Court Vice-President speaks at event in Lithuania
On 17 October 2025, the Vice-President of the Court, Arnfinn Bårdsen, delivered a keynote speech on the topic of subsidiarity and shared responsibility during an international conference titled 25 Years of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania: Strengthening the Link Between European and National Human Rights Protection, held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The Court’s Vice-President highlighted the 75th anniversary of the European Convention, the first international legal instrument to translate certain rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into binding legal obligations for states.
Describing the Court as the “ultimate arbiter of the interpretation and application of the Convention,” Vice-President Bårdsen emphasized the importance of constructive dialogue between the Court and domestic judiciaries, in the spirit of shared responsibility.
He recalled that national authorities bear the primary responsibility for securing the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention and noted that subsidiarity and shared responsibility reflect the inherent allocation of duties and competences between national authorities and the Court.
He further explained that the true rationale behind the rule requiring individuals to first exhaust domestic remedies is to give national authorities—primarily the courts—the opportunity to prevent or correct alleged human rights violations before the case reaches the ECHR.
Concluding his speech, Vice-President Bårdsen stressed the fundamental link between the rule of law and democracy: “And we, the judges and the courts, must stand firmly with our shared responsibilities as protectors of our liberal democracies, the only way of governance contemplated by the Convention. And, as recalled by the Court on numerous occasions, democracy is accordingly also the only way of governance compliant with the Convention.”
During the same event, Gediminas Sagatys, Judge elected in respect of Lithuania, took part in a session on the cooperation between European institutions and national courts. He discussed recent trends in the European Court of Human Rights’ case-law concerning Lithuania and their potential impact on administrative justice. Emphasizing the principle of subsidiarity, he concluded that Lithuanian administrative courts are a reliable partner in upholding the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Convention.