CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 17 juin 2009

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s40F41F73 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .s61E420C2 { font-family:Arial; font-variant:small-caps } .s69BE285C { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:85.05pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-85.05pt } .s9A223E1B { width:11.03pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s595A57E4 { width:85.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .sA8C2B9B0 { width:20.37pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt }   477 17.6.2009     Press release issued by the Registrar   GRAND CHAMBER HEARING GUISO-GALLISAY v. ITALY   The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber hearing today Wednesday 17 June 2009 at 9.15 a.m. , in the case of Guiso-Gallisay v. Italy (application no. 58858/00) concerning the application of Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of the indirect expropriation of land owned by the applicants in Sardinia.   The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).     Summary of the facts   The applicants are three Italian nationals: Stefano Guiso-Gallisay, Gian Francesco Guiso-Gallisay and Antonella Guiso-Gallisay who were born in 1959, 1948 and 1952 respectively. In 1977, the Italian Administration occupied the land that the applicants owned in Nuoro (Sardinia) with a view to its expropriation and began to develop it. In the absence of any formal expropriation accompanied by compensation, the applicants brought proceedings seeking damages for the unlawful occupation of their land.   Complaint   The applicants allege that the occupation of their land had infringed their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions, guaranteed by Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) to the Convention.   Procedure   The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 7 April 2000 and declared admissible on 2 September 2004.   In a judgment of 8   December 2005, the Court held that the interference with the applicants’ right to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions through the indirect expropriation of their land was incompatible with the principle of legality and that there had accordingly been a violation of Article   1 of Protocol No.   1. It also held that the question of the application of Article   41 was not ready for decision.   The judgment on just satisfaction was delivered on 21 October 2008 when the Court decided to vary its case-law on application of Article   41 in the case of indirect expropriation. The method used hitherto was to compensate for losses that would not be covered by payment of a sum obtained by adding the market value of the property to the cost of not deriving earnings from the property, by automatically assessing those losses as the gross value of the works carried out by the State plus the value of the land in today’s prices. However, the Court considered that this method of compensation was not justified and could lead to unequal treatment between applicants, depending on the nature of the public works carried out by the public authorities, which was not necessarily linked to the potential of the land in its original state. In order to assess the loss sustained by the applicants, it therefore decided that the date on which they had established with legal certainty that they had lost the right of ownership over the property concerned should be taken into consideration. The total market value of the property fixed on that date by the national courts was then to be adjusted for inflation and increased by the amount of interest due on the date of the judgment’s adoption by the Court. The sum paid to applicants by the authorities of the country concerned was to be deducted from the resulting amount. In the present case, the sum awarded for pecuniary damage amounted to   1,803,374   euros   (EUR) for the three applicants jointly. The Court also awarded them EUR   45,000 for non-pecuniary damage and EUR   30,000   for costs and expenses.   On 26 January the case was referred to the Grand Chamber at the applicants’ request.   Composition of the Court   The case will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows:   Jean-Paul Costa (France), President , Josep Casadevall (Andorra), Corneliu Bîrsan (Romania), Karel Jungwiert (the Czech Republic), Vladimiro Zagrebelsky (Italy), Elisabeth Steiner (Austria) Lech Garlicki (Poland), Elisabet Fura-Sandström (Sweden), Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg), Dragoljub Popović (Serbia), Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre (Monaco), Päivi Hirvelä (Finland), George Nicolaou (Cyprus), Luis López Guerra (Spain), Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska (“the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”), Nona Tsotsoria (Georgia), judges , Mark Villiger (Liechtenstein), Mihai Poalelungi (Moldova) , Zdravka Kalaydjieva (Bulgaria), substitute judges , and also Vincent Berger , Jurisconsult .   Representatives of the parties   Government :   Nicola Lettieri , Deputy Co-agent ,   Giuseppe Albenzio , Counsel ;   Applicants :   Nicolò Paoletti , Counsel ,   Alessandra Mari , Ginevra Paoletti , Advisers .     ***   After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which are held in private. Judgment will be delivered at a later date [1] .   Press contacts Stefano Piedimonte (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 28 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. [1] This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.