SOERING v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
42
the obligations arising from the ... Convention, and if the internal law of the said Party
allows only partial reparation to be made for the consequences of this decision or
measure, the decision of the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the
injured party."
Mr Soering stated that, since the object of his application was to secure
the enjoyment of his rights guaranteed by the Convention, just satisfaction
of his claims would be achieved by effective enforcement of the Court’s
ruling. He invited the Court to assist the States Parties to the case and
himself by giving directions in relation to the operation of its judgment.
In addition, he claimed the costs and expenses of his representation in the
proceedings arising from the request to the United Kingdom Government by
the authorities of the United States of America for his extradition. He
quantified these costs and expenses at £1,500 and £21,000 for lawyers’ fees
in respect of the domestic and Strasbourg proceedings respectively, £2,067
and 4,885.60 FF for his lawyers’ travel and accommodation expenses when
appearing before the Convention institutions, and £2,185.80 and 145 FF for
sundry out-of-pocket expenses, making an overall total of £26,752.80 and
5,030.60 FF.
126. No breach of Article 3 (art. 3) has as yet occurred. Nevertheless,
the Court having found that the Secretary of State’s decision to extradite to
the United States of America would, if implemented, give rise to a breach of
Article 3 (art. 3), Article 50 (art. 50) must be taken as applying to the facts
of the present case.
127. The Court considers that its finding regarding Article 3 (art. 3) of
itself amounts to adequate just satisfaction for the purposes of Article 50
(art. 50). The Court is not empowered under the Convention to make
accessory directions of the kind requested by the applicant (see, mutatis
mutandis, the Dudgeon judgment of 24 February 1983, Series A no. 59, p.
8, § 15). By virtue of Article 54 (art. 54), the responsibility for supervising
execution of the Court’s judgment rests with the Committee of Ministers of
the Council of Europe.
128. The United Kingdom Government did not in principle contest the
claim for reimbursement of costs and expenses, but suggested that, in the
event that the Court should find one or more of the applicant’s complaints
of violation of the Convention to be unfounded, it would be appropriate for
the Court, deciding on an equitable basis as required by Article 50 (art. 50),
to reduce the amount awarded accordingly (see the Le Compte, Van Leuven
and De Meyere judgment of 18 October 1982, Series A no. 54, p. 10, § 21).
The applicant’s essential concern, and the bulk of the argument on all
sides, focused on the complaint under Article 3 (art. 3), and on that issue the
applicant has been successful. The Court therefore considers that in equity
the applicant should recover his costs and expenses in full.