At the ECHR, each country is allowed one judge of its own, and the UK’s is.... half-German

So for the last nine years Germany has had 1½ judges and the UK ½ a judge

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

Plus, the poor human rights records of judges from ECHR countries judging the UK

Yesterday (Mon 09 June 2025) we revealed the letter sent to ECHR candidate judges by Shabana Mahmood, the Lord Chancellor, in Part II of this mini-series on the European Court of Human Rights (and why the UK should leave it). Today we shed more light on this organisation, revealing that the sole British judge for the last nine years is in fact half-German.

All of this follows on from Part I about the EU and its hypocrisy over the ECHR which it insists we must be a 1/46th part of and obey.

The EU is not, and never has been, a Party to the European Convention on Human Rights and is not, and never has been, a Member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

It has been prevented from joining by a ruling of its own European Court of Justice.

And yet it insists that the UK and all member states must be a member of the ECHR.

The half-German ‘British judge’

As we reported yesterday (Mon 09 June 2025), the term of the current UK judge, Tim Eicke KC, formally ends on 11 September 2025 and he must therefore be replaced if the UK is to stay in this European institution.

Each of the 46 countries that are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights are entitled to one judge each. Brexit Facts4EU looked at the process of selecting judges and also at the nature of some of those who made the grade. Naturally we first looked at the judge representing the United Kingdom.

We then discovered that Tim Eicke is in fact half-British and half-German. Court documents show he was born in Hannover, Germany, and has dual British-German nationality. He studied law at the University of Passau in the south-east of Bavaria, before doing further studies at Dundee.

Credit: Council of Europe

For the last nine years, Germany has effectively had 1½ judges to the UK’s ½ a judge.

To be clear, there is no suggestion that Judge Eicke’s half-German nationality has influenced his decisions in any way whatsoever. It is only natural, however, that when the ECHR institution mandates a judge to come from each of its member countries, it might be expected that this judge would have the full nationality of the country in question – in this case, the United Kingdom.

Judge Reike is quite clearly a very experienced human rights lawyer. For the last 25 years he has been the Editor of the prestigious ‘European Human Rights Reports’ publication. He was previously an independent expert for the Council of Europe in a process establishing its Protocols on the Protection of Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Displaced Persons. He has also been very involved in voluntary work, as a volunteer, trustee and/or director of two prominent UK-based human rights NGOs.

Below we question the composition of the entire court, but firstly, we would like to "take this to an appeal".

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Putin's Russia, ruling on UK ‘human rights violations’

Russia has long been a pariah state when it comes to human rights. The list of atrocities is endless. Readers will remember the killing in London by Russian security services of the dissident Alexander Litvinenko using a radioactive substance, to say nothing of the attack in Salisbury several years later.

Russia has also violated other nations’ territories (eg Crimea, Chechnya, Ukraine) in contravention of international law and yet it continued to be a member of the European Council and have a judge on the ECHR.

Finally three years ago, Russia was excluded. Incredibly, until March 2022 it was possible for a Russian judge to rule on ‘human rights violations’ in the UK.

What of other, well-known bastions in the frontline of the defence of human rights?

Russia may now have been expelled, but you could still come up before judges from the following countries, with equally interesting human rights records. The rankings after each country’s names are from the Freedom in the World annual survey which has been going for over 50 years, and are for this year (2025). They measure the degree of various civil liberties and rights in each country and rank them overall from 1 to 194.

Who has been judging the UK's alleged 'human rights abuses'?

The Brexit Facts4EU 'Flagpole of Freedom'
How high are some ECHR countries' freedom flags raised?
[Source: We used the annual Freedom in the World rankings for 2025]

Moldova (101st)
Serbia (108th)
Georgia (109th)
Armenia (111th)
Bosnia & Herzegovina (114th)
Ukraine (116th)
Turkey (138th)
Azerbaijan (182nd)

All of the above are members of the ECHR. For years their judges have been able to sit in judgement on cases against the United Kingdom's alleged human rights violations.

Observations

A judge on the ECHR is not his or her country's representative. They are judges from that country. That said, it does seem incongruous for the UK to have had as its judge on the panel for the last nine years someone who grew up in Germany and has not relinquished his German nationality.

When it comes to the other 45 countries who are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights, and who therefore each have a judge on the panel, readers may wish to reflect on the cultures they each grew up in. We find it impossible to imagine that this does not impact on the thinking of these people. If they come from authoritarian regimes they may be overly disposed towards the cases brought by migrants, for example. If they were from countries where legal education is or was at a much lower level, this might call into question their abilities to judge complex cases.

The only thing that is sure is that these international bodies are inevitably a hotch-potch. Do we really want our Supreme Court to have to consider its decisions based on the rulings of such a body?

Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.

[ Sources: Council of Europe | ECHR | Conservative Party | Freedom in the World Index ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 10 June 2025

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Reader Comments 22

1. Sparky , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 06:56:

The British people pride themselves at being Anglo Saxon. Areas of Denmark and Germany.
.
The English we speak is a Ingvaeonic language or North Sea Germanic with a good mix of other languages such as Norse or French.
.
Our Royal family has its roots in Germany from Hanover and Saxe Coberg and Gotha.
.
Nigel Farage is a favourite for Facts4EU. Where is his wife from?

2. LuxuryBalloon , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 07:00:

Once we have left the ECHR, a proper right-wing government could implement the following rules:
A) State licensing required for all journalists and media outlets
B) Prohibition on reporting negative economic statistics
C) Mandatory patriotic content quotas for television and radio
Facts4EU follows these rules already voluntarily. No wonder Facts4EU is advocating for the UK to leave the ECHR.
.
From a member of THE BREXIT FACTS4EU TEAM to 'LuxuryBalloon'
That's it. We've had enough of you personalising your comments on our reports and generally misrepresenting us, talking to our organisation patronisingly as if you know us. You use our services for free on a daily basis, never once donating to the considerable costs of our operation. When you start work at 2am and finish at 10pm seven days-a-week, as our Chairman does, and when you work the anti-social hours the rest of us do, because we have to try to earn money from 'normal jobs' as well as working on time-consuming research and production for Facts4EU, then you can lecture us. Until then, either restrict your comments to the facts in the reports or we will block you. We do not not need your negativism against our team on a daily basis, several times a day.

3. LuxuryBalloon , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 09:50:

‘We've had enough of you personalising your comments’
‘ We do not not need your negativism’
This Facts4EU article is all about personalising and negativity towards a British barrister whose father happens to be German.
Pot … Kettle?

4. Andy , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 10:41:

The point being made, which is legitimate, is that Eicke is not fully British. He studied German Law at the University of Passau and graduated in 1988. Then he studied Scots and English Law at Dundee. He was called to the Bar in 1993 but hie worked in the fields of European Union Law and International Human Rights Law and while he appeared before the abomination known as the Supreme Court he is not well versed in English Law - he most certainly has never sat on the English Bench, so one questions his understanding and knowledge of the Common Law system. These few fact suggest that he was not suitable for this position. However, the vast majority of the judges have never been proper active judges in their own countries and are basically theorists and academics. This same blight infects our Supreme Court, hence some of its ridiculous judgements.

5. NH , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 11:17:

It does not surprise me that the people that don't seem to like democracy love the ECHR. They like to state that almost all European countries are "subscribers to the ECHR" (they are not members as it's mot a membership institution) but ignore the fact that there are over 60,000 judgements that are being ignored by a wide range of countries. The UK is one of the most compliant nations.
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The ECHR has also been accused of granting itself powers that have never been granted to the ECHR such as the power to suspend expulsion proceedings. They have ignored these criticisms and just carried on. This does not resemble any court of law that I am familiar with.

6. gazzablack , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 11:43:

2, LB
.
Those puberty blockers have really screwed you up conform boy.
.
.
1, sparkless
.
Is there a point to you referencing the nationality of Farage's wife, or are you just obfuscating again?
.
And no our Royal family doesn't have it's roots in Germany, it's ancestry does include people from Germany.
But King Charles can trace his roots all the way back to Alfred the Great in the 9th century.
(by the way, there was no Germany before 1815 - it didn't exist)
.
The English we speak has origins from all over, notably Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Hindu.
.
We British pride ourselves on being British,
And if we have Norse, Roman, Gallic and other ancestry in our gene pool, then our pride stems from being greater than the sum of our parts.

7. KB , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 11:51:

On the idea that the EU itself is not subject to ECHR.
Why would it ? It is not a sovereign nation (yet).
Anything that affects human rights is still under the control of individual nations within the EU.

8. KB , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 11:54:

Luxury Balloon: the problem is you are making stuff up that the UK never had even before EU membership.
We won our freedoms and democracy long before there was any such thing as the EU or the ECHR.

9. LuxuryBalloon , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 12:18:

4 Andy … ‘The point being made, which is legitimate, is that Eicke is not fully British.’
Exactly. Facts4EU has pointed out that it is impossible to discriminate against British people who only have one British parent while we are we are signed up to the ECHR.
Once we are out of the ECHR, a future government could make Brits with.only one British parent second-class citizens. No wonder Facts4EU is advocating for the UK to leave the ECHR.

10. NH , Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 13:08:

7.KB
The EU is not a state but it is a "political system". It is possible for an individual or organisation to take a case to the ECJ if it feels it's rights have been infringed by an EU institution. As the EU is not in the ECHR you can not bring a case against an EU institution if you believe they have have violated your human rights.
.
In the Lisbon Treaty (16 years ago) the EU committed to joining the ECHR, hence this is now a legal commitment. Since then they seem to have been squirming out of this commitment by using their "political status". As we know there are no other "political unions" in the world so they are able to make up their own rules and definitions.

22 comments, page 1 of 3

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