European Court of Human Rights and the Quality of Legislation. Shifting to a Substantial Concept of “Law”?

The evolution of the case law before the European Court of Human Rights has been affirming a fully substantial concept of what “law” is, abandoning any reference to the rank of the provision in the hierarchy of the norms and any concern about its parliamentary origin or its judge-made nature. This progressive shift of paradigm is particularly relevant for the countries of continental Europe, which are traditionally based upon civil law and reservation to parliamentary legislation. Its effects are already evident in the jurisprudence of the supreme courts and seem to be able to condition the evolution of the legal drafting of parliamentary acts, in order to comply with the requirements of precision, clarity, accessibility and foreseeability, as set by the Court of Strasbourg.