joint PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGES VALTICOS AND MAKARCZYK

( Translation )

While we share the Chamber’s opinion and conclusions on most of the points in the instant case, there is one with which we cannot associate ourselves.

This is the case of the first applicant, Ms Helen Steel, who during a protest against a grouse shoot caused an obstruction by walking in front of a member of the shoot in such a way as to prevent him from firing. She was then taken to a police vehicle and detained for forty-four hours, after which she was charged. The court imposed a fine of 70 pounds sterling and, under an Act of 1980, ordered her to agree to be bound over for twelve months. Ms Steel refused to agree to an undertaking she considered to be too vague and was committed to prison for twenty-eight days.

We cannot regard these measures as being compatible with the letter and spirit of the Convention. In the first place, the judge did not in this instance really act judicially, convicting someone on account of an offence she had committed, but, by seeking assurances from her that were drafted in very vague terms, and on pain of criminal penalties, he exercised a kind of “ imperium ” conferred on him by the Act, and in our view this type of order, which is not moreover regarded as a criminal penalty, goes beyond the concept of judicial decision to which the Convention refers.

That, of course, is debatable. What is not in any event debatable is that to detain for forty-four hours and then sentence to twenty-eight days’ imprisonment a person who, albeit in an extreme manner, jumped up and down in front of a member of the shoot to prevent him from killing a feathered friend is so manifestly extreme, particularly in a country known for its fondness for animals, that it amounted, in our view, to a violation of the Convention.

For this reason, we voted against the majority on points 2 and 9 of the operative provisions and I (Judge Valticos) also voted against the majority on point 5.

[1] Notes by the Registrar

. The case is numbered 67/1997/851/1058. The first number is the case’s position on the list of cases referred to the Court in the relevant year (second number). The last two numbers indicate the case’s position on the list of cases referred to the Court since its creation and on the list of the corresponding originating applications to the Commission.

[2] . Rules of Court A apply to all cases referred to the Court before the entry into force of Protocol No. 9 (1 October 1994) and thereafter only to cases concerning States not bound by that Protocol. They correspond to the Rules that came into force on 1 January 1983, as amended several times subsequently.

[3] . Note by the Registrar . For practical reasons this annex will appear only with the printed version of the judgment (in Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998), but a copy of the Commission’s report is obtainable from the registry.