Inflation and Human Rights: Protection of Property Rights against Inflation under the European Convention on Human Rights

The article examines the effect of inflation on legal relationships and how far a state can be heldresponsible for those effects under Article 1 of the Protocol 1 to the European Convention onHuman Rights. First, the effect of inflation on private law relationships and public law relationshipsis examined separately at a theoretical level and then the Convention organs’ relevant jurisprudence isevaluated within this framework. The author concludes that while the Convention organs were tootimid to find a violation of property rights relating to the effect of inflation in their early years, it canbe observed that interpretation of the Convention has been changing slowly. Following the Akkuscase the inflation phenomenon became a factor in the breach of property rights. There are still fewsituations in which the Court has taken the impact of inflation fully into account. Although the Courthas provided some shelter against the effect of inflation, it has not established clear criteria forevaluating the effect of inflation on property rights.