the Court found.
(Or. French)
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