Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Estonia in Disclosing Personal Data in Court Judgments

Abstract

The article has been written to compare the case law of the Administrative Law Chamber of the Supreme Court of Estonia (ALCSC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on publishing judgements on the merits of individual petitions in 2013 and 2014 in Internet-based judgement databases. The objective is to find regularities in the protection of the applicants’ personal data in the publishing of decisions.

The article examines the provisions regulating the disclosure of personal data in the judgements of the ECtHR and the ALCSC and analyses how parties to proceedings are informed of the possibilities for protecting their right to privacy. The analysis of case law focuses on determining the fields in which anonymity is ensured for applicants by request of a party to a proceeding or at the Court’s initiative.