Domestic minority-relevant cases where studied in three jurisdictions (Slovakia, Hungary, Romania), out of which two jurisdictions (Slovakia, Hungary) were selected for inclusion in the pilot database of domestic judgments. Metadata was created (country, court, date, topic, concerned minority), the judgments were summarized along predefined criteria (claim, procedural outcome, outcome, holding), links were inserted to the original judgments (in official national judicial databases) and to related judgments within the database. Crucially, all included judgments were translated to English (software-aided and manually checked) and provided as a PDF to facilitate research. The database was published online at
https://ir.ceu.edu/cases-table(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and long-term public repository placement is being prepared.
Interviews were conducted with key legal experts responsible for legal strategies and case preparation in the region, completed with legal analysis of forms of procedures available in European jurisdictions, covering overlaps and discrepancies regarding standing rules, appeals and other remedies, and costs. Specific areas were selected for deeper study, like child removal from minority families. While such cases recurrently appear in European litigation, the equality aspect hardly considered in cases before the European Court of Human Rights. Applying comparative legal methods and studying domestic litigation showed how representative action can expand the ability of law to tackle systemic inequalities. Seminars and a workshop brought together experts working with collective redress type mechanisms in different fields to see how minority issues relate to other areas like climate change litigation or redress for public law violations.
Given the rule-of-law challenges presented by backsliding in some of the selected jurisdictions, dedicated analysis covered whether and how collective redress procedures and mass damages can provide additional constitutional checks where traditional institutional guarantees break down. Based on information from expert interviews, Roma school desegregation cases in Mitrovica (Kosovo) were studied to assess the impact of institutional-jurisdictional competition and political sensitivity on minority rights enforcement. While overlapping jurisdictions as a result of competing sovereignty claims is unique, the broader lessons apply more broadly and show the importance of maintaining alternative venues for raising equality claims which includes private enforcement through collective redress.
