GUZZARDI v. ITALY JUDGMENT PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE MATSCHER 57 PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE MATSCHER (Translation) 1. On two points, concerning the merits of the present case, I am unable to share the opinion of the majority of the Court. I have a principal and also a secondary reason for arriving at a final conclusion that there has not been a violation of Article 5 § 1 (art. 5-1) of the Convention. 2. In its observations preceding the examination of the merits of the case and after a brief reference to the background circumstances, the Court observes that it must avoid "losing sight of the general context of the case" (see paragraph 88 of the judgment). I agree entirely with this statement and it has also guided me in my approach to the application of Article 5 (art. 5) of the Convention to the instant case. The nature of the Convention system is such that in the first place it is left to the Governments of the Contracting States to take the measures they deem appropriate for the accomplishment of their tasks. Amongst those tasks, the protection of the fundamental rights of the general public plays a pre-eminent role. At the same time, it is for the Convention institutions to review those measures in order to determine whether or not they are in conformity with the requirements of the Convention. In the course of this review, the provisions of the Convention should not be interpreted in a vacuum; the measures complained of must always be put back into the general setting to which they belong. The principle that account must be taken of the general context of the case when examining an application concerning the alleged violation of a fundamental right does not in any way mean that - save for the possibility referred to in Article 15 (art. 15) of the Convention - exceptional circumstances allow the Contracting States to take measures that are not compatible with the requirements of the Convention. On the other hand, I do deduce from this principle that certain measures which, from the viewpoint of the Convention, might be seen as open to considerable criticism in a so-called normal situation are less open to criticism and can be considered as being in conformity with the Convention when there is a crisis over-shadowing public order and notably when rights of others, which are also guaranteed by the Convention, are being threatened by the activities of certain dangerous and anti-social elements. Such a crisis was obtaining in Italy at the time when the present case began. Furthermore, the aim pursued by the authorities of a respondent State in adopting a particular measure can also not be left entirely out of account when that measure is being reviewed under a given provision of the Convention. It should be stressed that in the present case it was a question of a democratic State struggling to protect the fundamental rights of the