36
GUZZARDI v. ITALY JUDGMENT
and 5.4 of the memorial of December 1979 and the oral pleadings of 29
January 1980).
106. This view is not in conformity with the Court’s established case-law
and practice.
In its request of 8 March 1979 bringing the case before the Court, the
Commission stated that its "object" was "in particular" - but not exclusively
- to "invite the Court" to determine whether there had been deprivation of
liberty and, if so, whether it "corresponded to one of the cases contemplated
by Article 5 par. 1 (art. 5-1)". As the Principal Delegate made clear at the
hearings, it was nonetheless the Commission’s intention to submit to the
Court the whole of the "case" originating in "application no. 7367/76".
The compass of the "case" is delimited not by the report but by the
admissibility decision. Subject to Article 29 (art. 29) and, possibly, a partial
striking out of the list, there is no room under the Convention for a
subsequent narrowing of the scope of the dispute which may lead to a
judicial decision. Within the framework so traced, the Court may take
cognisance of all questions of fact or of law arising in the course of the
proceedings instituted before it; the only matter falling outside its
jurisdiction is the examination of complaints held by the Commission to be
inadmissible, in the present instance the complaint formulated by Mr.
Guzzardi at the outset under Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 (P1-2) (see the
above-mentioned Winterwerp judgment, pp. 27-28, par. 71-72; the abovementioned Schiesser judgment, p. 17, par. 41; paragraphs 53 and 55 above).
If the same applied to claims rejected in the Commission’s opinion on
the merits (Article 31) (art. 31) - in this case the claims concerning Article
3, 6, 8 and 9 (art. 3, art. 6, art. 8, art. 9) - the system established by Articles
44 (art. 44) et seq. would unduly favour respondent States to the detriment
of applicant States or individuals. The Court has on occasion found
violations in circumstances where the report either perceived none or
expressed no opinion (see the above-mentioned Engel and others judgment,
p. 37, par. 89; the above-mentioned Airey judgment, p. 17, par. 33; the
above-mentioned Winterwerp judgment, pp. 27-29, par. 69-76). In addition,
a good many cases in which the Commission concluded that there had been
no violation at all have already been referred to the Court (the Lawless,
Delcourt, National Union of Belgian, Police, Swedish Engine Drivers’
Union, Schmidt and Dahlström, Kjeldsen, Busk Madsen and Pedersen,
Handyside, Klass and others and Schiesser cases).
2. Article 3 (art. 3)
107. Mr. Guzzardi alleged that on Asinara he had to endure living
conditions that were at least degrading, if not inhuman. The Commission
did not agree.