FIRST SECTION
CASE OF PAPASTAVROU & OTHERS v. GREECE
(Application no. 46372/99)
JUDGMENT
(Just satisfaction)
STRASBOURG
18 November 2004
FINAL
18/02/2005
This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.
In the case of Papastavrou & Others v. Greece,
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
MrsF. Tulkens, President,
MrC.L. Rozakis,
MrP. Lorenzen,
MrsN. Vajić,
MrsS. Botoucharova,
MrA. Kovler,
MrV. Zagrebelsky, judges,
and Mr S. Nielsen, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 28 October 2004,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on the last‑mentioned date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (no. 46372/99) against the Hellenic Republic lodged with the European Commission of Human Rights (“the Commission”) under former Article 25 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by twenty-five Greek nationals (“the applicants”), whose names appear in the list appended hereto, on 6 October 1998.
2. In a judgment delivered on 10 April 2003 (“the principal judgment”) the Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. More specifically, it held that no reasonable balance had been struck between the public interest and the requirements of the protection of the applicants’ rights (see Papastavrou and Others v. Greece, no. 46372/99, § 38, ECHR 2003-IV).
3. Under Article 41 of the Convention, the applicants had sought just satisfaction of several million euros for damage sustained and costs and expenses.
4. Since the question of Article 41 of the Convention was not ready for decision, the Court reserved it and invited the Government and the applicants to submit, within three months, their written observations on that issue and, in particular, to notify the Court of any agreement they might reach (ibid., § 46, and point 2 of the operative provisions).
5. The applicants and the Government each filed observations.
THE LAW
6. Article 41 of the Convention provides:
“If the Court finds that there has been a violation of the Convention or the Protocols thereto, and if the internal law of the High Contracting Party concerned allows only partial reparation to be made, the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the injured party.”
A. Pecuniary damage
1. The applicants’ submissions
7. The applicants claimed 2,522,410 euros (EUR) for pecuniary damage. This amount was based on an expert valuation carried out in July 2003 by a civil engineer appointed by the applicants to assess the value of all the disputed plots. The expert based the assessment on the market value of the neighbouring properties and on a judgment of the Athens Court of Appeal which determined the amount per square metre for the compensation of a property in the same vicinity expropriated for the purposes of the Olympic Games in 2004. According to that judgment (no. 6622/2002), the price of plots of land adjacent to the applicants’ properties was set at EUR 450 per square metre.
2. The Government’s submissions
8. The Government submitted that the applicants had no right to compensation: on the one hand, they had not been recognised by the civil courts as the owners of the disputed plots and, on the other hand, the decision to reafforest did not prohibit all use of the land but only use that would hinder reafforestation and would be inconsistent with the forest character of these plots. Moreover, the Government reiterated that they contested the exact location and surface area of the plots. Finally, the Government stressed that the finding of a violation of Article of Protocol No. 1 constituted sufficient just satisfaction.
3. The Court’s assessment
9. The Court reiterates that, where it has found a breach of the Convention in a judgment, the respondent State is under a legal obligation to put an end to that breach and make reparation for its consequences in such a way as to restore as far as possible the situation existing before the breach (see Iatridis v. Greece (just satisfaction) [GC], no. 31107/96, § 32, ECHR 2000‑XI).
10. The respondent Government are, in principle, free to choose the means whereby they will comply with the judgment. This discretion as to the manner of execution of a judgment reflects the freedom of choice attaching to the primary obligation of the Contracting States under the Convention to secure the rights and freedoms guaranteed (Article 1). If the nature of the breach allows for restitutio in integrum, it is for the respondent Government to effect it, the Court having neither the power nor the practical possibility of doing so itself. However, if national law does not allow – or allows only partial – reparation to be made, Article 41 empowers the Court to afford the injured party such satisfaction as appears to it to be appropriate (see Papamichalopoulos and Others v. Greece (Article 50), judgment of 31 October 1995, Series A no. 330‑B, pp. 58-59, § 34, and Brumărescu v. Romania (just satisfaction) [GC], no. 28342/95, § 20, ECHR 2001‑I).
11. In its principal judgment the Court held, inter alia that “(...) the prefect’s decision of 10 October 1994 was based on decision no. 108424/1934 of the Minister of Agriculture. In the Court’s opinion, the authorities were at fault for ordering such a serious measure that affected the position of the applicants and a number of other persons who claimed property rights over the
