43
MARCKX v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT
DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE SIR GERALD FITZMAURICE
has found this provision not only to be applicable, but to have been
infringed by reason of the situation existing under Belgian law. But having
regard to the view I take about applicability or scope, it becomes
unnecessary for me to consider that of infringement (see paragraphs 3 and 4
supra). Nevertheless, even if Article 8 (art. 8) were applicable, I believe that
the Court has been unnecessarily harsh and lacking in charity and toleration
in the view it has taken of Belgian law. However, this is a matter that
involves other issues also, and I postpone discussion of it until Section V
(paragraphs 27 to 31) below. In the meantime, I have to deal with the
question of the applicability in this case of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (P11) to the Convention (see paragraph 2 above) and the repercussions of that
question - together with that of the applicability of Article 8 (art. 8), already
considered - on the further question of the correct role of Article 14 (art. 14)
in the present context. This last is the provision that obliges the rights and
freedoms provided for in the Convention to be afforded without
discrimination as between those entitled to enjoy them. On the application
of this Article a major part of the judgment of the Court is based.
III. The question of the applicability of article 1 of Protocol no. 1
(P1-1) to the Convention on Human Rights
17. In so far as the Court has felt that there would be too great an element
of extravagance in reading certain patrimonial, inheritance and other
economic topics in the notions of private and family life, it has had recourse
to Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (P1-1) to the Convention, into which it has
perceived the existence of rights not only to possess but to dispose of
property. The first sentence of the first paragraph of this provision, which is
the governing one that shows what the Article is really about, reads as
follows:
"Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his
possessions [French: ‘biens’]."
There is no indication here of any concern with safeguarding rights of
inheriting or disposing of property, and the view that these matters are not
within the scope of the Article is confirmed by the second sentence of the
paragraph which reads:
"No one shall be deprived of his possessions [French: ‘propriété’] except in the
public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general
principles of international law."
Here again, there is no suggestion of concern over inheritance or disposal
rights except in the purely negative sense that what has been unlawfully or
arbitrarily confiscated or expropriated cannot in practice be inherited or
otherwise disposed of. Even if, however, the paragraph could as a matter of
pure inference be made to yield such a result, the language employed is